Page 18 of Tracing Her Stolen Identity (Secure Watch #2)

Until the time he didn’t. She’d wanted it that way, though.

She’d begged him to stay away from her and to get on with his life.

When he had, she’d died inside, knowing she would never get to see him achieve all his dreams. They’d shared so much during their childhood, but it wasn’t fair to hold him back when he could make his dreams come true.

“We’re in the right place now to sort all of this out,” he promised, brushing her hair off her forehead. “I have every tool at my disposal, and now that I don’t have to worry about keeping you safe while trying to do my job, I hope we can resolve this even more quickly.”

“That’s good. The sooner I’m out of your hair, the better,” she agreed, prepared to sit up and get the day started, but he grabbed her elbow and held her there.

“First, you aren’t ‘in my hair,’” he said, using air quotes with one hand. “I’m here because I want to be. Second, things aren’t going to go back to the way they were before, Sky. I won’t allow it.”

Her heart hammered in her chest as he forced eye contact. His eyes told her everything he meant by that statement, but like a moth to a flame, she had to ask. “Back to the way they were before?”

“Both of us pretending the other doesn’t exist,” he said, his gaze holding hers. “There’s no way I can go back to that way of life, so once we solve this problem, we’re going to be friends again—the kind of friends who see each other and spend time together.”

“No, Land—”

Before she could say more, his lips brushed hers.

Sound and light disappeared when he did it again, this time letting his lips linger on hers.

His warm breath met hers and she whimpered, wanting more but also afraid to want more.

He solved that problem for her by pressing his lips to hers fully and sliding his fingers into her hair, holding her there as they breathed together in harmony for a split second.

When he pulled back, he ran his thumb across her lips.

“It looks like it’s time to start the day,” he whispered, his thumb still grazing her overly sensitive skin. “The team will be waiting for us. Give me five minutes to clean up, and then the bathroom will be all yours.”

Slowly, he pulled his fingers from her hair without breaking eye contact.

The things she read in his eyes were dangerous to her way of life if she allowed him to touch her again.

When he tossed the blanket off and climbed from the bed, her gaze followed him to the bathroom, his joggers low on his hips and his hard, muscular chest bare with just a smattering of blond hair.

He was just as sculpted as in high school, but maturity looked good on him.

The moment the bathroom door clicked shut, she brought her hand to her lips.

She’d been kissed before, but not like that.

Not by someone’s entire heart. And that was the only way she could describe it.

It might have been the tamest kiss in history, but the action wasn’t the point.

The underlying emotions were the point. Hurt.

Anger. Pain. Loss. Joy. Desire. Trust. She felt them all, and each one had pierced her heart and lodged there as an arrowed reminder of their past and why they couldn’t have a future.

* * *

B REAKFAST HAD BEEN DELICIOUS . Reece had told her that their cook, Sadie, made a huge breakfast and dinner every night for the entire crew, which had to be a massive undertaking, from what Sky could see.

Only part of the crew had been there, but the cafeteria was still full.

According to Mina, Secure One and Secure Watch had more than doubled in size since she moved there with her husband, Roman.

That wasn’t even counting their remote operatives like Reece.

She was starting to see the scope of who was helping her and how much power they had to make sure she rolled out of this alive.

After last night, she didn’t even care if she had a career to return to as long as she and Reece were still breathing at the end.

As far as she was concerned, that was all that mattered anymore.

“You didn’t eat much for breakfast,” Reece said as they rolled into the conference room to decide the next move on the board. They didn’t have many, but she had confidence that Mina had mapped them all and knew exactly what percentage each one had of working.

“I have a bit of a headache,” she answered as he pulled a chair away from the large conference table so she could park her chair under it.

Once her wheels were locked, she shifted in the chair to find a more comfortable position.

The truth was, the ride to Secure Watch last night had left lasting effects.

Her belly hurt from being hunched over for so long, but she wouldn’t complain since she was alive to see the sunrise this morning. “I’ll grab a snack later.”

Once they were settled, Mina leaned in on the table. “I’m not going to lie—this has been a challenge. Binate knows what he’s doing when it comes to hiding his footprints and your information. It’s hard to stump me, but he’s thwarted my every move.”

“Mine as well,” Reece agreed.

“That’s why it’s not Silas,” Sky said, shaking her head. “He doesn’t have the skill set to do this.”

“He didn’t when he left home, but that was nearly fifteen years ago,” Mina gently said. “People change.”

“Especially when driven by hatred or desire for revenge,” Reece added.

Skylar adjusted herself in the chair again, partly to get more comfortable and partly to avoid spouting off at him about her brother.

“I know you think I’m hindered by family alliance when it comes to Silas, but I’m not.

I don’t disagree that people change, but what you don’t know is that Silas was diagnosed with schizophrenia when he was—”

“Nineteen,” Reece finished before she could. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“My parents were adamant no one know,” Sky said, averting her gaze from him and Mina.

“I’m lost,” Mina said.

“When Sky was thirteen, I walked in on Silas attempting to assault her. Silas was nineteen at the time.”

Mina’s lips thinned. “My guess is that didn’t go well.”

“My brother was a waif,” Skylar said. “Reece was bigger in height and weight, even six years younger. After Silas got out of the ER, my parents put him into therapy, where he was eventually diagnosed through a psychiatrist. Mom and Dad tried to help him, but—”

“You can’t help someone who doesn’t want help,” Mina finished, and Sky pointed at her as if to say, Exactly .

“All that said, I’m still following him as a lead, but I’m also looking closely at Miles Bradshaw.

His past tells me he’s an angry man. What I don’t know yet is if he’s capable of such a sophisticated wipe of someone’s life. ”

Skylar braced her elbow on the table and rested her head on her hand as Mina and Reece tossed ideas back and forth.

She couldn’t pretend she hadn’t noticed the hurt in Reece’s eyes when he learned of Silas’s diagnosis, but it also hadn’t been her choice not to tell him.

She’d wanted to, but her mom said if she told Reece, he’d tell his parents.

For a reason she wasn’t privy to, they didn’t want anyone else to know of Silas’s problems. Maybe it was time to let that ghost out of the closet and bury it once and for all.

Mina and Reece were deep in conversation, but she needed to use the restroom. “I’ll be right back,” she said, pointing out the door. “I just need the facilities.”

“Need help?” Reece asked, pausing their conversation, but she shook her head.

“I’m fine. Thanks, though.”

Before he could say more, she wheeled out of the room and down the hallway toward the cafeteria.

She had noticed a restroom on their way to the conference room.

Once locked inside, she pulled her shirt up and uncoiled her catheter.

She wondered if her bladder was full, which would explain her pain.

Once she had it uncoiled and over the bowl, she uncapped it, but nothing happened.

There was a knock on the door. “Sky, are you okay?” Reece asked.

“No. I think I need help,” she said without thinking, her head pounding as she tried to recap the catheter. Before she could coil it, the lock popped and Reece held the door open for a woman she didn’t know, then followed her into the small space.

“My name is Selina. I’m the crew nurse,” she explained, kneeling in front of her chair.

“I didn’t think you looked right when you left,” Reece explained.

Selina was already checking her pulse before Reece finished speaking. “Does your head hurt?”

“Yes. I can’t even remember how to get the catheter to flow, but my stomach hurts,” Skylar admitted.

“Med bay, now,” Selina said to Reece, who scooped her from the chair and ran down the hallway. “I’m worried it’s autonomic dysreflexia.”

“That’s bad, right?” Reece asked as he laid her on a stretcher in a room that could have been an emergency room cubicle. “I remember that was a worry when you first were injured.”

“It’s always a worry,” Selina explained, hooking her to the blood pressure machine by the bed. “There are many reasons someone with a spinal cord injury can develop autonomic dysreflexia, but when it happens, it’s hazardous to the heart.”

Snapping on gloves, Selina checked around her catheter and palpated her abdomen. “Your bladder is very full, so now we know the culprit,” she said, grabbing a urinal. “You don’t free drain?”

“Only at night. Intermittent draining is normally not a problem, but I’m worried the positioning in the truck last night damaged something.”

“She was bent over for quite a while,” Reece explained, taking hold of her hand. She was too scared to pull away from him. The warmth of his skin grounded her and made her feel like she would be okay.

Selina glanced up at the monitor when the blood pressure cuff deflated. “Blood pressure is high, but not in the immediate danger zone. I vote to change the catheter rather than try to make this one drain. Are you okay with that?”

“You can do that here?”

Reece chuckled, though she could tell it was forced. “She could do open-heart surgery here if she had to.”

“I wouldn’t go that far,” Selina said, snapping on gloves. “As for a catheter, that’s a piece of cake. I need to lay you flat, so tell me if your headache worsens when I do that. We will change it fast, drain your bladder and then reass-ess your blood pressure.”

“Will that fix it?” Reece asked as she gathered supplies.

“If we can’t keep the urine flowing, then we’ll need to do something else with the catheter or get her to a hospital.

If we’re lucky, it’s just sediment blocking this one and a new tube will solve the issue.

I want you at her head to call out the blood pressure numbers each time it deflates.

Keep an eye on her skin. Tell me if she starts sweating or her face gets red and blotchy. ”

“It’s just a headache right now,” Skylar assured them. “And I’m a little warm.”

Selina paused and offered her a smile as she pulled the gloves off and squeezed her hand. “I’ve got you. Where’s your level of injury?”

“T5,” Reece answered before she could.

“I can’t feel my bladder at all,” Skylar added. Selina nodded as she lowered the bed and immediately snapped on new gloves.

Reece held her face in his hands and her gaze with his. “You’ll be okay. Selina is the best there is,” he promised, dropping a kiss on her forehead. “She’s right. She’s warm.”

“That’s not unexpected, but watch for excessive sweating,” Selina answered as she worked. In less than a minute, she heard the catheter start draining into the urinal.

“That was crazy fast,” Skylar said, a laugh escaping before she coughed once. “It takes me ten minutes to change that catheter.”

“Selina can remove a bullet while riding a skateboard,” Reece said with a wink. “How’s your head?”

“Still hurts, but the pounding has slowed.”

“That’s because your bladder is almost empty,” Selina said. “Did you empty it this morning?”

“Of course,” she answered defensively. “Only a small amount came out, but we went to bed late, so I didn’t think too much of it.”

“There was no way you could in that case,” Selina agreed. “Reece, what are the blood pressure numbers?”

Reece turned his head, giving her a side profile that made her want to weep. He was so handsome. She’d never seen a man with blond facial hair, which made him look like a Norske hunter. “One forty over eighty.”

Selina nodded. “Good, it’s coming down.”

“Isn’t that normal?” Reece asked, turning his attention back to her.

“For someone without a spinal cord injury, yes. I would guess Skylar’s runs lower than that.”

“By a lot,” she agreed. “I’d like to see if it keeps coming down before I take medication, though. That usually makes it drop too much.”

“We can do that,” Selina agreed. “I’m going to sit you up now, which will help, too. Then, we’ll decide how best to approach the catheter situation. Reece, would you go down and update the team?”

“No, I don’t want to leave her.” He shook his head, refusing to look away from her long enough to address his friend.

Selina walked to the head of the bed and put her hand on his shoulder. “I know you don’t, but I’ll need to monitor her for a few hours. You can check on her, but those are hours wasted and you could be helping Mina sort this out so Skylar can get her life back. You can trust her with me.”

“I trust you, Selina. But I—”

“I know,” she promised with a wink, stopping him from saying whatever he planned to say. “Trust me with her for a little bit. She’ll be all the better for it.”

He glanced down and met her gaze. “Are you okay with me leaving? If you aren’t, say the word.”

“She’s right,” she said with a nod. “There’s no sense in wasting time with me when you could be helping Mina.”

“Being here with you is not wasting time,” he said as she brushed her hand across his face. His beard was soft and smooth against her palm. Tears pricked her eyes when she thought about the life with this man she’d been forced to give up.

“I promise to call you if there’s even a hint of a problem,” Selina said when she moved to the head of the stretcher. “You go do what you do best and I’ll do what I do best. Okay?”

Reece made eye contact with Selina momentarily before glancing down at her again. “I’d be mad, but I’m too relieved that you’re okay. I’ll chat with Mina for a few minutes and then check on you.”

“I can live with that,” she whispered when she realized how truly terrified he was about what had happened. That was when she remembered this was the reason she’d let him go the first time.