Authors: Joan Swan
Blaze (41 page)
The chopper slowed and angled. Keira opened her eyes and found Luke staring right at her. A zing of excitement burst deep in her chestâhot and sweet.
Cash and Jessica had both been robbed of that excitement. Never again would either of them open their eyes to see their true love, their best friend, the one person who knew what they were thinking before they even thought itâno powers necessary.
He looked away as the chopper eased to the ground. The air turbulence wafted through the open door and ruffled Luke's hair. The sunrise drifted over the horizon and lit his face with a healthy glow. Keira's heart burned with that same fiery luminosity.
She waited until Joe set the chopper's runners on the ground and the engine wound down before she sat up and slid from beneath Cash's arm.
“Luke?”
He lifted his eyes to hers for only a second before someone appeared at the open door. Alyssa. She ducked to avoid the hurricane-force winds, holding Mateo in one arm and Kat in the other, her huge belly poking out between them.
“What in the hell?” Teague jumped out the door and grabbed Kat from her arms, then Mateo. “Baby, you should not be carrying these two monsters.”
Anticipation had Keira darting a look at Cash. His face had gone slack with what looked like a mixture of love and shock and pain. He seemed frozen against the side of the chopper.
“Oh, my God,” he whispered without taking his eyes off Mateo. “My
God,
he's . . .
beautiful
.”
God,
he's . . .
beautiful
.”
“Baba?”
Mateo's voice took on a worried edge as his big brown eyes squinted to scour the faces in the dark cargo hold.
“Baba?”
Mateo's voice took on a worried edge as his big brown eyes squinted to scour the faces in the dark cargo hold.
“Baba?”
Keira elbowed Cash. “Hello.” She put that
duh
tone in her voice. “That's you.”
duh
tone in her voice. “That's you.”
“Ye-ah.” The word came out dry and broken as Cash emerged from his trance. He cleared his throat. “Yeah, buddy. Right here, I mean, um . . .
edw, gio
.”
edw, gio
.”
“Baba!”
Mateo shrieked, making Keira grimace as the sound pierced her eardrums. Sure of his destination, the boy released the fist he'd had in Teague's fatigue jacket and scrambled from his hold to lunge toward his father.
“Baba! Baba!”
Mateo shrieked, making Keira grimace as the sound pierced her eardrums. Sure of his destination, the boy released the fist he'd had in Teague's fatigue jacket and scrambled from his hold to lunge toward his father.
“Baba! Baba!”
The moment Cash took hold of the boy, emotion exploded between them, radiating through the cargo space, so strong it nearly knocked Keira off her feet.
Love. Pure, absolute, infinite.
She had experienced milliseconds of the emotion during pristine moments with Kat. In that first touch of Mateo's hand. And she wanted it again. A lot more of it. Forever. She wanted a child to share that bond with. And there was only one man she'd ever want to have that child with.
She looked toward Luke, but he'd averted his gaze from the reunion, slowly scooting toward the open cargo door, his face twisted in pain. But the pain wasn't just physical. That turmoil she'd sensed earlier had grown dark.
“Luke . . .”
“Tó'ksera óti tha erhósoon gia ména, babá.”
Mateo latched on to Cash with both arms, pushed his face into his father's shoulder, and started to cry.
Mateo latched on to Cash with both arms, pushed his face into his father's shoulder, and started to cry.
Then Cash started to cry. He crooned to the boy in Greek, ran a hand over his hair, a thumb over his cheek, pressed a kiss to his forehead.
More tears burned Keira's eyes. “What does it mean?”
“He knew I'd come for him.” Cash's handsome face filled with so many emotions it hurt Keira to watch.
“That's the first time he's ever cried.” Mateo's whimper made her heart fold like origami. She put a hand against the boy's back and tried to ignore the tears Cash kept wiping away from his own cheeks. “He's been a brave little soldier.”
“Speaking of brave little soldiers,” Alyssa said, “Luke, get your butt out here. My doctor friend came in early this morning just to look at you.” She extended a hand to Cash. “I'm Alyssa. Teague's wife. Welcome home. Keira is family, which makes you family, too.” She grinned as Cash took her hand. “Like it or not.”
Luke reached the edge of the cargo bay. Keira's attention refocused. The urgency to talk to him tightened her chest. “Wait, Luke?”
Alyssa took Luke's arm, helping him off the chopper. “You can have him later. I'll take a look at you myself once Luke is settled. Anyone else who needs medical attentionâcuts, bruises, bumps, pains, come now or forever keep your mouths shut.”
Teague and Alyssa started for the SUVs. He dropped his free arm around her shoulder, and she wrapped an arm around his waist, tilted her face up, and kissed him. When she pulled back, a lightning-bug smile brightened her face. They kissed again. Spoke. Kissed a third time. So much love there. Such a perfect little family.
Luke kept his gaze on the ground as he veered toward the passenger's side of the first of a trio of black SUVs Keira didn't recognize. Alyssa broke from Teague with a pat on his ass and opened the door for Luke, then rounded the driver's side as Teague settled in the back with Kat, and took off.
For a reason Keira couldn't identify, the sight of Luke driving away caused a whip of panic to snap in her chest. “Whoever's coming with me, get in or get on the next bus.”
“Uh-uh,” Kai cut her off and slid into the driver's seat. “You're not driving with that arm.”
“Thia,”
Mateo said. She turned and found his hand held out to her.
Mateo said. She turned and found his hand held out to her.
Her heart filled. She took his hand, kissed his palm. “Yes, baby. You and your daddy will always come with me.”
With Kai driving, Keira followed the directions already programmed into the GPS system because the vehicle carrying Luke was already out of sight. This sense of panic was new and unwarranted. Illogical.
Keira parked in the lot alongside the same medical building where they'd taken Mateo to retrieve the chip in his neck. Mitch and Seth pulled up behind them. As they emerged from the vehicle, Kai directed each man to cover a different corner of the building.
Keira limped in through the side door and found Alyssa coming out of an exam room, the door closing behind her.
“Is Luke in there?” Keira started in that direction without waiting for an answer. “I want to hear what the doctorâ”
“He's getting an X-ray.” Alyssa put her fingers around Keira's upper arm and urged her across the hall, toward another room. “He's in good hands.” She looked past Keira at Cash, still carrying Mateo. “Teague and Kat are in the waiting room with the toys. Cash, I'll check you out when I'm finished with Keira.” She closed the door at her back, pointed to the exam table, and said, “Sit, honey. You don't look so good.”
“You say that to me a lot.” Keira obeyed but stared at the door. Luke's emotions had her unsettled. No, downright scared. Hadn't he heard anything she'd said to him in the tunnel? Or maybe it had been too little, too late. Maybe she'd broken his heart one too many times.
The rip of fabric drew her gaze down. Alyssa had donned gloves and now split her pants from the thigh down with rescue shears, exposing a very bloody leg. The cool office air licked at the wound, stinging deep into her muscle.
Alyssa sighed. “What a mess.” With some gauze and saline, she cleaned the wound. “It's not deep, but I think it's too wide to stitch. Let's see your arm.”
Keira shed her fatigue jacket, then let Alyssa cut her shirt sleeve.
“Now this one I can do something about,” Alyssa murmured after looking at the wound on her upper arm. “I'm going to leave your leg to Teague. You're damned lucky, Keira.”
She knew she was lucky. In more ways than she could count. And her mind was pinging in so many different directions, she couldn't keep them all straight.
Alyssa cleaned the wound on her arm. Her friend's belly rested against her thigh as she worked. The baby thumped. Keira startled and pulled away.
“He won't bite. Won't even get teeth for another six months.” Alyssa lifted Keira's hand and pressed it to the belly bulging beneath her thin sweater. “You've never felt him, have you?”
“Uh, no.” She watched Alyssa's stomach, mesmerized at the roll and thud beneath her hand. Something deep at her core clenched and ached. Brought tears to her eyes. Everything seemed to be twisting her emotions. “That's . . . wow. Amazing. Kind of . . . no offense to the little guy . . . weird. Like you have an alien in there.” She pulled her hand away and pointed at Alyssa. “You can't ever tell him I said that.”
Alyssa laughed. “As long as I get my belly button ring, my lips are sealed.”
“How are you going to keep him safe?” The words drifted from her mouth, more a thought than a solid question. She met Alyssa's surprised eyes. “I mean, what if he's, you know, gifted?”
Alyssa turned to pull supplies from a cabinet, opened them, and started threading a needle.
“You mean how am I going to keep someone from kidnapping him and using him as a guinea pig?”
God, what a terrible thing to say to an expectant mother. Her friends must think she was so twisted. “I'm sorry, Lys. I'm just . . .”
“Worried,” she said. “Get used to it if you're thinking about having kids. Starts as soon as you're pregnant and continues until the day you die. I can't ever envision a day I won't be worried about Kat or this baby.”
“Great.” Keira nodded. “That's reassuring.”
Alyssa started stitching. “Maybe some statistics will reassure you. Your chances of dying in a car accident during your lifetime are about one in eighty-seven. Pretty high, right? Do you still drive? Yes. What do you do to keep yourself safe? Wear your seat belt, put your kid in a car seat, buy the safest vehicle, drive defensively, choose your roads carefully, et cetera. Right?”
Keira frowned. “Right.”
“And did you know a woman's chance of getting cancer in her lifetime is two in three?”
“Shit, no. Ooops.” She winced. “Sorry.”
Lys waved away Keira's curse. “Not a lot of control over that, right? So you do what you canâeat healthy, exercise, don't smoke, get your yearly exams, listen to your body. And if something does happen, despite your diligence? You fight it. You get the best experts and fight it with all the modern technology and science you can find.”
“I see where you're going,” Keira said. “The Special Forces guys, the security system at the house, Teague teaching you how to shoot.”
“You know Teague hates guns.”
Keira chuckled, watching Alyssa's hands move, piercing her skin, tugging the string, moving on. “I remember. How times have changed. He's good with a rifle.”
“He does what he has to do to stay safe and keep us safe.” Alyssa grabbed a bandage from the tray and taped it over the stitches on Keira's arm, then gave her an extra squeeze. “The joy our family brings us every moment of every day is worth every second of worry and every extra effort for security.”
That was what Keira and Luke would have to do. They'd just have to build safety into their lives like Alyssa and Teague. They'd have to join forces with their extended “family” and now her real family. Circle the wagons, wasn't that what they used to call it in the old days?
A fresh urgency pushed her from the edge of the table. She reached for the door.
“Waitâ” Alyssa's voice was edged with surprise. “I need to have Teagueâ”
“Later.”
She crossed the hall, put her hand on the knob, and for a split second thought about stopping to knock, then realized if she didn't keep her momentum up, she'd chicken out again, so she walked right into the exam room.
Luke sat on the end of an exam table, shirt off, fatigue-clad legs dangling over the edge. And, good God, he looked amazingly sexy. His head was bent inspecting some sort of three-fold brochure in his hands as a man in his mid-fifties stood next to him, taping a bandage across the wound high on his chest.
Complex emotions radiated off him in waves.
The doctor stopped midsentence and gave her a look somewhere between shock and annoyance. “Can I help you?”
Luke's gaze jerked toward her. He dropped the brochure he'd been looking at in his lap and sat up straight. The muscles of his chest and abdomen flexed. The sight shot heat from the center of her chest all the way to the soles of her feet.
“I-I-um . . .” She cleared her throat. “He's mine.”
What?
“I mean, he's my . . . my . . .”
He's mine,
she wanted to repeat. She made a motion between herself and Luke, growing more self-conscious and frustrated by the moment. “I'm . . . with him.”
What?
“I mean, he's my . . . my . . .”
He's mine,
she wanted to repeat. She made a motion between herself and Luke, growing more self-conscious and frustrated by the moment. “I'm . . . with him.”
Luke's eyes sparked, but she couldn't tell if that was a good thing or a bad thing.
Alyssa came in behind her, her hand resting on the knob. “I'm so sorry, Adam. Keira”âher voice held that doctor tone, the one that always made Keira want to say âyes, ma'am'â“get your buttâ”
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