By Honor Bound (32 page)

Mace reached around her for their weapons and handed one to her. There was silence that seemed to go on for hours, but was probably only minutes. Annie’s nerves were pulled tight with the tension. If the fight was over, who had won?

The quiet stretched on until Annie thought she’d scream. At least fifteen minutes later, the scream of ripping metal came from the half door. Annie aimed her weapon at the opening, was it friend or foe coming in? And would they shoot first and ask questions later?

* * * * *

A shaft of light speared Mace in the eye as mechanical claws tore their way through the door and into the furnace. If they were using the Jaws of Life equipment to open the door, it was probably the good guys trying to get in, but he held his weapon ready anyway.

“Major Forbes? Are you in there?”

“Colonel Michaels? Is that you?” Annie answered.

Mace held her arm when she went to go towards the door.

“You don’t know if it’s safe, and I don’t want you getting too close to those jaws.”

Annie rolled her eyes, but stayed where she was.

“We’ve got the building secure, but there was some structural damage to this area. It’s going to take a bit to get you out of there.”

“No kidding, sir. The hospital’s furnace is jammed against both doors.”

“What?”

“During one of the explosions the furnace fell over and is now lodged between both doors.”

“No wonder it wouldn’t open. Now we’ve got to cut through that goddamn thing too. You may be in for a long wait. I’ll see if I can get you some water bottles and MREs.”

“Yes, sir.”

Military Meals Ready to Eat weren’t gourmet cooking, but right about now they sounded pretty damn good. A little bit of water to clear the dirt and the taste of fear out of his mouth wouldn’t hurt either.

 “Are you wounded at all, Major?”

“No, but Captain O’Keefe is. I could use some clean bandages and some antiseptic. He’ll need new stitches when this is over, too.”

“Who the hell is Captain O’Keefe?” Colonel Michaels did not sound happy.

“My, ah, partner, sir. He was a patient in the emergency room.”

Mace almost snickered. He was sitting there butt-naked with Annie between his legs and she was talking to her commanding officer.

“God in heaven. I want the whole story when this is all over. Right now stay away from this door while we stabilize the structure and get you out.”

Mace heard some muffled shouts and the colonel moved away. Annie handed him his pants, or what was left of them anyway.

“These have seen better days,” she said, averting her eyes as she moved away from his embrace.

“I’ll be glad to get rid of them. You’re going to need a new uniform, too, Major. I don’t think most nurses run around in sports bras. Too bad.”

“I guess it’s all over.”

Why wouldn’t she look at him? “Yeah, if they’re using machinery to get us out of here the building must be secure. I told you that janitor would let them know where we are.”

“I mean, you and me. You’ll be heading back to your unit and I’ll be here a few more years.”

“I won’t be over there forever you know.” The thought of losing her sent a cold stab of fear through his body.

“Yeah, but you said it yourself, this is all just a result of the adrenaline exaggerating our hormones, or something.”

“Is that all you think it is?” The coldness was spreading. Didn’t she feel the same way he did?

“I don’t know what I think! All I know is I have never been in a situation like this before, and I don’t know how much is adrenaline and how much is real.”

“If what we just shared was from adrenaline, I’ll bottle and sell it and put Viagra out of business! This is not over, babe.”

Mace didn’t know what Annie was going to say because another explosion rocked the building. The last thing he remembered was Annie diving for him as his head rang with pain.

Chapter Nine

Mace opened his eyes and winced. He was in an olive drab tent and his head felt like it had been hit with a baseball bat. Where was he? Did he crash? What the hell was going on?

Slowly the memories started to come back to him. He and Annie had been trapped in the furnace room. The wackos had been taken care of and they were waiting to get out. What happened next?

A pain shot through his heart as he remembered Annie telling him that their time together was over. Bullshit! He’d change her mind, by God!

Flipping back the light cover over his legs, he tried to get out of the cot. As soon as he sat up, a wave of dizziness dropped him right back down.

“What do you think you’re doing? You lie right back down there this instant, Captain!” Annie came running to his side and straightened the covers over him.

“You’re here. I was going to look for you.” Mace grabbed her hand and held it tight. She wasn’t getting away from him if he could stop it.

“Of course I’m here. Where else would I be?” Her blue eyes shined down on him and she caressed his face with her free hand.

“What happened?” Mace looked around the tent, he was next to a heavily bandaged man who looked like he had gone ten rounds with a heavyweight boxing champ. There was a nurse in a camp chair next to him, holding his hand in her sleep.

“Apparently we missed one of the bombs,” Annie explained. “The explosion rocked the already weakened area where we were and that section of the building collapsed. You ended up with a concussion.”

“Was anyone else hurt?” Mace searched her for signs of injury. She looked fine. Hell, she looked more than fine.

“No, everyone had gotten out by that point. If you hadn’t gotten the civilians out of the café though, it would have been a different story. The entire cafeteria is rubble.”

“Did they catch the bastards responsible for it?”

“The ringleaders are in custody, that’s all I know. There’s going to be some sort of investigation to find out who is behind all of it, but right now things are still pretty chaotic.”

“What time is it? I’m so disoriented, I don’t know whether I’m coming or going.”

“You’re not going anywhere, mister. It’s a little after noon. You’ve been out for a while.”

Mace let out a low whistle. “I think I was safer in Iraq.”

Annie looked sick at his words and tried to pull away, but he held her fast.

“Are you hungry? I could get you a sandwich if you’re not too nauseous to eat it.”

His stomach growled with hunger at the mention of food. “Guess that answers that question. How about you? Have you eaten?”

“Yeah, I got something while you were unconscious. Hold on, I’ll be right back.”

She pulled away from him and slipped out the tent flap without a sound. Mace rubbed his temples as he watched her leave. Would she come back? She’d seemed awfully skittish around him. Their conversation was awkward and stiff. Was she just hanging around because she felt guilty?

Could she be the one trying to run away now that things were over? They had done things a little back-ass-wards. He normally at least bought a girl a drink before he slept with her.

Hell, he hadn’t even slept with her; he’d screwed her brains out in a supply closet! No wonder she was hell bent on getting away from him. They’d let their raging hormones loose before they had gotten to know each other. What a shock she felt awkward around him now.

He might not know a lot about women in general or Annie in particular, but he did know that she wasn’t the type that hopped into bed with every GI she met. There was something very innocent about her, and he just bet she had no idea what to do about him now.

Well, Mace knew what to do, and as soon as he could get out of bed without his brain falling out his ear, he was going to do it. His beautiful Annie deserved a Prince Charming, and he was going to make sure she got one.

* * * * *

Annie knew it was damn cowardly to avoid Mace when he couldn’t even get out of bed, but when Colonel Michaels told her to go home, she ran like a rabbit. There was no way she could be around Mace without wanting to either jump him or cry all over the place.

When the support beam came down on him, her heart went stone-cold with fear. She’d been chased, shot at, and almost blown up and that didn’t touch the terror she felt seeing Mace buried under a pile of rubble. That sort of gut-wrenching fear didn’t come from an excess of hormones and adrenaline.

In some bizarre twist of fate, Annie had fallen head over heels in love with a cocky helicopter pilot in less than twenty-four hours.

Anne Catherine Forbes, who had never so much as kissed on the first date, had not only had the best sex of her life with a guy she’d only just met, she’d tossed all good sense out the window and fallen in love with him. And she’d do it again in a heartbeat.

Unlocking the door to her tiny apartment, Annie dropped her keys on the table by the door and stumbled to the bathroom. First she was going to take a shower, then she was going to sleep for the next three days. By then Mace would be back with his unit and she wouldn’t have to worry about running into him and bawling her eyes out.

She knew all about the military brush-off. Meet a woman in one station and dump her before you go to the next. Well, she’d save Mace the trouble. She wouldn’t be clinging and whining when it was time for him to leave. He could go on his way with no empty promises about getting together again when he came back.

Turning the water on as hot as she could stand it, Annie stepped under the spray and let the stinging needles work out the lump in her throat. She’d be strong and send him off with a smile instead of tears. Even if it killed her, he wouldn’t know her heart was breaking.

Annie let her tears mingle with the hot water as it ran down her face. How could something this devastating happen so fast? She’d found her heart and lost it all in the same day.

* * * * *

A knock on the door woke Annie from her exhausted slumber. A bleary-eyed look at the clock told her it was ten o’clock in the morning. She’d slept for almost twenty hours! No wonder she felt like her head was stuffed with socks.

By the taste in her mouth, they were dirty socks too. The pounding on her door had stopped. Probably had the wrong address. Annie never got visitors in the daytime, everyone knew she worked evenings and slept in. Could it be the press?

Annie slipped on her robe and crossed to the door. When she peeked through the peephole no one was there. Opening up the door she poked her head into the hallway and looked around. Not a body in sight. On her doormat was a vase of beautiful long-stemmed red roses.

“Oh!” Her heart caught in her throat. Who could those be from? “Don’t get your hopes up, Forbes, they’re probably for someone else.” Even with her cynical side trying to keep her hopes in check, a faint tremor shook her fingers as she reached for the envelope stuck into the beautiful bouquet.

It was addressed to her! So it wasn’t a mistake. Her heart beating in anticipation, she pulled the little card out.

Annie—

You are cordially invited to dinner at the Officers’ Club, nineteen hundred hours tonight.

Fondly,

Mason.

Fondly? What the hell was fondly? Screwing her damn brains out was a little more than
fond
! Was this his way of brushing her off? He’d treat her to a nice dinner, then tell her it’s been fun, but… Probably thought she wouldn’t make a scene at the OC. She’d show him a thing or two, boy. She was taking out her shortest skirt and her highest heels for tonight. If he wanted to kick her to the curb, she’d make him eat his heart out.

Picking the roses up and bringing them in her kitchenette, Annie couldn’t help but stick her nose in for a deep sniff. Guilt flowers or no, they were still beautiful. Mace might be an ass, but he had style.

* * * * *

Mace was sweating in his dress uniform. What if Annie didn’t come? She’d bolted from the camp outside the hospital fast enough. Maybe what he felt was all one-sided after all?

Just when he was ready to march over to her house, a murmur went through the club. A goddess in a screaming red dress and ice-pick heels came into the room. Mace’s jaw dropped when he saw that the sexy blonde was Annie. His Annie!

The fire engine red dress was low-cut and only came to the middle of her thighs. As she turned to look for him, he saw that it tied behind her neck and left her back completely bare. All he could think of was one little tug and her breasts would spill free.

Looking around the room, he bet every other horny GI in the place was thinking the same thing. Standing up, Mace waved to her and watched breathlessly as she came over. His tongue was practically hanging out of his mouth by the time she got to the table. Remembering his manners, he was trying to charm her after all, he held out a chair at the table for her.

As she sat, he caught a whiff of her perfume and a glimpse of her cleavage. His body went on immediate alert, all systems go! He had to take a deep breath to control his urge to lay her across the table and see what she had on under the dress.

Down boy! You’re supposed to charm her, not attack her!

He cleared his throat before attempting to speak. “Thanks for coming tonight. You look beautiful.”

She smiled brightly at him, but it didn’t quite reach her eyes. “Thank you for the roses, they’re lovely.” She looked down at the menu and not at him. “I’m surprised they let you out of the hospital so soon. I figured you’d be under medical care for a few more days.”

“I promised to be careful and get lots of rest, so they let me go. I wasn’t critical so I don’t think they minded. The beds were needed by other folks in worse shape than me.” Mace moved away from the tempting view of her cleavage and quickly sat in his own seat, hiding the boner of a lifetime.

Annie took a sip out of her water glass and looked around. “I haven’t been to the OC in a long time. It looks nicer than I remember.”

“Not nearly as nice as my present company.”

Startled eyes turned towards him for the first time. “Uh, thank you. I suppose I’d almost have to look better now. You pretty much saw me at my worst.”