Waiting... On You (Force Recon Marines) (41 page)

“I feel sorry for his family— his wife
and kids.”

“Yeah.” Nick raked his fingers through
his hair, and impatiently looked down the hall toward the intensive care
entrance.

“We’re going to go home and put the
kids to bed. Do you want to go in and see her before we leave?”

“I’m spending the night here, Mom. In
her room, if they’ll let me.”

“Oh, honey, you should come home and
get some rest yourself. You look exhausted. When was the last time you slept?”
His mother frowned worriedly. “You’ve lost a bit of blood yourself.”

The last time he had slept had been
more than twenty-four hours ago, in Hanna’s arms, in their joined sleeping
bags. If he closed his eyes, he could feel her nestled against him, tucked
close, safe, and whole. “I’ll be fine, Mom. Go home. Take care of Lance. His
cracked ribs have got to be killing him. I’ll call you tomorrow.”

“She’ll be asleep all night, maybe
longer.”

“I need to be with her.”

Jessie nodded. “I understand.”
Throwing an arm around him, she hugged him and patted his back. “I love you,
son.”

“I love you, too, Mom.”

A few minutes later, the rest of the
family came through the double doors that led to the Intensive Care Unit.
Christine took her sleeping daughter from Nick, and Lance picked up his son.
Colleen walked slowly and stiffly a few paces behind. She looked a hundred
years old, and Nick ached for her.

When she joined the others, she smiled
tiredly at him. “I’ll be back tomorrow. I expect we all will. Get some rest,
Colonel.” She didn’t bother to ask where he would be spending the night.

After they left, Nick stood alone for
a long moment, then turned and walked toward the intensive care doors.

KURT’S WIFE managed to get him
permission to sleep in a recliner in Hanna’s room. She urged him to go to the
cafeteria and get something to eat, but once he sat down beside Hanna’s bed, he
didn’t want to leave. Trisha promised to bring him something to eat as soon as
she took her break.

When she left, Nick moved the recliner
as close as he could to the side of Hanna’s bed. She had a private room, and it
was dimly lit. The soft illumination was enough for him to see how pale she
looked. Buried beneath the bedcovers, hooked up to her monitors and IV’s, she
looked so frail, so fragile.

He captured one of her hands, lifted
it to his lips, turned it over, and kissed her palm. Then he placed it against
his unshaven cheek and just held it there for several long moments. Even after
setting it back on the bed, he didn’t release her hand. His remained warmly,
reassuringly over hers.

“Come back to me, sweet Hanna,” he
murmured softly as he leaned over to press gentle kisses on her forehead and
cheek. “I don’t want to be here without you.”

CHAPTER
28

THE DEA, THE SEATTLE OFFICE OF THE
FBI, and their Canadian counterparts were all taking credit for shutting down
the biggest heroin ring in the Northwest. It was all over the local news the
next day. The day after that, it was national news.

And by that point, word was out that a
lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps, who was from Port George, had been
instrumental in locating the Chinese drug cartel. It wasn’t long before Nick
found himself beset by news reporters. He wasn’t happy about it. He’d been
hoping to remain in Port George until Hanna recovered. Now his commander was
going to know that his efforts to find and recover his brother had been
successful. All the media attention was sure to reach him at Camp Pendleton.

He was sitting in Hanna’s room, where
she remained unconscious, in a healing coma as her doctor called it, three days
after her surgery when his cell phone rang. Caller I.D. told him instantly who
it was on the other end of the connection. He stepped outside the room to
answer the phone.

His commander and friend, General Robert
Tyler, was calling from southern California. The first thing he did was
congratulate Nick on finding his brother and rescuing him. Then he went on to
tell Nick how happy he was that he had finally caught Li Chen and shut down his
operation.

“We’ve been after Chen a long time.
You must be pleased as hell you put him behind bars finally.”

The general had served with his father
and been a mentor and friend a long time. Nick didn’t want to sound ungrateful,
but he was still too worried about Hanna to feel much like being congratulated.

“The operation was ruining the
community I grew up in. Chen bought off the heads of local law enforcement.
Besides kidnapping my brother, he was responsible for the death of a good
friend of mine. His sister helped me find Lance, and she was critically wounded
during the rescue. At the moment, she’s in a coma because she took a couple of
bullets for me. I shouldn’t have put her in that position, so I don’t feel too
happy about being made a media hero.”

“Is she the hometown girl you’ve kept
in touch with all these years?”

“Yes,” Nick confirmed. “Doctor Hanna
Wallace.”

“Sounds like a pretty special lady.”

“She is, sir.”

“How’s Lance?”

“Recovering, but good.”

“And your lovely mother?”

“Relieved and immensely grateful you
gave me leave to take care of matters.”

“Well,” the general continued. “I
called to congratulate you, but also to see if I could reactivate you. I’ve got
an assignment that only you can do properly.”

Nick sucked in a long silent breath.
He knew he didn’t want to hear this, but he also knew he didn’t have a choice.
Now that his CO knew he had finished what he had generously been given four
weeks leave for, it was time to be reassigned.

“Yes, sir, I’m listening,” he
responded with long learned patience.

“I need you to train some SPEC OPS
units that have been selected for a special mission. We’ve got a few Force
Recon men in the units, and I want to be sure that they are all ready for this
job. It’s going to be a tough one, a highly classified one, and there isn’t
anyone I’d trust to train them as well as you.”

“How long, sir?”

“One month of intensive training at
Little Creek in Virginia, another month at Mac Gill Airbase in Florida, then
two weeks back here, in San Diego, at Coronado,” the general explained. “Those
last two weeks you’ll be doing some combat dive training and special underwater
equipment training for some new SOCOM recruits, as well. There are a few SEAL
personnel in the lot, too. It could stretch into a three month cycle, like
usual. Then, I may need to send you back to Afghanistan. The Pentagon top brass
are putting together something we might need you for.”

Nick wanted to groan. The Spec Ops
teams that he had been commanding in Afghanistan had just wrapped up their last
mission when he had been granted leave. He’d been hoping for some easy
stateside deployment for a while, and while General Tyler was offering that, he
was also planning on sending him back to the same part of the world he seemed
to have been stuck in forever. Shit! He’d wanted a new assignment that would
allow him to see Hanna more often and resolve this unfinished business between
them! The military was a cruel taskmaster at times, a greedy mistress.

“When do you need me, sir?” he forced
himself to finally reply.

“As soon as possible. Come down and pick
up your orders from me.” General Tyler thoroughly surprised him with his next
statement, though. “Wait until your lady friend comes out of her coma, though,
Nick. I’m sure that’ll be any day now.”

That was at least something, Nick
allowed as he hung up and returned to Hanna’s bedside. He’d been fantasizing
about asking her to marry him. He’d been hoping to ask her to return to San
Diego or Camp Pendleton with him. But how was he going to do that when he had
to leave for Virginia as soon as possible? And then what? Marry her on a
weekend, then leave her when he got reinserted into Afghanistan or some other
godforsaken part of the world? He could just envision the proposal.
Marry
me, love of my life, then, oh yeah, wait to see me again for a year or more.
Shit, maybe he ought to seriously consider retirement! Even though he’d already
re-enlisted, it might not be too late to change his mind.

At dinnertime the next day, Nick was
seated in the recliner, footrest up, head back, eyes closed, thinking about
going down to the cafeteria to get something to eat before the family came for
a visit. They had come every day to see Hanna and check on him. And each time
his mother visited, she fussed with him about going home to get some real sleep
in a real bed. Today he thought he needed to face all that fussing on a full
stomach. He hadn’t told the family yet about his imminent reassignment, and he
wasn’t looking forward to seeing how disappointed they’d all be. Except for
Dylan’s death and Lance’s kidnapping, it had been a good visit. He hadn’t spent
this much time with his family and friends in years.

He was pushing stiffly out of chair
when he saw Hanna’s eyelids flicker. A second later, her body moved, really
moved, not just twitched. In the next suspended heartbeat, her eyes opened slowly,
but fully, revealing a confused green gaze. Nick shoved out of the chair and
hurried to her side. Her eyes narrowed on him, like she always did when she
couldn’t see well. For the first time in four days, he finally realized she’d
be all right. He found her glasses and slipped them on her face, letting his
two big hands rest on either side of her beautiful face.

Grinning with relief, he leaned down
to kiss her forehead, then her nose, then her lips. She lifted her hand to his
rough cheek and stroked it.

“Nick.” His name emerged from her
unused vocal cords in a raspy, hoarse croak.

His eyes watered as he stared at her
beloved features. The last time he remembered crying had been when his dad had
died. He’d been a young boy. He was a grown man now, and the tears that filled
his eyes were tears of joy and gratitude.

“How do you feel, sweetheart?” he
murmured, too moved to say anything else.

She blinked in wonder. “Like I’ve
traveled a long way and come back.” She squeezed the big hand that held hers.
“Are you for real?”

“You bet!” He blinked a couple of
times to dispel his tears.

“Are you okay?” Her eyes wandered all
over him. “You got shot.”

“It was just a flesh wound. They
patched me up.”

“Thank God!” she breathed. “Lance and
Kurt? Are they all right, too.” He nodded, bracing one hand on her headboard
and one beside her head, on her pillow. “And Chen?”

“Who gives a shit!”

She tried to laugh and started
coughing. Nick straightened and immediately pushed the button that raised her
electric bed. Then he adjusted her pillows so she could sit up and breathe
easier.

“Are you in pain?” He stroked her
hair, concern lining his handsome face.

“Probably, but at the moment, I’m too
happy to care.” She groaned as she tried to scoot up against the elevated bed
and pillows. Nick slipped an arm behind her to assist her. The effort made her
cough again.

Nick stepped back, alarmed. “I’ll get
the nurse in here.”

Making a little protesting noise,
Hanna grabbed him by the front of his knit shirt and yanked him close to her.
“Oh no, you don’t! Come here and kiss me properly, Colonel.”

He hesitated. “I don’t want to hurt
you.”

“I’ll manage. I need your lips on
mine.”

He leaned carefully over the bed
again, bracing himself so he wouldn’t put any of his weight on her. His lips
were the only point of contact, but he made full use of them for as long as she
wanted them.

“Oh, Hanna, I’ve been so worried!” he
breathed against her wet, pliant mouth. “I’m so sorry I got you hurt.”

She heard the anguish in his voice.
“You didn’t get me hurt, Nicholas Kelly,” she insisted softly, hooking an arm
around his neck and pulling him closer until their noses touched. “I’m sure I
owe you my life because of your quick and knowledgeable intervention.”

“You shouldn’t have slowed down for
me,” he chastised her. “They wouldn’t have shot Chen.”

“I’m not so sure about that, Nick. I
think Thomas was hoping Chen would get killed in the crossfire so he could take
over the operation.”

“That’s why I think he was the one who
killed Yancy.”

But he didn’t want to talk about that
now. All he wanted was to love her and say prayers of gratitude for her
recovery. His mouth descended to hers again. It moved over her parted lips in a
lover’s kiss, a sweet and tender mating. His tongue slid past her teeth, found
hers, and made slow intoxicating love to her.

Hanna moaned and tried to pull Nick
onto the bed with her, but he wasn’t about to rest even half of his two hundred
and forty pounds on her injured body. He pulled his tongue from her mouth and
rubbed his lips over her cheek.

“Aw, Hanna, we have to talk....”

He wanted to tell her that he had to
leave, that he wanted her to marry him, that he never wanted to be apart from
her again. There were so many things he wanted to say to her, so many
overwhelming emotions and logistics to work through. He wasn’t sure where to
start. And she kept tugging on him to get his mouth back on hers. Satisfying
her overrode every other need for the moment.

Behind them, Lance stepped through the
open door and silently watched the passionate exchange for several moments
before he cleared his throat and alerted them of his presence.

Nick straightened and took a step back
from Hanna’s bedside, turning away slightly to hide his arousal and his aggravation.
Hanna looked toward the doorway and greeted Lance happily. He walked up to the
bed, bent over, and kissed her, though not on the lips as his brother had.

“Oh, Hanna, it’s so damn good to see
you awake and smiling! We’ve all been worried sick about you. How are you
feeling?”

Her smile was so brilliant, it lit up
her green eyes until they sparkled. “Pretty darn good, considering.” She
laughed carefully this time. “Just a little sore.”

They spoke for a few minutes more.
Then Colleen knocked on her open door. Christine and Jessie were right behind
her. Nick wanted to groan. Instead, he managed a smile and motioned them into
the room, resigned to waiting until later to talk to Hanna.

“We’ll get booted out if we all come
in,” Christine protested.

“Hey, I’m an administrator here,”
Hanna argued. “I think I’m allowed a little special treatment.”

Colleen immediately walked over to the
bed and gave her granddaughter a gentle hug and big kiss on the cheek. There
were tears in both their eyes by the time the old woman straightened.

Colleen glanced over her shoulder.
Nick returned the old woman’s secret watery smile, then excused himself so
there would be more room. “I’m going down to the cafeteria to get some coffee
and a sandwich.” Hanna immediately looked crestfallen. He smiled at her
reassuringly. “I’ll be back in fifteen or twenty minutes.”

“I’ll let the ladies visit and go with
you, bro,” Lance said as he followed Nick to the door. “I could use a cup of
coffee.”

Inside the elevator that took them
downstairs, Nick noticed Lance looked like he had something to say. He figured
he knew what it was. In the cafeteria, they each ordered coffee, but Nick added
a sandwich. After paying the cashier, they found a quiet table at the back of
the room and sat down across from one another.

Nick stared at Lance with one raised
eyebrow. “Okay, spit it out, little brother,” he began. “You’ve got that we
need to talk look all over your face.”

Lance stirred cream into his coffee
slowly and thoughtfully, but made no attempt to initiate any conversation.

Beginning to truly feel the full
impact of his weeklong ordeal, Nick felt his patience evaporate. Exhaustion
swept over him in a huge wave. He took a long drink of his coffee and gathered
the minuscule patience he had left. “I know Hanna is what’s on your mind,
Lance, so let’s hear it.”