Chapter Eight

Pain and the need to pee woke me up. I sat up and looked around groggily. Where was I?

“What do you need?”

I stared up at Sergeant Stone. “Bathroom.”

Stone held out his hand. “I’ll show you the way.”

“Okay.” I took his hand and blinked in confusion. All I was wearing was a baggy green tee shirt. “Where are my pants?”

“They were covered in blood.” He led me across a hallway and opened a door.

“Oh.” I frowned and pointed. “That’s a urinal.”

“Yes, it is.”

“Why are we in the men’s restrooms? I’m a girl.”

“That you are.” Grinning, Stone guided me over to a stall and opened the door. “In you go.”

“No peeking.” I shut the door.

“No, ma’am.”

I sat on the toilet and did my business. “Are you laughing at me?”

“No, ma’am.”

“Why are you ma’aming me?”

“Because you’re high on morphine and too damn cute.”

Was he being nice to me? No way. I pulled off some toilet paper and stared at it for a moment. “Well, stop it.”

“Are you done, soldier?”

I wiped myself. “Yes.” I stood, flushed the toilet and pulled up my panties. Wait a minute. These weren’t my panties.

“Open the door, Tess.”

I did as he asked. “These aren’t my panties.” I yanked up my tee shirt. “See?”

His grin got bigger. “We got you fresh underwear.”

“Why?”

“Because your clothes were covered in blood.”

“Oh.” I sat on the floor. “Tired.” I laid down.

“No, you don’t.” Stone scooped me up. “You need to take your pills.”

“Don’t wanna.” I laid my head against his shoulder. “Promise you won’t let him kill me.”

“I promise.” Stone sat me on a bed. “Open your mouth.”

“What if I have bad breath?”

“You don’t.”

“You sure about that?”

“I am. Now take your pills.”

I opened my mouth.

Stone dropped two pills on my tongue and handed me a bottle of water. “Swallow them and you can have some chocolate.”

“Okay.” I washed the pills down. “Where’s my chocolate?”

“In my backpack. I’ll get it.”

A wave of weariness rolled over me. The minute my head hit the pillow I fell asleep.

*****

A hand shook my shoulder. “Wake up, Tess.”

I instinctively kicked out as hard as I could.

The man hit the floor hard and groaned, “Fuck.”

Rolling off the bed, I assumed a fighting stance and my eyes widened in horror. Tex was on the floor cradling his genitals. “Sorry. My bad.”

“Why did you kick him in the nuts?” Stone demanded.

My shoulders slumped. “Part of my father’s training was sending strange men into my bedroom in the middle of the night to attack me. It has made me a bit twitchy.”

Johnson handed Tex an ice pack. “A bit?”

“After I shot three of my attackers, my father stopped that particular training practice.”

“Your father is a monster and we’ll be happy to take him down,” Rodriquez spat.

“My father is an apex predator with no morals. If you get in his way, he’ll kill you.”

Sergeant Stone opened a bottle of protein drink and handed it to me. “Drink this and take your pills. General Grandville is demanding to see you.”

“Like this?” I gestured to my over-sized tee shirt.

“We got you more uniforms, a toothbrush, comb, and some lady stuff from the commissary.” Rodriquez placed a bag on the bed.

“Thank you.” I took my pills and quickly finished the protein drink.” Where do I change?”

“Across the hallway,” Stone replied.

I grabbed the bag and my boots and frowned. “Wait. That’s the men’s room.”

“I’ll stand guard while you change,” Stone said.

“Okay.” I crossed the hallway and peered inside. “Have I been here before?”

“You have.”

Stone put a big hand on my back and pushed me inside. “General Grandville is getting antsy, you been asleep for the last twelve hours.”

“I was?” Holy shit! “My wounds aren’t that bad.”

“You were suffering from dehydration, exhaustion and starvation. The blood loss pushed you over the edge and you fainted.”

I fainted! How embarrassing. Time to change the subject. I held out the neck of my tee shirt and sniffed. “Why do I smell like spearmint?”

“Horse liniment.”

With a frown, I placed a hairbrush next to the tube of toothpaste. “Horse liniment?”

“We’ve been rubbing the ointment on your bruises. Works like a charm. Get dressed.” He walked out.

“Yes, sir.” What I wanted to know was who had been doing the rubbing. By the smirk on Stone’s face, it was him. I used the facilities, brushed my teeth and washed my face. My mental fog finally cleared, and I realized I wasn’t wearing a bra, and my panties were new too. Who had undressed me?

“What’s taking so long?” Stone bellowed through the door.

I gave him the one-fingered salute, grabbed a bra out of the sack and tried to fasten my bra. “Dammit!” My ribs were screaming in protest, and I couldn’t get the hooks to fasten. “Shit!”

“What’s the problem, Tinkerbell?”

“I’m a little stiff and I can’t fasten my bra.” The next thing I knew, Sergeant Stone was standing behind me and his callused fingers were hooking my bra. My skin was hypersensitive to his touch, and I could feel my cheeks heating. “Had a lot of practice with bras, have you?”

“Removing them, yeah. Putting them back on, not so much.” Stone trailed a finger down my spine.

“Hey!” I jumped about a foot and winced as my left leg spasmed. “Knock it off. I’m not interested in joining your fan club.”

Stone studied me intently for a moment, then nodded. “Not until you learn to trust men again.”

“Maybe when I’m old and gray, but I probably won’t live that long,” I said matter-of-factly.

“Don’t say that. The only one dying is Roberts and your father.” He twirled a finger. “Turn around. You’re moving like a granny, and I need you in fighting form.” He pulled a tube of ointment out of his pocket.

The last thing I needed was Stone touching me, but he was right. I couldn’t fight like this. I turned around. I hoped I didn’t do something stupid, like kissing him.

“You took a bad fall. You’re damn lucky you didn’t break a leg.”

I snorted. “That would have really messed up my father’s plans.”

“Your father needs killing.” Stone massaged ointment into my neck and back.

My knees almost buckled. That felt so damn good. “He was a great father until my mother was killed. Now all he lives for is vengeance.” Shit! My voice came out all breathy.

“What happened?” Stone’s hands slid down my left thigh as he worked the ointment into my colorful bruises.

My pussy pulsed and I fought back a moan. God, I loved the feel on his hands on my body. “She worked for Doctors Without Borders and was killed in a roadside bombing.” I balled my hands. Don’t touch him. Don’t touch him.

“That’s tough.” He switched to my other leg.

Oh, God. My panties were soaked, my nipples had hardened, and pure arousal thrummed in my veins. I wanted that bastard inside me.

“How does that feel?” He gave me a lewd wink.

“You know damn well how that feels.”

He grinned. “You’ve got the color back in your cheeks.”

“Gee, thanks.”

Stone took my new pants out of the bag. “Step in.”

Damn, the command note was back in his voice. With a hand on his shoulder, I did as he asked.

The sergeant pulled my pants up, zipped them and handed me a belt. “There you go.”

“Thank you, sir.” I quickly donned my shirt and boots.

Stone frowned. “You need to do something with your hair.”

One look in the mirror and I agreed. There were pieces of God knows what in my hair and it badly needed combing. I reached back to remove the hair tie and winced.

“You need to let the ointment work. Hold still. I’ll fix your braid,” Stone said. He quickly removed my hair tie, brushed all the crap out of my hair and braided it.

“Where did you learn to braid hair?” Call me curious.

“I braided my sister’s hair when she was little.”

“Where does your family live?”

Pain flashed across Stone’s face. “When I was fourteen a drunk driver hit our car, I was the only survivor.”

“I’m sorry. I know how that feels.” The memory of my mother’s shattered body flashed across my mind, and I shuddered. That day was forever etched in my mind. In a matter of seconds, my world had been destroyed.

“You were there when your mother died?”

“I was.” It was like it happened yesterday.

“How old were you?”

“Four. There was so much blood.” I rubbed my temples. “My father went mad. He left me there while he chased down the terrorists.”

Stone hugged me gently. “When did he come back for you?”

“Three weeks later.”

“Shit.”

I grimaced. “Tell me about it. Kuwait’s Ministry of Social Affairs put me in a foster home and my blonde hair drew a lot of attention.”

“I’ll bet. As soon as my grandfather learned about the accident, he came for me. I was big for my age and full of anger. Grandpa took me back to his ranch and put me to work. By the end of the day, I was too tired to get into fights. He taught me all he knew about cattle ranching and rodeoing. When I turned eighteen, he dragged me down to the Marines recruiting center and had me join up. He said they would teach me how to control my aggression and he was right.”

I snorted. “Control your aggression? Seriously? They turned you into apex predator like my father.”

“I was always an apex predator; they taught how to control it.” Stone’s sat phone beeped. He checked it. “Let’s go. Grandville is throwing a fit.”

“I need my guns. Roberts is not going to stop until I’m dead.”

Sergeant Stone smiled as he opened the men’s room doors. “You might be cute as a bunny, but you could give a badger a run for his money in pure meanness.”

“Why, thank you. My father calls it my natural camouflage.”

Rodriquez handed me my gun belt. “We’ve got your back, Chiquita.”

“Thanks.” I strapped on my gun belt, checked my Sig Sauers over, and grabbed Bertha. “Let’s go see what’s got Grandville in such a lather.”