Chapter 5

Five

" Y ou've gotta be kidding. You're allowed back in this bar after that fight the other week?" His friend, Ren's, drawled words reached Lincoln where he sat on the stool nursing a beer.

He lifted his bottle toward Liberty, the beautiful bar owner who was serving drinks to several men at the other end of the bar. "She said she understood that affairs of the heart could get out of hand."

Colton sank to the stool next to him. "This is your trouble? An affair of the heart?"

He broodingly stared at the row of glass bottles along the back of the bar. "I just spent two days cleaning the heads as punishment for fighting with Ford."

Colton let out a whistle followed by a low chuckle. Lincoln glared at him from the corner of his eye. "Man, that's rough. I try to avoid the heads if possible."

The toilets on base were never pristine, but Lincoln had been assigned to clean those in the barracks where the new recruits were staying. He remembered the nerves that went along with the first week of basic training all too well, but he didn't need to see it firsthand.

But his commanding officer had said it was this or have an official inquiry, and Lincoln didn't want that on his record.

"What'd Ford get for punishment?"

Lincoln lifted a shoulder and let it fall. "Don't know. Don't care. Whatever it is, I hope it's double mine."

"Because he was dating your girl?"

A growl shot up his throat before he could stop it. "Damn him, he knew I had my eye on her."

"Apparently that didn't matter. You and Ford always did have the same taste."

"Don't remind me." He raised his beer to his lips. "Thing is, I think Ford is a decent guy. I just wish he'd stay away from Allison."

"Nice name," Colton said, finally getting a beer into his own hands.

Lincoln shot him another glare. "Not you too."

"No, not me. I'm not interested in fighting over a female. They're more trouble than they're worth." He looked toward the corner of the bar where Liberty was talking to some guys. She and Colton were on again, off again. Or fuck buddies one minute and enemies the next. Looked to be enemies right now, the way Colton was grinding his teeth.

"Allison's not trouble to me." Lincoln chugged half his bottle.

"What are you gonna do about this? Have you spoken to her since the fight?" Colton asked.

He shook his head. "Don't know where to find her. I asked around a little, but I won't risk acting like a creeper-stalker. She works in triage, but I haven't been back there. She requested that I stay away. What the fuck am I to do? Show up on her door step. Tell her my dick and heart have been in knots since we last spoke. Can I come in?"

Her words still stung, but he knew she was just protecting herself from more pain. Damn whoever had hurt her in the first place. He'd made Lincoln's job twice as hard, but he was determined.

"She wants you to stay away, so is it smart to keep thinking about her?"

He set the bottle down a little too hard, and Liberty gave him a warning look. She was one hard-ass woman. Barbed wire spritzed with alluring perfume. Nobody fucked with her. The only one she let close enough to think about it was Ren.

"I can't just stop thinking about her."

"You have feelings for her."

"I don't know how, but I do. We've seen each other very few times, but I have this connection to her I can't explain. And the kiss. Fuck, man. I feel like I've known her my whole life from a fucking kiss. We haven't even slept together yet. What the holy fuck is wrong with me?" He raised his bottle to his lips, only to find it empty. When he waggled it to call for another, Liberty lifted her chin in acknowledgement.

Colton leaned his elbows on the bar. "Sounds like you need to get around seeing her in triage, and it's unlikely she'll come back here."

"Right."

"So you need to get creative with your strategy. What does the Army do when we can't get through a roadblock?"

Lincoln pushed out a breath and stared at his friend. "Send in reinforcements."

Colton grinned as he took a swig of beer.

"Great idea, Ren. You've just been deployed." He clapped him on the back. "Your first mission is to carry a message to her."

A thick black brow shot up. "And how do you propose I get in there?"

"You were shot in Afghanistan, right?"

He nodded.

"Old injury flaring up."

Colton shared a grin with him. "What's the message?"

"You mean you'll do it?" Lincoln shouldn't be surprised—they all had each other's backs.

"Of course. Tell me what you want to say. I'll complete the mission."

Lincoln thought for a long minute, formulating the words. When he finally told them to Ren, he made his friend recite them twice to make sure he wasn't improvising. No, this message had to reach Allison exactly as stated.

" A llison, we need you over here in bed three."

She looked up from the man whose breathing she was monitoring to Jessy peeking around the curtain. "I'll be right there."

Jessy gave a shake of her head and a contagious smile. "We're slammed today. What are these soldiers doing out there? Must be something in the air."

Allison smiled back and looked down to the man lying on the cot. "I think you just have some heatstroke. It causes you to feel lightheaded and you breathe faster to get the heat out of your core. I'm going to get an IV started and administer fluids, which should help you feel better."

She just got out all the equipment needed to start the IV, when Jessy was back. "Allison, I need you now. "

She glanced at the man lying there with reddened face and wide eyes. He was young, weeks into his basic training, and scared, she could tell. But this was triage, and you helped the victims in order of who needed it most. Her patient was starting to cool down and sweat, his body already helping itself.

"I'm coming." She patted his leg as she went out. "You'll be fine for a minute. Just rest."

When she moved aside the curtain screening bed three, she saw a huge guy with muscles for days and dirty blond hair lying there, looking dazed.

"Corporal Renegade was brought in by friends with a report that he hit his head and passed out," Jessy filled her in.

She knew Jessy had most likely checked his eyes already, but Allison moved to the head of the bed, her pen flashlight in hand. She placed her hand on his forehead as much to calm him as to hold him still while she checked whether or not his pupils dilated and at the same rate.

Both black dots shriveled to pinpoints as she flashed the light across them. She caught her lip in her teeth and asked some questions to Jessy as well as the patient. Head injuries were serious things, especially if he had a brain bleed. He could need immediate surgery.

But this man didn't seem to be displaying the classic symptoms. Of course, with a concussion, they only needed him to report a blow to the head and a headache to be diagnosed.

"What happened out there, Corporal? Can you tell me how you're feeling?"

Jessy was trained well but Allison had a little more experience on her, which was probably why she'd called her in. She looked a little flustered and was wringing her hands.

Allison glanced up at her. "Why don't you see to the heatstroke victim while I assess this one? I'm worried about him."

"Okay." Jessy disappeared, and Allison opened her mouth to question Ren.

He sat up, looked her in the eyes, and cut across her. "I'm carrying a message from Lincoln."

Holy shit. Why wasn't she a bit surprised? She blinked. She had a faker on her hands. Perfect.

"I can see why he's obsessed with you." Colton gave her a once-over. Meanwhile, her brain caught up and anger struck.

"You faked a head injury and wasted our time in order to tell me something from fucking Lincoln?" Her voice pitched higher and louder, she couldn't help it. She set a hand on her hip.

Ren gave her a sheepish smile. Damn, he was cute, but it wasn't giving him any brownie points. "Yes, he was afraid to come in himself. I can see you're mad. Just hear me out."

She expelled a sharp breath through her nose. "Fine. Say what you've got to say and then get out of my unit before I have you tossed out."

"Feisty too. Hmm. Maybe I'll give him a run for his money after all." A teasing smile corked up a corner of his lip.

She shot him a glare.

"Fine, fine. Sorry. Okay. He says, ‘I know I can't tell you why I'm different from the other soldiers who hurt you. But I can show you. Give me a chance. Please."

As he spoke, she pictured Lincoln as clear as day, and her heart tumbled over and over. She pulled in a ragged breath, trying not to show Corporal Renegade that the message affected her at all.

She pursed her lips in a way that made the man sit up a little straighter. "That's it?"

"He wants you to meet him after your shift at the corner."

Something warm and liquid slid through her body. Molten lava is what.

Damn Lincoln. He knew how to get right to her softest spot. And how he knew that there was no man on earth who could talk her out of her beliefs that she shouldn't be with a soldier was a mystery. But he knew that he could show her, and that would be infinitely different.

She gulped and looked away from Ren, who must be memorizing her reactions to carry back to his buddy.

His determined buddy.

The one with the great eyes that looked right into her soul.

Shit. She was a goner. "Fine," she bit off. "Now get out."

He hopped off the bed. "You'll meet him."

"Yes. Leave." She clipped, keeping it short and sweet.

He gave her a grin and a salute before vanishing through the curtains in a swish of hard male.

When she returned to the man Jessy was tending, she found him sitting up and sipping some sports drink. "Did you send him on to the neurologists?" Jessy asked.

"No, he was faking. I sent him back out into the field."

Jessy's eyes popped open wide. "Faking? Are you serious? He was so dazed and muttering gibberish that I was sure he was a wreck and just not displaying the symptoms."

"It can happen at times. There's always an anomaly, but not in this case." She moved closer to her friend, needing to lean on someone and share the message from Lincoln.

She felt shaken and out of her element. She was meeting Lincoln, which was much bigger than agreeing to a drink with Ford. The prospect made her insides flip and little bubbles to float upward. She wanted Lincoln—bad. And he wanted her enough to keep trying.

She pulled Jessy off to the side and filled her in.

"Aren't you one popular chick. So, what are you going to do?" her friend asked.

"I'm going." She chewed her lip and then released it. "I'm stupid, aren't I?"

Jessy shook her head. "Maybe more stupid if you don't go. I mean, not everyone gets that spark, Allison. Not ever. You can't just let it slip away without exploring it further."

Spark was an understatement for what she felt for the man, but she only nodded. "You're right. It's exactly what I'm thinking. I just needed to hear it from someone else."

Three hours later she was standing on the corner waiting for Lincoln. When she looked around and spotted him coming from several hundred yards away, she sucked in a gasp and felt a full body shudder work over her head to toe. Tall and proud, a true soldier. And he was carrying flowers.

Happiness filled her heart and spread through her veins. She'd made the right choice in meeting him, and now she wasn't going to let anything spoil it. She'd forget about her past for one night and give Lincoln everything she had to give.