Page 110 of Seal of Honor
Her lashes, caked with soot and ash, fluttered open. “Gabe?”
Scooping water over her singed hair, he tried to smile. “Hi, honey.”
“You’re okay. He didn’t… hurt you. I thought…”
“No, he didn’t hurt me.” But he had damn well hurt her and if the bastard wasn’t already a charred lump of flesh, Gabe would’ve hunted him down and made Rorro regret ever laying a finger on her.
“Oh my God.” Suddenly, her eyes cleared. She looked at her burning house. “He’s dead. I started the fire. I threw his lighter at him, and he… He’s dead.”
Bile surged up Gabe’s throat. She lit a fire, knowing she was soaked in flammable chemicals. She was lucky she hadn’t gone up in flames the moment the spark flared.
“Christ.” His whole body started to shake from the mix of adrenaline afterburn and gut-wrenching fear. He couldn’t stop it, couldn’t control it. Gathering her up, he held her tight. “Don’t do that again.”
“Didn’t want to… first time. He was going to kill me. Why?” Her voice broke. “Who was he?”
Jesus, she hadn’t even known who was attacking her or why.
“Later, honey. I’ll explain it later.” He just wanted to hold her now. And never, ever let her go. “You did good, Aud. You fought him off.”
“My house is gone,” she sobbed.
“We can build another. Bigger, with a workshop for you and an office for me. Maybe a guesthouse for when your brother and nephews visit. Or, God help us when Raffi visits.”
“But my paintings…”
“You can paint more.”
“I guess so.” She sounded unconvinced.
“Audrey…”
“All that work—gone.” She tried to sit up and winced, a faint hiss escaping from between her teeth.
His heart twisted. “Don’t move too much.”
This, Gabe thought fiercely, was why he had never wanted to feel. It hurt too much when the people you cared about suffered. He shouldn’t have let himself love her. But dammit, the woman was impossible to resist.
And he was never, ever letting her go again.
She released a ragged breath and relaxed against his chest. “You’re right. My paintings don’t matter. The house doesn’t matter. I’m safe, and you’re safe, and we’ll build a new life together.”
“Absolutely. We’ll make this work, okay? I promise.”
He felt her lips curve in a small smile against his shoulder. “And my SEAL never makes promises he can’t keep.”
“No, he doesn’t.”
As they sat there on the beach watching her house burn, Gabe heard the unmistakable beat of a helo’s rotor over the crackle of flames. The bird swung in low over the treetops and hovered over the beach nearby.
Audrey squinted and raised a hand to shield her eyes against the prop-wash of sand. “Is that…?”
A rope fell from the chopper, and one by one, six men slid down, armed for war.
“Yeah.” Gabe grinned and helped her stand as Quinn and the others ran toward them. “Our knights in shining armor have arrived.”
CHAPTER 41
THREE MONTHS LATER
