Page 79 of Seal of Honor
Meaning some of the others might take issue with their relationship. Namely, Quinn. “Do you think it’ll cause problems?”
“Can’t say. If it does, they’re both professionals. They won’t let it get in the way of finding your brother.”
“God. Bryson.” She rubbed her forehead. “Is it horrible of me that I haven’t thought about him in hours?”
“Not at all,” he said, but she knew he was just trying to comfort her.
Before she could respond, the sound of rapid footsteps echoed outside, and a moment later, the door burst open. Quinn strode through, panic dancing behind his icy gray gaze. Jesse and Jean-Luc were close on his heels, followed by Marcus and, finally, the scary Ian.
“Where is he?” Quinn demanded, scanning the room until his eyes landed on Gabe. He stopped short. “Fuck.”
“Jesus.” Jesse’s long legs crossed the distance between the door and Gabe’s side in three strides. He dropped to his knees and opened his medical kit. “Status?”
Harvard quickly briefed him on Gabe’s injuries and what preliminary care he had managed to give.
Audrey watched as Jesse worked with a quiet intensity, wiping away the sweat dotting his forehead every so often with the back of a bloody hand.
Quinn stood at a distance, watching Jesse work, his gray eyes dark and unreadable. Somehow, he looked alone even in a room full of people, and she realized her initial assessment of him had been right—he was a very sad and lonely man.
She crossed to his side. “Gabe will be okay.”
Quinn looked at her sharply, eyes narrowed.
“He will,” she insisted. “He’s the strongest man I’ve ever known.”
“That he is.” His words were quiet and heavy with a weight that came from years of camaraderie and battles fought side by side. “And the most stubborn. He wouldn’t dare leave us.”
Audrey nodded, her hand seeking Quinn’s as they silently stood watch. He stiffened at her touch but didn’t pull away until Jesse straightened away from Gabe.
“Bullet’s out,” Jesse said, his dark blue eyes stark against the blood smeared on his face. He shot a scrutinizing look at Quinn and Audrey’s joined hands before wiping his own on a clean towel. “He’s stable, and I’ve stopped the bleedin’, but he needs a transfusion.”
Quinn subtly shook off her grip and moved away from her. “Then let’s get him to a hospital.”
CHAPTER 28
Gabe’s eyes felt like someone had hot glued them shut by the lashes. It took three tries to pry them open, and then he had to blink several times before he got a load of the white plaster ceiling overhead and a line of fluorescent lights turned on low. Bags hung on a pole to his right, one filled with a clear fluid and the other with a dark red substance that could only be blood.
Hospital.
Hello, déjà vu.
Except this time, unlike when he woke in the hospital in Virginia after the car accident, he remembered exactly where he was and what happened to him.
Colombia.
Shot.
Audrey.
He searched the small room for her with his eyes. Nothing but a visitor chair, TV, and dresser.
Okay. He refused to panic and squashed the instinctive surge. If he made it to a hospital, she was the one who got him here. Good chance she was also here somewhere, unharmed. Maybe off getting food and a cup of coffee or having whatever minor injuries she had tended.
God, he hoped they were minor. His were serious enough for the both of them.
Speaking of, time to take stock of his condition.
Gabe drew a breath and shifted in the bed, expecting pain, but instead got little more than a numbed-out tugging sensation in his side.
