Page 20 of Protecting Josie
“Need some clothes here.”
Without a word, Tate jogged over to where they were standing and dropped a large pack at his feet. “Not sure what’s in there,” he told him.
“I’ll make it work. Thanks. How much time?”
“Five minutes.”
“Roger.”
Then his twin headed back to the helicopter to help Pyro and Kevlar pull out wires and set explosives.
Blink unzipped the pack and began to rifle through it. He pulled out a brown undershirt that the Army soldiers wore beneath their uniforms. It would be way too big on Spirit, but he didn’t think she’d care.
“We need to get you dressed in something more appropriate.Can you take off that cover-up?” It was a huge ask, and Blink knew it. He stood between her and the other men. They weren’t watching them, and it wasn’t as if they didn’t know exactly what she looked like. The cover-up was as good as useless, but he knew it was probably psychological protection at this point, more than anything else.
She met his gaze, then slowly peeled the torn, dirty piece of material over her shoulders and let it fall to the ground.
“Here, lean over,” he told her softly. “I’ll help you get the shirt on.”
She bent forward, and he eased the material over her head. It fell halfway down her thighs. Blink hadn’t missed the way her ribs stood out, how her belly was concave, how her hip bones protruded obscenely from her body. She looked like the pictures he’d seen of prisoners of war from Vietnam and World War II. It made him sick to think of what she’d suffered…and how many days she might’ve had left if they hadn’t escaped. But the fact that she was still upright, still pressing on, impressed the hell out of him.
He turned back to his brother’s pack before he did something stupid…like fall to his knees and vow to never let her go hungry again. The fact was, shewasn’this. For all he knew, she had a family waiting for her back in the States. A husband. Maybe kids. He was helping her escape and that was it.
But it didn’tfeellike that was all this was. He felt a connection with this woman that he’d never experienced before. They’d bonded back in those cells and when she’d given him her precious water, the only thing keeping her alive, it felt like she’d given a small part of herself to him.
Blink wasn’t the kind of man to force a woman to doanything, let alone stay with him. It was very likely she was grateful he’d helped her escape. Might even want to keep in touch because of the situation they’d been through together. But he wasn’t sure she’d like the man he was in the real world. A homebody. An introvert. More likely to stand back and watch life pass him by than take part.
He pulled a pair of camo pants from the duffle and frowned. They were going to be huge on Spirit. There was no way he’d be able to modify them enough for her to wear. Especially not before they had to get out of the area.
“Fuck,” he muttered, before stuffing them back into the pack and pulling out a pair of socks. Now these she could use. Blink turned back to Spirit.
She was staring down at him.
“These will be big too, but we don’t have shoes for you to wear. I think if we double them up, they should cushion your feet enough that you can walk. But if anything starts hurting, let me know and I’ll carry you.”
She frowned at that.
“I know, I know, you don’t want to be a burden. And you aren’t—hear me?” he said almost fiercely. “You’ve been anythingbuta burden. We’re partners. Teammates. And teammates help each other.”
He saw her swallow hard, then nod.
“Good. Oh, and while thelastthing I want is to see you in my brother’s underwear, I’m thinking that’s preferable to going without anything. They’ll be like shorts,” Blink said, pulling out a pair of olive-green boxers.
Spirit’s eyes widened, and she eagerly reached for theunderwear. Even those were too big for her, almost falling off her hips.
“Here, let me help,” Blink said, finding a piece of paracord in the pack and quickly tying it around her too-skinny waist as a belt. He folded the extra material from the boxers over the rope so it wouldn’t scratch her skin. “There. Does that work? Can you walk all right?”
Spirit took a few steps in a small circle, then nodded at him. She looked both pathetic and kind of adorable in her new outfit. The oversized shirt, the boxers peeking out from under the hem, the socks pulled over her calves. It wasn’t enough—not nearly enough—but the fact that he’d covered her a little made Blink feel better about their situation.
The boots in Tate’s pack felt like dead weight after he pulled them on. He felt guilty that he had sturdy footwear and Spirit was in fucking socks. But there was literally nothing he could do about that right now. He hoped like hell Tex had already done his thing, and help was coming to them sooner rather than later.
“Okay, we’re ready. Cover your ears,” Pyro called out.
Instead of covering his own, Blink stepped close to Spirit and put his hands over her ears.
Then she surprised the hell out of him…by reaching up and covering his own with her tiny hands.
The loud explosion from whatever the others had rigged up was much bigger and louder than Blink expected.
