Page 73 of Her Ruthless Protector

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“Kane?”

“Yes?” he said into his phone.

“This is Chief Petty Officer Cheryl Preston from the USS Mason. I’m looking at a readout from the script you wrote against that code. It’s a huge file, so it got caught up in the server, it got bounced back for the last two days instead of being forwarded to you.”

Kane took a deep breath. “How come you’re finding this out now, Cheryl?”

“I just got on duty forty-five minutes ago. I don’t really want to get into the whys, whos, and wherefores of what happened, suffice it to say it’s being addressed. In the meantime, I’m compressing the file and getting it over to you right now. I figured you’d want to be on the lookout for it.”

Kane blew out a stream of air.

“Is Warrant Officer Dixon there?”

“She’s in her office taking care of a personnel issue at the moment. I’ll have her give you a call when she’s done.”

“Thanks, Cheryl. I really appreciate the fact that you caught this.”

“Just doing my job.”

Kane hung up and finished shaving. He walked naked to his computer, fired it up, and turned up the sound so he could hear when the file came through. He looked at his bed that was far too neat. He was not happy that he and A.J. had not spent the night together. She worked too damned hard. There she was, glad-handing like a pro in four-inch heels, and then he knew damn well she went back to the stadium and probably threw on her jeans and boots and worked through the night. Meanwhile, he and his team at least caught a few hours shuteye after their meeting.

He glanced over at his computer. Still nothing, but it was six o’clock in the morning over in Germany, so he texted Marcia to see if she was up yet. His phone rang immediately.

“How is he?” Kane asked instead of saying hello.

“He’s worried about me, of course. He’s upset that I flew over. Especially with LuLu, because he thought it would be too stressful.” Kane heard her voice quiver.

“He’s right. You probably should have left her with family.”

“You’re both wrong,” she said with spirit. “He needed to see his daughter. And we both needed to see him.”

He could hear her breath sawing in and out.

“Honey?”

“I’m fine. Don’t worry about me. I’m perfectly okay. How’s Zed really? The doctors keep saying that he’s doing much better than anticipated, but nobody tells me what that really means. What does it mean, Kane? Please, can you tell me? I need to know, and Zed really needs to know.”

“Marcia, each day it changes. The better he gets, and the faster he gets better, means his prognosis is that much better than expected. Does that make sense?”

She sniffed. “Yes.”

“But, Honey, there’s nothing stopping him from making a full recovery. Absolutely nothing.”

“Are you sure? That’s what they’ve been saying, but I didn’t know if they were just saying it to make us feel better.”

“No, it’s the truth.”

“But I feel like they’re keeping something back.”

“The only thing they might be keeping back is the fact that he’s facing a long recovery, and he won’t be in the field for a while.”

Marcia gave a watery laugh. “Well, we’d have to be kind of stupid not to know that, now wouldn’t we?”

“Kind of,” Kane agreed. “But a lot of times people, especially SEALs, have unrealistic expectations. As long as Zed knows what he’s in for, and he has a good support system, which he most definitely does, he’s golden.”

“No, he was golden when he had you by his side. You saved him, Kane. You saved my husband and LuLu’s father. I’m never going to forget that.” Her voice was clogged with tears.