Hot Zone (Elite Force #2)(13)
Author: Catherine Mann

Her head lolled to the side as she drifted into another micronap, exhaustion tearing at her. Amelia indulged herself in the memory of his reassuring bass, the lingering feel of his hand. She invited thoughts of him to fill her, to anchor her through the nightmares.

“Amelia,” his voice whispered through her head, the feel of his hand on hers becoming all the more real until…

She jolted upright to find Hugh kneeling in front of her. Green eyes held her with the same intensity that had sustained her for hours belowground.

Her brain churned overtime to make the leap from sleep to awake, the dream and real world blurring. “Is everything all right? Did something happen during the night? Are you here to see a doctor?”

“I promised to check on the kid and I keep my word. I just finished my shift or I would have come earlier.”

Those bourbon-smooth bass tones had kept her alive. She couldn’t forget the sound of him even if she never saw him again.

But a clear view of his face, of his body? There she found uncharted territory. She’d thought she memorized the look of him as she’d been carried out on the stretcher. But realized she’d only seen his body. His face had been covered in grime, and while his clothes were still grimy, he’d washed his face and hands.

His face wasn’t poster-boy pretty. He was all man, with hard handsome angles and gleaming emerald eyes. Buzzed short black hair proclaimed a lack of vanity. And his mouth was a full but hard line that called to a woman’s finger to trace, to tease into softening.

She reached for a gulp of water.

His dusty camo uniform sported a survival vest. His weapon was strapped to his hip. An angry scrape down the side of his face added to the outlaw look, like he was some kind of rogue rebel fighter. He personified everything edgy and dangerous she’d steered clear of as an adult—and strangely, exactly what she needed right now.

“Amelia? The kid?” He nodded to the sleeping baby in her arms. “What did the doctors have to say?”

“Oh, uh…” She toyed nervously with the drawstring on her surgical scrubs.

Damn, she was seriously losing her grip. She should find a free cot and just sleep as the military doctor had suggested, but she couldn’t bring herself to send Hugh away.

Besides, she was suddenly wide-awake and wired.

“The doctors say Joshua should be fine, once he’s rehydrated. And he’s blessedly unfazed by the whole ordeal, as if he truly did nap through it all. A couple of IVs and he will be ready to eat, play, laugh, just like before.”

“Good, that’s really good.”

“What about you? You were supposed to see the medic last night. I thought you would still be asleep.”

He scrubbed his fingers along the scratch on his cheek. “We found another pocket of survivors. My help was needed. Sleep can come later.”

Yet he was here now instead of resting.

She stood, placing Joshua in the playpen, careful to adjust his sleeve for the IV. With a couple of nurses watching over him and the other eleven napping babies, she could afford to step away for a moment.

“The nurse was just telling me how I should pick up one of the boxed meals in the cafeteria. Would you like to walk with me? I imagine, since you worked through the night, there wasn’t much time for food.”

A smile kicked into one cheek. “You guess correctly.”

She pulled her eyes off his mouth and angled past, leading him into the hall packed with pallets of supplies, and the only part of the school without people to disturb. Other corridors were full of injured, but they kept the kids with the gear as a means of quarantining the more vulnerable little ones. The building was filled to capacity. She’d heard they were sending all new arrivals to another site set up at a nearby church.

Hugh marched past a mural obviously painted by the school’s students, a playground scene of rainbows and palm trees. “You’ve bounced back quickly for someone who went through hell for forty-eight hours.”

She breathed deeply, still savoring the ability to draw air into her lungs after her time in the dark and dust. Now she smelled twenty years worth of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, a scent that no amount of hospital antiseptic could dispel. “I’m fine. I have a baby to take care of, a brother and sister-in-law to search for.”

“No word at all on them yet?”

Her chest went tight. And suddenly she understood her draw to him, to his reckless look. This was the kind of man who—in a lawless world—kept people safe. “They’re still unaccounted for.”

“I am sorry.”

More of that fear and grief howled inside her and she saw a deep understanding in his eyes. Those three words weren’t the mere platitudes others offered.

“Thank you.” She sucked in another breath, shakier this time as she worked hard not to think of the particular brand of hell her brother could be going through. “I have to believe they’re okay, out there somewhere, worrying about Joshua and me.”

“What’s your plan?”

“I’m staying here with my nephew. I won’t, I can’t leave him. I’m hoping to hire help in searching for my family.” She needed someone like Hugh, but he obviously already had a job of his own.

“It’s not safe to stay here.”

“I know.” But what choice did she have? “I’ve heard there are looters everywhere.”

“Damn straight. And worse. Black-market types thrive on situations like this. With all this food and all the drugs here, I wish there were more guards to go around. The best thing you can do is get on the first plane out. I can pull strings for you—”

“Stop.” She squeezed his forearm, pausing outside the cafeteria. “I will not leave Joshua. Legally, I’m on shaky ground without his parents. It’ll take a while to get me declared his guardian until my brother is found.”

“You’re a tenacious one.”

“You’re one to talk.” A smile slid through her grief.

Hard muscles contracted under her fingers. Had she been holding on to him this whole time? Apparently so.

Gulp.

Her body hummed with that same sensation from earlier, so much so, she could no longer write it off as coincidental or some general need for sex. But the feeling, the connection, was inconvenient and unwise. She felt guilty. Her thoughts should all be focused on finding her brother and sister-in-law. Instead, she was a ragged mess clutching some hunk’s arm like a lifeline.

And he didn’t move away.