where she sobbed underneath the viciously hot water. She sobbed until she was left gasping from the pain of her decision, and still it wasn’t enough.
She’d begun causing everyone around her heartache. Better she meld into herself than to spread her venom around. The hole she’d made for herself was huge, so she stepped into it and covered herself up.
*
Dray had been watching her since the beginning of her session earlier that day. He admired her grit and unwillingness to give up. She may bitch the entire time, but she finished her exercises. Something had to be wrong with her recovery. She hadn’t progressed as she should, and it worried him. As he’d watched her earlier with hawk-like intensity, he watched her now as she left the rehab facility, wheeled by her sister Sadie. Sasha’s beautiful face was a mask of anguish, and her eyes were red from crying.
Her pain was obvious and it cut him. He’d wanted to ease her, calm her, and show her he’d never left her, even if he had been absent physically. Surrey, Itchy, Con, and Bleak had kept him informed of her condition. Itchy made regular visits to Atlanta to see her and reported to the entire team. Dray got the feeling that it may not be Sasha so much as one of her sisters Itchy wanted to check on, but hey, it worked and he got first-hand information. Who cared why he visited as long as he did.
After months of surveillance on el-Din as he tried to find the leak in Command, Dray had three days stateside to meet with General Post. He’d made the decision to finally meet up with Sasha while she was awake and lucid.
What a huge mistake. She hadn’t looked at him; she’d looked through him. His guts were still lying on the floor of the rehab center. He thought he’d glimpsed something in her eyes before a veil dropped over them, but then she’d been nothing more than a polite stranger offering thanks for saving her life.
He was such a fool. Months of holding onto a woman he didn’t even know and who he realized might not ever remember him had come to naught. Apparently their connection had been one-sided. But damn if he could stop himself from seeing her and damn if he’d just walk away from her. She might need time to get herself together, to get a handle on the pain and difficulty of the situation. Then maybe he could come back here and meet her for the first time the second time.
He wasn’t going to be able to untangle himself from this, from her, but he could shut it down and put it in his subconscious so he could operate day-to-day without feeling the hole in his soul.
He turned to Surrey. “What’s her status?”
Surrey took a deep breath. “She’s struggling. The pain is unmanageable for her at this point and that’s not normal. You saw what she went through when we extracted her. She’s got a high pain tolerance. Her doctors think she should be farther along in the healing process. She’s scheduled for a recheck in two days. According to Itchy, she isn’t sleeping, she’s having night terrors, and she continues to lose weight.”
Dray’s breath locked in his throat. He pushed down the pain and got to business. “Any whispers or strange activity around her?”
“Not that anyone has reported. Itchy stays close. Con has his ear to the ground too. Nothing much gets by us, Dray. When I hear from her doctor in a couple of days, I’ll let you know what he thinks about her recovery. If we hear anything, you’ll be the first to know,” Surrey reassured him. “What’s the next step? Has el-Din come out of hiding yet?”
“I’m returning to Afghanistan in two days, meeting up with Bleak and Con, and you’re coming on a day later. Itchy stays here. We’re going after el-Din. Post thinks he’s tapped into the weapons pipeline through an al-Qaeda link, and he needs to be eliminated.”
Dray allowed himself to go flat. Shut down. It was the only way to get through her rejection.
“The money’s good on this one. It might put us so far
She’d begun causing everyone around her heartache. Better she meld into herself than to spread her venom around. The hole she’d made for herself was huge, so she stepped into it and covered herself up.
*
Dray had been watching her since the beginning of her session earlier that day. He admired her grit and unwillingness to give up. She may bitch the entire time, but she finished her exercises. Something had to be wrong with her recovery. She hadn’t progressed as she should, and it worried him. As he’d watched her earlier with hawk-like intensity, he watched her now as she left the rehab facility, wheeled by her sister Sadie. Sasha’s beautiful face was a mask of anguish, and her eyes were red from crying.
Her pain was obvious and it cut him. He’d wanted to ease her, calm her, and show her he’d never left her, even if he had been absent physically. Surrey, Itchy, Con, and Bleak had kept him informed of her condition. Itchy made regular visits to Atlanta to see her and reported to the entire team. Dray got the feeling that it may not be Sasha so much as one of her sisters Itchy wanted to check on, but hey, it worked and he got first-hand information. Who cared why he visited as long as he did.
After months of surveillance on el-Din as he tried to find the leak in Command, Dray had three days stateside to meet with General Post. He’d made the decision to finally meet up with Sasha while she was awake and lucid.
What a huge mistake. She hadn’t looked at him; she’d looked through him. His guts were still lying on the floor of the rehab center. He thought he’d glimpsed something in her eyes before a veil dropped over them, but then she’d been nothing more than a polite stranger offering thanks for saving her life.
He was such a fool. Months of holding onto a woman he didn’t even know and who he realized might not ever remember him had come to naught. Apparently their connection had been one-sided. But damn if he could stop himself from seeing her and damn if he’d just walk away from her. She might need time to get herself together, to get a handle on the pain and difficulty of the situation. Then maybe he could come back here and meet her for the first time the second time.
He wasn’t going to be able to untangle himself from this, from her, but he could shut it down and put it in his subconscious so he could operate day-to-day without feeling the hole in his soul.
He turned to Surrey. “What’s her status?”
Surrey took a deep breath. “She’s struggling. The pain is unmanageable for her at this point and that’s not normal. You saw what she went through when we extracted her. She’s got a high pain tolerance. Her doctors think she should be farther along in the healing process. She’s scheduled for a recheck in two days. According to Itchy, she isn’t sleeping, she’s having night terrors, and she continues to lose weight.”
Dray’s breath locked in his throat. He pushed down the pain and got to business. “Any whispers or strange activity around her?”
“Not that anyone has reported. Itchy stays close. Con has his ear to the ground too. Nothing much gets by us, Dray. When I hear from her doctor in a couple of days, I’ll let you know what he thinks about her recovery. If we hear anything, you’ll be the first to know,” Surrey reassured him. “What’s the next step? Has el-Din come out of hiding yet?”
“I’m returning to Afghanistan in two days, meeting up with Bleak and Con, and you’re coming on a day later. Itchy stays here. We’re going after el-Din. Post thinks he’s tapped into the weapons pipeline through an al-Qaeda link, and he needs to be eliminated.”
Dray allowed himself to go flat. Shut down. It was the only way to get through her rejection.
“The money’s good on this one. It might put us so far
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