She sighed, her shoulders slumping. “It was really hard at the beginning. I didn’t join the Army out of some great sense of patriotism. If you want to know the truth, I joined as a way to pay off my nursing school debts. I used to think that I wanted to do family medicine, maybe work with children. But I needed to wipe out my debt and was pretty much thrown to the wolves with my tour in Afghanistan. It was a trial by fire—” She halted her words and grimaced. “Oh, I’m sorry! That’s such a selfish thing to say! My trials as a nurse were nothing compared to what you had to go through.”
“Hey, don’t knock your service. I can’t imagine being a combat nurse was anything less than long hours, crappy food, on your feet all day and night, and some shitty-ass working conditions, not to mention seeing horrible wounds and sometimes losing patients.”
She nodded slowly. “You’re right, it was. But still, I was out of harm’s way.” She hesitated, then asked, “What were your injuries, if you don’t mind me asking?”
“It turned out to be a broken leg when part of our vehicle flipped over on me. I was lucky. Damn lucky. A buddy got me out and got into the helicopter. They gave me something for pain, and honestly, when I woke up, figured out I was in the hospital, you calmed my ass down when I was uncertain if I still had legs. I jerked up, terrified of what I might see—or not see.”
A flash of memory hit her, and she gasped. “Oh, my God, I remember you! You tried to sit up and I put my hands on your shoulders to hold you down. I told you that you had a broken leg, and you were lucky even if you needed surgery. I remember your face when I gave you the good news.” Laughing, she added, “And then I remember you told me I had beautiful eyes.”
Carson smiled, and her mirth slowed as she stared at the most handsome man she’d ever met in her life. Finally, clearing her throat, she continued. “I probably wouldn’t remember you except that was the first week that I was there. I was nervous, terrified, afraid of messing up, and had already seen things that I couldn’t un-see when I crawled into bed at night. And I remember your face when I told you that you were going to be fine and that you just had a broken leg. It was as though I said that you’d won the lottery. And when you told me I had beautiful eyes, it hit me what a normal thing that was for a man to say to a woman, and yet, we were trapped in the most un-normal world.”
His gaze never left hers as he nodded slowly. “You telling me that I was going to be okay was better than winning the lottery. And I remember laying there, thinking how beautiful you were, knowing that I should thank you for what you were doing, and instead, gave you a compliment, probably like every man that you came in contact with.”
The way he was staring at her once again made the air in the room feel thick with emotion, only she wasn’t sure exactly which emotions. Her heart was pounding, and she longed to lift her hand and place it over his chest to see if his heart was thumping just as fast. “I thought it was perfect, Carson. As I said, it was a touch of normal in a very un-normal situation.” Overwhelmed with feelings that she was afraid to show, afraid they wouldn’t be reciprocated, she glanced down at the sweating beer bottle in her hand. Taking another swig, she was grateful for the cool liquid as it trickled down her throat. Licking a drop off her bottom lip, she watched his gaze linger on her mouth and could have sworn the lust swirling between them could not possibly just be one-sided. “So… um… did you just come by to take a walk down memory lane?” As soon as the words left her mouth, the spell was broken, and she wished she could pull them back in.
“Well,” he said, sitting up straight. “It seems as though we might work something out that will give you a chance to keep Maggie in your sights and us with our eyes still on the investigation.”
Interested, she leaned forward, her hand jerking out, landing on his leg. His gaze moved down to where her hand was, and she jerked it back, her fingertips tingling. “Um… really?”
“Yeah… If you’re interested—”
“You know I am!” Curious, she tilted her head to the side. “What brought about this change of heart, Carson?”
“I know you’re going to get involved with her no matter what I say, so this way, I can keep you safe.”
“Yeah, you’re right. I got a call from Maggie just a little while ago. She said she talked to Cheryl, who agreed that I should come. She offered for me to stay with Maggie, but this guesthouse, unlike the one at Alonzo’s estate, only has one bedroom. I’ll go to visit every day, and hopefully, she’ll be ready to move back into her own home soon.” She watched in fascination as the muscle in Carson’s jaw tightened. Sucking in her lips again, she was equally fascinated as he finally nodded, his gaze holding hers.
“Well, then, Jeannie, it looks like we’ll be working together.”
A flash of working with him in the sexiest way possible hit her mind, and her cheeks blushed as she hoped the intuitive man was not quite so perceptive about her thoughts. What have I just agreed to?
15
“What have we got?”
At Carson’s question, Jeb replied, “There’s no doubt something’s going on in that warehouse with the truck identifications. And if we can get eyes inside, we’ll have a better idea of what’s happening.”
Poole shook his head slightly. “Why the hell are they making these changes? A truck out on the highways could be pulled over at any time.”
“And if DEA suspects anything coming from them, they’ll be looking,” Adam added.
“If those trucks have been checked as they come across the border, known to be coming to the Garza California winery, then they could be loaded with other things inside the warehouse and sent out with different ID,” Leo surmised.
Jeb nodded. “Some of the trucks that are leaving the warehouse don’t have any identification on them about Garza wineries at all.”
Rick huffed as he leaned back in his chair. “They’re not coming in by the Mexican Garza winery trucks, or at least, if they are, it’s damn convenient that none of the trucks searched by the DEA have anything but grapes. If they are changing truck IDs in the warehouse, loading them with some drugs along with wine to be transported, that still doesn’t tell us how the drugs got there in the first place. There’s still a link in the chain we’re missing.”
The seriousness of the discussion was not lost on Carson, and yet, his chest swelled with pride. Every person at that table was actively participating in the mission at hand. Analyzing. Brainstorming. Considering all intel. Working the problem. And every one of them knew that at the end of the day, whatever they had would be turned over to the DEA to make the arrests and get the glory. And that was okay with each Keeper because the end result would be another large hole made in the cartels’ pipeline.
He’d lost count of the number of times when running the bodyguard business he’d had to remind one of his employees that hanging with a Hollywood princess wasn’t going to get them an acting contract, or guarding the newest teen-pop star wasn’t going to get them a chance to audition for a label, or protecting a celebrity wasn’t going to turn into a modeling gig. Looking around the table at his Keepers, having taken Mace’s advice and hired the best former special ops he knew made this group successful.