Glancing down at my sweatshirt, I groaned at the red speckles all over the front. I didn’t have much time to obsess over how hard it was going to be to get the stain out because the car behind me honked several times. My head jerked up, and I saw the light was already green again. When I pressed my foot against the gas pedal, my car leaped forward. I gripped the steering wheel so hard that my knuckles turned white, but it was the only way to stop my hands from trembling.
It turned out to be a very good thing that I was holding on so tightly because about halfway to the urgent care, there was a loud thunk from the back of the car, and the steering wheel yanked to the right. As I regained control and managed to stay in my lane, the sound turned into a persistent thump, and I realized my tire had blown. I pulled over onto the side of the road, crossing my arms over my steering wheel and dropping my head as I burst into tears.
2
ARROW
It had been a long couple of months, and I was looking forward to a few weeks of leave. As the Master Chief at the HQ for several SEAL teams, my job included sending sailors into life-threatening situations, and that could be a heavy burden to bear at times. One of our SEAL teams had been trying to capture a particular target, and though we finally tracked him to the right place and captured him, the slippery son of a bitch had cost us a couple of good men. I knew these sailors and their families well, so I had personally written the condolence letters, and the Casualty Assistance Calls Officer, who made the personal visits to the next of kin, had been from our command. With all the other shit I dealt with on a daily basis, I was burned out. So this break couldn’t have come at a better time.
I fiddled with the radio, but before I could settle on a station, I noticed a car pulled to the side of the road up ahead. The rear right tire was flat and missing a chunk, but I didn’t see anyone working on it. On instinct, I pulled over behind the stranded vehicle. I would have offered my help regardless, but I was worried that the driver had been injured when the tire blew. Or that they might not even know how to swap it for the spare.
After putting my SUV in park, I shut it off and pocketed my keys, then exited the vehicle. I approached the car slowly because I didn’t want to frighten the driver, but when I had a view through the window, I saw their head dropped forward, resting on the steering wheel. Though they were wearing a hood, long, blond waves fell on both sides, obscuring what I assumed was a woman’s face even further.
“Ma’am?” I called out so I wouldn’t startle her when I reached the door. Her head flew up and whipped around. I stilled for a moment as I was hit with a barrage of sensations. She had the most delicate, beautiful face I’d ever seen. Porcelain skin, pert little nose, a rosebud mouth, and incredible, bright blue eyes. To my shock, my libido—which had been basically absent for years—roared to life.
However, I was also overwhelmed with a sudden need to protect this woman. The hood she had pulled up cast shadows over some of her face, but it didn’t hide the terror in her eyes. Rage at whoever had put it there bubbled up inside me.
I didn’t want to scare her any more, though, so I shoved my fury back and put a gentle smile on my face. “May I approach?”
She bit her lip, but then her eyes dropped to scan my uniform, and though she was still wary, some of the fear receded. Nodding, she pushed the car door open and swung her legs out before standing up.
Holy fucking shit.
Her frame was as delicate as her face. She wasn’t very tall. In fact, she was at least a foot shorter than my six-foot-four height. Her petite, willowy body and sweet face reminded me of the fairy princess in the stories I read to my nieces. Except I wanted to do all manner of dirty things with this little fairy.
I shook my head a little, trying to clear away the fog of lust threatening to consume me. She’d be running away screaming if she knew the current thoughts in my head.
Once I felt I had a little control, I walked closer to her but stopped a couple of feet away. “I saw your blown tire and wanted to see if you needed any help.” She was staring at the ground, and it frustrated me because I wanted those spectacular blue orbs focused on me. But I called on the patience I was known for and focused on what she needed.
“Thanks,” she murmured in a musical voice that fit with her beauty perfectly. “I know how to change a tire, it’s just…I needed a few minutes to collect myself.”
“Are you hurt?”
She shook her head, then finally raised it to look at me with a pretty smile. “I’m okay.”
Her hood had fallen back when she’d moved her head from side to side, and her hair had fallen in her face. When she tucked a chunk of it behind her ear, I saw the bleeding gash on her cheek.
“What the fuck?”
Forgetting all about my plans not to spook her, I rushed forward and took her face in my hands, turning it so the light fell directly on her injury. “Who did this to you?” I demanded.
“I…um…”
I gently turned her head back so that our gazes met, and my heart squeezed when her eyes filled with moisture that threatened to spill over.
Then she burst into tears, and I immediately pulled her into my arms. Her hands clutched the front of my white shirt—part of my summer service uniform—and I gathered her up in a tight embrace. With her face buried in my chest, she was probably getting tears, mascara, and blood all over my shirt, but I didn’t give a shit.
After a minute, I swept her into my arms and carried her to my car, setting her sideways in the front passenger seat. When her sobs died down, I tipped her head up with one finger under her chin. “Tell me what happened.” I didn’t mean for my words to sound so much like an order, but it was hard to turn off the natural instinct.
However, instead of recoiling, she sighed and wiped her eyes, smearing her mascara even more. I opened my glove box and retrieved the package of wet wipes I kept in there—always be prepared, right? I’d been a scout before I enlisted in the Navy—and handed them to her. She looked a little surprised but took them gratefully and cleaned her face while she started talking.
“My roommate has a brother, and he’s been in and out of rehab since high school. Whenever he falls off the wagon, he gets into trouble, and usually, someone else has to clean up the mess. The last time Phoebe mentioned him a few months ago was because she’d driven him to rehab. I didn’t pay much attention, so I didn’t know that he was out or that he’d fallen back into his old habits.”
“He’s the one who hurt you?” I asked, seething inside and already planning on how to hunt the asshole down and make him pay.
“No. Well, not directly. His dealer came by my apartment earlier today, and even though I tried to tell him I wasn’t Phoebe, he didn’t believe me. He–he”—her eyes filled with tears again, and she touched her cheek just below the broken skin—“he hit me as a warning. And even though he said I almost had him convinced I wasn’t my roommate, if Paul didn’t pay back what he owed, he’d go after any woman who lived in the apartment.”
Shit. She was running from a drug dealer? They were ruthless and hard to pin down. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be around long enough to build a business. Trying to get to him through proper channels would take forever, if it even worked.