“I know,” she whispered back. “I just…I need a second.”
Rex wanted to give her all the time in the world to get her equilibrium back, but unfortunately, they didn’t have it. Still, he nodded, deciding he could give her a minute or two after how well she’d done in the extremely nerve-wracking half hour they’d just been through.
He was used to hiding in plain sight, but it was still stressful, even for him. For someone like Avery, who hadn’t ever had to evade capture like he and his fellow SEALs, the thirty minutes had to have felt like an eternity.
Looking up at Phantom, he saw the other man was being extremely patient, which Rex appreciated.
Just when Rex was about to tell Avery they had to get going, she moved. She lifted her head and scooted to her knees. She knelt in the sand and took another deep breath. She brushed the sand off her cheek and forehead as best she could then got to her feet.
Rex hadn’t been as proud of someone in a very long time.
“I’m ready,” she said, and Rex ignored the wobble in her voice.
But this time when they set off, he took her hand in his. They walked side by side through the rock-strewn terrain toward the next incline they’d have to take to get to the rendezvous point.
Chapter Eight
Avery sucked on the gel packet that Cole had handed her before he’d set off to scope out the area where the helicopter was supposed to pick them up. They were about an hour and a half early. She was nervous as hell about staying in one place that long, but Phantom and Cole didn’t seem concerned.
She supposed she could be glad they were ahead of schedule. But she couldn’t help remembering how scared she’d been earlier. They’d been caught out in the open with no cover. She appreciated Cole’s protection, even though the weight on her back had been extremely heavy. Her ribs had protested, and it had been hard to get a deep breath. She’d had no idea how in the world they wouldn’t be seen, but miraculously, they hadn’t. They’d blended into the tans and browns of the desert floor so well, if the men talking had looked out at the landscape at all, they clearly hadn’t seen them.
The whole experience just brought home once more how much she owed to Cole and Phantom. Their whole team, really. And to think they did this all the time, put their lives on the line to help others, to track down terrorists, gave her a brand-new appreciation for SEALs and all the other special forces teams.
She wasn’t thrilled Cole had left their safe little hidey-hole to look for any dangers around them, but she couldn’t exactly protest and beg him to stay. Phantom was by her side, and he was just as capable of protecting her, but something about Cole just made her feel settled.
“You done with that?” Phantom asked.
Avery jumped a foot. She’d been so lost in her thoughts that his words scared the crap out of her.
“Sorry,” Phantom said. “Didn’t mean to scare you.”
“It’s okay. I should be paying more attention.” Avery handed over the empty gel packet. They weren’t the best-tasting things she’d ever eaten, but she couldn’t deny that they’d done a very good job in helping her get some energy back. They were the perfect size too. She could finish an entire one now without feeling as if she was going to puke.
Phantom tucked the empty container into a pocket on the side of his backpack and turned back to her. “So,” he said, “what’s a beautiful creature like you doing in a place like this?”
Avery chuckled softly and rolled her eyes.
“Okay, the delivery was bad, but seriously…we’ve got time to kill. What made you want to be a nurse and why are you here in the middle of nowhere?”
Desperately wanting to be distracted from worrying about Cole, Avery wrapped her arms around her updrawn legs and told him her story.
“When I was around ten, my mom had to go to the hospital. I thought she was dying, though it was only her appendix. But they kept her in the hospital for a day or two, trying to get the swelling to go down before they decided to operate. My dad spent every night in her room with her, and a neighbor looked after me and my sister. But we went to visit every day. I was in awe of her nurses. They were always smiling and reassuring both her and us. They entertained us and brought us little goodies. When they took my mom away to have surgery, I remember crying, and one of the nurses took me aside and told me that she was going to be all right. That she’d be there all night and would take good care of her. I decided right then and there that I wanted to be just like her.”
“Interesting,” Phantom said.
Avery tilted her head. “You say that, but I’m not sure you really mean it.”
“No, I do mean it,” Phantom protested.
Studying him for a long moment, Avery asked, “What’s interesting about it, exactly?”
Phantom chuckled. “You’re very good at reading people, did you know that?”
“Yes. Now stop avoiding the question,” Avery chided.
“I just find the relationship between you and your mom—and that nurse—interesting. That’s all.”
“Why?”
Avery didn’t think he was going to answer. From the little she knew about Phantom, she had a feeling he didn’t talk about himself much. “Look, you know a hell of a lot about me,” she said. “You know what I look like after two weeks of not showering. That I’m addicted to coffee. That I’m not a fan of bugs. That I’m now afraid of the dark. And when it comes to medical situations, I’m in charge, and if someone dares try to butt in and undermine me, I’ll cut a bitch. So talk.”
He smirked, then looked away from her. She was about to open her mouth and tell him that she was kidding, he didn’t have to say a damn thing to her, when he began to speak.
“I never knew my father. He was just some guy my mom fucked. She lived with her sister and neither was all that thrilled that I turned out to be a boy. Things were okay when I was very young, but the older I got, the more their hatred of the male species got taken out on me. I’ll spare you the finer details…but let’s just say there wasn’t a day that went by when I wasn’t physically or mentally abused. I had to do everything perfect, otherwise I was punished. I never went two weeks without food like you did, but that was only because I stole it from lunchboxes at school. My mother and aunt certainly didn’t bother to feed me.”
“Shit, Phantom, I’m sorry,” Avery said, appalled.
“Yeah. But I also find your story interesting because I was around thirteen when my appendix burst. And I was locked in my room and told to stop my bitching. After a day of thinking I was going to die from the pain, I broke my window and snuck out of the house. I walked two miles to a clinic and begged them to do something to stop the pain. They called my mother.”
Avery grimaced.
“Yeah,” Phantom said. “She wasn’t happy. I knew if she took me back home that I’d die. Something was really wrong with me. Something bad. I didn’t know what, just knew if I didn’t get medical attention, I wouldn’t make it. I told my mother if she didn’t take me to an emergency room right that second, I’d make sure everyone knew how badly she and her sister had been abusing me. She must’ve heard something in my voice that told her I wasn’t kidding. She drove me to a hospital and left. I lied about my age. Even at thirteen, I was taller than most other kids, so I lied and said I was homeless and didn’t have insurance. They did surgery that afternoon. Except the nurses who were looking after me weren’t like the ones you had. Because I was a nobody who didn’t have anyone there with my best interests at heart, I was mostly ignored.”