“She’s a wonder, isn’t she,” Reese murmured.

“Yes, she is.”

Inside the bedroom, they stopped by the bed. Earlier in the evening, Tory had turned the sheets down, leaving it open and welcoming, and had switched on a lamp on the dresser. She pressed her palms to Reese’s chest. The stiff, starched material was rough against her skin. The muscles beneath were hard. The heart beneath was wounded. “Can I help you undress?”

“Yes.” Reese cupped Tory’s face. “Please.”

A slanted swatch of material above the right breast pocket said Conlon in large block letters. A similar patch above the left breast said U.S. Marine. As if those few words defined her completely. At one time they had. Tory opened the first button, then the next, and the next.

“How high can you lift your right arm?” Tory asked.

“About shoulder level, if I go slow.”

“Then don’t try. We’ll get the left out, and I’ll slide it off.” Tory moved around Reese, first to the left, then behind, then to the right, carefully removing her shirt. Underneath she found an Ace wrap holding bandages in place over Reese’s right shoulder and upper chest. Tory’s stomach clenched, but her voice was steady. “Burns?”

“Some.” Reese flashed on the blazing Humvee, of running across open ground that seemed endless while bullets snapped around her, of grabbing the unconscious driver and jerking him out of the mangled wreck. Of lying on top of him while the sky ignited into a scorching inferno. She shivered.

“Am I hurting you?”

“No.” Reese touched Tory’s hair. It was soft, silky, smoother than anything she could remember touching for weeks. “There was a firefight. It split us up. A ground-to-surface missile took out one of the Humvees. It burned.”

Tory sat down on the edge of the bed, her legs weak, and quickly covered her reaction by reaching for the button on Reese’s waistband. “That sounds terrifying.”

Reese looked down, watching Tory open the buttons on her pants. Tory had beautiful hands. Her fingers were narrow and long. She had calluses on her palms from the kayak paddle. Her hands were steady. “Only for a second. Then you’re just too damn busy to think about it.”

“That’s good, then.” Tory curled her fingers around the thick canvas and rocked the pants down Reese’s hips and let them fall around her ankles. “Sit down, darling. What about your collarbone?”

The air was alive with shouts and screams and the roar of automatic rifle fire. Flames writhed into the night sky, giant tongues of fury. “I fell. Tripped carrying the driver over my shoulder. I took the fall on my right. Hit a rock.”

“Lift your foot so I can get your boot.” Tory wanted to ask about the driver. Was he…she?…alive? But she was afraid to take Reese somewhere she wasn’t ready to go. Reese was one of the strongest women she’d ever known. Reese would tell her what she could, when she could, and whenever that might be, Tory would listen, no matter how much it made her want to scream and rage. The desert combat boots were dark brown leather…rough rather than shiny…as if the boots had been turned inside out so they wouldn’t reflect beneath the brilliant desert sun. She unlaced first one, then the other, and pulled them off and placed them side by side beneath the bed. “There’s a bandage on your leg.”

Every breath was like swallowing fire. She managed to get to her feet, despite the stabbing pain in her chest and the scorching agony of the burns. She couldn’t lift the driver but suddenly another Marine materialized beside them and, between the two of them, they dragged the limp body toward the shelter of darkness. She stumbled when her leg buckled.

“It’s nothing much.” Reese regarded the wound on her thigh. “Bit of shrapnel caught me in the leg.”

“Did they get it out?”

The Marine who had come to her aid swore as the projectile lodged in his calf, but he kept running. They both kept running, half carrying their comrade. “Passed through.”

“Lie back, and I’ll get your briefs off.” She searched Reese’s face. She hadn’t stopped thinking about what some nameless, faceless monsters might have done to Reese in those hours when Reese had been helpless. As a physician, she had been trained to push doubts and uncertainty aside in order to function, but this time she had not been able to completely block the terrible fear. “Okay?”

There was nowhere to go, no way to reach sanctuary. It had only been a matter of a few minutes before the five of them had been surrounded by three times as many men with more firepower than they could repel. Reese softly kissed Tory. “They threw us in the back of a truck at first, then locked us up in some kind of shack. They didn’t give us food or water and were quick to use a rifle butt. Just the same, they didn’t even want to touch me or the other female Marine. We weren’t clean.”

“I hate them,” Tory whispered.

“I’m sorry for scaring you.”

Tory stood and rested her hands ever so lightly on Reese’s shoulders. “Lie down. Don’t apologize. You didn’t do anything except what you had to do.” She eased the cotton briefs over hipbones that were far too prominent, taking care not to snag the material on the clear plastic that covered the sutures on Reese’s thigh. Another scar. Another battle. Too many. Too many.

“Baby,” Reese said quietly, catching Tory’s hand and urging Tory down beside her. “I’ll heal.”

Tory dropped the last piece of the uniform on the floor and lay down to claim the Marine as her own again. She curled on her side against Reese’s left shoulder and drew the sheet up over them both. It felt awkward, because she always slept on Reese’s right side. But that was where Reese was hurt. She knew Reese’s body would heal because Reese was strong and fit, and the wounds, her physician’s mind said, were painful but not dangerous. She worried, agonized over, the wounds she couldn’t see and would never see. And wondered how they would heal and what scars they would leave. “I love you.”

The sheets were so soft. Tory’s body was so warm. Reese caressed Tory’s shoulders and arm, then held her close. “I love you.”

Tory curled her arm around Reese’s middle. Her ribs arched starkly beneath her skin and her stomach hollowed down to the curve of her pelvis as if someone had carved parts of her away. “It’s good to have you home.”

She’d been disoriented from the blow from the rifle butt, and it had been hard to keep track of time. They were all frightened. But they were together, and when the guards were far enough away not to hear, they whispered encouragement to one another. Reese reminded them that they were alive, and they were Marines. Their fellow Marines would not abandon them. And in her private moments, she reminded herself that Tory was waiting. That Reggie had a lifetime of discovery ahead of her. And that she needed to go home, because she had promised she would.

“It’s good to be here. Better than anything else in the world.”

Carter rolled over in the grip of an uneasy sleep, and the pain in her back jolted her awake. “God damn it.”

After Kevin had dropped her off at her apartment in Cambridge, she’d swallowed three pain pills and crawled into bed. She squinted at the clock. Seven hours ago. Now it was the middle of the night and she wasn’t exactly awake, but was too sore to find a comfortable position and slide back into sleep. She could swallow another handful of pain pills and that might do the job, but she knew without checking that the blinking red light on her phone was a message, probably many messages, from Special Agent Allen. And she was going to have to face the Special Agent in Charge in the morning, and she’d need a clear head if she was going to save any piece of her ass or some part of her career.

When she’d first stumbled into the apartment and seen the blinking light, she’d had the crazy idea it was Rica. The way her heart had swelled so big, so fast, it actually hurt inside her chest. Hurt in a good way. And then just as quickly the pain settled in the pit of her stomach, because she’d realized that Rica did not know her home number. And even if she had, she would not be calling.

Carter curled on her side and closed her eyes, even knowing that sleep wouldn’t come. It was starting to be easier to ignore the pain in her body than the one that ached ceaselessly in her soul.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Tory sat at the breakfast counter sipping coffee, as she did every morning. This morning, even the mundane felt extraordinary. She’d never tasted a better cup of coffee. The air was fresher, sweeter, than she could ever remember. Excitement hummed through her body. It took feeling truly alive to make her realize that she hadn’t been. The thought was both exhilarating and terrifying.

At exactly 7:30 a.m., she heard a car pull into the driveway. She smiled to herself, having expected it an hour earlier. Wondering how painful that hour of waiting had been, she went to the door and greeted her visitor. “Hi, sweetie.”

Bri quickly doffed her cap and turned it restlessly between her fingers. “I…uh… so, is she here?”

Tory held the door open and gestured Bri inside. “She’s sleeping.”

“Oh. Okay.” Bri bent down and picked up Reggie, who had crawled over to them. She bounced the baby once or twice and settled her against her hip. “So. How is… everything?”

“She’s doing fine,” Tory said. “Come on in and have coffee. She’ll be up soon.”

“Nah. I should probably get back out…”

“Hey,” Reese said as she slowly came down the stairs. Her thick black hair, shorter than she usually wore it, was slicked back and still damp from the shower. Her jeans and a short-sleeved pullover were loose. She grinned at Bri with sharp, clear blue eyes. “How you doing?”

Bri grinned back, rocking ever so slightly on her heels as if trying not to run forward. “Not bad.”

Reese’s attention fixed on Reggie. “Hey, sweetheart.”

Reggie started squirming and Tory quickly plucked her from Bri’s arms. “Let me take her.” Then she carried her to Reese. “I don’t know if you should hold her just yet.”

“It’ll be okay,” Reese said hoarsely. When Tory passed the baby to her, she held her against her left side and nuzzled her neck. Reggie giggled and Reese closed her eyes, shivering lightly.

After a minute, Tory gently took her back. “She’s too heavy for you to hold with your collarbone the way it is, darling.”

Wordlessly, Reese let her go. Then she glanced over at Bri, who looked embarrassed and uncertain. “Come on in.”

“Maybe I should come back.”

“No.” Reese edged a hip onto a stool on the living room side of the counter that separated the kitchen from the living area. “Have a seat. Tell me what’s been going on.”

When Bri cast a quick, doubtful look in Tory’s direction, Tory nodded encouragingly. Then Bri rushed the final few feet, skidding to a halt beside Reese, looking as if she wanted to hug her. Reese tossed her left arm around Bri’s shoulders and pulled her in for an embrace. She held her without saying anything for a long moment while Bri gently threaded her arms around Reese’s waist.

“Missed you,” Reese said.

“Oh yeah. Man, me too.”

Bri’s voice wavered and Reese clapped her on the back before loosening her hold. “So. Bring me up to date.”

Tory slid a cup of coffee across the counter to Bri, who picked it up automatically as she launched into an excited recounting of everything that had happened in the sheriff’s department since the day Reese left. While they talked, Tory grabbed the portable phone and carried Reggie out onto the deck. She checked that the gate was closed, went back inside to quickly retrieve her coffee, and once outside again, speed-dialed.

“She’s up,” Tory said when Kate answered the phone. She leaned against the railing and looked back into the house, watching Bri and Reese together. It was a sight she’d seen a thousand times, but it took losing that little piece of family to make her realize how much she needed it. They looked so much alike, even more so now that Reese was thinner. But there was no mistaking the stark contrast between Bri’s youthful buoyancy and Reese’s fatigue. It saddened her, to know that Reese had once been like Bri, fresh and eager and optimistic. She’d lived long enough and lost enough to know that there was no going back, but in loving Reese she’d found more than she’d ever lost. Now what she wanted most of all was to give Reese a place to recover her faith in the things that made her who she was. Honor, duty, principle. “What, Kate? I’m sorry. I…I can’t quite believe she’s home.”

“How does she seem?”

“She’s worn out. Quiet.” Tory had lain awake for a long time, listening to Reese’s breathing and trying to determine if she was sleeping. Usually she could tell, but something had changed in the cadence of Reese’s breathing while she’d been gone. It was as if even while asleep every now and then she would stop and listen. Tory wondered what she was listening for and was afraid she knew. There was no respite from danger, when death came in the silent seconds between heartbeats. And as much as Tory wished that she could, she knew she could not protect Reese from the threats that haunted her sleep.