Rescuing Rayne (21 page)

Rayne understood what he was saying. It sucked, but he was right. It wasn’t as if he could’ve come right out and told her he was a top-secret soldier and here’s his address if she wanted to look him up. But he had a picture of them in his house. It was one thing to have it on his phone still, another entirely for him to have gone to the effort to get it printed up and framed. She meant something to him. That, in turn, meant everything to her.

“I have something else to show you.”

“Oh Lord, there’s more?”

Ghost chuckled at her tone. “One more last revelation, then we can get on with whatever it is we’re doing. Okay?”

Rayne nodded.

Ghost sat up with Rayne in his arms, and she barely bit back the girly screech at the sudden movement. He stood up and then immediately turned around and sat her back down. The cushion was still warm with his body heat. Rayne clutched the blanket around her, making sure none of her girly bits were hanging out.

She was more than confused when Ghost lay on his belly next to her and put his legs in her lap. Did he want a massage? What the hell was he doing?

“Pull up the right leg of my sweats, Princess.”

Rayne had no idea why Ghost wanted her to look at his leg, but did as he asked, then gasped as the tattoo there was revealed.

She quickly pushed the material all the way up to his knee and traced the beautiful colors with her fingertips. Holding the blanket to her chest with one hand, she bent over his leg to see it closer.

“I took a picture of your tattoo before I left that morning. It was probably a dick thing to do, but with all the other dick things I did that day, what was one more? You were lying on your stomach and I couldn’t resist. I edged the sheet down just far enough so I could get a shot of your tattoo. I couldn’t get it out of my head. You had me inked on you…and I wanted the exact same design on my skin to remind me of you. Every day I wanted to see it and remember how beautiful you were. How you looked, how your tattoo looked, as I took you from behind.”

Some people might think his words were crude, but Rayne couldn’t bring herself to care. To her, they were beautiful.

“I came home and within a month, had you on me, Princess. Less than a month.”

“It’s perfect. But doesn’t the Army logo blow the whole ‘no one knows I’m a badass top-secret military soldier’ thing?”

“Yeah, it does.” He didn’t even sound sorry.

Rayne processed that for a moment. “You could’ve left it off.”

“Then it wouldn’t have been like yours.”

Rayne’s lip wobbled, and she frantically tried to hold back her tears.

“As you can see, the only difference is the princess wand.”

At Ghost’s words, Rayne lost it. She couldn’t hold back the tears anymore. He might’ve left her in that hotel room in London, and maybe would’ve never tried to find her or contact her again, but he hadn’t used her. The tattoo staring her in the face proved he cared.

She was back in Ghost’s arms before she took in a second heaving breath.

“I didn’t show it to you to make you cry, Princess,” he cajoled.

“I-I-I know,” she hiccupped. “You’ve seen the additions to mine?”

Ghost nodded against her head. “Yeah, I saw it on the plane on the way back from Egypt. And I have to say
now
your tattoo is fucking perfect. I thought it was before, but you adding our Big Ben and me flitting around the top? Perfect.”

“I did it three months ago.”

Ghost kissed her temple and they sat on the couch without a word for a while.

With one last sniff, Rayne said. “Can I have another tissue?”

Ghost smiled and handed one to her, smiling again when she used it and simply held it out to him to take from her.

“I need to get dressed.”

“Don’t do it on my behalf.”

Rayne halfheartedly swatted him. “Perv.”

He chuckled. “Okay, Princess. You go get dressed and I’ll re-bandage those for you.”

Rayne held one of her hands out. “Do you think it looks like bugs are peeking out from my wrists?”

“Uh…no?”

“Oh come on, Ghost. Look! It’s as if their little black antennas are peeking out.”

“Ew, that’s gross.”

“You’ve never had stitches before?”

“Oh I’ve had them, just never thought of it that way before…and now, thanks to you…I won’t be able to think of anything else.”

She giggled before looking back down at her wrists. “It looks like I tried to kill myself.”

Ghost turned her head with a finger under her chin. “The scars will fade, but, Rayne, the scars only show the world how tough you are. You shouldn’t be ashamed of them.” He then brought her hand up to his mouth and kissed each and every mark on her wrist. Then did the same to the other one.

When he shifted as if to get on his knees and do the same to her ankles, Rayne said, “Okay, okay. They’re badges of honor. Get up, seriously.”

When Ghost looked up into her eyes and smiled, Rayne knew she’d never be the same. She had no idea where they were going or what would happen between them, but at that moment, she knew she was a goner. Whatever this man wanted, she’d bend over backwards to give it to him.

“
T
here’s
someone I’d like you to meet,” Ghost told Rayne at breakfast the next morning. They’d watched movies the night before and Rayne had no idea how to tell Ghost she thought she was ready to sleep in the same bed with him again. She’d missed him the last few nights, remembering how safe she’d felt when he’d snuggled up to her in the minuscule hospital bed.

“Yeah?”

“Her name is Penelope. I can’t really tell you how the guys and I know her, but she lives down in San Antonio and comes up here to Fort Hood every now and then.

“Ooookay.”

“I think it’d do you both some good to talk.”

“You’re gonna have to give me more than that, Ghost. I’m not good with small talk. You can’t just shove some random woman at me and say ‘talk.’ It doesn’t work like that.”

Ghost pushed back from the table, gathered their plates and took them to the kitchen. He came back, sat down, and leaned on his elbows. “Do you trust me?”

Rayne nodded. Amazingly enough, even after all the lies he’d told her when they’d first met, she did. From the second she’d seen him in her prison in Egypt, she’d trusted him with her life. That hadn’t changed.

“Then go get some clothes on and we’ll go.”

Rayne just shook her head in exasperation. “Okay, give me ten minutes and I’ll be ready.”

An hour later, Rayne was sitting in a small conference room on the base, waiting to meet the mysterious Penelope. Ghost didn’t tell her anything more than he already had, just made small talk about nothing in particular on their way to Fort Hood.

After a few minutes, the door opened and a small blonde woman, maybe only a couple inches taller than five feet, walked in. Rayne had no idea why she looked familiar, she knew they’d never met, but she did.

“Ghost! It’s so good to see you!” Penelope exclaimed and came across the room and hugged Ghost tightly. “I know we’ve talked on and off in the last couple of months, but it’s so good to actually
see
you.”

“You too, Tiger. How are you?”

“Good.”

“Things back to normal at home?”

“As normal as they could be, I suppose. Cade’s still driving me crazy, being all overprotective and shit.”

“And the rest of the guys?”

“They’re figuring out that I’m still the same ol’ person I was before.”

“And Moose?”

Rayne watched as the young woman blushed.

“He’s being a bit more hardheaded, but he’ll figure it out eventually too.”

Ghost turned to Rayne and held out his hand. “I want you to meet Rayne. Rayne, this is Penelope Turner. She’s a firefighter down in San Antonio, and a former Army Reserve sergeant.”

Rayne held out her hand. “It’s good to meet you, Penelope.”

They shook hands and Penelope turned to Ghost. “You didn’t tell her, did you?”

Ghost shook his head. “Figured it was up to you to share what you wanted.”

“Fine, then scoot,” she said with a teasing smile.

Ghost turned to Rayne and hugged her tightly. “Don’t overdo it. If you get tired, let me know and we’ll go home.”

Rayne rolled her eyes. “What do you think we’ll be doing in here, Ghost? Running obstacles? Pushups? Cripes. I’m assuming we’ll just be talking. I’m sure I’ll be fine.”

“Oooh, I like her, Ghost. She doesn’t put up with your overbearing protective bullshit.”

“Shut it, Tiger.”

Penelope and Rayne grinned at each other, and Rayne felt at ease for the first time since arriving. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad trying to have a conversation with this stranger after all.

Ghost kissed Rayne on the lips; he’d been doing that a lot the last twenty-four hours after their talk on the couch and the tattoo show-and-tell. “I’ll be back in a bit.”

As soon as the door shut behind Ghost, Penelope sat and said, “So here’s the quick rundown. About nine months ago, I was kidnapped by ISIS over in Turkey. A SEAL team came over and stole me back, we got shot down, and Ghost and his crew came and got us all out. That’s how I know him. I never hooked up with him or anything.”

As Penelope spoke, Rayne realized why the woman looked so familiar. “Oh my God, I saw you on TV. You’re the Army Princess! I was so happy when I heard you were rescued!”

Penelope smiled. “You and me both.”

Rayne put two-and-two together. “You were rescued six months ago, right?”

“Uh-huh.”

“That’s around when I met Ghost. He must’ve been on his way home from that mission.”

“He’ll probably never tell you for sure, but setting this up is his way of letting you know the stuff he can’t tell you. He knows
I
can tell you, but he can’t…and won’t.”

Rayne understood. “And you’re really okay? You were held a long time.”

“About three months.”

Rayne didn’t know what else to say. She wanted to ask so many questions, but didn’t want to be rude.

“I wasn’t raped.”

Jeez, Penelope didn’t pull any punches. She just laid it all out there.

“Oh, they beat the shit out of me, and I was scared for most of the time I was being held, but they didn’t rape me for whatever reason, thank God. Ghost tells me you were over in that thing in Egypt and that it was a close call for you.”

Rayne nodded.

“Sucks being a hostage, doesn’t it?”

Rayne smiled. Penelope summed it up nicely. It was refreshing to be around someone who didn’t sugarcoat things. “Yeah. It does.”

“Here’s the thing. I like Ghost. I like
all
the guys on the team. We aren’t buddy-buddy. I’m not their confidant or anything and we don’t go out for tea when I come up here. But Ghost obviously is into you, because he set this up. Guys like him…they aren’t the flowers-and-candy type. He probably won’t take you out to a romantic dinner. I don’t see him renting a plane and having it fly a banner declaring his love for you.”

Rayne giggled and nodded in agreement.

“But if you pay attention, you’ll see the signs that he cares. A hand against your back. Asking if you need anything. He’ll make sure you eat before him. He’ll walk on the outside of the sidewalk, making sure you’re away from traffic. The signs will be there, but they won’t ever be the big romantic gestures most women crave.”

“He wraps my wrists and ankles every morning. He took my nasty snot-filled tissues yesterday without making a big deal out of it. He let me have as much cream cheese on my bagel this morning as I wanted, even though it meant I used most of it and he only had a little bit.”

Penelope nodded. “Exactly. They’ll swear until they’re dead as a doornail that they aren’t romantic, when in reality, what we see in the movies and on TV as ‘romance’ is just smoke and mirrors. I don’t know about you, but I’d much rather have their brand of romance than Hollywood’s.”

“He’s intense.”

“Yeah, they all are,” Penelope agreed.

“He’s bossy.”

Again, Penelope agreed. “I’m guessing if you think about it, he’s bossy when it comes to your well-being. Yeah?”

“Mostly.”

“And I might be overstepping, but I bet he’s bossy in bed too. And that might be a harder one to take, but again, I’ll repeat what I said before…he’s bossy when it comes to what you need…to your well-being.”

Rayne thought back to their night in London. Penelope was right. He’d been bossy, moving her this way and that, ordering her on her knees, but he’d taken care of her every time. He’d held off his own orgasm until he’d satisfied her.

“So while you might be unsure about him, and while he might seem too intense, remember what it is they do for a living. He flew into Iraq and he and his team snatched me and six SEALs out of the mountains as if they were going out for groceries. I’m assuming he strode into that fucking building in Egypt and plucked you out of whatever situation you were in and made it seem easy doing it. Am I right?”

“Yeah, pretty much.”

Penelope leaned forward toward Rayne. “I come up to base every month or so for counseling. I might seem as though I’m tough, that I can deal with what happened to me, but I have my bad days. I saw some shit over there that I know I’ll never forget for the rest of my life. I’ve seen enough firefighters and soldiers try—and fail—to get through the shit they’ve experienced without help, and it doesn’t work.” Penelope cleared her throat, obviously pushing through extreme emotion. “I haven’t met many people who have been held hostage like me, especially not by a foreign terrorist group. Us women have different things we have to be worried about than men do. I wouldn’t mind if, when I come up, we could…talk. That is, if you wanted to. If you felt comfortable.”

For the first time, Rayne saw a different side to the woman in front of her. Gone was the bold, brash firefighter who could obviously hold her own in a male-dominated field. Looking into her eyes, and seeing the vulnerability there, made Rayne realize how much she needed this woman. Mary might be her best friend, but she’d never understand what she’d been through. And as much as she loved her brother, he couldn’t relate to her either.

Somehow Ghost had known both she and Penelope needed each other. Damn, she was falling for him all over again.

“I’d like that. I hadn’t realized until just now that my friends, and even Ghost and his team, would never understand.”

Penelope nodded in agreement. “Yeah, it took me a while too. I was mad at everyone, and it didn’t help that the media wouldn’t stop hounding me for my story. But when I finally bit the bullet and came up here to talk to the counselor, she suggested that it might do me some good to find a support group, with other victims. While I did that, and it helped, none of them had been through exactly what I had. A lot of their experiences paralleled what we went through…the helplessness, the terror, the uncertainty, but it just wasn’t the same.”

“There are groups?”

Penelope reached a hand out, and Rayne put hers in it without hesitation. The connection felt right.

“Yeah, there are. Down in San Antonio, I met the most amazing woman. Her name is Beth. She moved out here from California after a horrible experience. She was kidnapped and tortured by a serial killer, but managed to survive. We’ve connected in a way that we hadn’t been able to with others, simply because we’d both been held hostage. I’m sorry to say I can’t help her with dealing with being violated, since I wasn’t, but I’d love to introduce you guys if you’re ever down my way.”

Rayne nodded. “I don’t think I’m quite ready for that yet…but if you give me time…”

“No pressure. Seriously. It took me quite a while before I was ready to talk to anyone about what happened.” Penelope sat back and smirked. “So…is Ghost as good in bed as it seems he’d be?”

Rayne blushed and said nothing.

“Ha! I knew it. Those guys are so fucking beautiful it should be illegal. Oh, don’t worry. I’m not jonesing for your man or any of the guys on his team. I’ve got my own guy I have my eye on back home, but you have to admit they’re some awesome eye-candy.”

Rayne laughed and agreed. “Yeah, I swear sometimes I feel as if I’ll have to get out a stick and beat the women off when we’re out and about.”

“He’s got eyes only for you, woman. Never doubt it. When guys like him fall, they fall hard. They’re exclusive and would kill anyone for even thinking about putting their hand on you.”

“I’m beginning to see that.”

There was a knock on the door and both women turned as it opened and Ghost stuck his head in. “All good?”

“We’re fine, get your ass in here and take care of your woman. I have an appointment to make.” The bold and brash Penelope was back, any sign of the vulnerable woman underneath the harsh façade gone.

Ghost strode in and leaned down and kissed Rayne. He put his hand on her shoulder. “You girls have a nice visit?”

Penelope rolled her eyes. “Oh good Lord, Ghost. Yes, it was fine. We chatted, Rayne understands that you’re a Neanderthal, but one that has her best interests at heart. She knows who I am, and we’ve made plans to meet again. That answer all your questions?”

“Yup. You’re the best, Tiger.”

“Whatever. Come on, give me a hug and let me get out of here. I’ll see you next time I’m up.”

Ghost gave the slight woman a huge bear hug, lifting her feet up off the floor in the process. Rayne watched, loving seeing this side of Ghost…the protective-older-brother side of him.

“Don’t be a stranger. I’ll get the team together next time and we’ll do lunch or something.”

“Sounds like a plan. See you later, Rayne. Remember what I said.”

Rayne pushed her chair back and stood. “I will. It was nice meeting you.”

“You too. Glad you’re safe.”

Rayne looked up at Ghost after Penelope had left the room. “Thank you.”

He didn’t even pretend to not know what she was talking about. “You’re welcome.”

“I don’t know how you knew I needed that when I didn’t know I needed it myself, but thank you. She’s amazing.”

“So are you, Princess.”

“I was only held about a week. I can’t imagine what she went through.”

“Don’t compare yourself to her or anyone else. You went through your own nightmare. It wasn’t any less horrible than what she went through. Give yourself some credit. You’re one hell of a woman. Got it?”

Rayne smiled, thinking about what Penelope had said about bossy men. “Got it.”

“Come on, let’s get you to the doctor and see what he says about those stitches. Then we’ll go back home and I’ll make you some lunch and we can watch a movie.”

“
The Notebook
?”

“Fuck no. I’ve seen you cry enough for one week.”

Rayne smiled, having known he’d veto it. “Okay, Ghost. Whatever you want to watch.”

“Come on, woman. I’m feeling the need to spoil you.”

“Far be it from me to protest that.”

Rayne smiled as Ghost put his arm around her waist and walked with her out the door and into the hot Texas morning.