Chapter Seventeen
Helios
She closed her eyes again.
Placing her food order, I’d watched her tears fall. The same damn tears that’d fallen earlier. Silent, broken. It was like our fucking parents’ wedding all over again.
She was a dripping faucet, and I couldn’t do a damn thing to fix it.
“Anything else, sir?” the catering staffer asked.
Fuck it. “You got cake?”
“We have pudding, ice cream, or cookies.”
Because guilt and anger were best fucking friends, I remembered my eighteenth birthday. “I need cake for her.” Really fucking needed it.
The woman paused. “The cafeteria had strawberry parfaits earlier today. I’ll see if there are any left.”
“Thanks.” I didn’t know what the fuck a parfait was, but if it resembled cake, I’d take it.
“You’re welcome, sir. Should be about thirty minutes.”
“Copy that.” I hung up and resumed my watch, but then I was fucking sitting with it.
The shower.
The goddamn shower.
No way in hell was I going to let the male nurse who was currently on shift any-fucking-where near her, but that didn’t mean I should be the one helping her shower.
Yeah, I’d already seen her naked.
I’d also seen the state her body was in.
Once she saw it, she was going to lose her shit.
That, right there, was the reason I told myself I’d volunteered for shower duty.
I didn’t want her seeing that.
And fuck, I wanted the goddamn grime of that hellhole off her body. I also wanted to fucking end Ghost. That motherfucker giving her a goddamn house. Like the oceanfront address I’d looked up would undo this shit.
Haven was gonna be scarred for fucking life over this.
And that motherfucking asshole’s answer was fucking house keys?
So goddamn enraged, nowhere to fucking put it all, I sat there with my elbows on my knees, hands clasped, so I didn’t fucking touch her.
Because fuck me, I wanted to goddamn touch her. Every fucking second, I wanted to check that she was still breathing. Every fucking minute she was asleep, I wanted to wake her. Every fucking word she uttered, I wanted two more.
Jesus.
I needed to fucking pull it together.
Glancing at my watch, about to call the damn catering services again, I caught movement outside the door right before it opened.
I held a finger to my lips as I stood.
The woman nodded, and I met her halfway across the room to grab the tray. “Thanks.”
Glancing at my holstered Glock, the woman nodded again, then hauled ass out of the room.
I set the tray on a table that swung out over the bed, then lifted off the covers before hitting the button to raise the back of Haven’s bed while she was still out.
Startled awake, her eyes popped open, and her uninjured hand flew to her chest.
“You’re good.” Placing my hand over hers, both to calm her down and hold her steady so she didn’t fuck with her ribs, I nodded toward the food. “Chow time.”
“Not hungry.”
“You want to get out of here?” It was fucking rhetorical.
I knew exactly how many times she’d asked to leave.
“Then you need to eat.” Taking my seat again, I grabbed a spoon.
Then I asked as fucking casually as I could.
“Your teeth okay?” There’d been blood all over her mouth when I’d gotten to her.
Her tongue darted out, then swept left to right. “Yes.”
“Good.” Fucking exhaling, I spooned up a bite of mashed potatoes that looked worse than the shit I’d eaten downrange. “Open up.” I held the bite to her lips.
Mouth closed, she stared at me. Then she called me out on the shit the doc had let slip. “Wife?”
“Yeah. Your last name’s Johnston. First name, Susan.” I held the spoon closer. “Eat.”
“Your name?”
“Henry Johnston.”
“Alias?”
“Nope.” Learned all sorts of tricks in the Unit.
“There’s a Master Sergeant Henry Johnston with a wife named Susan.
” Henry was my age, but his wife was five years older than Haven.
Fucker was currently deployed. By the time he figured out his TRICARE had been used for a hospital stay in North Central Florida, we’d be long gone. “Shit’s getting cold. Eat.”
“Shit,” she repeated, then opened her mouth.
I fed her the bite.
Slow, like it hurt to chew, she moved her bruised jaw, then swallowed and made a face. “Terrible.”
“You need the calories.” I spooned another bite. This time it was gray fucking stuffing.
“You eat,” she ordered.
“Already handled.” It wasn’t. I was fucking starving, but I’d deal with it later. Once she fell back asleep, I’d ask the staff to bring me something. “Eat up, Haven.”
“Susan,” she deadpanned.
I smirked. “Yeah, okay, Susan. Eat your fucking dinner before it gets cold.”
“Henry’s bossy.” She took the bite.
“He’s a Master Sergeant.” Went with the territory. I spooned up some applesauce.
“You’re a Master Sergeant.”
I fed her the next bite and fessed up. “I was.”
She swallowed hard. “Promoted?”
“Retired.” Sounded better than saying I walked the fuck away from my Unit.
Shocked, she blinked. “What?”
“Due to re-up. Didn’t.”
Staring at me with those amber eyes, she didn’t say shit else.
I fed her seven more bites between sips of ginger ale before she looked at the pink-and-white layered crap in a cup.
Taking the hint, I spooned up a bite. “Strawberry cake.”
“Parfait,” she corrected.
I held it to her cracked, chapped lips and gave her another confession. “I should’ve eaten the cake on my eighteenth birthday.”
Her voice dropped. “You shouldn’t have left the military for… this.”
“This,” I ground out, rage seeping.
“Me,” she whispered, like it was ever a fucking question.
I held that amber-eyed stare. “Can’t think of a better reason.”