Page 100 of Dangerous Mission
“My dad was Army.”
Scout’s expression is stony.
“What about you?” I dare ask.
“Older brother. That’s it.”
“We’re alike.”
He glances at me. After a moment of silence, he speaks quietly. “You don’t want to be like me, Aria.”
That’s the last thing he says for the rest of the drive. His thumb circles over my knuckles. I take comfort in the touch. All of his touches.
We crossed a bridge, but I’m still not sure if he wants me to touch him. But something about the sad way he said his last remark makes me want to hold him fiercely.
Maybe it’s to anchor me as much as him.
I can’t help but tighten my hold when we pull into the road where we parked earlier. The scene makes my blood run cold. There’s an ambulance with several people in paramedic outfits standing nearby.
The number of vehicles on site has tripled.
When Scout parks, he slides his hand up to my wrist and turns to face me. “Would you wait here?”
“I… I can’t?—”
“I don’t want you to see anything.”
I reach for the door. “If it's Griff, I need to know.”
He releases my arm, and strides to meet me at the front of the truck where he takes my hand again and helps me down the steep incline. The entire way down to the staging area I pray as bile burns my throat and my heart skips unhappily.
It’s impossible to tell what’s happening. There are so many people.
Scout stops abruptly. “Jesus,” he mutters and turns to face me, putting his body between me and the chaos at the bottom of the hill.
My heart falls. “What, Scout?”
“I’m not okay with you seeing a body.”
He tugs me roughly into his arms.
“Is… is it Griff?”
“I don’t know, but they are working on someone in a wetsuit.”
My toes tingle and spots dot my vision. But the need to get to my brother is stronger. “Let me go. I need to be with him…”
Chapter Forty-Nine
Things go from bad to horrible in the blink of an eye. One of the paramedics lowers a sheet over the face of the man lying on the ground.
Aria stumbles. I catch her, sweeping her into my arms so I can carry her away.
Crying out, she buries her face in my neck. That rough sound destroys me. I’ve never wanted to shield someone more. To protect her from all the harms in the world.
Voice shredded, I whisper against her hair. “I got you.”
Kneeling on the tarp under the staging tent, I brace her head against my shoulder with one hand and use the other to signal for our team leader.
