A SEAL to Save Her (3 page)

The introduction set him off again, and he covered his face and wept. It seemed the most natural thing to lean in and gather him against her. He buried his face in her neck and held on to her fiercely. And she held him, rocked him through that terrible storm. Her heart breaking for the heaviness of his burden, of leading men, coming to know them and love them, then losing them. Command had to be so very difficult.

“I'm sorry,” she whispered over and over as he totally lost it, his tears wet against her neck. He made a soft sound of pain when he wrapped his arms around her waist as she pressed his head against her chest. His hair was soft, his scalp warm against her palm as she cradled him.

But what slammed into her and made her move forward and comfort him in this dark hour was that Dexter had saved Tyler, braved death to carry her baby brother to safety.

* * *

Dex held on to this beautiful blonde angel, whom he wasn't sure was real. She felt solid and her voice was sweet and calm, filled with the tears he'd seen clouding her eyes. He wasn't ashamed of breaking down. It was inevitable and his macho face would be back in place in only a few short hours, but now was the time to feel the loss of Spaceman, Slim Jim and DJ. Men he had nurtured, fought with and protected as best he could.

By way of Coronado, California, to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, on to Germany, and finally they had dropped into the most dangerous place on earth. Hours after their team had been assembled for the mission, he was a world away from home. He knew he might not see his brother, Russell “Rock” Kaczewski, a former marine, or his dad, two-star navy SEAL Rear Admiral Matthew Kaczewski, stationed at the Pentagon in Washington, DC, or his sassy and beautiful mother, Thelma, again.

A SEAL's troubles were different from many kinds of civilian stress. He'd risked his life so many times in so many battles, but he'd never let it control his performance. He had only one regret, and that was how his deployments had really messed up his relationships. He wasn't sure why he was thinking about those now. But there were two to be exact. Melissa, who was a beautiful, soft, gorgeous soul. They had been heading for marriage. He had no doubt about it. But he'd wanted to be a SEAL, just after he finished the marine corps basic training. He had put in for a transfer to the navy and entered the Naval Special Warfare Preparatory School, then it was two and a half years of training before he became a SEAL. But when he made the decision to go into Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training, or BUD/S, they started to fight. He wasn't home enough. He was changing. He wasn't the same man. And her complaints only grew until there hadn't been anything left of what they once had.

Then there was Susan. Ah, Suzy. She had married him and he'd thought he had found a woman as strong as his mom. That unbreakable one he needed to match his spirit. To love him for what he loved to do. But she left him after a rather terrifying deployment when he'd gone MIA and out of touch for three weeks. That experience had been one of the toughest he'd ever endured. She'd told him tearfully that she thought she could handle it, but she couldn't.

He needed a woman like his mother, who had stuck by his father through every single one of his deployments. She had been strong, fearless and had instilled in her sons the very meaning of the word
brave
.

His dad—damn, he was so proud of that man—had been decorated and conducted his life both passionately and with a balance that had only rubbed off on his two boys. The four of them were a unit as strong as his team was to him. He loved them all deeply as he tried to absorb the knowledge that he'd lost three of his closest brothers.

He'd had a solid childhood, even with his dad's deployments. With the use of modern technology, his dad had always been there, even when he'd been working overseas.

He loved his job. Being a SEAL was it for him. Career. Battle always brought with it danger and the very real threat of death.

Death was unavoidable in war. It was a stone-cold fact. But the thought of losing Tyler, who was as close to him and as deeply entrenched in his heart as his brother, Rock, was unbearable. Hell, maybe deeper. Dex had fought with Tyler, watched Ty's back as much as he'd watched Dex's. There wasn't anything he wouldn't do for Tyler. And to lose him because Dex had somehow either miscalculated or screwed up would be even worse.

It tore him up that his sister was here. A family member he'd only heard great things about. Sad things, too.

He would take the comfort she offered because he needed it. He had to let all this go. Only an idiot would bottle up emotions and never give them free rein.

The ache in his throat intensified, and he swallowed, an agony of emotion clogging his chest.

After he was spent and the purge was over, he let her go. The loss of Spaceman—damn, his ridge boss, his friend, his tactical genius—it was too much. Slim Jim, who had just become a father, and—dammit, his eyes teared up again, his chest hurt—DJ. Man, he was going to miss him so damn much; him and his humor were often all that kept the platoon going when times got tough. Leaning back, his side protesting with each move, he wiped at his swollen eyes and met her gaze. “This is a hell of a way to meet Ty's sister,” he said, his voice raw and raspy.

“Well, I would have preferred a family dinner or a barbecue, not a hospital in a war-torn country where people are trying to kill us.”

Ah, thank God, the beauty had a sense of the ridiculous, which only helped to make this just a tad less awkward. He cracked a faint smile, nodding. “It's a pleasure to meet you, Piper.” He reached over and turned on the bedside lamp. That's when he got a really good look at her. She resembled Tyler a lot. But his hair was darker, where she had a mane of tawny gold hair and heartbreaking whiskey-hued eyes with dark, thick lashes. But where Ty's features were masculine, hers were pretty in a quirky way, not elegant, but cute. Her eyebrows were darker than her hair; her chin was delicately angled, but definitely set with determination. At odds with her all-American looks, her mouth was lush, exotically full and covered with a smooth layer of plum-colored lipstick. Funny that the lipstick made him homesick.

Okay, one thing was for certain. That RPG hadn't rattled his brain too much. He was still thinking like a man.

About Tyler's
sister
!

Suddenly he had an insight into exactly why Rock resisted getting involved with Tristan Michaels's sister Neve. Maybe he would lighten up on his brother in that respect. Maybe.

“Once we're all home and I'm in DC, I think I will take you up on that.”

She smiled and wiped at her own cheeks, reminding him that they had all been through two hours of hell.

“Tyler's pretty upset and heavily medicated. I'm not sure if he's thinking straight, but he was worried they weren't telling him the truth about you.”

He got that damn lump in his throat again. “Then let's go prove it to him.”

Alarmed and not yet sure about whether he was joking, she stared at him. “What? You're wounded. I promised the nurse I would only be here for a few minutes, not get you up and walking.”

“Tyler is what's important here, not an injury that took some stitches to close.” He gritted his teeth and pushed back the blankets. She looked horrified that he was actually going to stand.

“Dexter...maybe you should rethink this...”

He gave her a firm gaze with those intense blue eyes and his mouth tightened. “Nope. I want to see Ty before he's shipped off to Germany. I kinda need that myself. Could you indulge me here? Give a wounded warrior a hand?”

“A wounded warrior, huh?” she said, giving him a hard, I'm-on-to-your-plan-mister stare. At his innocent look, she sighed and huffed out a short laugh at his obvious manipulation, as if she was well aware he was just like any other hardheaded man. He grinned at her and, even though his side protested rather loudly, swung his legs and set his feet on the floor.

She moved to his side and helped him stand. She smelled really good, like some kind of floral fragrance and the essential female scent that he'd missed since being deployed two hundred and twenty days out of the year. It eased some of the pain to have this strong woman helping him.

She slipped her arm around his waist, covered in the flimsy gown, and accidentally threaded right through the opening in the back to his bare skin.

Hoo-rah
, that surely made him realize that all his parts were still working as nature intended. He was well aware that her hand was only inches away from his completely buck-naked ass.

He was going to chalk up his hard-on to adrenaline overload, deployment and being male.

“Oh, the joy of hospital gowns.”

Even raw, he chuckled, thinking that was the way the world worked. The living kept on living, moving forward and letting go. Not just yet, but with time, he would. Damn if he wasn't liking her even more. “Robe's over there,” he said as she kept her arm around him and stretched to reach the garment on the chair. She snagged it and helped him into it, wisely leaving it unbelted.

“You're cool under fire, huh?”

They slowly headed for the door, dragging the IV stand with them. “I'm a lawyer's daughter and come from a long line of politicians. My two brothers, one older and one younger gave me a run for my money, too. So, I hold my own. I'll arm wrestle you once you're 100 percent. I would never take advantage of a
wounded warrior
.”

At the door, he huffed a laugh. “Ah, caught in the middle, were you? I have the distinct pleasure to be the baby. I have an older brother...”

“Russell—nickname Rock—former RECON marine, tough son of a bitch, owns Rockface, a sporting goods store. He and his best friend, Tristan Michaels, run it. He was also a former RECON marine. Engaged to an NCIS agent, Amber. Do you want me to go on?”

“Wow. You know a lot about me,” he said as two agents fell into step behind them, keeping a discreet distance.

“You are Tyler's favorite subject.”

He had to stop moving as the affection—brotherly love—he held for Tyler churned him up all over again. His chest expanded with the rush of ragged emotion blindsiding him.

“We can rest if you'd like,” she said solemnly. “I didn't mean to make this harder, Dexter. It's just that Tyler loves you as much as our brother, Edward, and me, I think. You'll have to become an honorary Keighley, for sure.”

He turned his head away and massaged his eyes, but it was clear she'd already seen the effect her words had on him. He had to get control of himself before he saw Tyler. He didn't want to make it any worse for him. He had listened to Ty talk about his sister and her strength throughout all the hardship their family had endured over the past three years, especially with her losing her husband and child. It was as if he knew this woman.

“That is for sure. I'm racking my brain, trying to remember if I told Ty about any of the skeletons in my closet or deep dark secrets.”

“Oh, don't worry. I wrote them all down in my diary and put them under lock and key.”

He laughed; it pulled his side and he grunted with the pain. She had him laughing through his tears. “Thanks. I needed that.”

She nodded and their gazes met and held. Suddenly he felt hot, and it seemed as if the very air around them ignited. She really had the most unusual colored eyes. For a few moments, they stared at each other until someone cleared her throat.

He turned to see Nurse Davis standing there with her hands on her hips. She was giving Piper what Dex considered a direct-order look.

“Uh-oh,” he said under his breath.

“Lieutenant, I'm sure you're going to have a perfectly plausible reason to be gallivanting around the hospital after you've just been through a terrible explosion. If you rip out those stitches...”

“I do have an awesome reason for being out of bed. It's a fellow SEAL who needs some reassurance that I'm not lying in the morgue right now. Before he's shipped off to Germany, he needs to see me alive. Is that good enough?”

Her features softened and she sighed. “Yes, that's good enough. At least let me get you a wheelchair.”

“No,” he said through gritted teeth. “It'll have more impact if I'm walking, and to tell you the truth, it feels good to be moving around.”

“Senator? You got him?” the nurse said, her concern obvious.

Piper looked up at him and he got another jolt through his system at the way her eyes went over his face. “Yes, I've got him.”

She sure had.

As they walked away, she said wryly under her breath, “I'll try not to keep you in stitches.” She cut him a sly look.

He laughed again and she smiled. “Really, I'll be here all week. I must be punchy from that wonderful plane ride. Military transport is always so comfortable.”

“Seriously, do you want to pull out all my stitches? Just think how much trouble we'll be in then.”

She winced. “Sorry.”

Had he made her nervous? Was she responding to that...whatever it was...that had passed between them? This was, again he reminded himself, Tyler's sister.

They hobbled the rest of the way to Tyler's room. As he entered, he moved away from her and walked the rest of the way on his own steam.

He swallowed when he saw the kind of shape Ty was in. His right eye was swollen shut and there were many scrapes and bruises on his face. His right leg and arm were heavily swathed in bandages. He had tubes and wires connected, but when Dex approached, he smiled a very relieved smile and his good eye, though dazed, brightened.

“Hey, buddy,” Dex said, returning his smile.

“LT... Dex. It's good to see you. You okay?” Ty reached out with his good arm, and they clasped forearms, both grasping tight.

“Me?” He sat gingerly down next to the bed. “You're the one who spent most of our time here in surgery.”