Navy SEAL Rescuer by Shirlee McCoy Read Free Book Online

walked into Eileen’s room, her gentle whisper carrying
through the silent house. Outside, men and women shouted warnings and
directions, but here, in the dark old farmhouse, time seemed to stand still, the
scent of illness and cigarette hanging in the hot air.
    He’d give the women ten seconds, and then he was going in.
    Ten.
    Nine.
    Eight.
    “It’s not going to matter that your hair is a mess if you’re
dead, Eileen.” Catherine’s words carried clearly this time, her exasperation
obvious.
    Six.
    Five.
    “We need to go. Now. Not in a minute.”
    Four.
    Three.
    Bed sheets rustled. Footsteps padded across wood flooring.
    Finally, the two women appeared, Eileen tottering a little,
drowning in an oversize night dress, Catherine a step behind her.
    “So, the hunky hero has returned to take us to safety, huh?”
Eileen put a hand on his arm, her skin cool and dry, her fingers trembling.
    “I’m not sure hero is an accurate
description. I’m just a neighbor trying to help out,” he responded, moving as
quickly as her frailty would allow them to. Down the hall, into the gutted
kitchen and out onto the back deck.
    It took too long to get her down the deck stairs. He wanted to
pick her up and carry her, but she swatted his hands away. Finally, they were
down, and she paused for breath, her narrow shoulders heaving as she shivered in
the moonlight. He pulled off his jacket, wrapping it around her, expecting
Catherine to be right beside them.
    Or maybe he didn’t.
    Because, he didn’t feel at all surprised when he looked and she
wasn’t there.
    “Is anyone else in the house, sir?” a uniformed officer called
out as she rounded the side of the house.
    “One person. I’ll get her.” He jogged back up the stairs, his
leg nearly giving out, pain shooting from the stump to his hip.
    It hurt, and that pissed him off.
    Catherine pissed him off, because she didn’t seem to understand
the kind of danger she was in.
    Or didn’t want to understand.
    Or, maybe just didn’t care.
    He ran into the house, ignoring the officer’s command to wait.
He’d find Catherine and drag her outside if he had to.
    Because, as irritated as he was, he couldn’t leave her
behind.

FIVE
    C atherine grabbed several bottles of
medicine from the top of the small fridge that stood in the corner of Eileen’s
room. Outside, men shouted, their muffled cries carrying through the poorly
insulated walls. Her pulse raced in response.
    Were they dismantling the bomb?
    What if they failed? Would the tree topple onto the house?
Would the house collapse with the force of the explosion?
    Would she still be in it?
    Stupid to come back for the medicine, but Eileen needed it, and
Catherine needed Eileen.
    “One, two, three, four, five,” she counted, dropping the
bottles into the folded-up hem of her tank. A thousand dollars worth of pills,
but maybe not worth risking her life over. After all, if she was gone who would
take care of Eileen?
    She ran into the dark hall, bounced off a broad firm chest.
    Terror speared through her, and she screamed, throwing a punch
as medicine tumbled to the floor.
    Someone snagged her wrist, held it tight when she tried to tug
away.
    “I’m not in the mood for a broken nose, Cat.”
    Darius.
    Of course.
    Running to the rescue again.
    “Come on. We need to get out of here.”
    “In a second.” She yanked away, stooping to pick up the
bottles.
    “Cat! We don’t have time for this,” he said, but he grabbed the
last bottles and thrust it into her hands. “There. Now, let’s go.”
    They were moving before she could think, running through the
hallway and into the kitchen, then out into chilly night air and across the
yard.
    Moonlight splashed on dried-up grass that had been lush and
green four years ago. Catherine had labored over the yard as a teen, cleaning it
up, planting rose bushes, throwing down grass seed and watering it so that it
looked more like her friends’ yards and less like a dump.
    She’d had so many