Protecting Fiona (SEAL of Protection Book 3) by Susan Stoker Read Free Book Online Page B

and she was now wearing a long sleeve shirt, so he’d never gotten a good look at her arms.
    Fiona kept her eyes closed and continued, “They’d been shooting me up with something. I’m not sure what. Not enough to freak me out, but enough to control me, to keep me complacent. I think they thought they could get me to do what they wanted if they got me hooked, that I’d do anything for another fix. But I refused to beg or behave for them. It’s been a while since they last gave me anything, I don’t know for sure how long. I swear if it gets bad enough, that if I slow you down, I’ll let you go ahead. I know you didn’t bargain on this, or me…I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I should’ve told you before we left that hut.” Fiona’s voice trailed off. She’d kept her eyes closed throughout her entire confession. Fiona waited for Hunter to get up and walk away in disgust. Not only was she disgusting and filthy and smelly, she was an addict too.
    Cookie swallowed once. He had to swallow again before he could talk. He was relieved it wasn’t something more serious on one hand, but at the same time, he knew sometimes getting off of drugs was the worst part. He knew what he said now was important.
    “Can I see?” Cookie waited, and when Fiona nodded slightly, moved so he was kneeling in front of her. He gently unclasped her hands and took hold of one and threaded his fingers with hers. Cookie waited until Fiona opened her eyes to check on what he was doing.
    He kept eye contact with her while he pushed the sleeve on her right arm up past her elbow. It wasn’t until it was all the way up that he looked down. He clenched his teeth at the needle marks inside her elbow. He could clearly see them, even with the waning light of the evening. He lowered that sleeve, and pushed up the other one to see the same thing. The bruising on her arms was an indication of how she’d fought her captors and how they hadn’t been gentle when injecting her.
    Cookie smoothed her shirt down and took both her hands in his. Fiona was watching him now warily. He could feel the tremors in her hands.
    He met her eyes and said, “Fee, I’m so sorry. I’m sorry I didn’t get there quicker. I’m sorry I didn’t know you were there. I’m just so damn sorry.”
    When Fiona took a breath ready to say something, Cookie interrupted her. “No, don’t say anything, and don’t fucking apologize again. Listen to me. I’ve only known you for a day, but you’re one of the strongest people I know. Not just the strongest woman I know, but one of the strongest people . You haven’t told me how long you were in that damn building, but I know it was a while. You’ve walked a shit ton of miles today, on your own, without complaint. I don’t know how long it’s been since you’ve had something decent to eat or drink. All you care about is this mission and not being in the way. You are not in the way. If there were ten women in that hovel, I would’ve rescued all of them, even though I was only expecting one.”
    Cookie paused and let his comment sink in, then continued, “We have two more days of hard walking. We only have two days before our next scheduled backup pickup. I obviously don’t have anything to give you to help you with the withdrawal. Without knowing exactly what drugs they were giving you, I don’t want to risk injecting you with the wrong thing. I’ve got some pain killers in my pack, but it’s not a good idea to mix them with unknown narcotics. While I don’t have anything to counteract your withdrawal symptoms, I can certainly help distract you or do anything else you think will help. Okay? Don’t shut me out.” Then Cookie chuckled and pleaded softly, humor coating his words, “Please don’t leave me with Julie as my only conversation.”
    Fiona smiled at his words, but sobered quickly, staring at Hunter with big eyes, her concern and worry clearly showing.
    Cookie continued on. “I’m not a therapist and I can’t