Page 7 of Beyond the Rules
“Okay,” Nina mumbled, “but whatever happens, don’t tell me I didn’twarnyou.”
“Roger that,” I said, helpingherup.
As soon as she stood, she sucked in her breath through herteeth.
“Hey, Aiden?” I said. “Her ankleisshot.”
Aiden considered the situation for a moment, then bent over, leaned his shoulder into Nina’s middle and scooped her up, hauling her into a fireman’scarry.
Nina’s eyes went wide with surprise. “Boy, it’s high up here.” She shifted on his shoulder. “How tallareyou?”
“Six six, last time I checked.” Aiden tucked his hand under her knee and secured his holdonher.
“I feel like I’m up in the stratosphere.” She let out a short, nervous laugh, a belly-powered giggle that lightened my mood and echoed in the little valley. “Thanks forthelift.”
“My pleasure.” Aiden gave her another smile and stalked up the bank, long legs powering the climb and easily negotiating theboulders.
Hell, this was getting good. I hadn’t caught Aiden flirting with anyone for a long while. And make no mistake about it, by his standards, Aiden was flirting. On any day, he was really stingy with both his words and his smile. He was okay with us, but he rarely ever engaged with strangers. For Aiden, this was milestoneterritory.
“Watch her hands,” I called out, engaging in the slow-as-fucking-a-virgin process of getting back ontheATV.
“You need help?” Zar hollered from somewhereafield.
“Hell, no.” I didn’t need help. I just needed time to grow old while I shuffled over, secured my backpack and, after leaning on the ATV, helped my lazy left leg over the seat, ignoring the jolts of pain shooting up and down myspine.
It was a depressing process and I might have dwelled on how fucking depressing it was, except I was busy considering the days’ facts. Nina’s unexpected arrival. My initial profile of her. My observations on my own reactions toward her. Aiden’s positivereactions.
Adding all of these factors together made me think of the possibilities. After all, that’s what I did for a living. I watched and observed, gathering history, info and intel, in order to come up with individual personality frameworks that told us who someone was and how they thought and operated in life. Once the profile was ready, I projected my analysis forward to predict futurebehaviors.
I only had a rough sketch on Nina so far, but it was an encouraging one. I had a lot more work to do, but the best news was that I was itching to get to it. As to the three of us, I had our profiles down. Hell, we’d lived and trained together, survived seven deployments and ten days on a deadly Syrian ridge. We had our battle-forged bond and our oath to each other, which held us together, helped us cope, and transitioned us in and out of the worlds we inhabited. Only one aspect of our pact had proven difficult and, although we hardly ever talked about it, the social scientist in me knew that each of us—individually and collectively—struggledwithit.
Could Nina be the key to bridging the gap? I shook my head and fired the ignition. I was jumping the gun, but the indicators were so goddamn promising. Could she be the fit we werelookingfor?
I was intrigued. A new sense of guarded optimism came with the novelty of Nina’s sudden arrival and shook up the exhausting, dull discipline of our daily grind. Perhaps Aiden was intrigued, too. Zar…not so much. I needed to ramp down the hope and turn on the brain. Zar was a tough nut to crack and not always helpful to himself. I had to remind myself that there were a lot of variables in thisequation.
I drove the four-wheeler out of the gulley, a ride that was safer with only one person on board. Once out of the creek bed, Aiden helped Nina to straddle the seat behind me. She was pale and looking wobblier by the moment, so we secured her to me by a couple ofstraps.
Aiden buckled on his backpack and clutched his rifle against his chest. “I’ll takepoint.”
Zar prowled out of the forest, carrying his weapon in the ready low-forward position. “I’ll bring uptherear.”
It’d taken a little doing, but the guys were solid and now we were inbusiness.
Nina’s voice came over my shoulder, trembling and uncertain. “Do you guys always carry ginormous guns whereveryougo?”
“We were hunting, remember?” I glanced at her over my shoulder and reassured her with a smile. “And this is Montana. We like our firepowerouthere.”
“Ah, yes, I’ve heard about the wild,wildwest.”
Her attempt at humor spoke volumes about her, but I really needed to get her squared away and rested. I revved the engine, allowed Aiden to jog ahead, and prepared for the long trek down the mountain. Time to get this show ontheroad.
“Thanks for helping me.” Her voice was soft and weary against my ear and her arms were coiled around my waist, bandaged palms facing up. The feel of her breasts pressing against my back was gonna drive me insane the whole way down.Mind out of the gutter,Vazquez.
“No need to thank me,” I said. “It had tobedone.”
“Believe me, if I make it through this, one day, I’m coming back to thank youproperly.”
“Oh, I believe you.” And I was going to make damn sure she made it. She didn’t know it yet, but there was a lot to sort out. I was open to creative gratitude that went both ways and, for the next few days, she wasn’t stepping out of my line ofsight.