Breaking the Rules Read Online Free PDF Page B

said, his brown eyes warm with concern and compassion. “So go ahead and sit, and I’ll tell you.”
    And just like that, the world lurched, and Jenn knew with a horrible certainty that something terrible had happened. She lowered herself into the backseat of the car, looking from Jack to Mick and back, as God, Jack nodded and said the words she dreaded.
    “It’s about Dan Gillman.”
    “Oh God,” Jenn heard herself say as all of the air left her lungs. “Oh no. Oh, please don’t tell me—”
    “He’s been badly wounded,” Jack said, which wasn’t as awful as the words she’d thought he was going to say.
    “Wounded,” she repeated. Badly, he’d said. “How badly?” She fought the urge both to cry and to throw up. Neither would help her—or, more important, help Dan.
    “Maria didn’t know,” Jack said, handing his crutches to Mick as he pushed her over on the bench backseat so he could sit beside her and take her hand. “But she told me he’s a SEAL, and honey, SEALs are fighters.”
    Jenn nodded. Dan. SEAL. Fighter. Yes. Oh God. “Where is he?”
    “Maria didn’t know much,” Jack said as Mick put his crutches in the front seat and climbed behind the wheel, signaling and pulling out into the traffic. “I guess she’s got a friend whose husband is a chief in Dan’s team …? She was the one who called Maria.”
    Jenn nodded again. “Savannah,” she said. Savannah was Jenn’s friend, too. It was her connection to SEAL Team Sixteen that had brought Danny into her life. Please, dear God, let him be all right …
    “Maria’s trying to get more information,” Jack told her. “In the meantime, she figured you’d want to go home and maybe pack a bag, so you’d be ready to go, in case they send him somewhere a little friendlier than where we think he is right now.”
    Jenn nodded again and dialed her cell phone, calling Maria back, praying that from here on out, the news she received would only be good. “He’s a fighter.” She repeated Jack’s words back to him just before Maria picked up her phone.
    “Jenn,” she said. “Are you sitting—”
    “I already know,” Jenn cut her off. “Jack told me. Danny’s hurt. Please, just tell me what else you know.”
    “They’re flying him to Germany,” Maria told her. “Savannah’s finding out where. She’ll call you. She wants to buy a plane ticket so you can … But I don’t think that’s a good idea. Not yet. Not until …”
    “What aren’t you telling me?” Jenn asked.
    “Jenni, he’s still alive, but—” She cut herself off again. Whatever that
but
was going to be, she substituted it with, “He’s strong.”
    “You need to tell me everything,” Jenn said.
    Maria exhaled hard. “I know. It’s just … he lost so much blood,” she said. “One of his teammates ended up doing a battlefield transfusion, and nearly died himself, because of it. Jenni, it’s a miracle that Dan’s still alive at all. If he didn’t have the friends that he has … This would already be a very different phone call. As it is …”
    Dear God. “Was it an IED?” Jenn asked, because it was clear Maria had gotten at least some details.
    “Indirectly,” Maria said, and her word only made sense when she added, “Dan was assisting with the civilian casualties after some kind of car bomb went off, and a sniper started shooting. He was hit.”
    “So he’s been shot,” Jenn said, meeting Jack’s steady gaze, “someplace where he lost a lot of blood. In his chest or—”
    “It was his leg,” Maria told her.
    “His leg,” Jenn told Jack, unable to keep herself from glancing down at his empty pant leg. Oh God.
    “If something goes wrong with the surgery,” Maria said, “or if he’s too weak to be operated on … He could lose his leg. And that’s one of the better-case scenarios. I really think you should wait before you go anywhere, Jenn.”
    “I don’t want to wait,” Jenn said. “Tell Savannah yes, please buy me a