Wounded Courage (Lucky Thirteen) Read Online Free PDF Page B

was kind of proud of her, even though my ego and my potentially broken nose didn’t much like it.
    “I know. She’s worked on her fighting skills since we taught her.” Hardy chuckled and opened the door to his compartments. The bastard sounded like he was proud of how much trouble she’d caused. Hell, I’d just had the same thought.
    Actually, I was kind of impressed. In high school, she’d been a little flighty. We’d tried to impress on her the importance of being able to defend herself. It seemed it worked.
    “She’s my sister, Murph. I can’t put her in lockdown. She doesn’t deserve that.”
    “Having her free to walk around here. You know that. She’s a risk.” The underground facility was one of sixteen we had around the world. We’d built them all in the last two years so we could deploy from almost anywhere in a matter of hours. It was part of our separation from the official military.
    “I’ll take responsibility.”
    Like hell he would. Hardy was my best friend, but he was also part of my team. We’d agreed to do this together. That was how it had to work. I followed Hardy to the back room. In the hours after we’d brought Addison back, we’d cleaned out the room and made it a simple bedroom. There was only one way in or out, and because it was underground, no windows. It wasn’t a prison cell, but it would keep her out of trouble, at least.
    Hardy pulled back the covers on the cot and I placed her sleeping form down in the center, gently settling her head against the pillows. She let out a soft mewl, but didn’t wake up. She wouldn’t. We’d knocked her out cold for the next few hours. She needed the rest, and we needed the break.
    Brody and Devyn had flown back to the States earlier to meet with Master Chief, which left just Gabe White the corpsman, Dylan Urban, Hardy and me for a couple days until the other guys came back from clearing out the Giroux mansion. A couple days to get her to tell us everything. Addison curled on her side when I set her down, and Hardy pulled the blanket up around her body. He brushed her cheek, and I finally saw the first signs of sadness cross his expression.
    It had to suck. I couldn’t possibly understand where Hardy was coming from. Still, my mind kept wandering back to the room I’d found her, where her body had been warm against mine, her curves fitting in just the right way against me as she struggled…
    I stopped and announced to Chris. “I’m going to see if White is here yet.”
    I whirled around and left the room. I needed to not think of her that way, which was exceedingly difficult when I could see her. Attraction was normal, I supposed. Addison wasn’t an unattractive person. And she was feisty, something I loved about her personality. She’d always known what she wanted. She’d always kept me on my toes. But she was Hardy’s sister. It was weird to think of her that way, and increasingly difficult to not.
    Gabe White came in Hardy’s apartment with a quick knock on the open door. “Hey. Hardy called for me?”
    I pointed back toward the bedroom. “Your patient’s in there.”
    He held up a brown tee and blue shorts. “I got a change of clothes from Richter. Hopefully, she didn’t rip out all my sewing with that run she took.”
    “I didn’t see any new blood on her. If we have to keep her here, we’ll have to eventually get her real clothes, I think. Those should do for now. The paper scrubs have to be uncomfortable.”
    White snickered. “Yeah.” He paused as he neared me. His eyes scanned over my face, his mind working already to diagnose my broken nose. “That nose looks painful.”
    I touched the bridge of my nose with my thumb and forefinger and winced. “Yeah, it is.”
    “Let me see what’s going down in there, and I’ll look at it.” That was the interesting thing about White. He never even flinched at injuries, and he was always calm. He walked past me and went inside the bedroom. I could hear the murmurings