Read Targeted (Hostage Rescue Team Series Book 2) for Free Online

reality was she was just as likely to deck him for trying.
    After climbing behind the wheel he reached over to fish the bottle of pain killers out of the glove compartment. He and the guys he worked with were pretty much always working injured to some extent, and some over the counter meds helped make the aches and pains a little more bearable so he always kept them on hand. He handed her three tablets along with a bottle of water he always kept in the cupholder, and started the engine.
    “I see you still love your country music,” she said in a wry tone as the stereo came on.
    One side of his mouth quirked. “Yep. You don’t love it yet?”
    “Nope. Still a rock or pop kinda gal.”
    “Well, nobody’s perfect.”
    Her lips curved in response as she stared straight ahead out the windshield.
    As he steered them out of the parking lot, he saw her looking at the wreckage behind them in the side mirror. “So, Zoe’s coming in tonight?” he asked.
    Celida faced forward once more, staring through the windshield a moment before looking over at him. “Yeah, at five. I’m supposed to pick her up. She told me you guys have some sort of plans tomorrow night?”
    “Just dinner. You can come too, if you want.” He’d like that, spending time with both of them in a relaxed setting, getting to see Celida smile and laugh a bit.
    She looked back out the windshield. “Maybe.”
    Wasn’t a flat out no, so that gave him hope that she wasn’t averse to spending more time with him. “How long’s she in town for this time? She never said.”
    “Until Sunday.” She shot him another glance. “It’s not a problem for you that she stays with me while she’s here, is it?”
    “No, ‘course not. I like knowing that you guys are still tight after all this time.” They’d hit it off right away the very first time Tuck had introduced them, a couple months after he and Celida had been partnered together.
    “She’s awesome.”
    “Yes, she is.” A little unorthodox, maybe, but that was one of the things he loved most about his cousin. Zoe was definitely unique.
    “Don’t know what I’d do without her. She was amazing when I first came home from the hospital. She dropped everything, literally, even took two weeks off work to take care of me.”
    “And I bet you hated every second of her fussing over you, too,” Tuck said dryly.
    A half-smile stretched her lips. “Well, I didn’t hate all of it. Probably a good thing she left when she did, otherwise I could’ve gotten way too used to it.”
    That surprised him. “Really?” He glanced over at her, wishing again that he’d told his cousin to take her earlier advice and shove it where the sun don’t shine, and insist on taking care of Celida himself after she was discharged from the hospital. Ever practical and the living embodiment of a steel magnolia, Zoe had pointed out how fucking dumb that plan was because of how thin he was spread already.
    His work and training schedule weren’t exactly conducive to playing nurse, and he’d seen the painful reality of that firsthand over the past few months. Plus Celida would have freaked if he’d suddenly gone all protective caretaker with her, even if he’d done it because he cared. So he’d done the best he could with phone calls and occasionally stopping by over the past few weeks while juggling everything else going on in his life.
    That was the thing that bugged him the most about all this. She didn’t realize how much he cared. She couldn’t have, because he’d only just figured it out himself the day she’d nearly been killed in that hotel room. He’d had feelings for her back when they were partners that he’d ruthlessly ignored for professional reasons, but the day of the attack had crystallized everything for him.
    After nearly losing her this morning for the second time in two months, he wasn’t wasting another day without laying it all on the line. If she flattened him for it, then she flattened him for it.