A SEAL to Save Her Read Free Page B

collapsed down with a groan.
    â€œNo, but the doctor told me.”
    â€œPlease, see him. Find out. Please, Piper.” His expression was full of panic, as if he was sure Dexter was dead.
    â€œI will,” she said, rubbing at his arm. “Calm down. I’ll find out.” She’d never met Dex, but he was one of Tyler’s favorite topics.
    Piper leaned down and kissed him on his bristly cheek.
    She left the room and tracked down the nurse who had brought her to her brother. “Nurse Davis, I’m looking for Lieutenant Kaczewski.”
    â€œHe’s in bed twelve, just one wing over. Why...?”
    Piper touched the nurse’s arm, her voice intense. “He’s my brother’s best friend and he wants me to check on him. I promise. I’ll only stay for a few minutes.”
    Her face softened. “All right, but just a few minutes.”
    Piper nodded her agreement and headed down the hall. Her detail followed, but she had them wait outside the room. It was dim inside and she didn’t want to disturb Dexter, but she wanted to quiet down her brother. He was so distressed.
    The half-drawn curtain was a flimsy barrier and as she stepped closer she heard it. A choking sound, then another one on its heels. Then she was sure. He was crying...no—her heart contracted—sobbing. The kind of gut-deep sorrow she knew intimately. That car accident had taken everything from her and it had felt as if her whole world had ended.
    He was brave, making noise, showing people his grief.
    Piper’s response had been different. The worst type of crying, the silent kind. The one when everyone was asleep. The one where she felt it in her throat, and her eyes were blurry from tears. The one where she just wanted to scream. The one where she had to hold her breath and grab her stomach to keep quiet. The one when she realized the person that meant the most to her was gone.
    She knew how it felt. She knew exactly how it felt to cry in the shower so no one could hear her, and waiting for everyone to fall asleep so she could fall apart, for everything to hurt so bad she just wanted it all to end.
    They must have told him about the three SEALs he’d lost from his platoon. He was hurting so badly, and part of that hurt had something to do with guilt...with Tyler. She was well aware of that, too, and how it could twist you up until it was hard to sleep at night.
    She knew what it was like to lead, to be in charge of something so important it consumed her, but... this —leading men and being responsible for their lives, making life and death decisions, the weight of that... A rush of profound, heartfelt compassion made her whole chest ache.
    Her throat tightened and all the fear for her brother and all the pain she had tried to dodge by working and numbing herself welled up in her. She should leave, and she even took a step back. She didn’t want to let it loose, either. But the lost and broken sound of him reached out to her, touched her with the honesty of his emotion, the bravery of him to allow himself the grief, to feel the loss. She’d felt so alone, had shed the same kind of broken tears.
    She changed her mind and stepped around the curtain. He was on his back, his eyes closed, his chest heaving, tears running down his cheeks, over dark stubble.
    She must have made a sound because his eyes popped open. Caught off guard, his handsome face vulnerable and open, the agony of loss scored his cobalt blue eyes; pain contorted his striking features.
    â€œDexter,” she said softly, as if she knew him. “I’m Tyler’s sister.” She’d never met him, but her brother had talked about him all the time whenever he was home on leave.
    Tyler had said that his LT—Dexter—was the essence of a navy SEAL, a guy who got into the mess with his men, led them with strength and courage, never let them down, hung with them through everything—whether they were up to