Above All Else: A Bad Boy Military Romance (Easy Team Book 2) Read Free

body.
                  “Anyone call for a hero?” I teased, hoping to alleviate her fright.
                  The girl raised her head. Her eyes, already so bright and luminous, looked even brighter as unshed tears glistened in them. Her mouth opened then closed, clearly unable to speak. A body slammed into the bar to our right. The girl squeezed her eyes shut and jerked at the sound.
                  “Alright, come on, princess,” I said, gathering her up in my arms. “Let’s call it a night, shall we?”
                  I scooped her up easily and as I stood, hunched my shoulders around her, trying to cocoon her in away from the mob. The men pushed and shoved around us but I used my height to my advantage and pulled us out of the small bar and out into the humid but at least peaceful night.
                  I carried her away from the bar and towards a clump of trees a few feet away. I looked and saw the men of Easy Team slowly making their way out after having seen me safely grab the girl.
                  Although she felt damn good in my arms, I wanted to have her stand so that I could make sure she hadn’t been hurt in any way.
                  Gently, I put her on her feet. The girl sniffed and kept her head down. I figured she was feeling pretty foolish for the way she had dismissed my warnings. I smiled and stroked her back, not wanting her to be embarrassed.
                  “Are you okay?” I asked. “Not hurt anywhere, right?”
                  The girl kept her head down, staring at her feet. I sympathized with her embarrassment. She probably didn’t know just how dangerous this part of the world really was. I probably shouldn’t have been so harsh and forceful with her before.
                  But all my warm and understanding feelings evaporated when the girl threw her head up. Her eyes were still glistening with unshed tears but this time, instead of looking at me with fear, she glared at me in annoyance.
                  “I’m fine,” she said coldly. “No thanks to you!”
                  My eyebrows shot up. “No thanks to me? You want to tell me then how you just got out of that bar? Floated out, did you?”
                  She plunked her hands on her slim hips and glared at me, clearly not bothered at being dwarfed by my height. Seeing that look of haughty confidence, I was again struck by that sensation of seeing someone I knew. Where had I possibly seen this girl before?
    “That fight wouldn’t have even happened if you had come in and played that weird charade with me. You riled them all up! You started it!”
                  “What!” I was so blown away by her reasoning. “You must be out of your goddamn mind if you—”
                  But before I could finish, two men suddenly appeared, running towards us.
                  They both had on panicked faces before catching sight of us. They breathed out in relief, their expressions crumbling with relieved anxiety. I stared at them in confusion. Clearly, they were no physical threat but they looked just as odd and out of place as the girl did. They wore matching sports jackets, despite the heat and humidity, and wore dark sunglasses. Through a trained eye, it was easy enough to tell that they were security. But what kind of security? Who or what were they protecting?
                  “Oh my god, Your High—”
                  “How did you find me?” the girl interrupted them, clearly familiar with the men. Were these men protecting her? Well, if they were, they were doing a shitty job of it.
                  “We were following reports of a girl of your likeness who had come into this part of the village,” one of the men reported. “But we must hurry and return to—”