Rhapsody (The Bellator Saga Book 5) Read Free

classics.”
    He sounded pleasant. Cheery, even. Maybe singing agreed with him.
    “That was a good choice,” she said. “It made me remember-”
    No. He was in a decent mood. Caroline couldn’t wreck it. She wasn’t going to go there. And she was fairly certain he wasn’t too keen on going there either.
    “We made a lot of memories dancing to that song,” Jack said.
    Okay, he did want to go there. “Yeah.”
    “So many wonderful memories. The night I first kissed you. The night of my inaugural. The last time we-” He closed his eyes. “That last night at the mansion.”
    Caroline really, really did not want to walk down this road. Not now. Maybe not ever. The light tone in his voice had vanished. A change of subject was in order.
    “What happened?” she asked him. “How did I end up here?”
    “What do you remember?”
    It all seemed so blurry. “We got to Nellis and set the bombs off. It appeared to work but everything was so quiet. We were hustling back to the helicopter and Rosen tripped once or twice and-”
    “That field was mined,” Jack said. “Heavily mined. How you got to that building without setting one off was miraculous.”
    Santos had never been a particularly clever individual. Unspeakably cruel and deceptive, but hardly a genius. That sort of crude defense perfectly fit his megalomania. The most damage at the least expense.
    “What about our operative?” Caroline asked.
    “Badly injured, partly in the rescue, partly from his caretakers at the facility. I don’t know all the details. Haven’t spoken with him yet. He’s still in pretty serious condition and will need months of rehabilitation.”
    Well, that made her feel a little better. Their objective had been achieved even if their guy wasn’t in tip top shape. “Who else was hurt?”
    Jack hesitated. “There were casualties.”
    She’d figured that out. “Including me.”
    “Yes,” he said. “Including you.”
    Caroline closed her eyes. “Who didn’t make it?”
    “Rosen.” Jack cleared his throat. “He bore the brunt of the explosion but you caught a good chunk of it too.”
    She figured Rosen’s odds were poor but was grateful that no one else had been killed. Which probably made her a shitty commanding officer. “I was right behind him,” she whispered.
    “You were doing your job. Making sure your troops got out safely.”
    The standard line. “It could have been me.”
    He clenched his teeth. “I’d prefer not to think about that.”
    Caroline ran her palm over the sheet that was covering her. Starchy and sterile. Cold. “It was my job to get those guys out of there.”
    Jack covered her hand with his. “Do not blame yourself for this,” he said. “From what you just told me, this wasn’t anyone’s fault. Except for the assholes who left all those IEDs in the ground to be inadvertently discovered by anyone who dared set foot on that base. That was a direct message from Santos. And he’ll pay for it.”
    She brought her free hand to her head. “Anyone else hurt?”
    “Bumps and bruises, scratches, a cut here and there. A twisted ankle or two. Nothing too major. They dragged you back here with some shrapnel in your shoulder and a gash on your head. You’ve been unconscious for some time.”
    She’d been so dumb. So stupid. So selfish. Taking that mission, hurting him the way she had. Why was he still with her? “Am I going to be okay?”
    “Isn’t that a relative term to you?”
    Her husband still had his sense of humor. Good thing someone did. “Touché.”
    Jack rubbed his thumb across her hand as she finally took a good look at him. Rumpled shirt, five o’clock shadow, red raccoon eyes - both of which were completely focused on her.
    “You look like shit,” she told him.
    He smiled mockingly. “Caroline, you say the nicest things.”
    “How long was I out?”
    “Three days.”
    Jesus Christ. Every time she did something stupid, it got worse and worse. She was damn lucky to be awake in the