Her eyes met his. “The bodies, you mean.”
It killed him she had to deal with this, but he respected her too much to play games.
“Yes.”
She swallowed hard. “That’s the first time I ever… I mean, learning to shoot was, you know, it was almost an academic exercise, but being in the middle of—of—”
“I had no choice.”
“Of course you didn’t!” She spread her hands over his chest. “I just keep thinking, what if you hadn’t been so quick? So focused? They would have—”
Tanner kissed her.
She sighed and slid her hands up his shoulders, into his hair. He wanted to stay like this forever, but right now time was everything.
“We have to move,” he said, drawing back so he could see her face.
“I know.”
“So here’s the deal. I’ll do what I have to do. You…” She, what? The worst thing would be to let her stand around watching him drag the bodies into the underbrush and cover them as best he could with leaves, branches, whatever would keep the guerrillas from stumbling over them if they came this way. “You check the area where I put up the shelter. The ashes of the fire, too. Make sure we didn’t leave anything behind.”
She nodded. He took her hand, brought it to his lips, then stood and drew her to her feet…
Shit!
He slapped a hand against the tree. It was the only thing that kept him from going down on his ass.
“Tanner?” Alessandra’s voice was sharp with panic. “What’s the matter?”
His fucking leg. That was what was the matter. He’d moved fast, pivoting to take down the one gunman and then the other. Now he’d turned too quickly or put his weight on the leg wrong, and a sharp pain shot from his ankle straight up to the wound in his calf.
“Answer me, dammit! Something’s wrong and…” Her face lost all its color. “Did—did a bullet…”
“No. No, it’s nothing like that.”
“Then what is it? And don’t even think of lying to me. We’re in this together, you’re hurting, and I want to know why.”
She sounded tough.
Hell, she was tough. It was one amazing trifecta. Smart. Tough. And beautiful. And she was right. There was no sense in lying. They were in this together…but that didn’t mean he couldn’t downplay things a little.
“It’s an old injury, that’s all, and it’s giving me a little trouble.”
“How about taking another of those pills for pain? Don’t try that innocent look on me, Lieutenant. I saw you sneak one this morning.”
Tanner clasped her shoulders.
“Bellini,” he said, “which of us is the mission leader here?”
She blinked. Then, as he’d hoped, she managed a small smile.
“You going to pull rank on me, Lieutenant?”
“Yes ma’am, I am. I’m in charge. That means I give the orders. You get to say…What are those two words again?”
“Two words?”
He tried hard to look stern, but it wasn’t easy.