Her Lucky Number Thirteen (The American Soldier Collection 13)

“Getting some fresh air,” she replied.

“Well, tell us first, and one of us can sit out here with you,” Dusty added, crossing his arms in front of his chest and staring at her.

She exhaled in annoyance.

“When can we leave the house? You know, go for a walk, a ride, maybe a run?” she asked, feeling that loss of not being able to work out every day. She loved running and exercising, lifting weights and challenging her body. Doing the push-ups and sit-ups, even with the stitches aching, wasn’t enough.

“There’s a weight room down in the basement. Everything you need is in there. A treadmill, elliptical, a speed bike with the TV so you can participate in live spin classes,” Dusty told her. She rolled her eyes at him.

They had all been being kind of testy with her lately. Since the other night when Aspen and her men came to visit. In fact, Aspen was supposed to negotiate a little shopping trip. She assured they would be safe and even suggested a disguise as precaution for Nalia. She smirked to herself. The men weren’t too thrilled with that at all.

She felt their eyes on her and then realized she wasn’t enjoying this. She felt caged in. She turned to look at Viktor and Dusty.

“There’s nothing like running outdoors. Can’t we do that? I mean do any of you work out?” she asked and then felt her cheeks warm as both very fit, muscular sexy men raised an eyebrow at her. “You know what I mean. Run?” she asked.

“No. No running,” Dusty said. Now he was being firm and he was the quietest and calmest of the bunch.

She exhaled. “Why the hell not? We can pack guns and be ready just in case.”

“The answer is no,” Viktor stated firmly.

“Grrr.” She growled and headed back inside.

She walked into the living room to see Cosivan and Chatham looking at some papers and at the laptop.

“What’s going on?” she asked them.

“Nothing,” Cosivan said and looked her over. She plopped down onto the couch.

“I want to go for a run.”

“No,” Chatham stated firmly.

“What? Why not?”

“Because Dusty and Viktor said no.”

“I thought you were the boss of this thing. I need exercise. I’m going insane.”

“The stitches. Remember,” Chatham stated.

“The stitches, remember,” she mimicked and then stood up and headed to her room.

She was in such a state and as she got to the top of the stairs there was Boian.

“Hey, what’s going on?” he asked her and gave a small smile.

“Nothing. As usual. Can’t do a damn thing. Can’t go outside. Can’t run. Can’t deal with all your attitudes for no reason.” She threw her hands up in the air.

“The stitches.”

“Yeah, yeah, the stitches. Then take them out,” she said and walked to her bedroom and slammed the door closed.

She felt so frustrated as she plopped down onto the bed and felt fine. She slid off of it and landed on the floor. Taking matters into her own hands, she began to do a bunch of push-ups then sit ups, letting off some steam. They were making her crazy. They were keeping their distance and being jail wardens. She practically threw herself at them one at a time and got no response but denial or they ran. What the hell? She growled some more until she exhausted herself and fell to the floor in a sweat.

“A shower. That’s what I need, a nice cold shower.”

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