Wild Nevada Ride (22 page)

“Major Jamieson, can you hear me?”

She moaned again.

“Major, open your eyes.”

If I could, I would, ass-wipe. God, my head hurts!

After a moment, she slowly lifted her lids and blinked several times, trying to bring her vision back in focus. A not-so-bad looking guy leaned over her in a white coat with Captain’s bars gracing his broad shoulders. She could vaguely make out the nameplate above the pocket of his lab coat. Martin.

“Major?”

She licked her lips and ground out, “What?”

He chuckled. “Better. Glad you are back with us.”

Her throat felt parched, and her lips were cracked, but she managed to croak, “Where the hell am I?”

“Walter Reed.”

Frown lines settled between her eyes, and she closed them for a moment. Thinking made her head hurt worse, but she had to piece together what happened. She couldn’t remember.

“What?”

“What happened?”

She slowly nodded.

“You were shot down over enemy territory in Iraq. They couldn’t find you for a bit. You must have gotten a severe concussion in the wreck because you wandered away from your plane, and they found you a couple of miles away.”

She cleared her throat. “Smitty?”

“He’s fine. Just a few bumps and bruises. He happened to be knocked out too, so he couldn’t tell them where you went.”

“Am I okay?”

“You’ll be fine. You had us worried for a bit with your concussion, but since you have regained consciousness, the prognosis is much better.”

“How long?”

“How long were you out?”

“Yeah.”

“A few days.”

“Damn,” she murmured softly, not at all like she wanted it to come out. “My family?”

“They are aware of your whereabouts.” He chuckled and said, “Your mother wasn’t about to let anyone tell her they didn’t know where you were.”

“My mother?”

“General Langston?”

Katrina frowned.
What the hell does she care what happens to me?

“Both of your parents are here. I didn’t realize you had such connections, Major. A Colonel for a father and a General for a mother?”

Her shoulder lifted in a half shrug.

He started to move toward the door as he said, “I’ll check on you after a while. I know your parents want to come in and see you.”

“Okay,” she whispered.

“Oh, and by the way, just so you aren’t concerned because of the accident and all the testing, the baby is fine.”

Her eyes widened in shock.
What the hell is he talking about now? I’m not pregnant.
“Baby?”

“Yeah. We did an ultrasound to make sure the fetus was nice and snug.”

Her mouth dropped open while she searched her mind for the last time she had bled.
It’s been a few months now. I didn’t have one before I left and I’ve been over here for over a month. I didn’t even think about it with all the stress, but I took birth control. How can this be?

Captain Martin tilted his head slightly to the right and peered at her with concern. “By the look on your face, I’m assuming you didn’t know.”

She cleared her throat, trying to dislodge the lump attempting to choke off her air. “No, I…”

“I’ll keep your parents out for a bit so you can absorb the news. I have a copy of the ultrasound on your chart if you would like to see it.”

“Yes, please. This is a bit of a shock.”

“I can imagine. I’ll be right back.”

He disappeared then, only to return a few minutes later with the picture and a piece of paper. “Here.” He held up the ultrasound picture, but she didn’t have a clue as to what she was looking at, and it must have showed on her face.

Pointing to what appeared to be a bubble with a small blob in the middle; he tried to explain what everything was. “This is the placenta and this,” his said as his finger stopped at the blob, “is the baby. I would say by this, you are about eight weeks. Of course, I’m not an OB and you will want to see one pretty soon so you can get some pre-natal care.”

Tears formed in her eyes and slid into her hair as she weakly grasped the picture in his hand.
This would explain the nausea I had since I arrived in Iraq and the unreal need for sleep.
She blinked back the tears.
Justin’s baby.

“I’ll leave you alone now. If you need anything, just hit the button on the side of the bed.”

“Thanks, Captain.”

“You’re welcome, Major.”

She smiled weakly. “It’s Katrina.”

“Okay, Katrina. You can call me Adam.”

“Thanks again, Adam.”

“I’ll be back after a while. Don’t try to get up on your own. You are still very weak and will probably be lightheaded for a bit yet.”

“I won’t.”

He chuckled softly and disappeared out the door as she lifted her gaze to the ceiling above her.
Justin’s baby.
Her hand settled on her still flat stomach and her heart hammered in her chest.
Now what the hell am I going to do?

She must have dozed off after the tears had stopped. The next thing she felt was a warm hand picking up hers as she opened her eyes and smiled.

“Hey, Dad.”

“I can’t leave you alone for a minute, can I?”

“I guess not.”

“I hope you at least got your target before you hit the dirt.”

She chuckled softly before she said, “Yeah. We had already finished our run and were headed back. I guess this is what I get for not keeping my mind on track.”

“Daydreaming, were you?”

Heat flushed her cheeks, and she dropped her eyes.

“Justin?”

Her gaze returned to her father’s as she shrugged. “I should have seen it coming, Dad. I lost my concentration and dropped the ball.”

“It happens to the best of us, sweetheart.”

“Not you.”

“Yeah—even me.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“It’s true, baby. I’ve done it, too.”

Her gaze found the intimidating figure of her mother as she propped herself against the wall before it returned to her father.

“I’m glad Smitty is okay.”

“He’s fine. He’ll probably be by after a while to see you. He is here too.”

Patricia approached the bed.

“What are you doing here?”

“I came because I care.”

Kat snorted in disbelief. “You don’t care about anyone or anything but yourself.”

“If that were true, why did I pull every string I had to find out whether they had found you? Why did I put up with your grandmother, your father, and every other family member at her house for several hours? You are my daughter, Katrina, whether you want to admit it or not. And just so you know, probably every member under my command as well as your father’s, knows that fact now.”

“Not by any admission of yours, I would imagine.”

“God, you are a bitch,” Patricia said as she ran her hand behind her neck.

“I get it, honestly—Mom.” Katrina heard a soft chuckle coming from near the door, and when she turned toward the noise, her heart dropped into her stomach when her eyes met those of the man who had stolen the errant organ and refused to give it back. “Justin,” slipped from between her lips on a whisper. She almost whimpered as she fought the desire that whipped through her like wildfire.

“Miss me?”

His arrogance pissed her off. Tamping down the craving for his body racing through her with the look in his eyes, she snapped, “Not in this lifetime.”

He sauntered toward the bed as her gaze took in the smooth roll of his hips. Her lips parted slightly, and she licked them nervously.

“You are a liar, too.”

“We’ll leave you alone, Kat. Your mother and I have some things to discuss anyway. We’ll be back in about an hour.”

“Sure, Dad.” He turned and looked at Justin, but she couldn’t read the expression in his eyes before he and Patricia disappeared out the door. Justin took the seat next to the bed. “What are you doing here?”

“I figured there were some things we needed to work out.”

She gave him her best, ‘I’m waiting’ look, but didn’t respond.

“You scared the hell out of me—you know that, right?”

“How so?”

He raked his fingers through his hair. “When Mark told me you had been shot down and they couldn’t find you…”

“What, Justin?”

“You have no idea the thoughts running through my mind at the time.”

“Like?”

“The first one happened to be—were you dead? I couldn’t handle that, Kat. My heart about stopped when he said they didn’t know where you were.”

“It did?”

“Yeah, it did. Then I spent the entire evening at your grandmother’s, listening to your parents threaten people with their lives and their careers if they didn’t tell them your status.”

“You were at my Gram’s?”

“Yes, and by the way, she thinks we’ll make wonderful great-grandbabies for her.”

Her hand slid to her stomach in a caress, and she let her fingers splay across her belly. His eyes took in the movement, but he didn’t say anything. “She would say that.”

He chuckled. “You are a lot like your grandmother.”

“I’ve heard those words before.”

He picked up her hand and entwined their fingers together intimately. Heat zinged up her arm to settle somewhere in her chest, making it ache for the love of the man next to her.

“I hate how we left things when you took off.”

She closed her eyes for a moment before she opened them again and stared into his. “Me too. I missed you.”

A smile rippled across his mouth and the devastating dimples peeked out of his cheeks. “I missed you too, baby. God, you have no idea how much I missed you.”

Tears sparkled on her lashes when her own smile lifted the corners of her mouth. One lone tear slipped down her cheek, and he reach over, wiping it off with his thumb.

“Why are you crying?”

“Because I never thought I would see you again, much less have you tell me you missed me.” She sniffed, and her other hand wiped at the tears in her eyes.

“There is something else I need to say. Mark gave me your email address, and you have no idea how many times I sat down to write to you, but I just couldn’t put everything down. I didn’t want to. I wanted to tell you in person and you were thousands of miles away.”