was looking at her and nodding, so Tash raised her voice so the SUV’s microphone would pick up her.
“Uncle Alan,” she said. “It’s Tasha. I’m with Thomas—and Rio and Dave. And Tedric. We’re in the car. We’re safe. We’re coming home.”
Chapter Thirty
Wednesday Night
Damn, but Thomas hated hospitals.
Still, as the old SEAL adage went, he didn’t have to like it, he just had to do it.
His shoes squeaked on the antiseptic industrial tile floor as he followed his escort—a member of the Ustanzian security detail—down the corridor to Prince Tedric’s private room, where Tasha was waiting.
Two men, also wearing the Ustanzian uniform, guarded the door. They looked at him hard—he was still wearing his red-plaid-and-pink clown costume, although he had changed out of the battered boots and into a pair of Nike cross-trainers that Rio had grabbed from Thomas’s locker and thrown into the back of the SUV.
Because Rio didn’t play around, he’d also packed Thomas several changes of clothes. But Thomas was waiting to shower before he de-clowned—and he was waiting to make sure Tasha had everything she needed before he found a shower. He’d also helped himself to some of the extra clothes that Rio had brought along for himself—cargo pants, a T-shirt, and a thick fleece jacket—thinking that although they’d be big on Tash, they wouldn’t be as swimmingly huge as Thomas’s would be.
The door to the prince’s room was open, so after he got the grudging nod from the guards, he knocked softly as he went in. Tasha was curled up under several hospital blankets in a big chair by the window, sound asleep. The prince wasn’t in the room—the bed was empty—and Thomas just stood there for a moment, watching Tasha sleep.
Her legs were tucked beneath her, and she was holding tightly to the blanket, pulled up beneath her chin.
God, he loved her so much.
It still seemed unbelievable—all that had happened since they’d left San Diego just a few short days ago. The past twenty-four hours alone felt like a lifetime. But he’d done it. They’d done it. They were here, alive and safe.
Now came the hard part. Figuring out if everything they’d said and done—all those heartfelt conversations, making love on the sofa while locked in together—could survive outside of the forced intimacy of the pod.
Thomas had thought Hell yes—until he’d come face-to-face with Tasha’s prince.
But now...
It was so damn obvious that when Tasha looked at Tedric, she didn’t see what Thomas saw—a man who truly loved her. A man who willingly ran toward danger for her.
True, the same could be said about Thomas, but he was a SEAL. Running toward danger was in his job description. And while Prince Tedric had been gunning, literally, for this month’s Darwin Award with his foolish mishandling of a deadly weapon, it was hard not to respect the man for his courage and conviction—and his stalwart willingness to endure serious pain in order to get Tasha to safety ASAP.
Thomas had never been carried down a mountain at a fast-paced trot, with a broken leg and a gunshot wound jarring horribly at every step—and he sincerely hoped he never would be.
He looked around the room for a place to leave the clothes he’d brought for her—he’d let her continue to sleep while he hunted down a shower—and he saw that the tray table that swung over the bed was filled with bags and empty take-out containers from a high-end steakhouse. Even the remains of the food—baked potato skins and a small piece of what looked like a very nice filet—smelled delicious. The hospital cafeteria cheeseburger that he’d made sure was sent up to her was—rightfully—untouched.
Thomas set the extra set of clothes on the end of the bed, and quietly turned to leave.
“Hey.”
Thomas turned back to see Tasha stirring.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I was trying not to wake you.”
“No, I wasn’t sleeping—well, I think maybe I was, but... I was waiting for you,” Tasha told him, covering a yawn. But then she glanced pointedly at the open door, where the guards were positioned within earshot. “I haven’t had a chance to talk to Ted yet,” she said, sotto voce.
Okay. That was not great news in terms of silencing the weirdness and the squirrelly voices in his head. Time to carefully watch his words. And no grabbing her and kissing the shit out of her, as much as he wanted to.
Instead Thomas pointed toward the bed. “I brought you some clean clothes.”
“Oh,” she said. “Thank you, but...” As she threw off