She shook her head. “I’m pretty sure that’s a big fat lie.” She frowned, staring at his chest. “Lachlan, you’re bleeding.”
Lachlan looked down at the tears in his suit. Blood was soaking into the white fabric. Dammit.
Then he frowned. Suddenly, he was aware of an icy cold creeping over his skin.
He staggered. Rowan caught him, swaying under his weight, as she fought to keep him upright.
“Amigo?” Axel said.
“Lachlan?” Panic skimmed Rowan’s face. “Someone help!”
Chapter Five
Rowan jogged beside Seth and Axel as they carried Lachlan between them. His face was ashen and his jaw tensed.
Ahead, she watched Callie and Smith disappear into the base with Lars.
“We have a small infirmary.” Rowan raced ahead to hold the door open. “It’s off the second lab dome.”
“Got it,” Axel murmured.
They hurried through the base, and the men helped Lachlan onto the bunk in the infirmary.
“It’s nothing,” Lachlan growled. “It’ll be fine.”
Rowan hurried to flick on the bunk’s heating pad. Lachlan’s color still wasn’t great. Then she turned to a cabinet, yanking it open and pulling out the first aid gear.
“Right. Like when you told me your arm was fine when you fell out of my treehouse as a kid.” She glanced at the men. “It was broken.”
Axel snorted, shooting her a sexy grin. “Sounds like she has you worked out, amigo.”
“She pushed me out of the treehouse,” Lachlan grumbled.
Seth let out a quiet laugh. Axel’s smile made Rowan’s brain go blank. With his sexy, brown eyes, smooth, brown skin, and that smile…he was designed to short-circuit a woman’s brain.
Lachlan growled again. “Rowan.”
She spun to look at Lachlan. He didn’t look happy. “Um, it was an accident. I didn’t mean to knock you out.”
Lachlan eyed her, slipping his cold-weather coat off.
Right. Injuries. “Help him get his shirt off as well.”
Lachlan continued to complain as Axel and Seth helped him out of his gear. Rowan set the first aid gear out on a small tray.
When she turned back, this time her brain didn’t go blank, it simply stopped functioning.
Lachlan’s upper body was bare and she couldn’t look away.
Holy cow. She didn’t know where to look first—the sleek muscles, the incredible silver prosthetic arm, or the tattoos. She swallowed. She didn’t know anyone could look that ripped. He had to have, like zero body fat.
Rowan’s gaze moved over his bronze skin to take in the large tattoo on his left shoulder, and the ink down his side. Then her attention snagged on his right arm. The prosthetic was unlike anything she’d ever seen. It was grafted onto his skin at his shoulder, and was made of some sort of high-tech metal.
She’d had no idea he had a prosthetic arm. It moved perfectly in sync with him, just like his organic arm. Her gaze slid lower, to where his six pack abs and defined muscles disappeared into his cold-weather trousers.
She jerked her head up. How about you focus on the wicked scratches on his chest, Rowan?
Clearing her throat, she lifted a syringe. “I have some painkillers—”
“No,” Lachlan said.
“It might hurt—”
“It’s fine. No drugs.”
She glanced at Axel and Seth, and saw both men were grinning.
“Lachlan’s afraid of needles,” Axel said.
She blinked. That this rugged, tough warrior was afraid of anything blew her mind. “O-kay.”
“I’m not afraid…I just don’t like them.”
“Uh-huh,” Rowan agreed. She opened some antiseptic wipes and leaned over Lachlan. She swiped at the gashes and heard his controlled hiss.
“It’s not too deep,” she murmured.
“The boss hates getting patched up,” Axel said. “Fights Callie tooth and nail.”
Lachlan scowled at his teammate.
“I think I have this, guys,” Rowan said.
With a laugh, Axel left. Seth followed with a shake of his head, shooting her a look. His ice-blue eyes made her shiver.
“I don’t think Seth likes me,” she murmured.
“Seth trusts exactly five people. His teammates. He takes a little time to warm up.”
As she cleaned the nasty scratches, she was happy to see the white tinge on his skin disappear. “How did he get so distrusting?”
“He spent over a decade working for the CIA.”
“He was a spy?” she breathed.
Lachlan’s lips twitched. “Something like that. When Seth wants to blend into a crowd, even his mother couldn’t find him.”
“Were you CIA, too?”
He shook his head. “I joined the Marines right out of school. Force Reconnaissance.”
Rowan didn’t know what Force Reconnaissance was, but it sounded badass. She made a note to look it up.
She cleaned up the last of the blood. His skin was back to a gorgeous bronze. “I don’t think you need stitches, but I’ll put some medical glue on the scratches.” It was the most commonly used thing in the infirmary. Someone was always nicking themselves on something. Like when Isabel—
Pain made Rowan’s throat close. No one around here would be needing the infirmary again.
“Rowan?”
She pushed it away. “What happened to your arm?”
“Injury.”
When he didn’t say anything else, she smiled. “I see you’re still a man of many words.”
The faintest smile hit his lips, then faded away. “A mission went bad and we were overrun by insurgents. I went in to save a fellow Marine, but got caught in a blast. Lost my arm, and Blair dragged my ass out of there and got injured as well. Afterward, I left the Marines and joined Team 52.”
His voice was toneless and she knew it had been bad. “I’ve never seen a prosthetic this high-tech before.”
He stayed silent.
“And Blair’s eye…?”
“She lost it rescuing me.” His tone said he was done talking.
Okay, moving on. She pressed a hand to his chest, realizing just how hot and hard he felt. Electricity zinged through her and she forced herself to lift the glue tube. She ran it through the deepest scratches.
She could feel his attention on her. Her gaze flicked up to find tawny eyes watching her. Her chest locked.
Pulse jumping, she smoothed her hand over his hard pec. She saw something flicker in his eyes. Helpless to stop herself, she stroked his sleek skin again, and this time, she saw his big body shiver.
Wow. Talk about bad timing. She looked up and their gazes met.
“Rowan…”
His voice moved through her, setting her nerves alight. Rowan stepped back and tried to recap the tube of glue with trembling fingers. “All done. So…can you explain what I just saw out on the ice?”
“Yes. But you’ll never be able to tell anyone. It’s classified.”
Her heart thumped. “What will happen to Lars?”
“He’ll be cared for. There will be a cover story to explain the death of the other scientists.”
Rowan squeezed her eyes closed and thought of her friends—Isabel, Emily, Samuel, Amara, the others. Their families would never know the truth.
“Probably something like a gas leak,” Lachlan continued. “Something that killed them all at once.”
She nodded tiredly. “And the artifact?”
“That’s a longer story.” He swung into a sitting position.
Suddenly, she found herself very close to him and staring at a wall of hard chest. She sucked in a deep breath and pulled in his scent. Heat moved through her body, settling in her belly.
“Rowan, you’d better stop looking at me like that,” he said.
She met his gaze and saw the same attraction she felt shimmering there. She’d loved his golden tiger eyes when she’d been young. They looked harder and scarier now, but she wasn’t afraid of him. She’d never been afraid of him.
After a few breathless seconds, he reached out and touched her hair, stroking a strand of it between his fingers. Rowan inhaled audibly.
“How’s the patient?”
Callie’s cheerful voice made Rowan step back. She looked up at the medic and forced a smile. “Fine.”
“Usually he gives me trouble.” Callie moved closer, her gray gaze on Lachlan’s injury.
Lachlan gave the woman a scowling look, before reaching for his shirt. He shrugged it on.