More Than a Mission - Caridad Pineiro [47]
With that, Natalie scurried up the stairs, leaving the two of them alone.
She examined him again, reached out and eased the ice bag from the side of his face to take another peek. “There’s a bruise already.”
Aidan wanted to say, “Well, hello, duh. You kicked the shit out of me,” but her look of concern was so real, it was hard to imagine she could fake it. “I’ll be fine,” he reassured, although a whopper of a headache was rapidly growing behind his eyes.
She dropped her hands to her thighs and rubbed them there nervously. “You scared me. I thought you were really hurt.”
Again, apprehension, seemingly real and unpracticed, flashed across her face on his behalf. “I’m fine. And I know you have to get to work. I’m going to head back to my place to rest.”
“That’s not a good idea. You were out for a while. You could have a concussion.”
She was probably right, because he was sure that at any moment, his head might split open. When he moved it too quickly, nausea set in along with a wave of dizziness. “So what do you propose, Lizzy?”
“Let’s get you to the cottage. You can sack out there so I can check on you.” As she said that, she slipped an arm beneath his shoulder, helped him to rise and then to navigate the stairs.
He appreciated her assistance, especially since his knees were wobbly. If it hadn’t been for her support, he might not have made it to the ground floor. By the time they reached the door to the cottage, a fine cold sweat had erupted on his skin.
She must either have seen or sensed his discomfort since she asked, “Are you okay?”
“I need to sit down.” No lie on his part. He worried he might keel over at any second.
She helped him to the sofa where she urged him to lie down and adjusted the pillows beneath his head until he was comfortable. When she examined him again, she said, “You look pale.”
He wanted to upchuck, but manly man that he was, he forced it down. “Fine,” was all he could manage, and he closed his eyes, hoping to make it clear that the one thing he wanted was to be left alone.
He sensed her continued presence by his side for a moment before she finally left.
Normally, he would have taken advantage of the opportunity to investigate the cottage at his leisure. Only now, he wasn’t up to it.
And come to think of it, he hadn’t heard a peep of any kind from Lucia. Reaching up to his ear, which was the side of his head that had taken the initial brunt of the kick, he dislodged the earpiece. It had tightly jammed into his ear canal from the force of the blow. It had also been accidentally shut off. Powering it back up, he slipped it into his ear and said, “Copy, Red Rover.”
Chapter 15
Aidan maintained his prone position on the couch, his head pounding too badly to consider moving right at that moment. Even the slight crackle from the earpiece seemed overly loud as he waited for a response from Lucia. While he lay there, he recalled Elizabeth’s concern for him. It troubled him. Had it been his imagination, or had he seen caring on her expressive face before he had closed his eyes against the pain? Could she be that good an actress?
He cursed under his breath as Lucia’s voice finally came across the earpiece, too loudly. Pain stabbed through his temples from the sound of it. “What happened, Blender Boy?”
He wished he knew. He had no explanation for how Elizabeth had managed to elude him in the tunnel, nor how it was possible that Natalie thought Elizabeth had been with her in the kitchen the whole time.
Maybe because it was someone else who nearly took your head off?
“I don’t know what happened. I heard someone and then they knocked me out.”
“You should return to base,” Lucia suggested, dragging a harsh chuckle from him.
“If I could, I would. Did you see anything?” He tried to keep his tone neutral, but even he could hear the pain and annoyance behind his words.
“Nothing. Someone jammed the signal,” Lucia replied.
Damn. That was not so good, he thought and again it occurred to him that it would have been difficult for Elizabeth to do the