Free Collateral Damage by Kaylea Cross Page B

shoulder. “Okay, we’ll need to get an X-ray to see what we’re dealing with, then we can fix you up. You hurt anywhere else?”
    Honor rubbed a hand over the back of her neck and rolled her head slightly, clearly exhausted. “Hit my head pretty hard on the ground. I was wearing a helmet but I’ve got a bitch of a headache.”
    Wait, what? His gaze shot to her face.
    Erin examined the back of her head. “You’ve got a lump. Did you lose consciousness?”
    “Maybe for a second, I’m not sure. Everything happened so fast…”
    Liam’s jaw clenched. So she could likely add a concussion to the list of injuries on top of everything else. Great. Damn it, he’d known she wasn’t telling him everything. “You better check her over, make sure she’s not hurt anywhere else,” he said to Erin.
    Erin glanced at him and raised a haughty eyebrow. “Thanks for the tip, but I learned about assessment in the first week of nursing school. And I’ve also roomed with her for a long time so I know exactly how good she is at putting on a brave face.” She shot a warning look at Honor before focusing back on him and her eyes hardened. “You’re Liam?”
    He nodded but Honor cut in with, “He was just leaving.” The scathing look she gave him made it clear she wanted nothing more to do with him. Probably ever. Which was what he’d wanted, right?
    So why did it feel like he’d just inhaled a gallon of broken glass?
    Liam sucked in a deep breath. “I’ll go finish up with the briefing. You can give your statement when you’re ready.”
    She nodded without glancing at him, and since there was nothing more to say and he wanted her to get looked after without any more drama, he left the room. For now he’d give her some space but he already planned to check in on her later and make sure she was okay. He needed to know that much.
    As he walked across the base her earlier words kept bouncing around in his head, torturing him with the possibility that she’d been telling the truth. That she’d actually told her family she’d been wrong before.
    That she’d chosen him over them.
    It wasn’t fair that she’d been put in that position in the first place but it hadn’t been his doing. And, much as his instinct warned him to ignore everything she’d said, he couldn’t.
    Because impossible as it seemed, if it was true, it meant that against all odds, there might still be a chance for them.

 
     
     
Chapter Six
     
     
    Honor winced as she shifted the pillow behind her back and changed position on her bunk slightly. The stitches in the back of her shoulder pulled whenever she moved her arm and even when she didn’t the wounds throbbed. After sitting on her bruised ass for the past two hours she was stiff as hell and she knew it was only going to get worse before it got better.
    The book she’d started was one she’d been looking forward to reading but no matter how hard she tried she couldn’t concentrate on the story. Her thoughts kept slipping back to Liam, everything he’d done today, everything he’d said. He might not be willing or able to forgive her for what she’d done but he still cared enough to stay with her and wanted to make sure she was okay.
    Obsessing about what it means is only going to make you miserable.
    She got busy reading. She was only half a chapter into the story when her cell beeped with a text message. Her heart leapt, hope surging inside her that it might be Liam. But when she eased to her side to retrieve it from the upturned crate that served as her bedside table, disappointment filled her, along with dread. Her sister.
    For a moment she contemplated ignoring or deleting the message, but since it had been nearly a month since she’d last heard from Charity, she decided to read it.
    Just heard about attack on the news. R U OK?
    A bittersweet pain pierced her. In spite of everything, Charity still loved her and cared enough to reach out. She knew this was her sister’s version of the