Free Edge of Reason (EDGE Security Series Book 2) by Trish Loye

each time they’d approached the tunnel.
    “It’s why I couldn’t figure out exactly what it was that threw you off. Claustrophobic?”
    “Nothing so extreme. I just…” She shrugged. “I hate small, dark spaces filled with water.”
    “So does everyone,” he said. “It seems like more.”
    She didn’t say anything. In a normal situation he’d drop it, but they were going to be on a team together. He had to know everything, to trust her implicitly. “I need to know,” he said.
    She expelled a deep breath. “You’re right. It was a mission that almost went sideways. A car chase at night that ended in us going over a bridge.”  
    “What happened?”
    Her hands fisted while she stared at a spot over his shoulder. He ached to hold her in his arms, but knew a stupid move like that would end with him in traction. Instead, he waited.  
    “I think I went unconscious when we hit the water. I woke up in the dark. We were fully submerged already. Icy water covered my legs and stole my breath. It climbed rapidly. My partner, who’d been driving, didn’t answer me.”
    Her breathing picked up. Rhys pressed his arms to his sides so he wouldn’t touch her.
    “He had a heartbeat. I had to get us out of there. I used my gun to break the window. Freezing water poured in with massive pressure. There was no pushing past it. It felt like a death sentence sitting there, waiting for the water to fill the car past the broken window so we could swim out.”
    Her eyes met his and he saw the nightmare in them.  
    “I’d made a stupid mistake,” she whispered. “I’d forgotten to get his seatbelt off before the water came in. I couldn’t undo it. My hands were numb from the cold.” She shook her head.
    “Hell,” he muttered and he reached for her, wrapping her tight in his arms, surprised when she didn’t protest. She just rested her head on his shoulder and shivered. He stroked her hair and gave her the comfort she sought. He tried hard not to think about her lithe body against his and just focused on being what she needed—a shoulder to lean on, if only for a moment.
      “What happened?” he asked gently when she stopped shivering.
    “I managed to get him out,” she said. “Barely. I was so close to leaving him behind. We almost didn’t make it even after I got him out of the car. The current was strong. It pulled us back under more than once.” She lifted her head and he lost himself in her striking blue eyes, but it didn’t surprise him that this woman had been able to rescue her partner.  
    “Thank you,” she said, stepping back out of his arms. “It was a dark moment that still gives me nightmares.”
    He nodded solemnly. “I know about nightmares.” Anyone in special ops had seen and done things that chased them in their dreams. It was a consequence of what they did. “I’m surprised that tunnel doesn’t have more of an effect on you.”
    She gave a short, humorless laugh. “I spent hours going through the Beast, and sitting at the bottom of the pool in the dark.”
    “So you’re a woman who likes to torture herself.”
    She grabbed a towel from the table beside the fridge and threw it at his head. “Dry off, sailor. We’ve got a full day planned.”
    He used the towel on his hair and noticed how she averted her gaze from his chest. He smiled. Nice to know that she was as affected by him as he was by her. But now wasn’t the time to explore that. They were teammates. He had to put aside his memories of their night together. He could do that.  
    He hoped.
    He watched out of the corner of his eye as Cat ran excess water from her short hair. The water darkened it to a golden color that made her blue eyes brilliant against her lightly tanned skin. Water dripped down her neck and a drop ran down over her collarbone and toward…
    “Lafayette?”  
    Shit. His gaze snapped to hers and he thankfully saw a twinkle there. “Yes?”
    “I asked if you have full clearance yet?”
    He nodded.