Free The Protector by Dee Henderson Page B

should have stayed under Neal’s and Amy’s watchful eyes for at least another hour. But she’d insisted she was ready to move and trying to stop her was like stepping in front of a steamroller.
    “You didn’t tell me I shouldn’t have gone in.”
    Jack turned his head long enough to look at her, surprised by the touch of irritation in her voice. He’d cleaned her glasses and her eyes seemed huge behind the lenses. They were still red and watering from the smoke irritation and she was blinking to try to clear them. A fact that just made her look cute. “Because I think you did the right thing.” He wondered why she had assumed he would have disagreed with her decision. It might have added about ten years to his life, and until she stopped coughing he was going to be wheezing in sympathy, but it had been the right decision. “You needed to go in.”
    “I didn’t want to.”
    Jack reached over, avoiding her left hand wrapped in a cold towel and settled for touching the grimy knee of her jeans. “You went in anyway.” There was admiration and lingering fear in that. She had been touched by fire once, and she still went in. She’d been touched by it again because they hadn’t been in time to help her. “It makes you even more of a hero.”
    “Heroine.”
    “You’re still lady blue,” he corrected.
    “Thanks.” She sounded pleased…even touched.
    “You’re one of us. Even if you aren’t around nearly as often as we would like.”
    “The guys crowd me,” she said softly. “And it’s hard on their families.”
    Jack hurt to hear that even though he understood it. She was the walking reminder of what families feared would happen. “They don’t mean it to be.”
    “It’s just reality. I’m not complaining.”
    “And it’s hard to be around what you once had.”
    “Yes.” She shifted Cole’s coat. “I smell like smoke. I don’t miss that at all.”
    As a way to lighten the conversation, she had chosen a great point to make. “We both do.” The vehicle now smelled like a campfire gone bad. It was not exactly the way to make a good impression on a lady.
    “Did you see where my leather jacket went?”
    Jack was grateful she hadn’t asked how it had fared. The leather had done its job, deflecting burning embers, but it had been destroyed in the process. “Cole had it. I think he tossed it in your car.”
    She eased open the cold towel to look at her blisters.
    “Don’t start playing with the bandage and messing up Neal’s work.” The cold towel kept the gauze wet and the burns moist, a major factor for how it healed.
    “Would you relax? They’re just blisters. A day or two and they will be calluses.”
    “What did they give you for the pain?”
    “I’ve no idea, but whatever was in the shot, it’s working.”
    “Your words are slurring.”
    “I don’t make much sense at this time of night anyway, so it’s probably not much of a loss.” She lost her voice on another coughing fit.
    “I wish you had seen a doctor.”
    “At this time of night they wouldn’t have let me go home.”
    “That’s a big deal?”
    “Yes.”
    It wasn’t much of an explanation, but the emotions under the word were deep. Home was critical to her now. He tucked that fact away. Did she dream about the fire, need the comfort of her own bed to help her sleep?
    “How are your forearms?”
    “They hurt.”
    She raised her hand, then stopped. “I wish I could rub my eyes.”
    “There’s a clean handkerchief in my shirt pocket if you want it.” Jack would have reached for it and given it to her, but his hands were far from clean.
    Cassie leaned over and tugged it out with her right hand. “Thanks.” She slipped off her glasses and wiped at her eyes.
    “Need more eyedrops?”
    “When we get to the station.” She slipped her glasses back on.
    Jack rolled his shoulders and did his best to cover a yawn. It was embarrassing to admit how adrenaline sapped his energy.
    “I can’t say I miss the middle of