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Protecting Hope

Seal of Protection / Midnight Delta Crossover Novel
A Novella

By Caitlyn O’Leary

Dedication

I’m dedicating this book to the bravest and kindest
person I know, my sister Molly. You are amazing.

I’d also like to thank Susan Stoker; I love her books,
her sense of fun and her constant positive attitude!

Synopsis

Navy SEAL Griffin Porter has been flirting with the lovely Miranda Slade for the past two months as they have commuted on the same Amtrak train. Miranda is smart, funny, caring and, unbeknownst to him, one of the bravest people he’ll ever meet. Today is the day for him to finally seal the deal, and make sure they start actually dating.

Wolf Steel gets on the train with his wife Caroline, along with many other passengers, as the train glides past the beaches of the Pacific Ocean. A thunderous crash leaves their rail car hanging over a cliff.

The situation just got screwed up beyond belief, and even though Wolf is on board, Griff is going to need extra help to get out of this one. With the cliff edge faltering, and rough terrain between the road and train, it’s going to take more than just normal emergency responders to rescue those aboard. Will Wolf’s SEAL team and the Midnight Delta team, make it in time?

Chapter One

Griff ran across the station, barely making it on board. He grinned as soon as he stepped onto the train. It wouldn’t have been the end of the world if he had arrived a couple of hours late to the Navy base at Coronado, but he sure as hell didn’t want to miss an opportunity to see Miranda Slade. This was their time together. And he’d made up his mind that this was the morning he’d be asking her out. Ms. Slade might not realize it, but she had been targeted by a SEAL, and that meant she belonged to him.

He sauntered down the car and quickly spotted her raven hair. He’d been pretty sure she’d be on this car, since they’d been sitting together, on this one, for the last nine Mondays. As he came upon her, he saw that there was a newspaper lying in the seat beside her. When she saw him walking down the aisle towards her, she picked it up and motioned towards the empty seat. Score!

She was on the phone. That was normal, too, the woman did a lot of work when she was on the train. That was fine, he could wait.

Griff made himself as comfortable as he could in the seat. Even here in the business class section, the seats didn’t easily accommodate his shoulders, and he ended up overflowing into her space a little bit. Miranda didn’t seem to mind, as she flashed him a bright smile, then settled back to her phone call. Griff listened in shamelessly. She could have easily commanded forces in the Navy. Right now someone was getting their ass handed to them in D.C.

“Doug, this is the third time you have missed something vital for Energys. We don’t have time to set up an entire new process to proofread behind you.”

He watched in fascination as she took quick notes on a sheaf of papers.

“I’m confused. I tracked the time you opened the e-mail. It was actually on Monday, not on Wednesday. So you had five days to go over the contracts. Are you telling me that wasn’t enough time?”

She was pissed. Apparently Doug didn’t think she would tag her e-mail. Doug didn’t sound like the sharpest tool in the shed.

“Is that really the tack you want to take, Doug?” She asked in a soft voice. “Your final answer is that you didn’t get enough time to review the documents?”

Griff wouldn’t want to be in Doug’s shoes.

“Thank you for your time, Doug.” She hung up the phone, even though he could still hear the man on the other end talking. Miranda was shaking her head in disgust as she dialed another number. It went to voicemail.

“Bob, this is Miranda. Doug’s off the Energys project effective immediately. I’m not telling you how to handle your employees, but I’m going to send you all the information you’ll need to write him up if you’re so inclined. You’ll have it by the end of the day. In the meantime, I’m going to need someone else to support Energys. Someone who can perform.” She actually went to the trouble of powering off her cell phone.

Griff raised an eyebrow. “You’re disconnecting?”

“Doug’s going to bitch to Bob. Bob’s then going to call me and beg me to take Doug back. If I take the call, I won’t be professional. The little sh-” she cut herself off before she swore. “Doug lied to me. He out and out lied to me. Anyway, I won’t handle it well with Bob so it’s best that I don’t take his call.”

“Why turn off the phone? Can’t you just let his call go to voicemail when you see his number come up?”

Miranda patted out an imaginary wrinkle in her skirt, then back up at him. “I’m kind of OCD, the phone rings and I pick it up. I just can’t help myself.”

“How many hours a week do you work?”

Pretty blue eyes looked at him and she grinned. “Too many.”

“How many is too many?” He watched as she once again brushed at imaginary wrinkles. This time he picked up her hand and held it in his. “Tell me.”

“Right now, since taking on this new client, about fourteen to sixteen hours a day, when I’m in San Diego.”

“And when you’re home in Anaheim on the weekends?” he asked.

“I cut it back,” she said looking at their clasped hands.

“Miranda, eighty-plus hours a week is more than just too many hours. Especially if you’ve been doing it for over two months.” As soon as the words were out of his mouth, Griff knew he was in trouble. He’d been accused of being too controlling in the past. Women didn’t like it.

“Yeah, I know,” Miranda agreed. “You’re right.” She sighed.

“That’s it? You’re going to actually agree with me?” he asked in surprise.

She gave him a puzzled look. Then she laughed. “Oh yeah, you were pretty Neanderthal, weren’t you? But I can’t give you a hard time when you’re right.” Griff relaxed, feeling even better than when he had first boarded the train. He really, really liked this woman.

“To tell you the truth, Griff, I’ve been doing this pace for almost five months and I’m close to the edge of burn-out. That’s the reason for turning off the phone. But the product will hit the market at the end of next month, and then I’m taking my six weeks accrued time-off in one big lump.” Miranda leaned her head back against the seat, and peeked over at him from beneath her lashes. “I need to just veg out.”

Griff wasn’t surprised how hard that hit him. He had been enjoying their time together on the train for the last two months. It was definitely time to put this into high gear, because he damn well wanted some of her leave time to be spent with him!

“That sounds like a good plan. Do you have any special place you want to go? Any special people you want to spend time with?” Great, really smooth Porter.

“At least one week I want to spend on a beach sipping rum drinks, and nope, nobody special. I’ll have to see if I can scrounge up one of my girlfriends, but most of them fall under the workaholic category, too.” Miranda wrinkled her nose. “Seriously, this shit needs to start slowing down.” She shoved at her leather computer case with her attractive maroon heel. She always wore nice shoes. Not too high, but pretty. “How about you? How much time do you take off, Mr. SEAL?”

“What about Wendy? I know she’s a big time director, but won’t she take off some time to go with you? Or Kenna?”

He watched as Miranda stared at him in amazement.

“What? You’re the only one who pays attention?” he chuckled. “Oh, I forgot, Kenna moved back to Ohio. Still, can’t she meet you?”

“Her new job is keeping her hopping, plus she’s trying to get her second book published,” Miranda said with a proud smile. “Wendy’s on location. Nope, I’ll probably be alone on the beach. Anyway, we were talking about your life. How much time do you take off?”

“I don’t work nearly as much as you do. When we’re not deployed it’s a regular forty- hour week, but you know that. I’m up in Anaheim every weekend to help Mom out with Dad.”

The train lurched, and her case slid, she bent down to move it back in place. Griff wanted to grab back her hand in his.

She tilted her head and asked, “How is your dad doing?”

Griff thought about how he left things this morning. His dad was downstairs in the hospital bed. The home healthcare worker would be in later in the day. “He’s doing better. We got in a couple of games of Scrabble. There is no way he would have been up for that last week.”

“And your mom?”

“Amazing as always.” Griff thought about his petite mother, who was the glue that kept his family together.

“When does your aunt arrive from Hawaii?”

“I sure must talk a lot to you,” Griff shifted in his seat so he could look directly at Miranda. He was feeling kind of sheepish.

“No, you don’t. I swear I have to play twenty questions each time. Like now.” This time, instead of kicking her bag, she pressed her foot against his calf. He gave her a wicked grin, and her eyes sparkled in return. “You’re aunt?” she prompted again.

“Are you sure you were never in the military?”

“Nope. But I did run a project for the Department of Defense. You learn a few things.”

The train gave another lurch, nothing that really would have caused him to lose his equilibrium, but Griff shifted a little bit anyway, so that their upper arms were now brushing up against one another. Miranda relaxed against him.

“My aunt is going to arrive on Friday. She’s my mom’s sister. She would have come sooner, but her youngest just graduated high school. She wanted to be there for the graduation ceremony. Now she intends to stay for a month and help Mom out.”

“Oh.” She pulled back into her seat. “I guess I won’t be seeing you then.” She definitely sounded disappointed.

He gave her a full-blown smile. “When is your assignment going to end? The end of next month?” he asked her.

“Most likely. Yeah, six weeks.” She bit her lip. She had great lips.

“Then, Miranda, you’re going to be seeing me for six more weeks.”

“I am?”

“Yep. Now that I know how much longer your assignment is, that’s how long I intend to keep seeing my parents. Or you could put me out of my misery and agree to go out to dinner with me now?” he said hopefully.

She gave a slow smile. Then she frowned. “I’d really like that, but I don’t usually leave the office until eight or sometimes nine at night.”

“Okay, then it’ll be a late dinner.”

“You wouldn’t mind waiting?” He liked that she sounded as hopeful as he felt.

“Hell, Miranda, I’ve been taking this train for two months even though my truck has been out of the shop for the last seven weeks. I’d say I wouldn’t mind waiting,” he laughed.

“You’ve been really worried about your dad, haven’t you? That’s what’s been holding you back, hasn’t it?”

He liked the fact that she understood why he hadn’t asked her out before this. It had been because of his dad. For some reason he hadn’t felt right about pursuing a social life with his dad so sick with the chemotherapy. But now that he was showing such a marked improvement, he felt like dating.

“Yeah, I have been worried about him. But he’s turned a corner.”

“I’m really happy for you and your family.”

“So what kind of food do you like?” Griff asked.

“It really doesn’t matter. Food’s food. It’s the company that matters.”

He grinned.

“Hi, you two.” He looked up to see Betty. They showed their tickets.

“How are you this morning, beautiful?” he asked the middle-aged woman who scanned their tickets. She gave them a big smile.

“I see you are still a big ‘ole flirt, Mr. Porter.”

“I know better than to flirt with a happily married woman, Betty. How are the grandkids?” Betty looked around the car and saw that it was pretty empty, so she took a moment to answer.

“Collin is starring in the school play, and Angela caught a fly ball in her first game.”

“That’s fantastic.” Betty left to scan the next people’s tickets.

“So, where were we?” Griff said looking at Miranda.

“I was about to question you.” She said as she started to shrug out of her blazer. Griff helped her, admiring the pink silk blouse she was wearing. There was something about a woman in a business suit that got to him. Then there was the fact that she wore pearls. God, half the time he was ready to swallow his tongue.

“Fire away.”

“What made you decide to become a SEAL? After I met you, I looked it up. That BUD/S training is intense. What makes a person decide to put themselves through something like that?”

Griff hesitated. He didn’t normally open up about that. But then again, no woman had ever thought to ask him such a direct question. He liked it.

“My great-grandfather and two of his brothers were on the beach at Normandy. Papa John died when I was seventeen. I grew up hearing about the ‘Great War’. When I was sixteen, he and his brother Alfred were reminiscing and they talked to me about that day. It was horrific. But they were proud. Their brother Harold died on Omaha Beach.”

Miranda reached out and put her hand on his. He turned his hand so their palms met and their fingers tangled. She was small and delicate compared to him. Light to his dark.

“All three of them had enlisted right after Pearl Harbor.” Griff hesitated. “They were something else. I wanted to be just like them.”

“I imagine you did.” Miranda smiled up at him. The loudspeaker called for the next stop as the train slowed.

“I love the San Juan Capistrano station,” Miranda said as she pointed to the historic area. “Before my mom died, we visited the mission together,” she told him.

“When did your mom pass?” he asked, as passengers began boarding the train.

“Three years ago. It was always just the two of us. She died in a car accident on the Four-Oh-Five Freeway.”

“I’m so sorry, Miranda,” he squeezed her hand. She gave him a small smile.

“Ma’am let me help you with that,” a familiar voice said. Griff turned and saw Wolf Steel, he led one of the most decorated SEAL teams in the Navy. Wolf and his lieutenant, Gray Tyler, had gone through BUD/S together. Griff watched as Wolf helped an older woman store her luggage over the lip of the upper metal rack above the seat. Betty saw Griff looking and winked. Wolf saw the wink and turned to look at Griff.

“Griff, is that you?”

“Hey, Wolf,” Griff smiled easily. He watched as Wolf gently guided a beautiful blonde ahead of him towards a seat that was across the aisle from him and Miranda.

“Honey, this is Griff Porter, he works for Gray’s team. Griff, meet my wife Caroline.” Caroline held out her hand. Another one that was slim and graceful, and oh so small in his. He shook it carefully.

“Hi, Griff, it’s a pleasure to meet you. I love meeting the men and women who serve with Matthew.” It took a moment for Griff to realize that Matthew was Wolf’s real name.

“Wolf. Caroline. I’d like you to meet Miranda Slade. She is a contracts’ analyst who is on assignment in San Diego with Energys. I’ve finally convinced her to have dinner with me.” Wolf raised his eyebrow, and Caroline’s eyes twinkled.

“Actually it wasn’t that hard to convince me,” Miranda said as she shook hands with the Steel’s. They all sat down in their seats, and soon the train was moving again.

“So, is it a job prerequisite for all of you to be built like mack trucks and look like Greek god’s?” Miranda whispered.

“He’s married.” Griff teased her. She hit him on his arm. He couldn’t help but preen a little bit that she found him attractive. But it wasn’t a sure thing, because Ms. Slade was pretty damned attractive, and he’d had to guard his seat pretty zealously over the last two months.

When the train took a heavy lurch, and she bumped into him, he took the opportunity to put his arm around her. For just a moment she looked startled, but then she smiled and snuggled into his side.

“I like this better than being on my phone,” she whispered.

“I don’t know,” Griff said. “You’re pretty damn sexy when you’re dressing down your subordinates.”

“Dressing down. I like that. It sounds so militaristic. I should be wearing a uniform, and carrying a riding crop like General Patton was in that movie.” Griff almost groaned. Suddenly he had a picture of her in a leather dress and high-heeled boots with a whip. Keep it together, Porter.

“Are you okay Griff? You made a funny sound.”

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Thank God an announcement sounded for another stop. Soon more people were coming on board, including a young mother with a toddler and young child. She had all of the requisite child paraphernalia accompanying her.

Griff and Wolf both got out of their seats to assist her, which seemed to overwhelm both the woman and the children. The little girl in her arms started to whimper and, then as Griff offered to take the woman’s suitcase, the child shrieked, “No!”

“I’m so sorry,” the young mother said. “Hope’s going through the terrible two’s.” Caroline, seeing the problem, got out of her seat and stepped between the two men and the small family.

“I think those men are just too darn big, don’t you, Hope?” Caroline asked.

The small child took a moment to assess Caroline, and finally she nodded her head, her brown curls bobbing around her face.

Caroline turned to the mother.

“My name is Caroline. These two men are Griff and Wolf and they’re here to help. Would it be okay if they stored some of your things in the overhead bin?”

The young woman looked hesitantly at Griff and Wolf and then back at Caroline and nodded. “My name is Susan.” She held out her hand as best she could with Hope in her arms.

Caroline shook it, and deftly took her diaper bag and backpack.

“Jeremy, come back here!” Susan yelled at a boy no more than four years old who darted past the three adults.

Griff watched as Miranda easily caught the young boy and swooped him up into a high hug.

“Whatchya doing? Wanna come look out the window with me, Jeremy?”

“Yeah! Can I, Mom? Can I?” Miranda walked over with her little charge.

“Hi, I’m Miranda Slade,” she said holding Jeremy.

The young mother smiled around the other three adults in the aisle of the train. “Hi, I’m Susan. Thanks for catching my little monster.”

“Not a problem, I like a good game of catch. Can he come sit with me while you get settled with your daughter?”

“I’d appreciate it.”

“As a matter of fact, Jeremy can sit with me as long as he’d like, it’s not a problem.”

“I don’t want to be an inconvenience.” Susan shifted Hope in her arms. The little girl looked at everyone with suspicious eyes. Griff finally caught her eye and waved. She stared at him with a frown, then suddenly, like the sun showing after a thunderstorm, she smiled. “Hi!”

All of the adults laughed and said ‘Hello’ to Hope.

“It’s no problem if Jeremy sits with me, Susan,” Miranda said.

“I wanna sit with Mira, Mom,” Jeremy piped up.

“How’d you know my nickname?” Miranda asked the little boy who was in her arms. “You’re pretty smart.”

He giggled as she gently poked his tummy. She turned and started walking back to her seat.

The train started again. “Susan, would you like a cup of coffee? I’m going to send the men for refreshments,” Caroline said.

“You are?” Wolf said with amusement as he stroked his hand down his wife’s hair.

“Yep. Miranda would you like juice or coffee?” Caroline called out to her.

“I’d kill for a cup of coffee. Jeremy would you like apple or orange juice?” Miranda asked the boy.

“Apple. Where are they going? Mommy can I go with them?” He wiggled to be let out of Miranda’s arms. She let him down.

“You can’t go with them. You have to stay on this car with us.” Griff watched as the boy started to tear up.

“Susan, how about we show him how the automatic door works between the railroad cars, and then have him go sit with Miranda? He could even press the button to open the door.”

“Can I Mom? Can I?” The boy bounced on his feet.

She shot Griff a grateful smile. “Sure, they’ll show you, but then you go right back to Miranda,” she admonished.

“Okay, Mommy.” He grabbed Griff’s hand and started tugging him towards the back of the car. He and Wolf grinned at one another at the child’s enthusiasm.

“Hold on, partner. We need to ask your mom what she would like to drink,” Griff told the boy. Griff watched as Susan fumbled for her purse. “No, I’ve got you covered. What would you like?”

She gave him a grateful smile. “Milk for Hope, and I’d like orange juice.”

Griff nodded.

“I know what you want,” Wolf said to Caroline.

“How do you like your coffee?” Griff asked Miranda.

“Pitch black.”

“Are you sure you weren’t in the Navy?”

She laughed.

He liked that she didn’t try to offer any money. Jeremy tugged on his hand again, and he and Wolf followed the little guy.

As they got to the back of the railroad car, there was a spot where they could go down the stairs. “Do we go down there?” Jeremy asked.

“Nope, that’s where you go when you want to get onto the train,” Wolf said. He pointed to the door at the end of the car. “Press this button. You have to press really hard.” The little boy used both hands and eventually it opened the door to the small passageway between the two railcars. “You did it, Jeremy!” Wolf crouched down and held out his palm. “High five.”

“Now what?” Jeremy asked after slapping Wolf’s huge hand with his little one.

“Now Griff and I are going to go through the next door, to the other car, and go down the stairs to the café and get the drinks. We’ll be right back.”

“Can I go with you? Please?” the little boy wheedled.

“Nope, you have to be a good boy and go back to Miranda like you promised you would.” Wolf stood up, and pointed back to where the women were standing. Jeremy reluctantly started walking back.

“Cute kid.” Griff said.

“He’s a handful,” Wolf agreed as they walked through the passageway to the next car. It was quieter than the one they were staying in. They made their way downstairs, and found four commuters in line ahead of them. Griff gathered the drinks for the kids, then poured two coffees into paper cups.

“Let me pay for Susan’s stuff,” Wolf said.

“No, I’ve got it.” Griff already had is wallet out.

Wolf nodded, then he picked up some Cheerios and bananas for the kids. It was obvious he was a soft touch. Griff understood.

Griff waited as Wolf doctored his wife’s coffee.

“So you met Miranda on the train?” Wolf asked.

“Yep, we’ve been commuting together every Monday for the last nine weeks. I finally asked her to go out with me this morning.”

“You’re moving kind of slow,” Wolf said as he poured the creamer into one of the coffees.

“Family stuff. My dad’s been going through chemo.” Griff shifted the sack with the juices. “How about you? Why are you and Caroline on the train?”

“We did the bed and breakfast thing up in San Juan Capistrano.”

Looking out the window over the ocean, Griff suddenly had a vision of Miranda laying in a four poster bed. She’d look beautiful with her black hair fanned out over a pillow.

“Are you with me Porter?” Wolf asked with a shit-eating grin.

“Sorry, my brain just got side-tracked for a-”

He heard a tremendous roar of thunder.

The train took a huge lurch.

As if in slow motion, Griff saw the coffee begin to rise into the air as his body was propelled up off the floor and he was thrown up and backwards, like he was in a tidal wave.

The lights went out, but the sun was still shining through cracked and broken windows.

He heard the shriek of metal.

His head and back were slammed into steel.

Everything went dark.

Chapter Two

Miranda woke up to darkness. Something was wriggling underneath her belly, and something hard and heavy was pressing against her leg, and it hurt. She hurt. A lot. She heard metallic groaning, and tasted copper. Her mouth was full of blood. She opened it, and let it drip out. That couldn’t be good.

“Mommy! I want my Mommy!” The wriggling turned to kicking.

Train. She was on the train. It had crashed. The wriggling was the little boy who had been sitting on her lap.

Miranda heard groaning. “Mommy! Where’s my Mommy?” She tried to answer. The kicking was hurting her stomach. She could move her arms. Why was it so dark? She spit out the blood in her mouth.

“Jeremy,” she croaked out the boy’s name.

“Mommy!” came the frantic cry.

“Honey. We’ll find your Mommy.” Miranda thought about moving off the boy, but she didn’t want him to scramble away from her. Why was it so dark? It had been morning. Had she been unconscious until it was night? No, that didn’t make sense, rescue workers would have gotten to her by now. She turned her head, and saw that the seat was over her head. Both of her arms were free, but her right leg was stuck.

“Jeremy, do you hurt?”

“I want my Mommy.”

“Jeremy, do you hurt?” she asked in a firm voice to get his attention.

“My arm hurts.”

That was good if just his arm hurt. The boy started to cry. Shit, she shouldn’t have asked. Now he was focusing on what was hurting. Miranda started to listen, and she could hear other people crying.

“Derek, wake up! Wake up!” The woman was shrieking. She kept repeating the same words over and over again, until finally she subsided into sobs. It drove home the fact to Miranda that she was lucky to be alive.

She needed to figure out what was on her leg, and get it off her. It wasn’t the seat, it was something else. The seat was what had saved her and Jeremy. She felt around and finally touched the leather of her briefcase. She shoved her hand in and found her cell phone. She powered it on, and dialed nine-one-one.

“What’s the nature of your emergency?”

“I’m on the Amtrak train heading to San Diego. We’ve crashed outside of Del Mar.”

“We know, first responders are on their way. What is your name?”

“Miranda Slade.”

“Can you tell me where you are? What your situation is?”

“Mommy! I want my mommy.” Jeremy grabbed at her phone and knocked it out of her hands. Shit.

Miranda picked it up. “Ma’am. Miranda, can you describe what is going on?”

“Look, just get help. I’m going to use the light of the phone to figure out how to get unstuck. I’ll call back when I can.” Miranda pressed “End.”

She used the flashlight feature to see Jeremy. His face was streaked with tears. He was blinking and she perused his body. He didn’t seem to be bleeding, thank God. Miranda was pretty sure she had some loose teeth, and her jaw hurt like a son of a bitch. She shone the light on her leg. It looked like part of a luggage rack was wedged on top of her leg. She tried to lift it, but the seat was on top of it.

“Miranda?” she heard a weak cry.

“Caroline?”

Nothing.

“Caroline?”

“Mommy. Mommy, where are you!” Jeremy was screaming now. Miranda had to get her leg free so that she could go and look for the two women and the toddler. If Jeremy wriggled free he would go wandering, she just knew it.

“We’ll find your Mommy, I promise Jeremy.” How was she going to get free?

“Does anybody need help?” A man’s voice called out.

For a moment she hoped it was Griff, but it wasn’t.

“Me! Help me,” another man cried out.

She heard glass breaking.

“Holy Fuck! We’re going to fall onto the beach.” A different man’s voice said.

Miranda vaguely remembered that she had been staring at a beautiful view of the ocean, and that they had been near a good-sized drop-off. Please say they weren’t near that spot.

Steel groaned.

“Don’t move!” the same man’s voice yelled out.

Screams shattered the darkness.

She had to get her leg unstuck. She tried pulling, but the pain was excruciating when she did that. She needed leverage to lift the damn thing. Think Slade. Think. She pulled her computer case over to her. She turned it, so that the wheels were facing her, and started to shove it under the rack. She pushed with all of her strength and finally the damn thing began to lift. She started to pull her leg out. Fuck, it still hurt, but she was finally able to pull it out from underneath the luggage rack.

As her leg came free, so did Jeremy.

“Wait!” she cried. He was up like a shot. She reached out, but didn’t catch him.

“Come back!” Miranda, used her arms to drag herself out from under the seat. At long last she was back out into the very dim light of the train car. With her phone light, she couldn’t believe the devastation that surrounded her.

The train was on its side. Seats were torn from their moorings, and scattered against the shattered windows on the floor. No wait, that was the side of the train. She shook her head, trying to orient herself. The side of the train was now the floor, she was standing on glass. She needed her shoes, and she needed them fast. She trained her light around, and saw one pump and then the other. She slipped them on.

“Lady?” She saw a man sitting holding his arm, that obviously had a compound fracture. He was bleeding heavily from his scalp.

“I have to find the little boy. Did you see him?” He tipped his head, indicating he went behind her. “Thank you.”

Miranda still wasn’t sure which way Susan and Caroline had been sitting.

“Caroline? Susan? Jeremy?” she shouted.

No answer.

She’d try for a mom voice.

“Jeremy! Young Man! Where are you? Jeremy, answer me right this minute!”

“I’m here.” Miranda slumped in relief. She saw the green shirt, and he was waving. She climbed over two seats. He was looking down. Oh God, it was a dead body. She picked him up.

“What’s wrong with her?”

“She’s sleeping honey.”

Please God, let his mom and sister be all right. “Susan!” she yelled out. “Caroline!”

“Over here.” She heard a weak voice. It was Caroline’s.

It was in front of her. She could have sworn they would have been behind her. God, her sense of direction was all off.

She took a step in the direction of the voice, and the train lurched and she slipped and fell. She hit her hip, and she gasped as pain reverberated up her leg. She managed to hold onto Jeremy, so that he didn’t hit the floor of the train. She heard more screams.

“We’re going to die!” It was a woman’s voice. Did she hear a siren?

Instead of darkness from the window below her, she could see a sliver of light. Oh God, sea grass was peeking through, and if she squinted she could see sand hundreds of feet below. The train car was literally perched on the edge of the cliff. Maybe they would die as it plummeted down the side of the cliff.

“Jeremy? Hope?” Susan’s voice was close.

“Mommy!”

The little boy wriggled, squirmed and kicked. “Hold on, little man. Let me take you to your mother. It’s not safe for you to be walking around.” Miranda struggled to stand up, but she finally managed to get to her feet. Dammit, she was missing a shoe again. She felt around with her toe, dealing with the squirming boy.

“Hold still, Jeremy. Please, I need you to hold onto me, and we’ll find your Mommy. Be good, and wrap your legs around me.” When he settled, she finally found her shoe and slipped into it. Why had she worn heels? Glass crunched under her feet as she moved.

“Susan? Call out, we’re coming.”

“Do you have Jeremy and Hope?”

Miranda’s heart broke at the thought of the little girl being away from her mother.

“I have Jeremy. Maybe Hope is with Caroline. Keep talking to me.”

“I’m here.” Miranda had to maneuver past sheet metal and insulation. She looked up, and saw that some of the siding had come off the wall of the train along with the luggage racks. The steel had sharp edges, and she had to be careful as she went around it to get to Susan.

As she stepped over somebody’s suitcase her leg gave out, and she went down to one knee.

“Mira?”

“It’s okay, Jeremy. We’re almost to your mom.”

Miranda reached out to grab ahold of one of the seats to help herself up as her leg didn’t want to move. “Come on, Miranda. We don’t have time for this shit,” she growled under her breath.

Jeremy cupped her cheeks and looked her in the eye, “You said a bad word.”

“I’m sorry,” she grit her teeth and stood up.

Just a couple of more steps. She found Susan. She looked like hell. Her once- blonde hair was matted with blood. Her leg was at an odd angle.

“Jeremy!”

“Mommy!” The woman had her arms outstretched for her son, but Miranda didn’t hand him over.

“You’re hurt. How is your head?” Tear-stained eyes looked up at her.

“I don’t know. I keep going in and out of consciousness. But I think it could be the pain from the leg.”

“Jeremy. I’m going to let you down. But you have to be extra gentle with your Mommy. She is hurting. You can’t jostle her.” He gave her a confused look. “You can’t play rough with her.”

“She’s hurted?”

“Her leg and head is hurted. You have to be gentle and take good care of her. Can you do that?” She set the little boy down. He tiptoed over to his mother.

“Mommy. Are you hurted?”

“Not now that you’re here. Come sit beside me.” Susan had her backpack next to her, and had taken out a sweatshirt that she put down for Jeremy to sit on.

“Where’s your daughter?”

“I don’t know. When I woke up she was gone. I couldn’t go look for her. There haven’t been people to help.”

She gave a head tilt to the crumpled seat to her left. For the first time Miranda noted that a baby blanket was covering something. Now that she looked she realized Susan must have covered a body.

“It hurts to yell, but when I heard you call out for me, I called back. Thank God you had Jeremy. Can you find Hope?”

“Yes, I’ll find Hope.” And she would also look for Caroline.

Chapter Three

“Wolf. Can you hear me?” Griff shook the big man. Except for the cut on his arm, he looked okay.

Wolf Steel’s eyes popped open. “We crashed?”

“Affirmative.” Griff breathed easier to see that his fellow SEAL was going to be working with him.

“How bad?” Wolf asked.

“Bad. We’re right outside of Del Mar, beside the cliffs overlooking the ocean. This car is leaning over. When I looked out the window, I could see the car with the women was on its side and I don’t think it’s stable.”

“Do you know why we crashed?” Wolf pushed himself off the floor, giving a quick glance to his arm. Griff thrust a towel that he had found from the café at Wolf so that he could staunch the bleeding.

“We were going too fucking slow for it to cause something this bad. It’s got to be an explosion. We could have unfriendlies.” Griff whispered the last part.

“Fuck.”

Wolf pulled out his phone and pressed a number on his speed dial. He waited.

He looked at Griff. “She’s not answering.”

He placed another call.

“Tex? Amtrak train crash to San Diego. Caroline and I are on it. She’s in another car.” He cocked his head.

“Is her tracker still on-line?” He waited.

He breathed out a sigh of relief. “Okay, get them here. It’s going to be a cluster for emergency workers to get to us. We’re not near the highway, right?” He looked at Griff for confirmation.

Griff nodded.

“Okay, Tex, I need them stat.” He hung up.

As one unit, the men turned and surveyed the interior of the café car. There were five people other than themselves. One man was already helping a woman. They looked like they were going to be okay. The older Vietnamese gentleman who ran the diner was currently trying to apply pressure to another man who had a deep gash on his forehead. The last passenger in the car was a woman who was lying against the wall of rail car. She didn’t look injured. Griff crouched down next to her.

“Are you okay ma’am?”

“Did we crash?” she asked softly. Her brown eyes were wet with tears.

“Yes. Are you okay?”

“Can you get me off the train? I want to get off the train.” She gripped Griff’s arm.

“Ma’am, I need you to remain calm. Help is on the way.” He’d already called nine-one-one, as had many others.

“Ma’am, do you have your phone?”

She grabbed her purse, and pulled out her phone, then she nodded.

“Why don’t you call your family and tell them that you’re all right? My friend and I are going to go look for other people who are injured, okay?”

She wasn’t paying him any attention, instead she was already dialing. He looked at Wolf. They needed to get to the car where the women were. There was no exit on the bottom level of the dining car like there had been on the one the women were on. If they wanted to get to the women, they would need to go upstairs and go through the passageway, but the electrical wasn’t working.

“We need to climb out the window.” Griff pointed to the big window that overlooked the ocean. It was severely cracked, and had actually broken in one corner. It was made of safety glass.

“People, I need you to move away from the window!” Wolf yelled as he strode over to the jumbled mess that was once the café. He picked the sturdy steel microwave up off the floor. It was still plugged into the wall socket, and he yanked the cord. He took the appliance and hurled it at the cracked window. It crashed through, bringing in the fresh ocean air.

The woman who had been talking on her phone screamed. “What are you doing?”

“Ma’am, we need to get out to help the people on the other car,” Wolf answered.

Without being asked, the man who ran the diner was beside Wolf and Griff with a handful of towels.

“Here, put these down over the glass, so you don’t cut yourselves when you climb out of the window.”

“No need,” Griff said. “This is safety glass.” He pushed the entire piece out of its moorings in one big chunk. He climbed out first, and was surprised to see two lanky young men in wet suits making their way up over the rise of the cliff. It took a brief second for it to register with him that they had probably been surfing when they had heard or seen the crash and came to help.

“Hey! Are you okay?” The first one was a blonde kid who couldn’t be more than sixteen.

“Yeah. We’re headed over to that car,” Wolf pointed to the car that was on its side. Griff got his first good look at it and his stomach dropped.

Wolf grabbed his arm. “There was definitely an explosion.” They could see smoke coming from the two cars further up the track. But the one that Griff was interested in was on its side, and part of it had been sheared off like someone had taken a gigantic can opener to it. But the thing that scared the shit out of him was that it was literally teetering on the edge of a fucking cliff. Granted it wasn’t the highest cliff in the world, but if you were in that damn thing and it fell the hundred feet to the sand below, you would die.

Griff and Wolf started towards the railroad car.

“Mister. Don’t you want to wait for the emergency workers?” one of the kids asked.

Griff knew that it was going to be complicated for the first responders to get to this area, because it was not accessible by road.

“My wife is on that train,” Wolf ground out, never breaking stride.

As they got closer, they perused the metal wreckage.

“What do you think?” Wolf asked.

Just then, the railcar shifted as sand fell away from underneath the weight of the passenger car. Griff winced as he heard the screams inside.

“If we go underneath and try to climb through a window, the train could shift again and we’d be flatter than a pancake.” Griff said.

“I concur.” Wolf found a handhold on the back of the railcar to start climbing. Griff followed. Soon they were on top of the damaged train. From that vantage point they could see that there was an opening from near the back. It was small, but they should be able to work their way in.

“We need to stay near the edge. Away from the cliff side.” Griff said.

Wolf nodded. His face was grim. Both of them were in mission mode, despite the fact that women they cared about were inside.

They ran across the far edge, furthest from the cliff, and headed towards the part that had been cut open. Griff felt sweat trickling down his back. When they got to the opening, Griff wondered how in the hell they were going to fit. Not only was it tight, the steel was sharp as hell.

Wolf pulled out his smart phone and used it as a flashlight. “Looks like a six meter drop, but the seats have unbolted, so it’s not a good landing.” Griff peered over his shoulder, scouting the terrain. “Are you seeing what I’m seeing?” Wolf asked.

Griff swallowed. There were three people lying in the wreckage. It was clear that two of them were dead. One might still be alive. Even though this was the upper deck of the train, this was not the part of the train where the women had been seated, thank God.

Griff peeled out of his jacket, and placed it over the edge of the steel, so they wouldn’t cut themselves as they leaned over the sides. “I’ll go in first. You can lower me down. I’ll move what I can, so it’s a better landing when I help you down.”

“Affirmative.”

“Hey!” Griff looked up and he saw the first young surfer coming towards him, and he could swear he was holding rope. “I thought you could use this.”

Griff recognized it immediately. It was a surfboard leash that the surfers used to connect their ankles to their boards, so that when they crashed they could recover their boards.

“Perfect, thanks.”

“I called my brother, he and some of his teammates from Coronado are coming to help.”

Griff looked at the teenager as he wrapped the leash around his wrist. “Who’s your brother?”

“Mason Gault, he’s a SEAL.”

“Small world.” Wolf said as he smiled grimly. “I called my team too.”

“I’m Billy,” the teenager said. He looked at the hole in the train car. “It’s kind of small. I can fit. I’ll go down first.”

“No,” Griff and Wolf said in unison.

“You’re going to help me lower Griff down into the hole. Then you’re going to wait up here and direct others to where we went in as they get here.”

As soon as he was clear of the wreckage, he took out his cell phone so that he could use it as a flashlight. Wolf was good, he lowered him at a slow and steady pace. Griff straddled one of the overturned seats, thankful that it was vacant. His right foot hit something, and he saw it was a suitcase.

He unwrapped the leash from his wrist, and immediately looked around. It was dark in the car, but he saw two other flashes of light. “Miranda? Caroline?”

“Griff?” It was Miranda.

“Are you all right?”

“I am. Susan is injured. I haven’t found Caroline.”

“We’re coming.”

“Help! Help me!” It was a man’s voice.

“We’re coming, Sir.” Griff responded. Wolf had pulled up the leash. Griff moved the seat out of the way. He also cleared the suitcase and a metal luggage rack out of the way.

Wolf rappelled down.

Griff had already checked out the third person who had looked to be unconscious. He hadn’t survived.

“Griff?” Miranda yelled again. “Do you see the light?”

“Yes, we’re coming.”

“Caroline! Answer me!” Wolf’s voice reverberated through the space. They were met with silence. After ten seconds passed, a cacophony of voices raised, a chorus of people calling for help. Wolf and Griff looked at one another, knowing that they were needed. Griff felt for the big man, knowing that his first priority was finding his wife.

As they started forward, there was a thud behind them. They both turned, and they saw Billy.

“I told you not to come down here. You needed to tell people where we were,” Wolf reprimanded the teenager harshly.

“There’s a helicopter hovering up there. He saw me. He knows I went inside. I can help. I’ve taken first aid classes.” Griff saw the boy looking at the dead body. Even in the dim light it was clear that he was having a hard time dealing with it. But then he straightened up and looked at the two SEALs. “Seriously, I can help.”

“Follow us, and be careful where you step.” Griff said.

Wolf carefully climbed over one of the seats.

“Can you help me up?” A hand raised up behind the next seat they came across. Wolf carefully pulled an older African American man to his feet.

“Are you okay, Sir?”

“I’m in one piece. I just need a few minutes to catch my breath, then I can help. The train’s slipping, right?” Griff nodded.

“Yes sir, it’s slipping.”

“Well, let’s start evacuating.”

Griff figured it had been fifteen minutes since the crash happened. They were maybe three miles outside of Del Mar. Rescue workers should be on-site at any moment. As if his mind had conjured it, he heard the faint sound of sirens, hopefully they had figured out a way to get close to the train tracks over the embankments. Except maybe for the Serrano Valley, he didn’t know of any place worse that this crash could have happened.

The three of them moved slowly and carefully. They didn’t want to step on anyone as they made their way towards Miranda and, hopefully, Caroline.

“Please, my husband needs help!” a woman called from the right. Wolf flashed his light over to see an older couple huddled near a wall. It was obvious the man was bleeding from a steel rod sticking out of his abdomen. She was trying to stem the blood with her hands.

“Billy, open some luggage and find something to staunch the blood,” Griff ordered.

Griff looked at Wolf, who was hesitating. “I’ve got this Wolf, you go on ahead.”

“Thanks,” the big man said as he continued forward.

“Will this work?” Bill was holding up a sweatshirt as he moved towards the couple.

“Perfect.” Griff pulled out his utility knife, but Billy already had his out and was cutting the sweatshirt into strips. The kid had his shit together.

As they knelt down beside the injured man, Billy leaned into whisper to Griff. “Should we pull out the metal?”

Griff examined it. “No, it will just cause more bleeding. Put compresses around it.”

The train gave a slow lurch and steel screeched.

“Oh God, we’re going to die,” the woman moaned.

“Everything’s going to be fine. There’s a helicopter overhead. They’re coming for us.” Griff assured the woman. He started to get up.

“Don’t leave us,” she begged, as she grabbed his wrist.

“Ma’am, I’ll stay with you. They need to go see to other passengers.” It was the older man from before.

“Thank you, Sir,” Griff said, and he got up as he patted the woman’s shoulder. Suddenly there was pounding on the wall of the train car.

Cries echoed inside as people jolted in fear. Griff yelled out, “Ladies and Gentlemen. Please calm down. That is the sound of the rescue workers outside. They’re just getting things in place to help us out.”

Lord, he hoped he wasn’t lying.

He gripped Billy’s shoulder. “Call your brother. Find out his ETA.”

Griff waited while Billy made the call.

“Mason! Where are you?” The kid put it on speaker.

“We’re fourwheeling it past Jaden’s van towards the train track. We’ve spotted the helicopter. Fuck, Billy, we can see smoke, you’re not near the train are you?”

Billy didn’t answer, and Griff took the phone from him.

“Mason? This is Griffin Porter. Your brother is on the train despite Wolf’s and my order’s to stay off the goddamn thing. He’s providing aid to the injured. The car we’re on is on its side and near the cliff and is slipping. We need equipment to help steady it.”

“You need to evacuate,” Mason said in a calm voice.

“Agreed, but it’s a mess. We’ve barely found a quarter of the passengers on the top floor of this car, we haven’t even made it to the bottom floor. I have Wolf Steel with me. What’s your ETA?”

“I’ve surfed that beach with Billy, we should be there in five more minutes. There’s another truck behind us. They’ve been tailing us since we left Coronado. Now that you said Wolf is with you, I would bet those are his teammates.”

Griff felt a burst of hope for the first time since the crash had occurred. His teammates were currently deployed, otherwise he would have called them. He knew Mason because one of his former teammates was now a member of Mason’s Midnight Delta team. Now he knew everybody had a chance.

Chapter Four

“Oh, my God, Caroline!”

No wonder Caroline hadn’t been able to hear her. She was hanging out of one of the broken windows. It almost looked like she had been trying to crawl out of the train.

“Miranda, did I hear you call Caroline’s name?”

“Wolf?” She turned her light towards his voice. He was a few yards away, climbing over wreckage. “Yes, I found her. She’s partially covered by this seat, and it looks like she tried to climb out a window.”

Tufts of seagrass surrounded Caroline’s torso, and the scent of the ocean wafted inside the railcar. “I can’t tell how badly she’s injured, because her head and shoulders are outside.”

“I’ll be right there.”

She still needed to find the baby. She could be anywhere under the debris. She heard a crash, then a scream. She turned her light to see what had made the noise.

“Is everyone all right? What happened?” It was Griff’s voice.

“I’m fine.” A woman answered. “It was a luggage rack and suitcase that fell. It scared me.”

Miranda could hear Jeremy crying now, and Susan started singing ‘The Wheels on the Bus’ to distract him. Suddenly a hand touched her shoulder and she jumped.

“Whoa there, it’s me,” Wolf said. “Where’s Caroline?”

Miranda pointed her phone towards Caroline’s prone figure. She was pretty sure she’d seen her breathing, but she couldn’t get to her because of the seat.

Wolf sucked in a deep breath at the sight of his wife. Then he lifted the seat as if it weighed nothing, and knelt beside Caroline. Slowly he began to pull her back into the railcar, doing his best to support her head and neck as he did. Miranda didn’t realize she had been holding her breath until she saw Caroline’s eyes flicker.

Her lips moved. Miranda was pretty sure that she formed the name, “Matthew.”

“I’m here Ice. I’ve got you.” His hands were taking inventory of her body. She moaned in pain as he ran his hands over her ribs.

She must have said something, or tried to, because he put his ear to her mouth and then responded. “I’d never give up hope. You know better than that,” he said fervently.

She shook her head.

“Don’t move, Ice. You’ve got broken ribs.”

“Down there,” Caroline moved her arm, pointing to the window. She gasped in pain. “Hope.”

Miranda finally understood what she was saying. She was talking about the baby. Hope must be outside the train.

Miranda dove down beside where Caroline was lying.

“Careful! Don’t jostle her.”

“I’m not. I need to look outside.” Miranda stuck her head out the window, trying to push the glass out.

“What are you doing?” Wolf demanded.

Miranda kept looking right, then left. Finally she spotted a little pink tennis shoe that was attached to a miracle.

“Hope?”

The baby was curled up in the fetal position, her eyes open and glassy, sand covering her little face.

“Hope. Answer me, please, sweetie. Your mama is worried about you.” The child just continued to stare at nothing.

Screeeech. The sound was deafening, as the train slid ever closer towards the cliff. Miranda watched in horror as the outside of the train hovered above the fragile body of the child. Two feet of space separated Hope from the thousands of tons of metal. The train lurched again.

“Oww.” Miranda’s shoulder was slammed into the glass of the window. She felt it tear through her blouse and cut into the flesh of her upper arm.

“Are you okay, Miranda?” Wolf asked.

“I’m fine.”

“Get back in here,” he ordered.

She ignored him and continued to try to wriggle out towards the toddler. “Hope, come here and I’ll take you to your mommy.”

She saw a momentary flicker of recognition at the word Mommy. Miranda held out her arms. She was about sixteen feet away from the girl. She’d have to get out of the train and get her. Strong hands tugged at her waist.

“Get your ass back in here,” Griff growled at her. Miranda kicked backwards. Ouch!

“Griff, let me go.” Miranda looked over her head, but couldn’t see anything but her hair and the sea grass.

“Get back inside.”

Miranda kicked again, this time crying out in pain. God that hurt. She yelled over her shoulder at Griff. “Hope is out here, dammit. Let me go so I can get her!” Griff’s grip didn’t let up. She looked back at Hope and her heart jumped into her throat. The little girl was looking at her fearfully because she had yelled. Then she started to scooch backwards.

“No, honey, come to me. I want to take you to your mommy.” There it was, a slight shake of her head as she wriggled the slightest bit to move away from Miranda. It put her closer to where the cliff’s edge.

Miranda felt Griff still trying to pull at her. Dammit, she needed to stop him. The only way she was going to do that was to go inside and confront him. Obviously he wasn’t hearing her. She went limp and let him pull her inside.

In a second she was face to face with an angry alpha.

“Miranda! What in the hell were you thinking? Look at you, you’re bleeding like a stuck pig. My God, Honey, you need help.”

She was ready to go toe-to-toe with him, when she suddenly recognized the bone-deep fear that was underneath his anger.

“Didn’t you hear me? Hope’s out there.” It took a moment for it to register.

“The baby?”

“Yes.” She scanned the area, and saw that Wolf had Caroline’s shirt open, and was binding up her ribcage. She wasn’t conscious. That explained why Griff wasn’t understanding what was going on. “She’s about fifteen or twenty feet away from the window.” Miranda said as she tried to stand straight on one leg and failed. Griff put his arms around her, taking her weight. “Hope’s next to the cliff. I’m trying to get her to crawl over to me.”

“You’re hurt. You need to sit down, and let me go get her.”

Miranda bit her lip.

“What?”

“I’m not sure she’ll come to you.”

“Honey, you’ve done good, let me take care of this.” He brushed a kiss against her forehead, and then was out the window in seconds.

Miranda couldn’t help herself, she had to watch. She crammed her face into the little bit of space available between Griff’s ass and the broken window.

Miranda watched in horror as the little girl wailed the word “No!” as soon as she saw Griff. Hope scrambled two feet backwards towards the cliff.

“Honey,” he whispered, a smile in his voice.

“No!” Hope’s little voice was even more shrill. She put out a hand, a clear sign that she wanted him to stop.

“Okay, Honey. I’ll go away. Don’t move. Please don’t move.” Miranda banged her head against the window frame as Griff carefully worked his way back into the train.

When Griff got back inside, he looked at Miranda with a look of frustrated fear. “Miranda, where’s her Mom?”

“Susan has a broken leg. She can’t help.” Miranda tried to keep the tremor from her voice but failed. Griff gathered her in his arms, and for just a second she let herself be comforted.

Miranda straightened. “I need to go and get her,” she told him.

Griff hesitated. She put her hand on his chest. “Please, help me to do this.”

“I don’t want to,” he said softly.

“But you will, won’t you?”

He nodded.

“Billy!” He yelled. “Bring the leash, and I need something for a bandage. Bring it fast.”

“Who’s Billy?” Miranda asked.

“Never mind,” he said as he unbuttoned the cuff of her silk blouse, and then ripped the sleeve, so that he could get at the gash on her upper arm. “Dammit, woman, you sure did a number on yourself.”

She sucked in a deep breath as he gently touched her wound.

“Griff? Wolf?” A young man’s voice sounded somewhere nearby. Slowly she saw a gangly blonde teenager come into view.

“We’re here. What’s the ETA on your brother?” Wolf asked.

“They see the train. He said to tell you they’re coordinating with Abe and Mozart.” Miranda watched as the young man in a wetsuit and tennis shoes climbed over two seats and thrust what looked like a rope at Griff.

“How’s Caroline?” Miranda asked Wolf.

“She’s in and out of consciousness,” he said in a tight voice.

“Why is it taking so long for them to get to us?” Miranda asked.

Wolf and Griff looked at one another, then Griff turned to her and said, “Honey, it’s only been twenty minutes. We’re not near a road, so it’s hard for emergency vehicles to get to us.”

“And-” Wolf started to say something but then stopped himself.

“What?” She demanded, but both men stayed silent. “Tell me. I need to know.”

“There’s smoke coming from the rail car next to this one, and fire coming from the lead engine,” Billy blurted out. “That’s the one they’ll be working on first.”

“Thank you for telling me, Billy. Okay. Then we have to fend for ourselves. I’m fine with that. I’m used to that. Now help me get to Hope.”

“Okay, Miranda, here’s how this is going to work,” Griff said, as he took the proffered strips of material from Billy and started to bandage her arm. “I’m going to tie this leash to your uninjured foot. Then you’re going to get Hope and bring her in.”

He turned her so that her back was to Billy and Wolf. Then he bent down so that their eyes were inches apart. “You are not going to let one damn thing bad happen to you. I want a whole hell of a lot more than just a date. I haven’t chased you for nine weeks just to let you slip away this easily.”

Miranda barked out a laugh, then clapped her hand over her mouth. She felt like shit that she had actually laughed at a time like this. “This is slipping away easy? You need your sense of reality checked, Mr. Porter.” He bent down and brushed a kiss against her lips. How in the hell could she be laughing and responding to a kiss in the middle of hell?

“You stay safe. Now let me get this tied on you.” He started to bend down to tie the leash on her ankle when she gripped his wrist.

“It’s not long enough.”

“It’s plenty long enough.” He cupped her cheeks and stared deep into her eyes. “Under no circumstances do you take it off, are we clear?”

“Do you want me to lie to you Griffin?”

“What?” he demanded.

“I’m not a liar. I’ll do what’s smart. Put the leash on me. But know this, if push comes to shove and I need to untie that damn thing, I will.”

She’d never seen black eyes shimmer with such heat. “Fine,” he ground out. “But know this, I’ll come after you.” And somehow, she did know it. Here in the middle of all this uncertainty, Miranda was absolutely positive that Griffin Porter would move Heaven and Earth to reach her if she should need him.

She got down on her hands and knees, and he tied the nylon around her ankle. As soon as she got clear of the window, she could make out baby Hope. The little girl was even further away from the train.

“Honey?” she crooned. “Can you come here?” The toddler just looked at her with a lost and frightened stare. Carefully, so as not to scare her, she moved her arms out in the universal gesture of welcome. “Your mommy’s waiting for you. We have milk. Aren’t you thirsty?”

Finally, she got a small nod. Success!

“Can you come closer?”

The little girl moved slightly towards her, but then stopped as she slipped in the sand. Then Hope held out her tiny arms.

“Well okay then, I’ll come and get you. Don’t move, baby.”

Miranda used her elbows to propel herself forward. She was feeling claustrophobic with the side of the train just a mere foot above her head. Don’t think about it.

Sand was getting inside her blouse, and underneath the top of her skirt. Everything about this moment was making her skin crawl.

“Milk.” Hope said as she continued to hold out her arms, and snap her hands open and shut.

“Yes, your mommy has milk waiting for you,” Miranda lied easily. She’d promise anything to keep the girl happy.

“Wan Mama.”

“Stay right there, and I’ll get you and take you to your Mama.”

Miranda continued to use her elbows to crawl towards Hope, but then the little girl got anxious and decided to move towards her. She plopped down on her hands and knees and tried to go forwards, but couldn’t gain the necessary traction.

“Stop, Hope. Wait for me.”

The little girl got a stubborn look on her face, and grabbed a section of sea grass, and tried to use it to pull herself forward. She yanked the grass out of the ground and it splattered sand and dirt up into her face.

Hope reared backwards, fell on her bottom and started to cry.

“It’s okay, honey, I’ll be right there.”

Hope continued crying, smearing sand into her eyes, which just made her more miserable and intensified her sobs.

“It’s okay baby, I’m almost there. It’s going to be all right. I’ll take you to your mom and Jeremy, and we’ll get you some milk.” Miranda was almost there, when she jerked to a stop because of the band around her leg. She turned to look behind her. She saw Griff holding the leash. Hope looked up at the same instant.

“No!” she screeched.

“Griff, get back in the train, you’re scaring the baby.”

Miranda watched as Hope rolled on her side, trying to get away from her and Griff.

Enough of this shit.

She reached behind her and lost precious seconds tugging and unknotting the fucking nylon. When she turned, Hope was a foot away from the cliff’s edge. Miranda lunged.

“Gotchya!”

“No! No! No!”

“I hate the terrible twos.” Miranda laughed and cried at the same time as she held the warm little body close to her.

“Dammit, Miranda, get your ass back here.”

“No!” Hope howled the word again.

“You’re going to have to learn a new word,” Miranda told the child as she turned back towards the window. She spat out some sand that had gotten into her mouth, and Hope continued to struggle and say ‘No’.

With her arms full of wiggling child, and with her feet encased in nylons, and her leg throbbing like a son-of-a-bitch, she was having a hell of a time gaining purchase in the sand to get back towards the train. “Griff.” She called out just as the rail car groaned again.

Miranda watched in fascination as the steel above her head lowered inch by inch, like she was in the middle of some James Bond movie. She covered Hope’s head, and pressed them both as close to the ground as possible.

“Griff! Can you come and grab Hope?” she begged. God love the man, he was already beside her, taking the baby out of her arms. Thank God, now she could crawl, if she wasn’t crushed. She watched as he got Hope to safety, and she pushed out with her feet, pushing at the crumbling sand and dirt at the cliff’s edge. She felt it start to give beneath her knees.

Oh God, she was going to go over the side of the cliff, she thought, as she made a grab for some sea grass.

* * *

Holding onto Hope, Griff saw Miranda’s desperate attempt to stop her fall. Her pale hand clutching pale green stalks of grass was the last thing he saw before she toppled over the side of the cliff.

He knew it was at least a hundred foot drop, but it was graded, so it was possible she’d landed on some resting spot before hitting the beach below. He had to get to her.

“Billy, take Hope.” He tried to thrust the baby at the young man, but now the toddler was hanging onto him for dear life.

“No!” Hope shouted as he pried her off to give her to Billy to hold.

The train was making a deafening sound as it tipped. Griff had to force himself not to yell ‘No’ right along with Hope. He looked down at the window at his feet. The space that had been between the window frame and the sand was now miniscule. There was no way he could possibly squeeze out.

“Billy, I need you to find this girl’s mom. She should be that way.” Griff pointed the opposite way from where Billy had come.

“Okay,” Billy said taking the screaming baby. “Here’s my phone. Mason wanted to talk to you,” he told Griff above the child’s shouts. He started to rock her and stroke her back. “Mason’s going to call when he and Drake get onto the top of the rail car.”

Griff looked at Billy in confusion. “How are they going to know which one we’re in?” Griff asked.

“I told my buddy Jaden to stay up top and direct traffic.” The rocking seemed to help, Hope wasn’t crying as loudly. The kid was amazing. “What’s the mom’s name?”

“Susan,” Wolf and Griff answered simultaneously.

“Got it.”

“Hold on, Billy. Take my cell phone.” Griff handed him his. “You can use it for light, and to call if you need us.”

“Thanks.” The young man juggled the toddler and grabbed the phone like a pro. “You ready for an adventure?” he smiled down at the child. She hiccupped and looked up at him in fascination. The young man started to carefully pick his way towards the back.

“What happened?” Wolf asked after Billy left.

“She managed to shove Hope at me,” Griff swallowed, replaying the moment in his mind. “Then the ground gave out right from under her and she went over the side of the cliff.”

“There’s lots of landing spots before the beach,” Wolf consoled him, as he cradled his wife in his arms. Griff wanted that. He wanted Miranda in his arms.

“I’m going out to get her. I’ll tell the men where you are.”

“They know.”

Griff frowned in confusion.

“I have a tracker on me. They’ll find me, don’t worry. Go get your woman.” With that, Wolf put his head down next to Caroline’s and whispered something in her ear. Griff sent up a silent prayer for both women.

* * *

Wolf’s phone rang. It was his teammate, Dude.

“Talk to me,” Wolf commanded.

“Mozart and Abe are coming aboard your rail car. They should be at your position in under two minutes. EMT’s and first responders are having a hell of a time getting to your spot because their vehicles aren’t equipped for the terrain, but they’re rallying. They now have Humvees coming in from Camp Pendleton. They’re getting there, Wolf.”

“We’ve got to get Caroline out of here, and I can’t risk pulling her out of the hole in the roof. She has broken ribs, and it might puncture her lung.” There was a pause as Dude considered the information.

“I’ve got the full kit in my truck, it’s got explosives and the exothermic cutting torch. I can open up the doorways, and we get her out that way.”

“This rail car is too unsteady for the explosives, we’ve got to use the torch. Fuck, Dude, I was hoping you could just pry the goddamn doors open. I know there are escape hatches on the windows, but I need to get her out through the door.”

“Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered, you just take care of Ice.”

The phone went dead, and before he had a chance to blink, it rang again. A small sense of relief trickled through him when he saw it was Tex.

“Wolf, here’s the situation,” Tex began. “Our brothers at Pendleton have been supplying vehicles that can get to the train over the inhospitable terrain. All of the firefighters and EMT’s are getting to you in the next ten minutes. Two choppers are ready to take the wounded to the trauma center at Palomar as soon as they are vacated from the train.”

Caroline arched in his arms. He dropped the phone, trying to get her to hold still.

“Ice, don’t move.”

“Hurts.”

“I know,” he said, his heart breaking. She never complained. Never. It told him just how excruciating her injuries had to be. “Baby, you can’t move. You might puncture a lung. Your ribs are broken. Do you understand me?”

“Wolf?” She tried to roll towards him.

“Please stay still. I’ve got you, Ice.”

“The baby. Did you get Hope?”

“She’s safe.”

“S’good,” she murmured, then closed her eyes again. Wolf realized that she’d been holding her abdomen when she said that it hurt. He lifted up her blouse and took note of the bruising that encompassed her entire left side. Originally he had thought it was mainly around her ribs, but he saw how it extended down to her kidneys. Fuck!

He spotted his dropped phone and picked it up. “Tex?”

“I’m here, buddy.”

“Ice has got to get to Palomar. She’s in and out of consciousness. There’s severe bruising around her kidney, and she’s in pain. Her ribs are broken, and if we jostle her, she might puncture a lung.” It was the first time in his life that he gave a report where his voice wasn’t steady.

“Abe’s on the train right now. He’s making his way to you. Dude’s working with Mozart to figure out a way to open up the entry doors on the lower floor of the car. We’re all going to help you get Caroline on that chopper.”

A boot landed near Caroline’s legs. He looked up and saw Abe’s calm face. “I’ve got to go, Tex.”

“I’ll call you when the door is open,” Tex said before he hung up.

Abe had a bag with a red cross on it.

“Let’s see what we can do for her before Mozart and Dude get this tin can open, shall we?” Abe asked as he opened the bag.

Chapter Five

For some reason, Griff had thought it would be better once he got outside of the rail car. Instead, it was another kind of hell. The lead car was the power car. It was on fire. The next one that was closest to him, was another business rail car, and it had smoke coming out of it. He looked around at the landscape surrounding them and realized there wasn’t a chance in fucking hell that firetrucks could reach them. No wonder there were military Humvees driving up, along with various civilian trucks surrounding the place.

He so wanted to go to the other side near the cliff to check to see if he could spy Miranda, but he was concerned that even his weight could shift the precarious position of the train.

“Griff!” He turned and saw Lieutenant Mason Gault on the ground below him. His second-in-command, Drake Avery, another Navy SEAL, was standing beside him. “We’re coming up.”

“Don’t come up quite yet. I have a problem. I’m coming down.”

Griff ran to the end of the car and found the handholds necessary to climb down. On his way down, he met three men who were working to uncouple the downed car from the dining car. They didn’t look up from their task. Mason and Drake met him when he reached the ground.

“What’s the problem?” Mason asked.

“Miranda fell down the cliff on the other side of the train,” he said, pointing between the two cars. Mason and Drake didn’t bother asking who Miranda was, they just immediately went into mission mode.

“I’ve got supplies in my truck,” Drake said as he took off at a dead run.

“The Humvees are equipped with cable, they’re planning on securing the train so it doesn’t slip anymore than it has. That should keep her safe,” Mason said.

Griff looked over and saw emergency crews and Marines hooking up the cable to the bottom of the downed train car. He also saw men up on the top of the car working to open the door of the car so that people could be evacuated. Griff thought he recognized the man using the torch.

“How many people are on that car? How’s Billy?” Mason asked.

“Billy’s a big help,” Griff answered. “He’s got a great head on his shoulders. As for how many people are on the car, I don’t know. From what I remember, I would say about thirty on the top floor, at least four dead. I have no idea how many are on the first floor.”

Drake came up carrying a duffel bag, and a skein of rope hanging from his right shoulder. “An EMT is getting in touch with one of the choppers,” Drake reported. “When we find your woman, they’ll send down a basket. Where are we going?”

Griff led them past the back of the rail car. “Billy and his friends climbed up the cliff at one point, but they shouldn’t have. It was too fucking dangerous,” Griff said, pointing around the side of the train.

“They’re teenagers,” was Drake’s succinct response.

The sun was behind them as they looked out into the water. Griff’s every instinct was screaming at him to run to the side of the cliff, but he knew that it was foolish. They needed to go slow, and make sure that the ground beneath them was firm. The weight of the rail car had destabilized the cliff.

“Where did she go over?”

“Near the middle of the car. You can see part of where there is a landslide,” he said, pointing to where there was a significant drop off.

“Got it,” Mason said.

Drake was already unwrapping the rope. “We can tie it off on the train.”

“It’s too unstable,” Griff protested.

“Nope, the Marines have enough cables on it now. This fucker isn’t going anyplace,” Drake grinned. “Now they just have to get the wounded off this damn thing.”

“Are the doors open yet?”

“Nope.” Drake said as he finished tying off the rope.

“I’m going first,” Mason said. “I know this beach. I’ve surfed here.” Drake and Griff nodded as Mason rappelled over the side of the cliff.

* * *

He could hear Hope crying in the distance.

He could hear Billy talking nonsense to her.

He could hear Susan singing, ‘The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round,’ to Jeremy.

What he couldn’t fucking hear, was Caroline taking an easy breath. No, each time she breathed in, it was a fucking struggle.

He tilted her up, trying to help her find a more comfortable position. Trying to do any goddamn thing that would make it better.

The phone rang, and Abe answered it. Wolf watched his face. He nodded. “I’ll be right there.”

He bent down and put his face right next to Caroline’s. “You hang in there, Ice. I’ll be right back with the guys, and we’ll get you out of here.”

Abe clapped Wolf’s shoulder, then climbed over the fallen seat next to him.

Wolf winced as the train moved. He tried to keep Caroline still, but she moaned in pain despite his best efforts. He hated this. Why couldn’t he have been the one who had been injured? He looked at the luminous dial of his watch. It had been thirty-six minutes since the crash. That could be the difference between life and death if she had internal bleeding. They had to get her to the trauma center at Palomar.

Wolf heard his teammates as they cleared the path of the downed seats and debris. Mozart, Dude and Abe reassured people that they would be back for them as soon as they got the most critically injured people off the train. He looked up and saw that Mozart and Abe were holding a spinal board instead of a stretcher. It made sense. They needed to keep Ice as immobilized as possible as they took her off the rail car.

Abe had given her something for the pain before he had left. He hadn’t wanted to give her too much, because her breathing was labored.

They set the board down beside Caroline. The four of them all picked her up carefully, so that every part of her body was supported, and placed her on the board. Quickly, Abe and Wolf strapped her in.

“Matthew?” Caroline whispered.

“I’m here, baby.” Wolf placed a tender kiss on her forehead, then picked up the board near her head, while Abe grabbed the other end. Mozart and Dude led the way towards the fucked-up staircase. It no longer looked like the stairs he and Caroline had used to get on the train, but because the train was on its side, it looked like a sideways ladder. Mozart went first, then Dude, carefully sliding the board along the stairs so that the men soon had her safely off the train.

Wolf jumped off behind them. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing when he got off. It was mayhem. He had to jump over cables that were attached to the Humvees that the Marines were using to secure the train from tumbling down the side of the cliff. Then, to the right, he saw men and women using fire extinguishers to put out a fire on the power car. He looked around at the terrain and realized there was no way a fire truck could have made it to the site.

Wolf followed Mozart and Dude, who seemed to have a destination in mind for Caroline. That was when he saw a helicopter rescue basket hanging in mid-air. He double-timed it behind his teammates to where EMT’s were huddled around a young boy on a stretcher. They looked up when they saw the spinal board with Caroline on it.

“She’ll be the last passenger on this chopper,” the woman said.

“What’s the ETA to Palomar?” Abe asked.

“Ten minutes, once we get them aboard. The hospital is prepped for incoming.”

Wolf went around the side of the board and took ahold of Caroline’s hand and bent his head next to hers. “We’re almost there. You just hold on. You’ve got this.” He stayed like that, continuing to shield her from the wind of the helicopter, waiting for her turn to go aboard. “I love you,” he said.

* * *

Griff wanted to let go of the rope. For God’s sake, the surfers hadn’t used a rope to climb up. But then again, they hadn’t had such an important mission. He followed Mason over the side of the cliff, and immediately looked at the beach below. He sighed in relief when he didn’t see any sign of Miranda near the waves.

Mason was already picking his way over to the left, where he had told him that Miranda had fallen. There was enough of a slope that there could be plenty of places that she could have grabbed hold of rock or grass. Drake came over the cliff last. They each took a twenty-foot side of the cliff, wanting to make sure that they didn’t miss anything. They went slowly, scanning every nook and cranny.

They had gone thirty feet when Mason called out. “I see her!”

“Where?” Griff demanded.

“Directly beneath Drake. She’s landed against a rock. She’s hidden by the seagrass, but you can see a bit of pink.”

Now that Mason pointed her out, he could see a nylon-clad leg. Drake had his phone out. He must be calling one of the EMTs.

“The chopper will be here within ten minutes with a rescue basket. Let’s get your lady ready for transport,” he said, as he put his phone back in his cargo pants.

God love Drake Avery. The man just took it at face value that Miranda was alive. They made their way down to her, careful not to knock any debris loose that might land on her. Mason reached her first, but Griff was there within seconds.

“She’s alive,” Mason grinned at him, his fingers on the pulse at her neck.

“Miranda. Can you hear me?” Griff called to her.

He ran his hands gently over her body for signs of injury. How could her pearls be resting perfectly around her neck? It seemed wrong.

Her wrist was obviously broken, and there was blood at the back of her head. Carefully, Griff guided his fingers around her head, probing softly, until he got to the back of her skull. He almost cried in relief when he felt the back of her skull and found that it wasn’t crushed, there just seemed to be a cut and swelling. Thank you God!

He gave a nod to Mason, who grinned in understanding.

Did he see an eyelash flicker?

“Miranda. Oh, baby, you were supposed to take better care of yourself.” His voice broke. “Honey, I’m here for you. Now, I did my part, you do your part and stay with me, okay? You promised.” He brushed a kiss against her cheek. “You promised, Miranda.”

Griff heard the whomp whomp of the helicopter. Drake was kneeling and waving, Griff saw someone stick their hand out and wave back. Soon a rescue stretcher was being lowered. Mason and he steadied it.

He wanted to be the one who placed Miranda in the basket, but ultimately Mason helped him. They ever so gently placed Miranda into the pallet and strapped her in. Griff tugged on the rope and gave the team in the helicopter a thumbs-up, and they started to raise her up.

He scrambled up the cliff, determined to be at the hospital as soon as humanly possible.

Chapter Six

“Matthew?”

Her lips had barely moved, but he saw them.

“I’m here.” He lunged up from his seated position beside the hospital bed. He held her small hand in both of his.

He’d been willing her to open her eyes for six hours. Ever since the doctors had confirmed that she was going to be fine. Wolf had known that her being in and out of consciousness on the train was a good sign, but he had needed the doctors’ confirmation.

“Where am I?”

“You’re in a hospital, not far from San Diego.”

“What happened?”

The doctors had said she might be disoriented when she woke up, that it was a side effect of the concussion.

“What’s the last thing you remember?”

“We were at the Bed and Breakfast,” she whispered huskily, then coughed.

“Do you want a sip of water?” He poured a glass and had a straw to her lips before she started to nod. He saw her wince.

“Baby, don’t move your head. You have a concussion and cracked ribs. Your kidney is bruised too. You’re pretty banged up.” He watched as she considered his words.

“No surgery?”

“Nope.”

She smiled and took a sip of water. He loved her analytical mind. Then he saw the wheels turn even more. “The train. There was a wreck.”

He set down the water on the table beside the hospital bed. “That’s right.” Wolf brushed back the hair from her forehead and placed a kiss on her temple.

She jerked, and tried to get up, but he was ready for it, and gently held her down. “The baby. Hope.” She gasped. Wolf didn’t know if it was from pain or worry.

“She’s fine. They got Hope, Jeremy and Susan off the train. Susan was the only one who was injured. She has a broken leg. You did real good, telling us where Hope was.”

“Can I see them?”

“Ice, they’ve already left the hospital, Susan’s mother already picked her up.”

“Where’s her husband?”

“He died last year in a motorcycle accident.” Wolf watched helplessly as tears formed in his wife’s beautiful eyes. “Baby, the important thing is that they’re safe, and you and Miranda saved Hope.”

“Miranda! I remember her. She was helping me. She was the one who ended up getting Hope, didn’t she? There was a man named Griff?” Wolf nodded.

“What?” Caroline wanted to know.

That was the problem when you had a soulmate, you could read each other’s minds. “It’s Miranda. She was injured saving Hope. She needed surgery.” Caroline reached out for his hand. He grabbed it in both of his.

“Tell me.”

“There was swelling on her brain, and they had to operate.”

“I don’t understand. She was fine.” Caroline was getting agitated again.

“Ice, I need you to stay still, you’re going to end up injuring your ribs.”

“To hell with my ribs!” She struggled to sit up.

He put his arm under her shoulders, and pressed the button to lift the bed.

“Wolf, tell me what happened.”

“Lie back.” He gave her a look that told her he meant business. She settled back against the bed.

“Now tell me.” God, she was stubborn. He’d love her three days after he was dead, and it still wouldn’t be long enough. He bent down and kissed her.

“Please, Matthew, I have to know.”

“It was Miranda who figured out that you were outside the window because of Hope. Of course, you were trying to save a baby,” he caressed her cheek with the back of his knuckles. “Anyway, after we got you back inside, she went out after her. That goddamn train wasn’t stable, neither was the cliff. She managed to get Hope to Griff, but the cliff collapsed under her, and she went over the side.”

She swallowed. “Okay, tell me the worst.”

That was his Ice, just the facts. “There wasn’t any damage to brain tissue. They just needed to drain the excess blood and repair a couple of blood vessels. According to Griff, this was the best-case scenario. Now it’s a matter of wait and see.”

“What do you mean?”

“Her brain is swollen from the trauma. It’s going to be a few days before she wakes up.”

“Okay. Who’s here for her?” Wolf smiled, and kissed her hand.

“Griff is.”

“What about her family.”

“According to Griff, she’s alone.”

“Well, she isn’t anymore.” He hadn’t expected anything else.

“I love you, Caroline.”

* * *

Griff couldn’t believe how much worse Miranda looked after surgery. Her face was swollen, and her eyes looked like she had been in a bar fight. But seeing her breathing made it all better.

He stroked her lower-left arm, since her hand had a clip to monitor her pulse and then there were so many IV’s and wires.

“Griff, you heard what the doctors said, she’s not going to wake up for a couple of days. Why don’t you go home and get some rest.”

Griff looked up into the eyes of the kind nurse. She had been on duty since Miranda had been brought into the ICU room. Her name was Shelly, and Griff knew that she had four children and fifteen grandchildren.

“I just can’t stand the idea of her waking up without a friendly face around.”

“Are you saying my face isn’t friendly?” Shelly asked, her hands on her hips. Griff smiled for the first time since the doctor said that Miranda was going to live.

“You’re beautiful, Shel,” he said, then his eyes darted back to Miranda. He couldn’t help but look at her after almost losing her. “Can she hear me?”

“Ah, Honey. I believe she can.”

Griffin stood up from his chair and bent over the bed. He brushed a kiss against her swollen cheek and whispered in her ear. “You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever met, Miranda Slade. I can’t wait to see your green eyes again.”

He sat back down again, and rested his forehead against her arm.

“Griff, you really need to get out of here and get some rest,” Shelly said.

She came over to him, and tugged at his hand. “Come on, get out of this chair. I didn’t want to have to say this, but Honey, you’re smelling kind of ripe. Do you really want your girl’s first impression to be of you stinking up the place?” Griff laughed. He actually laughed!

“You’re good for me,” he told the woman, as he got up out of the chair.

“Darn right I am. Just ask any one of my four boys. I’m always right. Now I’m here for a twelve-hour shift, so I’ll be here another three hours. So you go get cleaned up and get yourself something to eat.”

“That sounds like a good plan, Griff,” a deep voice said. He spun towards the door and saw his former teammate, Jack Preston, and his fiancée, Beth Hildalgo, standing beside him.

Griff swallowed twice, then he got up and thrust out his hand. Jack pulled him in for a hug. “How’d you know to be here?” Griff asked Jack.

“There can only be two visitors at one time in ICU,” Shelly said.

“Griff and I are just leaving,” Jack said. He pulled Griff out into the hall with Beth.

“Mason told you, didn’t he?” Griff said, answering his own question.

“Yeah, he told us that your woman had just had surgery. We all wanted to be here. We’re going to come in shifts.”

“But nobody knows Miranda,” Griff protested.

Beth stepped up and put her hand on Griff’s arm. “We know you,” she said softly. “I’m going to stay with her while Jack drives you to your place. We knew you needed a ride.” Griff shook his head. He had his keys in his hands, but hadn’t even considered the fact that his truck was at the train station in San Diego, not here at the hospital. God, he was out of it.

“It’s okay,” Jack put his hand on his shoulder. “We’ve got you covered. You shouldn’t be driving anyway.” He plucked the keys out of Griff’s hands. Jack turned to Beth, and gave her a gentle kiss on the lips. “Will you be okay?”

“Yes, I’ll call you if there is any change.”

“Thank you, Beth,” Griff said. She smiled at him.

“Let’s go,” Jack said. They went down the hall towards the elevator. Soon they were out in the warm night air. When they got to Jack’s SUV, he immediately rolled down the windows. Griff grimaced. Shelly had been right, he did stink.

“I think I remember where you live. Lincoln Park, right?”

“Yeah, I rent a duplex there.” Griff rested his head against the plush leather of the SUV. It wasn’t until he was confronted with Jack’s home, or his vehicle, that he remembered that the man was rich, because he never flaunted it. He behaved like every other SEAL he worked with, he was just a man who never flinched and got the job done.

“Griff, give me the address, and then you can sleep.”

Griff mumbled the street and house number, then shut his eyes for just a moment. It wasn’t until Jack nudged him awake that he realized he had napped.

“We’re here.”

He blinked, and saw they were parked outside his home. They went inside, and Griff offered Jack something to drink.

“Why don’t I just help myself to a glass of water, and you go get cleaned up?” Jack suggested.

Griff nodded, and headed down the hall to his bedroom. “I’ll be out in a few.” He damn near fell into the shower. God, it felt good.

He leaned his head against the shower stall and pictured Miranda in the bed, and replayed what the doctor’s had said. She was going to need her family when she first left the hospital. She’d need round-the-clock care for almost a month, most likely.

When Griff had explained that Miranda didn’t have family, they immediately started talking about hospice care, and his blood ran cold. It went against everything he believed in. And it sure as hell wasn’t where his Miranda belonged! But convincing her was going to be an uphill battle.

He gave a tired grin. After seeing her bloodied and in a coma, the idea of her spitting fire at him was welcome.

As he dried himself off after the shower, he surveyed the bathroom with a critical eye. He did the same with his bedroom as he got dressed. When he walked out to the living room, he took note of the hallway and determined it was kind of narrow, and while it should be able to handle a walker, it would be tough for a wheelchair.

“Do you want a sandwich?” he asked Jack as he opened the fridge.

“I already placed a to-go order for steak sandwiches and carnitas tacos and all the sides at the Snack Shack, we’re picking them up on the way back to the hospital.” Griff’s stomach growled at the thought.

Jack leaned against the kitchen island and gave Griff a hard look. “So tell me about Miranda.”

“I waited too fucking long.”

“What do you mean?” Jack asked.

“I should have asked her out the first time I saw her. I just knew that she was special. I’ve been jonesing for her for almost two damn months. I’ve been taking public transportation instead of driving my truck to and from Mom and Dad’s, just so I could see her.”

“You mean you’ve given up the opportunity to sing along to Jason Aldean?”

“I know, right?” Griff agreed. “Anyway, my truck was out of the shop, but I’d met her and I knew she was taking the train and I had to take it with her.”

“Why didn’t you just ask her out?”

“Because Dad’s been so sick with the chemotherapy. I’ve been a morose piece of shit to be around, and Mom’s called me almost every night of the week. Dating just wasn’t an option. He finally started taking a turn for the better last week.” Griff smiled just remembering him sitting up and eating his favorite spam wontons that his mom made for him.

“So what were you thinking so hard about just now when you were coming out of the bedroom?”

“You kind of suck, you know that?” Griff asked his friend.

“That’s what happens when you spend five years together on a SEAL team. You end up being able to read each other a little too well.”

Griff wished that Jack hadn’t switched to Mason’s team. It hadn’t been the same on their old team without him. Of course there were rumors that Midnight Delta was looking to recruit more members of Black Dawn.

“So, what were you thinking?” Jack prompted again.

“I was wondering whether or not Miranda could recuperate here.”

“Hmmm.” Jack took a sip out of his water glass. “That’s a pretty big step from just having known someone on a train. What about her family?”

“She’s alone. It was just her and her mother. Her mother died three years ago.”

“And her friends?” Jack asked.

“She has some good ones, they’re just not in the place to take her in. They’re workaholics like she is.”

“You don’t know, they might drop everything and take her in.”

“I really don’t think so, she wasn’t even sure if they would go on a vacation with her. I think it’s up to me.”

“See, you just used the phrase ‘up to me.’ Griff, you’re making it sound like it’s your responsibility. It’s not. You don’t know the woman. You’re not in love with her. You haven’t been on a date with her, have you?”

“I know her. My heart knows her. God, Jack, by that second train ride, I knew she was someone special. As Dex would say, she’s wicked smart, and she makes me laugh, and I thought about her all the time.”

Jack nodded for him to continue.

“I know this is going to sound strange, but I got to watch her do her job on the train, and she is super-competent. It was a huge turn-on.”

“Did she wear a business suit?” Jack asked. “You were always a sucker for a business suit.”

“Hell, she sometimes wore pearls.”

Jack laughed. “Yeah, you were doomed. What else?”

“I think I really did fall in love with her during the wreck. When she went after Hope.”

“Hope?”

“The baby girl who Miranda saved. Miranda risked her life to save that baby. She got in my face and demanded that she be the one to go out the train window and pluck the kid off the cliff. That’s how Miranda ended up falling on the rock,” Griff’s voice broke.

“Mason didn’t tell me how she got injured.”

“She’s a crazy woman. She’s my crazy woman. I want to take care of her.”

“What makes you think she would ever, in a million years, agree to this?”

“I’m not sure she has a choice.”

Jack laughed. “You have lost the race before it ever began, my friend. You’re not seriously going to ever say that to her, are you?”

Griff realized his mistake. “I think role-playing this out might be in order.”

“Ya think?” Jack’s Texas accent was thicker than ever. “But I’ve got to ask you a few questions for your own good, and for Miranda’s own good.”

“Shoot.”

“Are you doing this because you need to fill the void left now that your Daddy’s getting well?”

Griff didn’t just immediately answer in the affirmative. He really thought about the question.

“Jack, I didn’t like it when my dad was sick. I mean, I hated that he was not the person he once was. He was weak, and he was so mad and felt so impotent. I wanted to fix it for him. The fact that he needed help and I could provide it… Yeah, that made me feel good, but I would have preferred that neither of us were in that situation. We just don’t know what to expect when Miranda wakes up. This is a traumatic brain injury. To tell you the truth, depending on the level of care she needs…” Griff’s voice broke.

“Don’t think that way, she’s going to make it.”

Griff shook off his melancholy thoughts. “Let’s go get the food. The doctors said that there was no damage to the brain. They just had to repair a couple of blood vessels. That there was no reason not to expect a full recovery.” Griff headed towards the front door.

“There you go. That’s the right attitude,” Jack smiled.

“Exactly,” Griff said, as he locked the door behind them.

They got in the SUV, and Griff decided to change the subject. “So, when are you and Beth getting married?”

“You have been out of it.”

“That goes without saying. But why do you say that?”

“Check your mail, there’s a wedding invitation in it,” Jack said as he pulled into the restaurant’s parking lot. “Stay here, I’ll be right back.”

“I’m paying,” Griff said, as he got out his wallet.

“I’m rich,” Jack said with a self-deprecating grin. “Put your money away.” He slammed the door shut.

Griff pulled out his phone and looked up Jack and Beth and found the date of their coming nuptials.

“You’re thinking pretty hard again,” Jack said, as he put three bags of food in the backseat.

“Shit, you’re getting married in two months in San Antonio.”

“Yep.” Jack pulled onto the freeway. “Mom’s actually chartered a plane for folks.”

“What? Isn’t that excessive?”

“That’s my Mom, she wanted to make sure everyone would be able to make it to the wedding.” Jack had an indulgent grin on his face. “So what does your Miranda do for a living?”

“She’s a bigshot consultant. She’s does contract analysis.”

“And you think you’ll be able to convince her to just move in with you? Good luck with that,” Jack laughed. He started the car and got them back on the road to the hospital. Griff considered his friend’s words. He was probably right, he might be in for an uphill battle. But he was used to battles. He was good at them.

“Are you going into sniper mode?”

“What do you mean by that?” Griff asked his friend.

“I’ve seen you wait out the enemy for thirty-four hours. You can be a patient son-of-a-bitch when you get a target in your site.”

“I guess I am going into sniper mode,” Griff admitted ruefully. “But in a nice way.”

They were soon at the hospital. When they got to the waiting room, they found Mason and his wife Sophia, along with his brother Billy. Griff also recognized a member of Wolf’s team, Abe Powers, who had a woman with him.

“Shit, we should have bought more,” Griff said as they walked towards everybody.

“What are you talking about?” Jack asked. “I bought enough to feed two entire SEAL teams, trust me, we’re covered.”

Billy rushed up to Griff, clearly distraught. “They said Miranda is in a coma. Mason said you would know the most. How is she doing? How did the surgery go? Is she going to wake up?” Griff put his hands on the young man’s shoulders.

“Breathe, Billy. The surgeon said the operation went perfectly. They were able to alleviate a lot of the swelling. As it goes down further, she should wake up. They think she will in a couple of days.”

“Days?” The kid was clearly choked up. He was emoting what Griff was feeling.

“Her brain just needs time to rest and heal. We got her here in time, they don’t think there was any brain damage.”

“Griff, let us know what we can do to help,” Mason said.

“You can tell us where a vending machine is, I didn’t get drinks,” Jack said holding up the sacks of food.

“Billy’s all over that,” Sophia said with a smile. She opened her purse and took out a coin purse, and handed it to Billy. Griff watched as the woman with Abe did the same thing.

“This is my wife, Alabama Powers.” Abe introduced a woman who clearly wasn’t comfortable with the spotlight. She shyly took Griff’s hand.

“I’m sorry about Miranda. Abe told me what she did to rescue the little girl. She’s a hero.”

“Yes she is,” Griff agreed. “I need to go back in and see her.”

“Nope, first you’re going to eat something.” Jack gave him a slight push towards one of the seats. Sophia sat down, and waved him to sit beside her. Griff reluctantly sat down, and Jack handed him a steak sandwich. Billy was back with a soft drink. As soon as he bit into the sandwich, he realized just how hungry he was.

“This is great,” he said between bites. “Thanks, Jack.”

Jack ate standing up. As soon as Griff was done, he handed him another, which he gratefully took. When he finished that, he took the wrappers and put them in the trash. Then he turned to Abe and Alabama. “How’s Caroline doing?”

“She’s comfortable. They’re saying she can go home the day after tomorrow.”

“That’s good. Without her, we wouldn’t have known that Hope was outside of the train.”

He watched as Alabama’s eyes filled with tears. “Caroline loves children. She is everyone’s mother. Of course she would risk her life for a child.” Abe put his arm around his wife, and Alabama burrowed her face into his chest.

“Wolf is in with her right now. They put a cot in her room so he can stay the night after they realized he wasn’t going anywhere.”

“That sounds like him,” Mason laughed.

“Well, that’s good news about Caroline,” Griff said. “I appreciate the food and the ride, Jack.” He headed towards the hallway. “Oh yeah, can I have my keys back?”

“No.”

Griff lifted his eyebrows.

“Tell us where it is, and we’ll arrange to have it up here.”

“I’ll just Uber it.”

Jack just stood there with a placid look on his face. Griff knew that he wasn’t going to win the argument, so he explained where his truck was.

“It’ll be here in two hours, I’ll bring you your keys.”

Damn, he had great friends. “Thanks, man.”

He headed for Miranda’s room.

Chapter Seven

Miranda didn’t know where she was. She smelled flowers and antiseptic, and her throat hurt. She tried to talk, and she couldn’t. She opened her eyes, then jammed them shut. The light felt like knives going into her head.

“Miranda!” It was a man’s voice. She turned her head. She wanted to see him, but she was afraid to open her eyes again. A warm hand held hers.

“Can you open your eyes?” She did, the tiniest bit. This time there wasn’t as much pain.

“Nurse! She’s awake. She opened her eyes.”

Suddenly the lights were dimmed. “Is that better honey?” a woman’s voice said. Miranda tried to say ‘yes’, but there was something in her throat. Her eyes widened in panic. The nurse must have known, because she immediately said soothingly. “You have a breathing tube inserted in your throat. I’ll get the doctor so it can be removed.”

Miranda calmed down enough to look back at the penetrating black eyes that she had first noted. It took her a moment to place the face. Griffin. Griffin Porter. A memory flashed of his hand reaching out to her, his expression terrified. She frowned. She couldn’t remember anything more. It didn’t make sense, because he was the man she flirted with on the train.

“Ms. Slade, it’s good to see you awake. You took three days longer than we anticipated, that wasn’t nice of you.” It wasn’t until the woman was standing over her that she could see her. She’d be happy when the tube was out of her throat and she could turn her head.

“I need you to hold still. This is going to be uncomfortable.” The woman gripped the intubation tube and efficiently pulled it out.

The nurse was there with ice chips. “Try these.”

Miranda thankfully sucked on the ice. Finally she moved her head. “What happened?”

“You were in a train crash.” Griff said.

“We had to operate on you,” the doctor explained. “There was swelling on your brain. We needed to relieve it.”

“I had brain surgery? Am I all right?” She saw all of the grinning faces.

“I would say you are doing remarkably well,” the doctor said. She whipped up the bottom blanket. “Lift up your right foot.” Miranda did. “Now your left.” It was a struggle, but eventually she did.

“That makes sense, you injured your leg in the crash, the doctor said. It isn’t broken, but it was severely bruised. Your hip was dislocated in the fall, so we had to pop that back in.”

The doctor nodded to the nurse, who touched the fingers of her right hand. “Honey, can you wiggle your fingers?” Miranda looked down and realized her wrist was in a cast. Miranda wiggled her fingers.

“She’s already squeezed mine,” Griff said.

The doctor smiled. “Like I said, I would say you’re doing great.”

“I’m really tired. And I just woke up,” Miranda yawned.

“That’s to be expected.” Miranda pulled her hand out of the nurse’s grip and reached up to feel her head. Her hair all seemed to be intact.

“Your wound was in the back of your head, near the base of your skull. Your hair will cover where we had to shave your head.”

“I know that’s stupid that I should care,” Miranda blushed.

Griff’s thumb stroked the back of her hand. “Nothing you’re feeling is stupid Miranda. It’s all good.”

“How long have I been in the hospital?” she asked him.

“Eight days.”

“I don’t remember the crash. It must have been really bad. That train never goes very fast, how did it happen?”

“There was a power surge on the engine car that caused an explosion. The car we were on tipped over.” She frowned. She had a vague recollection of a train seat being on top of her, but then it was gone.

“I don’t remember,” she said in a frustrated voice.

“That’s to be expected,” the doctor assured her. “What’s your last memory?”

“I remember getting on the train. At least I think it was that day.” She glanced over at Griff. “I saved you a seat, and I fired Doug. Was that the day?”

Griff reached out and stroked her shoulder. “Yeah, you gave Doug hell, but he sent you flowers anyway.” He nodded his head at the flowers all around the room. No wonder she had smelled them.

“Griff, what are you doing here? I don’t understand.”

“Well, your friend Wendy came. She spent the night before she had to leave. I’m supposed to call her when you wake up. There are a lot of people I’m supposed to call.”

Miranda smiled at the idea of Wendy being able to spend the time. Right now she was supposed to be on-site up in Vancouver for a film.

“I have some great friends.” She watched as Griff gave a sad smile.

The nurse and doctor left the room.

“What? Why the long face.”

“Nothing.”

Miranda yawned. “Can I have my phone?”

“Why don’t you take a nap. I’ll call everybody for you. You can call them back after you rest some more.”

“You didn’t tell me why you look upset.”

“Are you kidding, I’m the happiest man alive. Miranda, you being in a coma scared the piss out of me.”

“That’s another thing, why are you here?” Miranda thought she knew, but she couldn’t believe that a man who finally asked her out to dinner had been sitting by her hospital bed.

“You know damn good and well why I’m here. Go to sleep. I’ll be here when you wake up. I have calls to make.”

She didn’t shut her eyes. She yawned again.

“Honey, you need to sleep.”

“What if I don’t wake up? What if I slip into a coma again?”

“You won’t. I won’t let you.”

Miranda felt herself relax. There was something about the man that she trusted at a visceral level.

“Okay.” Her eyes drifted shut.

* * *

Griff got out his phone and started making calls. He called Wendy first. He liked her, she had shown up from Vancouver, putting her job on hold. Then there was Tari, she had come from Palos Verdes three times for a couple of hours, she’d even brought her four young children. He’d been amazed at the juggling act. He called her next.

Kenna had been calling everyday from Ohio, so she was his third call. But, still, why hadn’t anybody else shown up? He’d called at least six other women. What the hell? One of them was right here in San Diego. But it was clear that Miranda hadn’t been lying about most of her friends being workaholics. They just couldn’t be pulled away from their jobs.

Meanwhile, Caroline had been here twice, despite the fact that Wolf had almost had a heart attack. Then there was Beth, Sophia and Alabama, who had come damn near every day. Clearly Miranda needed more of these types of friends.

Sure that Miranda was in a deep sleep, he went looking for her doctor. When he couldn’t find her, he tracked down the nurse. It wasn’t Shelly, she worked in the ICU. But this was Lila, and he had made friends with her, and she would give him scoopage.

“Okay, so tell me when I can take her home,” Griff demanded.

“She should be ready for discharge in three days if she progresses the way I think she’s going to,” Lila said.

“What about her left leg?”

“I’d normally say she’d need a walker, but with her broken wrist, that’s going to be a problem.”

That’s what Griff had thought.

“Still, there’s the knee wheel scooters.”

“What?”

“The patient puts one knee on the scooter, and propels with the other leg. But that doesn’t help her to get the mobility she needs on her left leg,” Lila said.

“Still, she could get around when I’m not there.”

“I would have said she would need twenty-four-hour care when she woke up, but Griff, she’s damn near a miracle patient. You don’t see that kind of recovery from brain surgery. But to be on the safe side, she should still have someone with her when you’re not there. When are you getting married?”

Griff stopped short at the question. Lila noticed it.

“You’re engaged aren’t you? I mean, I didn’t see her wearing a ring, but I figured it had to be pretty serious for you to be with her night and day.”

“It is pretty serious,” Griff answered. “We just haven’t talked about marriage.”

“I’m sure you will. After having almost lost her, it puts things in a whole new perspective.”

“It sure did.” Griff agreed.

He walked back to Miranda’s room, reeling. All he had considered was taking care of Miranda. He hadn’t really considered the long-term future with her. But now that Lila had talked about marriage, he realized that would be what people would think. Was that where he was headed?

* * *

“I’m sure as hell not going to move in with you. You are out of your ever-loving mind, Griffin Porter.”

She had papers strewn about the bed. Her laptop was open, and elevator music was coming out of her cell phone. Hell, it was only her second day out of the coma, the nurse and the doctor had already told him to come and take the laptop away from her.

“What is all this?” He waved his hand at everything on the bed.

“That’s me arranging things so that I can avoid hospice and live in my home in Anaheim.”

Griff sat down in what he considered his chair, by the bed. “So, what’s your big plan?”

“I’ll be doing telephone interviews of home healthcare workers this afternoon. They’ll be working in shifts at my house.” She tapped her tablet with her pen.

“Isn’t that going to be expensive?”

“My insurance will cover most of it. I have damn good insurance,” she said belligerently. She picked up her tablet, and one of her pieces of paper, comparing the writing on the two.

“If you stayed at my place, you would only need one healthcare worker for when I wasn’t there, and they would cover all of it. I checked.”

“What in the hell do you mean, you checked?” She slammed down her tablet.

“I mean I checked. I’m the one who had your purse, and got your insurance information for the hospital. Who do you think went up to your house and watered your plants while you were here? That’d be me.”

She looked at him aghast. “You had no right.”

“You have a hell of a lot of plants. Did you want them to die?”

She bit her bottom lip. “Well, no.”

“Okay then.”

“You had no right to call my insurance company,” she bit out.

“I admit I might have crossed a line. But I wanted to know how we were going to work things when you moved in with me.”

“I am not going to move in with you. I hardly know you.”

“Don’t you?”

She stared at him. Her eyes watered.

“Honey.” He shot up out of the chair, and cupped her cheeks. “Miranda, don’t cry.”

“Don’t mind me. They told me my emotions would be all over the board.”

“Why are you upset?”

“Why do I feel like I do know you? Why do I feel like we have more of a connection then I know we should? It doesn’t make sense. There is no way I should move in with you. I’d be too much of a burden.”

He gave her a soft kiss on the cheek, and then backed up and picked up the backpack he had brought with him. “I was prepared for this.” He pulled out a thick file. “This is my OMPF, a copy of my SATs, my bank records and a letter from my mom.” She took the offered file.

“What’s an OMPF?”

“Official Military Personnel File.”

“I don’t understand, why are you giving me this?”

“You’re a businesswoman. Doesn’t it make you feel good to look me over as a potential employee?” he asked gently.

“You don’t think I’m weird?” she asked.

“No, I think you’re you. You’re my Miranda, the ball buster. For God’s sake, you review contracts for a living, of course you want paperwork. If you were an artist, I would have had my mom get all of my old pictures from first grade.”

She laughed. She opened the file.

“Why should I believe anything your mother has to say?”

“I read it. It wasn’t all complimentary. Some of it made me wince.” She gave him the stink eye, then the side of her mouth went up.

“You’re kind of nuts. That isn’t a good thing when considering moving in with somebody.”

“You just said considering,” he grinned.

“Dammit, Griffin, you gave me your bank records,” she said as she opened the file. “And you’re a saver. I like people who save their money. It shows responsibility. Dammit! This is ridiculous. We didn’t even go on that date. You don’t know me. Why would you want to do this? I’m bad-tempered.” She hit ‘end’ on the phone. Griff gave thanks that the elevator music stopped.

“I’m a snoop,” he countered.

“That’s going into the bad column.”

“My mom mentioned it in the letter. She put it in the bad column, too.”

“Seriously, you hardly know me. You met me on a train. We haven’t gone out.”

“I know the most important thing about you. I know your heart. Your bravery. I know that you would risk yourself, without batting an eye, for a baby that you don’t even know.”

“I don’t remember that, Griffin. I was probably scared out of my mind, and was just acting on instinct.”

Griff thought back to her going toe-to-toe with him. Telling him that she would take off the tether in order to reach the baby, and damn the consequences. Yep, this was a woman he wanted by his side.

“Griff,” she said softly. “I would be more than happy to go out with you. To go on dates, and have a normal relationship with you. Let’s do that, okay? This is just too weird, I don’t want to start out with me being in your debt.”

He put his hand on hers. “I really appreciate that. I do. You’re not going to be indebted to me. Can you do me a favor, Miranda?”

She nodded solemnly.

“Consider this. Consider you had a job that was normal nine-to-five. Except for some out of town jaunts. But, right now, I’m off rotation, so I’m a nine-to-fiver. So imagine you’re a nine-to-fiver. Can you do that?”

She shook her head.

“Just close your eyes and try.” She looked at him. “Please.”

She sighed and closed her eyes.

“Imagine that we have gone through the most intense experience of our lives, and then imagine me needing you, and you had the ability to be there for me. Just for a couple of weeks. You could bring me into your home, and help me out, just for a couple of weeks. No strings, just helping me. Would you do it?”

She sighed again. And gave a small nod.

“There you go.”

“I don’t understand this. I don’t understand this connection we have. It’s been building for over two months. I’ve been having dreams about the crash.”

He pulled her into his arms, uncaring about the paper, but careful of her laptop. “Ah, baby. I knew I should still be here at night.”

“It’s okay. I’ve mostly dreamt of you.”

“What else have you dreamed about?”

“Hope. I’ve woken up screaming the word ‘No’.”

He chuckled. “She is definitely in the terrible twos. That’s her favorite word. She’s still saying it, even now.”

“What do you mean?”

“Didn’t I tell you? Susan came here when you were in your coma. She came here with her mother and kids. Hope toddled around the waiting room, and any time she didn’t get her way, she would yell the word, ‘No’. It was actually pretty funny.”

Miranda shuddered. She snuggled into his arms. “Her screams scare me.”

“I’m sorry, I imagine they do.” He brushed a kiss against her cheek. She moved her head, so that their lips touched. He stilled.

“Kiss me for real,” she whispered.

“Are you sure?”

“It’s more important than the letter from your mother.”

He parted his lips against hers. She tasted like the cinnamon Altoids she loved. He was so careful, knowing that she was still fragile from surgery. But as he gently kissed her, she bit down on his bottom lip in reproof and he smiled. He nipped back, and she welcomed his tongue so that they danced. Before it went too far, he pulled back.

“More,” she whimpered.

“First a doctor’s note,” he teased. “So was this enough to get you to agree?” He hoped so. Damn, he hoped so.

“I really shouldn’t. Griff, are you doing this because of some need to caretake? I know you just got done helping out with your dad.”

“My buddy Jack asked the same question. Here’s the deal. I intend to get your ass well and back in your house as quickly as possible. Then I intend to start dating you. Got it?”

Her eyes sparkled. “Got it. Okay, let’s do this.”

Chapter Eight

He loved the fact that she had actually made notes on his OMPF, and then called his mom. By God, this woman was a pistol. Then, when she had gotten to his house, she had printed out her performance appraisals and bank records and given them to him!

“Miranda, I don’t need to read these.”

“You damn well better. If you don’t, the deal is off.” That was the first day she was at his house.

She had refused to even move into the bedroom until they went over all of the information.

So for two hours he read evaluation after evaluation. “I really don’t like Michael Evans,” he said.

“Why not?” she asked.

“He was pretty hard on you. What does he mean that you needed to learn time management?”

“That was six years ago, and he was right. Out of all of my managers, he was the best. He gave it to me right between the eyes. He retired two years ago. I should give him a call. I miss him.”

When Griff continued to read through the rest of Mike’s performance evaluations, he could see that there was a great deal of care and respect for Miranda.

“Okay, I’ve read everything. We now know more about one another than people who have been dating for over a year. Are you satisfied?” he asked.

She got a wanton grin on her face. “Not hardly. I would say there is one aspect that we definitely haven’t explored.”

“None of that, Ms. Slade. It is time to get you into bed.” Griff groaned, and Miranda laughed.

“Shit, I sure walked into that one, didn’t I?” Griff shook his head. “I can’t believe I just said that.”

“I love it. But you’re right. I’m tired. I couldn’t seduce you even if I wanted to.” She reached for the knee scooter with her good hand.

“I’m going to help you. You need to be resting your leg,” Griff reminded her. He bent to pick her up.

“I’d protest, but you’re big as a house. But still, I can’t stand that you keep carrying me around. You already carried me into your home.”

He grinned as Miranda stuck out her lower lip. That’s what she always did when she pouted. She hated having to rely on anybody for help. Well, Miss Buttercup was just going to have to suck it up.

He carried her down the hallway to the master bedroom then he set her down so she could sit on the side of the bed. “Hold on and I’ll bring in the knee scooter so you can go into the bathroom by yourself.”

“Gee, thanks.”

By the time he got back, she had a contrite expression on her face. “Can you sit down beside me Griffin?”

“Sure, what is it?”

“I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have been mean and petty. You are absolutely wonderful for opening up your house to me. I am so grateful.”

“Honey, it’s okay that you were grumpy, I promise.” What was she talking about?

Her face crumpled. “No it’s not. This whole thing has been horrible.”

He scooped her up in his arms. “How is your head? Is your headache back?”

She didn’t answer.

“Miranda?”

“It hasn’t left.”

“Dammit, they said you were supposed to take your pain medication. You weren’t supposed to let them get ahead of you.”

“I hate it when I get all fuzzy,” she protested.

He helped her to lie back onto the pillows. He slipped off her shoes, and she let out a sigh. “I’ll be right back with your meds. Do you want juice or water?”

“Juice.”

“Apple?” He’d brought in a supply after seeing how much she liked it at the hospital.

She nodded.

He should have known that she had a headache. Now that he was looking, he could see faint lines around her eyes.

He got the medication, and took it back into the bedroom.

“Honey?”

She didn’t answer. As he got closer, he saw that her eyes were closed, and his heart clenched. “Miranda?” She slowly opened her eyes. They were awash with tears. He grabbed another pillow, and gently placed it behind her head.

He handed her two tablets and helped her to sip her juice. She rested her head back against the pillows.

“Can you sit with me for a while?”

“Always.”

“Thank you for rescuing me,” she said quietly.

“You know how you have nightmares about Hope?”

She gave a slight nod of her head.

“I have nightmares about you going over the side of that cliff. I still remember you getting in my face and telling me how you were going to do whatever it took to rescue Hope.”

“I did?”

“Oh, yeah, you did. I was trying to get you to put on the surf leash, and you said it was too short and you would take it off if you needed to. I tried to get you to promise that you would keep it on. You said that you wouldn’t lie to me.” He paused. “I think I fell a little bit in love with you at that moment.”

“Are you sure you don’t just feel sorry for me?”

Griff barked out a laugh. “You’re kidding, right?”

“No,” she said softly.

“Miranda, you’re one of the strongest people I know, and I work with a bunch of Navy SEALs.”

“Really?”

“Really. How’s your head feeling now?”

“Better.”

“Good.” He brushed a kiss against her temple. “You get some rest. I’ll bring in some food a little bit later, and we’ll eat dinner together.”

“I’d like that.”

* * *

“I hate that I put you out of your own bedroom,” Miranda said for the fourth evening in a row. The nurse, Lila, had left an hour ago, and Griff had just showered in the hall bathroom.

“It’s your bedroom,” he insisted.

“But why don’t you at least use the bathroom. A week ago it was your bathroom, until I came and took it over. The bathroom in the hall is tiny. You’re big.”

His eyes twinkled. “You noticed, huh?”

She gave an exasperated sigh. “I thought we established that I’m not mentally impaired, and even if I was…my God, man, you fill up a room.”

They were sitting on the couch, and he had brought her apple juice in a wine glass. He was always doing sweet things like that. She couldn’t drink, but it made her feel nice while he had a beer, that she was drinking her juice and feeling like a grown-up.

“I think you fill up a room, too. I’m always aware of where you are.”

“You are?”

His eyes were taking on a heated glow. He reached out and started to play with a strand of her hair, and she sucked in a deep breath. This was the first time he had touched her in a flirtatious manner since she had arrived. She’d been praying for this. “I stalked you for nine weeks on a train. If I did that, what makes you think I wouldn’t be tossing and turning in the room next to yours?”

“I’ve been having trouble sleeping, too.”

“Nightmares. I know.”

“Not always. Sometimes they’re dreams I had before the wreck. You’re a sexy man, Griffin.” She arched her head so that his hand could cup her cheek. Her head hurt less and less as the days went on. She needed his touch.

“You had dreams about me?” He moved closer to her, his lips a whisper away from hers.

“Needy dreams. Wanton dreams.” She twined her arms around his neck, then arched against him, relishing the feel of her breasts against the hard planes of his chest. They both groaned at the feel. He was gentle as he pulled her even closer.

She pulled away. “I won’t break.”

“Who says I’m not this way with all my lovers?”

She searched his eyes and saw a bit of truth. She smiled. She had really been enjoying being treated like rare treasure. “Kiss me some more, I need to get used to this.” The lines around his eyes fanned out as he leaned in for another kiss.

His tongue traced the line of her lips, and she opened, begging for more, and he thrust in. She captured him, welcoming him in, loving his flavor, the way he tenderly commanded her compliance. She surrendered, and found herself in a maelstrom of pleasure.

She moved her hands so she could touch his shoulders, his chest. His body was such a wonder, and then, as he continued to feed a need deep inside her, she found herself digging in with her fingernails, all parts of her body pulsing and humming, needing more. So much more.

“Griffin, please,” she moaned.

He stroked her cheek. “It’s still too soon after the surgery.”

“No it’s not,” she said. But her voice sounded weak, even to her own ears.

“Miranda, honesty. Please?” She retracted her nails, and looked up into his warm and caring eyes.

“Yes, it’s too soon.”

“You’re tired, aren’t you?”

She nodded.

“Let’s get you to bed. To sleep. Alone.”

They both laughed.

* * *

“Beth, you don’t have to stay with me. I don’t mind having the nurse here.”

“Nonsense. I wanted to come and visit.” Miranda really liked Beth’s warm smile. Being around the woman was soothing. “Anyway, I needed something to do to kill some time before I fly out to San Antonio tomorrow.”

“Why are you going there?” Miranda asked.

“That’s where my in-laws have a ranch. I usually go out there when Jack is on a mission.”

Miranda looked carefully at Beth’s face. Now that she was looking for it, she could see a look of strain around her eyes and mouth.

“How often does Jack go out on a mission?”

“It varies. Since we’ve been together, he’s been gone about five and a half months total. We’ve been together almost two years.”

“Griff is a sniper on the Midnight Dawn team. He said he’s off rotation right now,” Miranda blurted out.

Beth reached across the kitchen table and covered Miranda’s hand. “I know. He’s been off rotation while he’s taken care of his dad and you. He’s going to go back on pretty soon.”

Miranda didn’t like the sound of that at all.

“How do you deal with that?” she asked Beth. She was surprised when the woman laughed.

“Pretty easily, actually. I’ve seen him in action. He saved me.”

“What?”

“I was kidnapped. Jack and his team came and saved me. I know just how good his team is. Those men are the best at what they do.”

“You were kidnapped?”

“It’s a long story. But have you ever researched Navy SEALs? Do you have any idea what their training is?”

Miranda thought back to what she read before the train wreck. “Yes I did. But, Beth, they might have gone through all of that training, but then they go on some of the most dangerous missions.”

“I can’t explain it really well. But each of them knows what they’re supposed to be doing. It’s like they can read each other’s minds. My brother-in-law, Clint, he’s the computer expert. He feeds them information. Then there’s Finn, he can find and provide anything. Their leader is Mason, and Jack trusts him with his life. They found me in the middle of nowhere, and they took out four times as many men, and the bad guys never saw it coming.

“But Griff isn’t on Jack’s team anymore,” Miranda protested.

“Jack’s talked about Griff. He’s told me that there are very few people he would want covering his six other than Griffin Porter.”

“Really?”

“Really. But, Miranda, if this is something you can’t handle, you need to tell Griff now. He’s falling for you hard.”

“It’s a two-way street. I have been thinking about this. A lot. I’ve dealt with loss. For the longest time it was just my mother and me. My dad took off before I was born. My mom was the best. She died three years ago. Losing her hurt worse than anything I’ve ever had to deal with, but I wouldn’t trade a day with her. I will always choose love.”

“She sounds like a special woman.”

“She was.”

* * *

“How was your day with Beth?” Griff asked, as he dished out the stir-fry.

“It was good. She is really nice.” Miranda waited for Griff to sit down before she started to eat. “You sure can cook.”

“So can you. I loved the meatloaf you made yesterday.”

Miranda blushed, and took a sip of her apple juice. “I wanted to talk to you about something.”

“Okay.”

“I saw the doctor today.”

“I didn’t know you had a doctor’s appointment today.”

“I know. You always insist on leaving base. Lila can take me, and it’s her job to do it. Anyway, Dr. Carter said I’m fine to be on my own.”

“So soon?”

“Come on, it was overkill to have the nurse during the day after the first week. You and I both know it.”

“Is there anything she’s not clearing you for?” It sounded like Griff was hopeful.

“She just isn’t clearing me to drive.” Miranda laughed. “It’s kind of tough. I’m not really psyched to ride the train.”

“Yeah, I can’t say that’s high on my list, either,” Griff agreed.

Miranda pushed the food around on her plate.

“What about work?” Griff asked.

“I can’t work for as many hours a week. I should start at twenty for the first month. I already talked to my supervisor, and it turns out they’re happy to have me. It seems they’re even willing to arrange software to read the contracts to me, so I don’t have eyestrain,” she gave a weak chuckle.

“You don’t sound too happy,” he noted. She saw that he wasn’t eating, either.

She put down her fork. “I’m blunt.”

“Huh?”

“Oh, never mind.” She picked up her fork again.

Griff reached over and took the utensil out of her hand, and set it down on her plate. “Miranda, tell me what you meant by that.”

She pushed up from the table and walked over to the window in the living room with barely a limp. Then she turned around and faced him. “I’m blunt. I should be able to say this. Griffin, you’re going back on regular rotation after I leave, aren’t you?”

He nodded.

“I’m going to be living up in Anaheim, and you’re down here in San Diego, and then you might be God knows where some of the time.”

“Yes,” he said carefully. “That’s true.”

“I don’t want to go home. But I don’t want to be your pet project.”

He charged up from the dining room table. “What the fuck do you mean, my pet project? Goddammit, you were never my pet project!”

“I’ve been getting better for the last three weeks, and, except for one kiss, you’ve kept your hands to yourself,” she complained.

“You’ve been a guest in my house. I told you we were going to date after you were well. I should never have kissed you, it was taking advantage of you.”

She stared at him like he had grown a second head. “Are you out of your mind? I have been wearing actual nighties, not sleep shirts. I’ve had them delivered here from Victoria’s Secret, for God’s sake. Have you not noticed?”

“Of course I’ve fucking noticed. It’s damn near killed me. Especially the damn red one.”

Miranda smiled. Thank God. If he hadn’t noticed the red one, they were in a world of trouble.

“You’ve been torturing me on purpose? Asking for juice in the middle of night?”

She bent her head. Okay, maybe the juice had been a bit too much…

Griff reached out and touched her cheek, and she nuzzled against his hand. “I should have been blunt,” she said ruefully.

“Red is now my favorite color,” he said as he bent forward.

Miranda watched him with wide eyes as their lips met. She didn’t want to miss a moment of this kiss. He was so tender, until he wasn’t. He took over like a thunderstorm, pulling her close, and her eyes closed as she sank into his kiss. Moment after moment spun together, and only Griffin kept her safe. When he pulled away she whimpered. “You’re not always tender?” she asked.

“There are other flavors available,” he admitted.

“I want the whole sampler platter,” she said breathlessly.

“That’s good, Honey, because tonight I want more than just a kiss.”

“Oh, yes,” she answered. “Yes, please.”

He swung her up in his arms, and she didn’t get dizzy, which made her giddy with joy. “You okay?”

“I’m fantastic,” she grinned up at him.

“Yes you are,” he agreed, as he strode down the hallway to the master bedroom.

He laid her down on the bed with exquisite care, and, for just a moment, Miranda wished she was wearing her red nightie.

“What?” he asked.

“Get out of my head.”

“I like your head. I like everything about you. Now what were you thinking?” His beautiful black eyes searched hers.

“I wished that I was wearing my negligee,” she said wistfully.

He kissed her long and lingeringly. “Do you know what I wish? I wish you were naked. I’ve been wishing that for days.”

She gave a husky laugh.

Griff slowly started unbuttoning her blouse, and as each inch of flesh was exposed, he pressed a soft kiss against her skin. By the time he got to her belly button, she was frantic with need.

“Shhh, softly Miranda. We’ll get there. Trust me.” He cupped her cheeks and stilled her head, kissing her gently. She sighed. “We’re taking this slow, okay love?”

Her heart melted. “Yes,” she whispered.

He undid the front clasp of her bra, and she luxuriated in the feel of his big, warm hands cupping her breasts. He bent down, and sucked her nipple, then blew a stream of air around her areola. It was the most erotic thing anybody had ever done, and she was about to come unglued.

She wrapped her legs around his waist. He chuckled and pushed them back down on the bed. “I think we need to get those pants off first.”

“Hurry.”

“We have all the time in the world,” he said soothingly.

“No. We. Don’t!”

He laughed again. Then he lifted her up a bit so he could help her out of her blouse and bra. “God, you’re gorgeous.”

“Now it’s your turn. I’ve been a good girl. I want my Christmas present. I want to see you without a shirt.”

She saw him give a little bit of a start, then his eyes turned molten. She held her breath as he peeled off his shirt. He was gorgeous. She could do laundry on his abdomen. She reached out to touch him. He grabbed her hand before she could.

“Wait.”

“Why?”

“I have no self-control. If you touch me, I’ll go off like a fifteen-year-old boy.”

“I’ll just have to work on making you hard again,” she purred. He let go of her hand and she stroked her way up his chest. He groaned with pleasure.

He swooped down and kissed her with controlled fury. She reveled in it. She knew that one day they could let loose, and she looked forward to it, but for now this was glorious.

He reached down and unbuttoned her capris pants, and slid his hand inside, underneath her panties. She bucked up against his hand. His finger circled her clit, and she started to moan. She needed this. She needed him. She tried to shove her pants down, not wanting to find her release without him inside her.

“Here, Honey,” he helped her. Soon she was naked, but then everything stopped. She looked up at him in frustration, and then she saw him staring at her. She was mesmerized by the look in his eyes. He seemed to be fascinated by her.

“Griffin?”

“You’re stunning. Look at you.” His hands stroked her from breast to hip, as if he we memorizing each curve. As his fingers rested against her pelvis, his thumbs traced the juncture of her thighs. She trembled. “Part your legs.”

She did.

“So beautiful. All mine.”

She watched in rapt silence as he bent towards her and took that first lick. He felt like something out of a dream, better than a dream. How could he know her body better than she did? It made no sense.

“Griffin?’

“I’m here.” He looked up and gave her the a carnal smile filled with love. “Are you with me?”

She sighed and nodded, and he smiled a bad boy smile, and dipped down. Oh God. The rasp of his tongue over her sensitive flesh soon had her arching high and she let out a sharp wail of fulfillment, and like a thunderstorm after a drought, the tears started in earnest. In a flash he was up beside her, and hauling her into the warmth and safety of his arms.

“I don’t know what’s wrong with me,” she sobbed.

“Absolutely nothing. You’re perfect.”

“Then why am I crying?” Miranda hiccupped, and the crying seemed to get worse. She had a man that meant the world to her, holding her, and she couldn’t stop the tears. What was her problem?

He rocked her for long minutes, whispering nonsense, telling her she was beautiful and precious. Finally she calmed.

“Griff, I don’t know why that happened.” They were under the covers, and she was cuddled up against the man who was her world. Nothing made sense.

Griff kissed her forehead and gave a sigh. “I’ve kind of been expecting it. Maybe not at that moment, but I’ve been expecting a breakdown. You’ve been wound pretty tight, Ms. Slade.”

“I’ve been a mess.”

“Miranda, you have powered through like a damn Navy SEAL. It’s only when I’ve come into this room to help you during your nightmares that the walls have come down. Honey, you’ve needed to cry.”

“That first day I was here I was grumpy and teary.”

Griff let out a big laugh. “Hell, my dad’s been more emotional than you have. I’ve been worried about you. I’m just glad you finally let it all out. Don’t you feel better?”

Miranda blushed. She felt amazingly well.

“Okay, blunt girl is back. How could I not feel fantastic, I had the best orgasm of my life, and I finally cried. My pipes have been cleared.”

“That’s cleaning the pipes,” Griffin laughed so hard the bed started to shake.

Finally he subsided. He turned her so that she was cradled in his arms, and he was staring down into her grinning face.

“I’m so in love with you, I just can’t stand it. Getting on that train was the best thing that ever happened to me.”

Miranda swallowed. The thought of the train sometimes got to her, but looking up into those captivating black eyes, she realized that finding Griffin was worth everything. “I love you, too.”

He closed his eyes, then they opened with unshed tears. “Thank God.” He placed a soft, ,a tender, a gentle kiss against her lips, that soon had her spinning into a vortex of heat. She reached up for him, but he stilled her.

“Wait.” He got up from the bed, and left the room. He was still in his jeans. They had to fix that. Hopefully he was getting a condom.

He came back in, and she couldn’t help but ogle that chest. He was the best-looking man she had ever seen in person. He came over to the bed and knelt down beside it.

“Get up here,” she patted the bed beside her.

“In a minute.” He opened his hand, and her heart stuttered. There was a gray box in it. Her eyes flew up to his.

“Griffin, no! You can’t mean it.”

“Miranda, yes,” he smiled. “I absolutely do mean it.” He opened the box, and there was an emerald cut diamond with two pink sapphires on either side. Miranda felt tears form again.

“Marry me. Please be my wife, and my partner. Live with me forever.”

“We’ve never talked about a future together. We don’t know where we would live, if we wanted to have children.” She sounded dazed.

“Miranda, having you go over that cliff, not knowing if you were dead or alive. Then waiting for you to wake up. It puts things into perspective for a man. I know life is too damn short to live without you. Do you love me? Do you want to marry me?”

“More than I want to take my next breath.” Her fingers traced the ring of her dreams. “You were my one regret when I took off that leash. I would do it again to save Hope. But when I did, I knew I could die, and you were my ‘what might have been.’ Now, after spending this last month with you, I know you’re the man I want to spend the rest of my life with.”

He took the ring out of the box, and put it on her finger.

“I want you, Miranda. With children, without children, it doesn’t matter. We’ll work it out. All that matters is that it’s with you.”

She looked at her ring in stunned amazement. “The ring?”

“Wendy helped,” he said.

She threw her arms around him. He was always going to surprise her, love her, rescue her. He was her hero. He was the man of her dreams.

“I love you Griffin.”

“Miranda, you’re my miracle.”

Epilogue

Miranda looked around the Del Mar Fairgrounds. It was a year after the train wreck. Three of the women who had been playing bridge in the business class car had arranged for this picnic in honor of their fourth player who had died. But they had insisted that Carol Shepard would have wanted a hell of a party, so that’s what was going on. There was a band, and a dance floor set up, and at least five hundred people were in attendance, including what seemed like most of Camp Pendleton.

“I can’t believe this,” Sophia marveled, as she sat down after having danced with Mason. “This had to have cost the moon.”

“I don’t think they cared.” Miranda said. “I’ve talked to Carol’s friends, and this is what they wanted for Carol.”

Billy came up and handed Miranda a bottle of apple juice. Miranda looked at Griff in amusement. “You’re outsourcing your husbandly duties?” she asked.

“Billy offered. His girlfriend, Rebecca, is helping man the refreshment table, so it wasn’t a hardship.” Griff moved his chair closer to hers so that he could more easily caress the small swell of her abdomen. He did that a lot. Both of them were excited about the recent news.

Caroline Steel caught the telltale movement and smiled. Nothing got by her. Miranda looked around the three picnic tables in satisfaction. There were Griff’s SEAL team, Mason’s team, and Wolf’s TEAM and all of their wives, fiancee’s and girlfriends. It wasn’t often that everyone was able to be together at the same time. It was obviously meant to be.

Tucked in between all of the big Navy men were Susan Lasson and her son Jeremy and her daughter Hope. Hope had everybody eating out of her hand. Right now, she was sitting on Drake Avery’s lap.

“So, do you know whether you’re having a boy or a girl?” Caroline asked quietly.

Miranda looked up at Griff, who nodded. They’d just found out the sex last week. His parents were tickled.

“She’s a girl. I’m five months pregnant.” Miranda said happily.

Caroline gave her a hug. “I’m so happy for you.”

“Have you figured out a name?”

“Ice, it’s kind of early, don’t you think?” Wolf asked.

“Actually, we have,” Miranda whispered.

“Felicity, after my mother, and her middle name is going to be Hope.”

Caroline reached out and clutched Miranda’s hands. “That’s perfect.”

“That’s what I think too. She’s a miracle.” They both turned to look at the laughing little girl.

“You two are the miracle workers.” Wolf said.

“Amen to that, my brother,” Griff hugged Miranda close.

Miranda watched as Wolf bent his head close to Caroline, she couldn’t hear what he said. But then Griffin was talking to her, and all thought of the other couple fled her mind.

“You and my daughter mean everything to me.”

She didn’t know how she had gotten so lucky, but all was definitely right with her world.

“I love you, Griffin,” she whispered, as she rested her head against his shoulder.

“I love you more, Miranda.”

THE END

Biography

Caitlyn O'Leary is an avid reader, and considers herself a fan first and an author second. She reads a wide variety of genres, but finds herself going back to happily-ever-afters. Getting a chance to write, after years in corporate America, is a dream come true. She hopes her stories provide the kind of entertainment and escape she has found from some of her favorite authors.

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Books by Caitlyn O’Leary

The Found Series

Revealed, Book One

Forsaken, Book Two

Healed, Book Three

Beloved, Book Four (Spring 2017)

Midnight Delta Series

Her Vigilant SEAL, Book One

Her Loyal SEAL, Book Two

Her Adoring SEAL, Book Three

Sealed with a Kiss, A Midnight Delta Novella, Book Four

Her Daring SEAL, Book Five

Her Fierce SEAL, Book Six

Her Dominant SEAL, Book Seven (Winter 2016)

Her Heart’s Protector, Novella, Cuffed & Claimed Anthology (October 2016)

A SEAL’s Vigilant Heart, Novella Wet ‘n Wild Anthology

Shadow Alliance

Declan, Book One

Fate Harbor Series Published by Siren/Bookstrand

Trusting Chance, Book One

Protecting Olivia, Book Two

Claiming Kara, Book Three

Isabella’s Submission, Book Four

Cherishing Brianna, Book Five

Seal of Protection & Midnight Delta Crossover Novel

Susan Stoker KindleWorld

Protecting Hope (November 2016)

Omega Team & Shadow Alliance Crossover Novel

Desiree Holt KindleWorld

Cooper’s Promise (November 2016)