“She watches you,” Sanders said. “I watch her watch you. I can give you my assessment anytime you’re ready.”

Rick grinned. His friend had an astounding ability to read people. It came in very handy in tactical debriefings of captured enemies. He played the big dumb sergeant, but even if he didn’t speak the language, he could tell motivations, moods, who lied and who told the truth, and a host of other things.

“Hit me,” Rick said, leaning back as fatigue washed over him.

“She’s been hurt, badly. You can see it around her eyes. She doesn’t trust men, but she respects strength. It wars inside of her. She’s fiercely loyal. She’s taken personal responsibility for me and Ozzy and that entire village we left. We could do worse.”

Rick made a “hmm” sound as he closed his eyes, thinking about Doctor Cynthia Myers and the reason she didn’t trust men. He wondered if her ex-fiancé was still in office and working in the Washington, DC, area. Any man with a shred of class would have made himself scarce. But some men had no class. He couldn’t imagine what her father must think of the man who’d done that to his daughter.

He had neutral feelings as far as her father was concerned. The man hadn’t run for the office. The president had appointed him. Rick hadn’t researched him prior to his accepting the office, and he hadn’t had time to think about it since then.

As he dozed off, the last thing he thought about was the smile on Cynthia’s face as they’d enjoyed the horrible-tasting MRE. He wanted the chance to make her smile again.

Chapter
Nine

Cynthia glanced up at the sky as she set a poncho next to Ozzy. The clouds had darkened ominously, and the rain she’d predicted earlier would fall at any moment. She sat next to him and studied his face. The fluids and antibiotics continued to beat back the infection trying its best to kill him. He had better color and looked more alert.

“How’s your pain?” she asked.

“Well, I’m not enjoying it very much, to be honest.”

She didn’t take the bait. “How are you tolerating it?”

He grudgingly said, “If I’m completely still, it’s just kind of throbbing.”

“On a scale of one to ten?”

The corner of his mouth twitched. “Like forty-two.”

It went against her better judgment to withhold the medicine, but she complied. “Try to rest. I know you were fighting the medicine fog before, so you’re probably exhausted.”