Page 20 of Hold On Through The Pain

She sighed, and the click of a door or something like that sounded over the phone. “I miss you too. I can’t wait until I’m done.”

The door to his room flew open and Lance, his suitemate, stuck his head in. “Hurry up, Striker. We’re ready.”

“Oh, are you headed out?” Shannon asked.

Lance lifted his eyebrows and motioned with his hand for Striker to hurry. Striker waved him off.

“Sorry, just my suitemate wanting to go.”

Shannon groaned, and for a second, he believed she was complaining about his need to go.

“Sorry, my dad is calling for me. It looks like we both have people who want us to hang up. I’ll talk to you soon.”

“Yeah, I miss you,” Striker said.

“And I miss you too.”

He hung up and stared down at his phone for a moment before glancing up and meeting Lance’s gaze. His buddy winked and then nodded to the hall.

“Come on. I know you miss her. She’ll be done with school soon, and you’ll have her here. I’ll miss having you as a roommate.”

“Nah, you won’t. You’ll celebrate with naked time in the main room.”

“Probably. I like naked time.”

Striker rolled his eyes and shook his head as he followed Lance out. His guys were meeting for one drink, and Lance had been invited though he wasn’t going on the mission. Drinks at the bar with his buddies was a sort of celebration before a huge mission. Maybe the State Department would pull a rabbit out of the hat and get the diplomats out safely, but he doubted it.

Traveling overseas to step in and work with another unit was always interesting. Their mission was to rescue fifteen diplomats being held in aresort in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It was a stupid move on the embassy’s part to have the diplomats travel away from the embassy, but stupid people did stupid stuff. That’s why there were Rangers to step in when the world went crazy.

The flight over the Atlantic was long, and he had time to think about Shannon. He missed her. Just a few more weeks and they could be together. He hoped nothing went wrong. This mission had him nervous though. The situation was messed up. Thoughts of other embassy rescues filtered through his mind. He shouldn’t think about mistakes other teams made, but he couldn’t shake the weird feeling.

He’d just met Shannon and didn’t want this mission to go to hell. He had to keep it together out here or risk everything. This mission meant more than just rescuing people. He had to survive because more than his bed and truck waited for him at home. His future was with Shannon and he didn’t want to miss it for anything.

10

Shannon hadn’t recoveredfrom the bug, and another worry sat heavy in her gut, making it difficult to breathe if she thought about it too much. After her test, she headed to the bathroom to get sick again. She was washing her face when one of the girls from class stepped in, shaking her head.

“When are you going to take that test?”

The question threw Shannon, and she lifted her brows. “I just finished.”

“Not that one. You know—peeing on the stick type of test.”

The words filled her with fear, and she started shaking her head. “No way. I’m not pregnant.”

Hearing her own fears thrown in her face made her worry grow even more. She swore Striker had used a condom every single time. But what if…?

“You don’t look so good,” the woman said.

Shannon drew in a slow breath. She still had a half day to go before she could rush out and buy a pregnancy test. The worst part of this, Striker had just left for his two weeks away and was unreachable.

The minutes ticked slowly by, the wait painful. After class, she caught a ride home, then walked over to the pharmacy. Her father had decided that after graduation she wouldn’t be able to use the car he’d been letting her drive. He’d taken it away two days ago and decided to sell it. He wouldn’t even let her offer a payment plan. Said he didn’t want the bother of collecting money from her.

When she’d asked to live at his place while she went to school, she’d known he didn’t want to really help her. The only reason he agreed to let her stay was to keep his house clean. Now, she had no way to get to school other than public transportation or begging rides. She thought he was being mean just for the heck of it, but that was his way.

Once she got home, she headed to the bathroom and opened the package for the pregnancy test. This was the first time she’d ever even seen a pregnancy test up close. Her hands shook as she read the instructions. After she set up the stick beside the toilet, her stomach rolled from fear, not sickness.

What if Striker asked her to abort the baby? Could she do that?

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