Page 23 of Danger Close
Then Ezra said it.Quiet.Barely a whisper.
“You were my biggest regret.”
Ricky’s breath caught.Just for a second, and pain filtered across his handsome face.Ezra frowned, no, he wasn’t supposed to be sad.That wasn’t supposed to make him sad.
Behind them, Dale barked into comms.“LZ is secure.Bird’s in five.”
Bateman stood.“Get him on the stretcher.Move.”
Marsh and Hogan lifted him, careful but efficient, securing the bindings with silent coordination.As they carried him toward the exit, Ezra’s eyes stayed locked on Ricky’s.
“We are getting you out of here,” Ricky said, walking beside him.
“Not unless you’re coming with me,” Ezra rasped, a faint smile touching his mouth.
“Huh,” Marsh snorted.“Romance at extraction.Cute.”
Dale smirked.“I give it two weeks before they start making out on recon.”
“Shut up, Dale,” Ricky and Marsh said in unison.
Bateman leaned down as the team reached the doors, the thrum of rotors rising outside.“I’m gonna tear you a new one once you’re patched up,” he said.
Ezra grinned weakly.“If it will mean that I’m still alive, then I am looking forward to it.”
The sedative hit full force then, dragging him under.As the world dimmed, Ezra looked up one last time.
Ricky’s face.Eyes wet, jaw set.Ezra’s final thought before blackness took him was simple, and it didn’t hurt anymore.
He came for me.
Chapter Five
Three weeks out fromthat extraction, and Ezra still couldn’t find his footing.
The outer wounds had mostly mended—no more stitches tugging at his skin, no more morphine dripping through his veins like velvet fire.The bruises had yellowed, the bandages thinned, and the IV pole no longer followed him like a second spine.
