Page 46 of Her Captivated Hero

Gray could feel every one of his team making judgements about Emily’s father, none of them good.

“I’m going to be keeping tabs on her,” Dex said. “Just because she arrives back in the States, doesn’t mean she’s off our watch.”

Gray’s men nodded.

“And Chantelle Briggs?” Aiden asked. “How is she doing?”

“She’s still in surgery.” He pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket. “The doctor wanted me to tell you something verbatim. ‘Whoever worked on Ms. Briggs in the field did an excellent job.’” The young man looked up and grinned.

“You still didn’t answer my question,” Aiden glared at him. “What kind of surgery is Chantelle having?”

“Oh, one of her broken ribs ended up perforating a lung, and they had to go in and repair that. They don’t expect any problems.” Gray watched as Aiden relaxed the slightest little bit.

Dex turned to Aiden. “Don’t worry, man. Wyatt and I will be keeping tabs on Ms. Briggs as well.”

“Your ass would have been in a sling if you hadn’t,” Aiden glowered.

“Okay men, get moving,” Gray waved to the plane. “The sooner we board, the sooner we’re home.”

That was the only good news that the members of Black Dawn had before they loaded up on the plane. For the first half hour of the trip home, Gray replayed the mission, beating himself up. Was there any way that they could have gotten to the women when they were still at the resort? If they had, could they have saved Emily from the atrocities visited on her by Faizon and his son?

He allowed himself exactly thirty minutes of worthless thinking before shutting that shit down. He and his team would do a post-mortem of the mission when they got home, they would determine what went right and what went wrong. But analytically, Gray knew that with Harry Morris in their way, they got to Saudi Arabia as quickly as they could. Aiden and Dex had worked wonders figuring out the Golden Tulip, and they’d had no choice but to wait until the middle of the night to raid the boat.

It was a subdued group that landed in San Diego. Wyatt wasn’t at the base, and all the men left to go home to their women. Gray had intended to go home, there was no way he was planning on subjecting his dark mood on Riya. But here he was at her door, waiting for her to open it.

He heard the click of the alarm being unarmed, and then she unbolted the door, and there she was. He could breathe again.

“Gray?”

He realized he had been standing there without speaking.

“I’ve missed you.” His voice was rough.

She grasped his hand and tugged. “Come in.”