Three Courageous Words. Elle James

a stand of shanties stood.

      Diesel parked behind one that appeared abandoned.

      When Angela reached for the door, Buck gripped her wrist. “I’m going with you.”

      “There’s no need,” Angela said with her fingers curling around the handle. “I’m not coming back.”

      “The hell you aren’t,” Buck said.

      “I’m not here to argue. I have to check on my nurse.” She shoved the sliding door open and dropped to the ground. Without waiting, she took off toward the camp at a slow jog.

      Buck shot a glance at Big Jake. “I can’t let her go it alone.”

      Big Jake jerked his head toward Angela’s departing figure. “Then go. We’ll wait here as long as we’re not discovered.” He tapped the earbud headset. “Stay in touch. I’ll send a couple men out to keep watch for bad guys.”

      “I’ll keep you informed.” Buck jumped out of the van and ran to catch up with Angela.

      She didn’t slow for him but kept jogging toward her destination. “You didn’t have to follow me,” she said. “I know what I’m doing.”

      “Humor me.” He raised a hand to the makeshift bandage on his arm. “Besides, I need you to patch me up better.”

      “How do you know I didn’t do a good job?”

      “I’m the corpsman, the medic for the team. It’s my professional opinion that you need to clean the wound and apply a fresh bandage to keep it from becoming infected.”

      Her eyes narrowed. “Right. You’re a medic. Do it yourself.”

      “I can’t perform surgery on myself, now can I?”

      She sighed and kept moving. “Fine. It wouldn’t hurt to clean the wound and apply sterile bandages.”

      Buck suppressed the smile threatening to spread across his face. He’d scored a very minor victory, but one that would give him a little more time to convince her to leave an extremely volatile area.

      As they approached the sprawling camp, they circled around a large white tent to the entry at the front where a canvas sign was tied over the door. The red, white and black lettering stated Médecins Sans Frontières, which translated to Doctors Without Borders.

      Buck knew all about this international nongovernmental organization known for humanitarian relief in war-torn or developing countries with little or no medical services available to the general population. He’d hoped one day to be one of the doctors to volunteer his time to help others less fortunate. He’d had lots of dreams when he’d started medical school.

      A woman with graying blond hair stepped out of the tent and frowned when she saw Angela and Buck. “I heard an explosion in town. That wasn’t anywhere close to your demonstration, was it?”

      Angela’s lips pressed together. “Brenda, we need to prep for stitches. I’ll fill you in on what happened while we’re sewing up this man.”

      Brenda smiled at Buck. “Hi, I’m Brenda Sites. And you are?”

      “Graham Buckner, but you can call me Buck.” He nodded toward the tent. “We don’t have time for stitches,” Buck said. “A clean pressure bandage will do for now.”

      Angela shook her head. “No, we need to close the wound to keep it from getting infected. I can do it in less than five minutes, if you’ll shut up and let me get busy.”

      “All right, sweetheart. You don’t have to be so bossy.” Buck’s lips twitched as he followed Angela into the tent, his gaze taking in the neat little hospital complete with a few beds and a separate room for more advanced procedures.

      His curiosity always piqued when he was around medical equipment and medicine. More than anything, he wished he’d been able to finish his degree and residency. Alas, his past had caught up with him, and he’d had to leave school or risk exposing the people he cared most about to the murdering, scum-of-the-earth gang members he’d grown up with in Chicago.

      He’d left school, Angela and his dreams behind to get away from his past and to get his past away from Angela. He couldn’t regret that. She’d deserved to finish her schooling without being stalked, harassed and potentially harmed by Buck’s old gang members.

      The only way Buck had gotten the gang to leave him and Angela alone was to give up his dreams and leave Chicago all together.

      “Have a seat.” Angela indicated a folding chair in front of a small field desk.

      “Really, we could just clean the wound, bandage it and be done in a lot less time,” Buck said. “If you’ll give me whatever you use to clean with, I can try to do it myself.”

      “Didn’t you say you couldn’t perform surgery on yourself?” Angela washed her hands, dried them and pulled on a pair of latex gloves, while her nurse spread out sterile drop cloths across the table, then laid out scissors, gauze, Betadine and tweezers. She used the scissors to remove the makeshift bandage from his arm. Blood oozed from the wound.

      Angela inspected it. “See? You need stitches.” She took over after the nurse completed removing the bandage and irrigated the wound with a syringe.

      The nurse patted it dry with gauze and applied Betadine to the skin around the wound.

      Angela threaded the needle with suture line, her movements quick and efficient. “We’re short on local anesthetics. Hell, we’re out of most medications.” Angela met his gaze with a steady one of her own. “You’ll have to hold very still and grin and bear it.”

      If he wasn’t mistaken, she almost looked like she was enjoying taunting him with the threat of pain. He nodded. “Just do it quickly. We don’t know when or if Koku’s men will show up and cause more trouble.”

      Before the last word left his mouth, she stuck the needle into the edge of one side of the wound and looped it through the other. She talked softly as she worked, informing her nurse of what had occurred in Bentiu.

      Buck stared at the top of Angela’s head while bracing his jaw to keep from cursing. It hurt like hell, but he wouldn’t jerk his hand away or let loose any of the choice words he wanted to say at that moment. Instead, he focused on Angela, taking advantage of her concentration on his arm to study her.

      She hadn’t changed much in their years apart. If anything, she’d become even more beautiful. Her dark hair framed her face, her olive-toned skin was a little darker and the confidence she exuded was palpable. The woman had matured into a self-assured, capable doctor with a steady hand.

      Buck’s heart swelled with pride for her. “I always knew you’d make it,” he said softly.

      Her hand stilled for a fraction of a second before she tied off the first stitch. “That’s what happens when you stay focused.”

      Her comment hurt. He shouldn’t have let it, but it did. Angela hadn’t known how much he wanted to stay at school and be with her. He hadn’t told her, figuring a clean break would be better than leaving her holding out hope for his return. “I had my reasons for leaving.”

      “Yeah. And it doesn’t matter, does it? You left. I stayed. We lived our own lives.” She slipped the needle into another section of the wound. “Separately.”

      Buck winced and bit down on his tongue. He figured Angela was right. Why bother rehashing the past? It was over. What he needed to do was concentrate on getting her out of the camp before Koku’s men came looking for another place to shake up.

      Angela and Brenda worked on his arm with quiet efficiency.

      By the time Angela tied off the last stitch, Buck could swear he’d ground at least a quarter of an inch off his back teeth. He released the breath he’d held and stood.

      “Now, let’s get you out of here.” Buck reached for her wrist.

      Angela