Cole's heart threatened to hammer right out of his chest as he watched the medics cut off the duct tape. Her feet were fine, the tape sticking to her jeans, but her wrists...
Oh, God. Her wrists.
The twisting and pulling had bruised the fair skin to the point of bleeding, the swollen wrists looking as if she'd been playing rough s*x games.
He felt ill.
Cole had seen worse. He'd seen body parts scattered by the side of the road, still in uniform. He'd watched men screaming for their mothers. He knew the smell of burning flesh. To survive, he'd hardened his heart and refused to be fazed by anything he saw or experienced.
All of that had failed him over the past few hours, the abject fear now replaced by a surge of relief at seeing Kat alive and well.
Julien patted his shoulder as the p
