Embattled Minds (Military Romance) (Lost And Found Series) Read Online Free Page A

about family time. The words sounded forced to him.
    He’d waited three days. As he and Chad waded through the crowd now, he felt a little ridiculous checking on a woman who’d spoken less than fifty words to him. Zeke couldn’t yet articulate what he felt for her, other than a huge need to know more about her.
    Chad seemed to understand what propelled him. He went to Frog Dog with him, because he admitted to being curious where she’d gone as well. Literally, Ember had never not been there when they’d gone in. She owned the place with her dad. It wasn’t like they could just pack up and leave.
    A different young woman waited on them. Chad poured on the Texas charm, blue eyes twinkling, grinning even as the waitress surveyed the scars winding down his neck. “Is Ember working?”
    The girl blinked and smiled, obviously remembering her job. “She’s in the kitchen. Do you need her?”
    “Yes, we do. Can you get her for us?”
    Zeke swallowed as the girl disappeared, anxiety tightening his chest. He didn’t know what he would say to her, if anything. His damn brain stalled out at the most inopportune times. He just needed to check on her for his own peace of mind. Her father had been having issues when they’d last talked to her.
    The waitress returned with their beers in hand and an apologetic smile. “Sorry guys, she says she’s cooking and really busy right now. Can she talk to you another time?”
    Zeke’s internal alarm went off and the tension in his gut increased. The grill wasn’t especially crowded, and he doubted there were that many food orders. Pushing to his feet, he met Chad’s eyes and circled the waitress. “B-back in a…minute.”
    Without hesitation, he went to the swinging kitchen door and pushed through.
    Ember looked up when he walked in, and when he saw her face, he felt like he’d been gut shot. Heavy bruising discolored the right side up to her eye, and she seemed to be in pain. Her mouth was pinched and her eyes squinted. When she realized he wasn’t one of the wait staff, she immediately turned away.
    “No customers allowed back here,” she called. She moved down the cook line and motioned to a Hispanic man she was working with to take her place at the grill. Zeke prowled down the parallel aisle until he was right behind her.
    “L-look at me.”
    She shook her head stubbornly. “You can’t be back here, Zeke.”
    “Look at me, please.”
    After a long pause, she turned her body toward him, but kept her face turned away. Bending his knees enough to peer into her eyes, he waited until she looked at him.
    Fury rolled through him as he realized he could see finger marks within the bruise. “Who d-did this to you?”
    She shook her head and refused to answer. Tears glinted in her eyes. “It’s no big deal, okay? Accidents happen. I was just in the wrong place at the right time. It happens when you own a bar.”
    Her eyes slid away and he thought there was something she wasn’t telling him, but he had a feeling if he called her on it she’d clam up completely. He reached out to touch a length of her dark hair that had escaped from her braid.
    Her eyes flickered and a single tear rolled down her cheek.
    He groaned. “D-d-don’t cry. I didn’t come in here to…up-upset you. Just had to check on you.”
    *****
    Ember didn’t know why his halting words disarmed her when nobody else’s concern had, but they did. Another tear escaped. Then another. She swiped them away, but they just seemed to fall faster. The events of the past week weighed on her, and she had decisions to make that were going to change their lives even more. For just a heartbeat in time, she wanted to not be strong.
    When the big Marine pressed a gentle kiss to the top of her head, she leaned into him and curled her hands beneath her chin, desperate for some kind of anchor in the catastrophe her life had become.
    His massive arms wrapped around her and she broke into sobs, unable to tamp them down any