Total pages in book: 136
Estimated words: 125037 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 625(@200wpm)___ 500(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 125037 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 625(@200wpm)___ 500(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
“I’ll address the problems,” he assured. “I will, Rubin. You know me when I make up my mind.”
“They aren’t going away because you’ve identified them,” Rubin cautioned. “You need to follow up. We’ll find a decent therapist within our program, and we can try acupuncture before medications.”
Diego nodded. “Agreed.”
“And you talk to your woman. You make certain she’s right for you before you leap in with both feet.”
“It’s a little late for that,” Diego admitted.
“That fast? How?”
Diego shrugged. “Honestly? I have no idea. Only that she feels like a ray of sunshine. She suits me. The woman can shoot.”
Rubin regarded him with a raised eyebrow. “She can shoot?” he echoed.
Diego gave his brother a faint grin. “Nearly as good as me. You should see her. And she doesn’t hesitate. I wasn’t happy that she hunted down the men coming after her. Tore those repairs lose. She could have bled out, but she isn’t the type to wait for her man to rescue her.”
Rubin scrubbed a hand down his face. “Let me get this straight. You fell hard for a woman because she shoots nearly as good as you.”
Diego’s grin got a little wider. “Yeah, essentially, that’s exactly what I did.”
“You could give an aspirin a headache, Diego,” Rubin said. “Sometimes I don’t have a clue what to say to you.”
“That’s a first. You always have something to say, even if I don’t want to hear it.”
“This woman feels the same about you?”
“You were in her mind. Does she?” Diego meant it as a challenge, but he found he wanted to know what Rubin thought. Rubin was astute. Quick. More than once, when Diego had hooked up with a woman, his brother had informed him that her corn bread wasn’t done in the middle. At the time, Diego hadn’t cared that she wasn’t the smartest woman on the block; he was in a bar and had picked her up for the night.
Rubin wasn’t a man to pick up women in bars. It wasn’t his style. Diego hadn’t believed he would ever find the right woman. If he did find her, he also believed she wouldn’t be able to live with him.
“I was only there briefly and tried not to intrude, but yeah, I could feel her emotions for you were very strong.”
“We done?” Diego asked hopefully.
Rubin scowled. “Not by a long shot. Did you really think you could get away with performing psychic surgery on that woman and I wouldn’t notice?”
“I didn’t have time or help or even the instruments to do the medical surgery. We were in the field, and she was dying. Either it worked or it didn’t. I felt as if I had no choice,” Diego defended himself.
Rubin crossed his arms over his chest and regarded him coolly. “I’m not upset that you performed the surgery, Diego—that isn’t the issue. When a healer has the ability, he often has no choice when someone is dying right in front of him. How often have you done it?”
“Psychic surgery? On a human being? This was my first time. I know it wasn’t perfect. I had to take her spleen, and I detested that, but…” He trailed off. What could he say? He’d done his best, using his skills as a surgeon and applying them psychically. “She needed blood desperately. I also knew from observing you that I was going to crash big-time. The fact that I’d never done it before and my stress was through the roof, I figured that crash was going to be bad.”
“You do know you risked your life.”
“I knew the risks. I’ve been around you my entire life, and I’ve seen the effects on you. More than once I had to save your life.” He was matter-of-fact. He couldn’t have walked away from Leila and her injuries for anything. The need to save her life had been one of the strongest compulsions he’d ever experienced.
“You said it was the first time you performed psychic surgery on a human being. What does that mean?”
Diego tried to sound casual. “You know me with animals. I can’t take them being hurt. I might have to hunt them for food, but I also look after them the best I can.”
Rubin again frowned. “Diego, what you did was actual surgery. It wasn’t a healing session. Joe is a psychic healer. Each GhostWalker unit has a psychic healer. It isn’t the same thing. A psychic surgeon is rare. Very, very rare. You must have realized you had such a gift, yet you didn’t come forward. You didn’t even tell me.”
Diego could hear the underlying hurt in his brother’s voice. “It wasn’t that I was trying to hide anything from you, Rubin. I didn’t believe I could ever perform surgery on a human being successfully. I learned with animals, but I have such an affinity for them. I don’t with humans. I never felt as if that particular talent was strong enough or developed enough to take a chance. I watched you and listened each time you performed a surgery, and your skill always left me in awe. I was never going to work at that level, and I knew it.”