At His Command by Karen Anders Page A

companionway and the ladders. Sia got her bearings and turned toward the ladder. The way cleared a bit and Sia started down. Suddenly, she felt hands on her back and someone gave her a shove.
    Losing her balance, Sia began to fall. Only the quick reflexes of the sailor in front of her kept her and him from falling the rest of the way. She apologized and he smiled and told her it was no problem. Once she righted herself, she glanced over her shoulder, but all she saw was the glimpse of dark clothing disappearing down the companionway, getting lost in the sea of sailors.
    Had someone just pushed her? It had felt as if the hands had applied force. Maybe it had been an accident and the sailor was afraid Sia would reprimand him or her. She shrugged it off and reached the deck where the mess was located.
    She saw Chris near the door to the mess and she stopped on the stairs. She’d forgotten how handsome he was. Age had only tempered those looks, taking him from overtly brash to silently lethal.
    He was sorely testing her sense of balance. Their bond, it seemed, was still strong, unexpected as it was unwanted. At least on her end. She found him to be annoyingly irresistible, but she had to be careful not to feel those old feelings and get confused. She could so easily let herself become more attracted to him.
    She remembered how he had held her when they’d had that terrible fight after the run on the flight deck. He’d been so solid as he cradled her against his strong chest. It calmed her, soothed her pain in a way that was completely unexpected. He had helped her so much in that moment it caught her off guard and made her realize the strength of their connection.
    At that moment, someone he must have known when he’d served aboard the McCloud greeted him with a hearty handshake. Chris smiled. It did something magical to his face, disarming her and making her sigh. What would it take for him to smile like that at her? Too many memories flooded her and her regret was never more poignant than it was at this moment. The man moved on but the smile in Chris’s eyes lingered.
    When he turned and saw her, it diminished some, but didn’t completely fade. With a small smile of her own, she made her way over to where he stood.
    They went inside, got their food and sat down. She opened up her briefcase and handed him Lieutenant Saunders’s autopsy report. “I won’t say anything until you finish reading it.”
    He nodded and as he ate his eggs, his eyes fastened to the pages. Sia still resented her commanding officer’s orders. She didn’t want her hands tied in handling this investigation. But she had been right when she’d told Chris he didn’t have that much of a hold over her.
    So what if she was reprimanded. She was going to do what it took to finish this once and for all.
    Chris looked up from the pages, his eyes a strong, steady gray, unique and compelling. “They found nothing in his tox screen.”
    “Right, but look at this.” She pulled out the report from the flight boss and handed it to him. Forking up some fluffy eggs, Sia said, “The lieutenant was complaining of dizziness and then he went incoherent.” Sliding the fork in her mouth, she chewed and swallowed.
    Chris accepted the report and looked at the testimony. “That could have been hypoxemia, caused by a bad oxygen mix.”
    Sia nodded. “It could have, but then there would have been evidence of that on the report—his lungs or brain or even the oxygenation of his blood would have revealed that.” She tapped the autopsy report. “The ME cited nothing in the report that would have indicated he was oxygen-starved.” She flipped to the final part of the autopsy. “In fact, Lieutenant Saunders’s cause of death is drowning. But if he was impaired during the flight and it didn’t have anything to do with hypoxemia, then it had to have been something else.”
    Hard and sharp, his gaze cut to her. “Like what?”
    She met his eyes and shrugged. “Well,