Men of Courage II (7 page)

Pleased with her open show of affection, Ham returned her embrace. “I like this new side of you. Kissing me and hugging me. I can get used to it.”

“You better.” She hugged him again before stepping away. “I intend to do it a lot over the next fifty years or so.”

With that awesome promise, Hamilton forgot all about the oddly colored sky and walked with her to her car. “You know, this’ll sound corny, and don’t take it wrong, but I was hoping that sex would put us on better terms. I wanted to wait until you admitted that you cared about me. I figured sex would help seal the bond between us.” A bond she had denied until recently.

Liv faced him with chagrin. “That’s why you held out so long? Why you wouldn’t sleep with me before? You needed me to commit verbally first?”

He trailed his fingertips over her jaw and chin. “Hey, I’m only human.”

Her eyes widened. “You’re admitting it? And here I thought you considered yourself superhuman,” she teased.

“Yeah, well, if I had realized that sex would have such a profound effect on you,” he said with a grin, “you can bet I would have gotten you naked years ago.”

Feigning disdain, Liv lifted her chin. “I’ll have you know it wasn’t your skill in bed that did the trick.” She unlocked and opened her car door, then faced Ham.

She was so damn cute, Ham thought. “It wasn’t, huh?”

“No, it wasn’t.” She smiled up at him. “It was your promise to leave the military.”

Those words struck Ham with the force of a missile blast. He went rigid. “I’m not leaving the air force, Liv. I’ve been clear on that.”

The color leeched from her face. “But you told me—”

He knew exactly what he’d told her, and apparently she hadn’t been listening. “I said I’d make you happy. And I will.” He caught her arms, feeling the tension vibrating from her.
“With compromise.”

An awful expression stole over her features—disappointment, betrayal, pain. In a barely audible rasp, she said, “I told you I couldn’t.”

Damn it, he didn’t want to have this conversation in an elementary school parking lot. He didn’t want to have it at all. He’d thought, hoped, that they were already beyond it, well on their way to those fifty years she’d mentioned earlier. “We can make this work, Liv. Just hear me out.”

She swung away, more wounded than she’d been over her father’s death. Her stance, her expression, her tone, all reeked of accusation. “You told me to trust you. You said you loved me.”

Jaw tight, eyes burning, Ham leaned his face down
to hers and forced out the words he’d thought would save him. “You told me the same.”

Liv flinched away from him, not denying her love, but not reaffirming it, either. Without looking at him, she whispered, “I…I need to think about this.” She got into her car and started the ignition.

Ham leaned on her door. Fury, hurt and something more, something almost desperate, churned inside him. “Don’t do this, Liv.” He’d given her so many chances, and he’d made so many plans….

Big tears hung from her lashes. Her mouth moved, but nothing came out. Then compressing her lips, she closed her door, forcing Ham to step away.

And she drove out of the lot.

Without caring that he stood there, watching her go.

Christ, it hurt. His heart felt trampled. His lungs burned as he sucked in needed oxygen, trying to fend off the awful pain.

How could she claim to love him, and then not even hear him out? So many emotions conflicted inside him, leaving him lost, furious and desolate.

Then he heard it.

A low roar that gained in cadence by the second. The hair on the back of his neck stood on end. A gust of wind blasted across the lot, buffeting his back, almost knocking him off his feet.

Ham jerked around, seeing that eerie green sky with
new understanding. Tornado sirens began screeching throughout the small town of Denton. Off in the distance, roiling with fury, an enormous black cloud churned, spitting off spectacular shards of lightning, sucking at the ground. He stood transfixed as, a good distance from the school, the funnel scrambled from spot to spot, licking here and there with destructive negligence—hurdling toward the path Liv had taken.

No.
Disagreements and disappointments ceased to exist. He had to get to Liv, had to protect her. The rental car tore out of the parking lot while Ham frantically searched the wet road for the taillights of Liv’s car. As he drove into the path of the tornado, the roar grew, louder and louder. Fierce winds fought the vehicle. Debris lashed the windshield, diminishing visibility. Hamilton registered it all, but wasn’t swayed from his purpose.

His heart beat in time to his panic, his hands locked on the steering wheel, his gaze unblinking.

Finally, he spied Liv’s car, stopped in front of the two-lane bridge. The river surged out of its banks, rising high, grabbing trees and rocks with the same ferocity as the tornado did.

His foot hard on the gas pedal, praying to reach her in time, Hamilton watched in horror as a gusting wind spun her car, throwing it hard against the guardrails. Metal ripped away, leaving a gaping hole on the side
of the bridge. As if in slow motion, her car kept turning until finally, it dropped into the muddy, fast-churning water below.

Ham hit the brakes, bringing his car to a jarring halt. Too far away.

Too damn far away.

He exploded from the vehicle in a dead run. Fear drummed in his ears, louder and more insistent than the destructive force of nature. Prayers tripped silently from his mouth, adrenaline pumped through his veins.

With survival instincts honed by air-force training, he absorbed the destruction around him without letting it slow him down. Beyond the bridge, houses came apart, their roofs flying away, the walls pulling apart. Downed utility poles left live wires snapping and dancing.

Even as Ham pushed forward against the powerful wind, a huge elm split in half and crashed into the water close to where Liv should be.

He roared out his anger, refusing to believe she could be hurt. Something struck his face, knocking him back two steps, bringing him to his knees. He was back up in the same second, swiping away the warm trickle in his eyes, ignoring the sudden pain in his right arm and leg.

Jolting to a halt on the entrance to the bridge, he saw Liv’s car stuck half in, half out of the fast-rising water, a few feet from the fallen tree.

There was no hesitation.

Gripping what remained of the guardrail, Ham bolted over the side, close to the shore, and landed hard in the slippery slope of muddy grass, sliding and stumbling to her car. He saw Liv’s face, pale with fear, in her driver’s door window.

She screamed, but Ham couldn’t hear her words over the storm and sirens and his own clamoring terror.

Slogging in a rush through the water, he reached her in seconds. She pulled frantically at the door handle, but the car had buckled with the impact, jamming it shut. The trickling into his eyes threatened to blind him, but he again swiped it away.

Unwilling to wait seconds, much less any longer for rescue workers to reach her, Ham located a heavy rock. When Liv saw him lift it, she scampered back against the passenger’s side door.

The window shattered into gravel-size pieces of glass. “Are you okay?” Ham yelled, and she nodded, crawling back toward him, her hands frantically brushing his face, her sobs loud and undisciplined, bordering on hysteria.

“It’s okay,” he yelled. “I’ve got you.” And he hauled her out and into his arms.

For reasons Ham couldn’t understand, Liv fought him, cursing and crying.

He tossed her over his shoulder, pinning her legs down with one arm, holding her backside still with the other. He plodded to the shore with difficulty, each step a strain as the air around them sucked and pushed and pulled.

The deafening roar seemed all around them, and the rain struck with bruising force.

Dropping with Liv in his arms, Ham covered her. He sunk his strong fingers deep into the soggy ground to anchor her. His lungs compressed, and he felt light-headed—but no way in hell would he ever let her go.

At the worst of it, he feared they’d both be torn away and his mind rebelled at such an awful thought. His muscles cramped and trembled with his efforts. Raw determination gripped him. He prayed.

And then the air calmed, the roar drifting away. Gasping for air, trying to protect her from harm with his body, Ham couldn’t manage to loosen his hold. If anything happened to her…

“Shh.” Liv touched him, stroking his hair, his neck, with shaking fingers. “It’s over, Ham. It’s okay. I’m okay.”

Despite her reassurances, he couldn’t unclench. Hell, he could barely draw air.

“Ham, it’s okay. Let me see your head.”

His head? Who gave a shit about his head? He found he couldn’t speak so he just pressed in closer to her.

Her lips grazed his cheek. “Ham, please.” Tears sounded in her voice. “You need to go to the doctor. Your head is bleeding.”

By small degrees, with mammoth effort, he regained control of his body. The loud rushing of water mixed with the sirens—but the awful, animal roar of the tornado was gone. Hamilton pulled his face from her neck.

With his heart in his throat, he looked at her beautiful, bruised and dirty face. “You’re really okay?”

Her lips were bluish with cold, trembling with an excess of emotion. She blinked hard, sobbed again, and said, “I love you so much.” And then, with a surge of anger, “How could you
do that?
How could you go over that bridge—”

“You went over.”

“And
risk yourself
and—”

Ham swallowed hard. “I love you.”

Another sob, louder and more irate, and she said, “Damn you,
I love you, too!
I don’t want you hurt.”

His left eye twitched. “Then don’t hurt me.”

Gasping, she stared at him, touched him again, so gently. “Look at your head.”

“That’d be a little hard for me to do.”

And she smiled. “Look at what’s happened to you. You’re bleeding and you’re going to need stitches and…and…” Openly sobbing again, she clutched at
him. “Oh, God, Hamilton. I’m so sorry. I love you. All of you.”

Finally, he could breathe again.

“Please,” she whispered against his neck, “can you forgive me?”

“Yes.” He didn’t have any choice. He could never stay angry at her, not for anything. And then, with caution and a heavy heart, “Will you marry me?”

“Yes,”
she said, with an equal lack of hesitation, almost shouting that one, wonderful word. “Yes, yes, yes.”

Ham heard the approach of a siren, not the tornado warning, but an emergency vehicle. Soon, they’d be rescued. He cupped her cheek, turned her face up to his.

His blood had gotten in her hair, mixed with mud and leaves. Her nose was red with cold, her lips pale. “I’m not going to let you change your mind.”

“I’m not going to stop loving you.”

“I’m still in the air force.”

She gave a small nod. “I know.”

“It’s who I am, Liv.”

“I know.” She touched his lips. “I’ve been so afraid of losing you that I’ve wasted precious time.”

“Yes.” She needed to hear the truth. There could be no more misunderstandings.

“I’m so sorry.”

He kissed her. The sirens drew nearer, then suddenly ceased, leaving a hushed vibration in the air. “Those plans I told you about? I can be a permanent professor at the academy in Colorado Springs. We can’t live here, I’m sorry. But we wouldn’t have to keep moving.”

Her lips parted. “But…wouldn’t that mean you’d have to give up the squadron commander position?”

“For you, yes.”

A firefighter yelled down from the bridge. “Hey! You two okay?”

Ham turned and lifted one hand. “We’re fine.”

“Stay put and don’t move. We’ll come to you.” The man moved away, shouting orders.

Ham turned back to Liv. “So. Will you marry me, Liv Amery? You’d be a colonel’s wife, because the position comes with a promotion. And before you answer—”

“Yes.”

“You should know that I’ll be on active duty even longer—”

“Yes.”

“And it’ll take me two years to get my Ph.D. before we can move to the academy.”

“Yes.”

His heart lightened. “I’ll still get full pay and—”

She pressed a hand to his mouth. “Yes, Ham. Yes
to everything. Yes, no matter what you decide to do. Yes, because I love you. Yes, yes, yes.”

That awesome emotion had him in its grip again. Then the firefighters were there, toting blankets and water and first-aid kits.

As Ham rolled off Liv, the man closest to him said, “That’s a nasty gash you’ve got.”

“I’m fine.”

The firefighter gave him a dubious look. “Let me get a stretcher down here.”

“No need. I can stand.”

Frowning, the firefighter asked, “Are you sure?”

Ham turned to Liv. “Tell me again.”

She smiled, paying little mind to the man who wrapped her in a blanket and began cleaning the mud from her face, checking for wounds. “I love you, Lieutenant Colonel Hamilton Wulf.”

Hamilton smiled. “Yeah, I can stand.” He pushed to his feet and offered Liv a hand.

“Lieutenant Colonel?” the firefighter repeated. “I’m impressed.”

Liv laughed, wrapping her arms around Ham. “Yep, me, too.”

The firefighter grinned. “Sir, if you’ll come this way, we’ll have you both checked out in no time.”

And minutes later, they were on their way to the hospital—and on their way to a very bright future.

G
IVEN THE DESTRUCTION
caused by the tornado, the funeral for Liv’s father took place later than planned. Parts of Denton were devastated, and Hamilton and Liv pitched in with the cleanup and repair. Luckily, despite the crippling damage to structures, there were no lives lost.

The sun brightened the clear blue sky the day they laid Colonel Weston Amery to rest. Several people spoke at the service, including Hamilton. Their words gave proof of the incredible man her father had been—not an overly loving dad, but a leader who had selflessly given to his nation.

With full military honors, the ceremony included a flag-draped casket, pallbearers in dress uniform and a highly impressive twenty-one gun salute. As the flag lowered to half-mast, “Taps” played, giving respect for a fallen comrade.

In military fashion, step by step, the pallbearers folded the flag into a neat triangle. Hamilton held Liv’s hand, giving her his support, his love, during the very moving moment when the men knelt before her, their heads bowed.

They handed her the flag. “Our deepest regrets, with the thanks of a grateful nation.”

Warm tears slid down her cheeks, and an invisible fist squeezed her heart. Yes, regret clouded her past. But her future was with Ham. He was her hero, and he was the hero for a vast number of unknown citizens, in America and around the world. They were the people he’d sworn to protect. The people for whom he’d willingly endangered his life.

No finer man existed, and she wouldn’t regret one single second of being his wife, no matter what risks the future brought.

As he’d said, life was always uncertain.

But Hamilton’s love and loyalty weren’t. She had him, she loved him—and that meant she had it all.