Protecting the Future (SEAL of Protection Book 8) (15 page)

W
olf
and his teammates stayed alert throughout the night and into the next morning. They heard gunshots every now and then, but hadn’t seen any people. Wolf and Cookie looked at each other as they heard the telltale sound of an MH-60. They waited and watched, but never caught sight of it.

They knew Penelope hadn’t even heard it, or if she did, she never commented on it. The chopper was there one minute and gone the next. Wolf hoped like hell they’d gotten there in time to rescue the Night Stalkers. He didn’t regret his decision to leave them, but it still ate at him like an ulcer. They weren’t used to leaving anyone behind, so the thought that perhaps, just perhaps, Tex had come through and gotten a rescue put into place to come retrieve their fellow military comrades, felt good.

Now the question was…who was coming for them, and when? And Wolf had no doubt someone
was
coming for them. No doubts whatsoever.

“Wolf, ten o’clock.” Cookie’s voice was low and urgent.

Wolf looked to where Cookie indicated and saw movement. He took out his binoculars and scanned the area below them. “I see them. Also nine, three, and twelve.” The insurgents were moving methodically and swiftly up the mountain toward their hiding place. It wouldn’t be too long before they’d be right where the SEALs had been a few days ago when they’d spotted the small cave. The insurgents would have to realize it was an excellent hiding place, and a good place to dig in for an assault.

“Keep eyes on them,” Wolf ordered, knowing he really didn’t even need to ask Cookie to do so, he’d make sure he knew where every bad guy was to the second.

Wolf scooted backwards awkwardly with one good arm without standing up, not wanting to give their position away prematurely. When he was far enough from the mouth of the cave to move freely, he stood and went over to where Penelope was sitting with Abe.

The thought of his friend being so sick made Wolf’s heart hurt, but he put it aside. They had other things to worry about. Abe didn’t have a chance if they didn’t get out of here alive. And as much as he wanted to be the one helping Abe, he needed Sergeant Turner’s help. She wasn’t a SEAL, but she
was
a trained soldier.

Wolf looked at Abe and found that at the moment, he was either sleeping or unconscious. He turned to Penelope and saw her eyes boring into his. He laid it out for her. “It’s showtime, Tiger. We’ve got insurgents coming, and coming fast.”

“Where do you need me?”

Wolf inwardly smiled. God, this woman was amazing. Every time she opened her mouth, she reminded him of his Ice…and made him all the more determined to get back to her. “What I’m gonna ask you to do will probably piss you off, but I’m not saying it to purposely irritate you.” Wolf continued quickly, “I need you to reload for us. I’ve only got one good arm and can’t do it quickly myself. ”

Wolf watched as Penelope cocked her head and considered his words. His respect for her went up a notch. He saw the moment she reached a decision about her words.

“That makes sense. You guys are better trained for this and probably better shots. I’ll do my best to keep up with you. How much ammo do we have?”

Wolf closed his eyes briefly, more thankful than he could ever say that Penelope was the way she was. This entire rescue mission could have gone completely the other direction if she was a different kind of person. Wolf’s thoughts went to Cookie and the stories he’d told them about when he’d tromped through the Mexican jungle with Fiona and the senator’s daughter, Julie. Thank God Penelope was more like Fiona than the spoiled, not-prepared-for-any-kind-of-adversity Julie.

Julie had more than made up for her bitchiness though. She’d gone out of her way to apologize not only to Cookie and Fiona, but also to the rest of the team. Wolf never thought he’d be thinking about Julie as a strong woman who simply didn’t deal with adversity well, but that’s where he was. He brought himself back to the present; he didn’t have time to be thinking about the commander’s wife and the history between her and the team right now.

He opened his eyes and answered, “Probably not enough, but we’ll fight as long as we can. We’re trained to make every bullet count. I’m hoping we can knock out the first wave, then make our escape before the next one comes.”

“Okay. Help me move Abe back a bit more?” Penelope asked, turning away from Wolf. She had to turn away because she knew if Wolf could see her face, he’d realize how incredibly scared and freaked-out she was. There was no time to give in to it though.

This was it. Do-or-die time.

Wolf came over and helped as best he could with his wounded arm to get Abe settled as far back from the mouth of the cave as possible. They stacked a few of the packs the SEALs had carried from the plane in front of his body to give another layer of protection from any stray bullets that might make their way into their hidey-hole. They worked in silence as Cookie and Benny continued to monitor the movements of the insurgents as they came toward their hiding spot.

“Wolf,” Cookie cautioned.

Wolf made his way back to the mouth of the small opening and ungracefully laid himself out next to his teammate, careful to keep his arm as still as possible. Penelope lay on the ground and crawled her way over behind the men. She settled herself between the two of them, so she could reach their empty weapons with ease. It would also be a simple matter of leaning one way or the other to reach the weapons that Benny and Dude had as they stood at the edges of the cave.

“Where’s Mozart?” Penelope murmured quickly before things got crazy.

“Recon,” Wolf responded curtly, which really told her nothing, but Penelope didn’t ask anything else as the first shot rang out in the quiet mountainside.

Penelope startled so badly at that first gunshot, she would’ve laughed at herself if she had it in her. She ducked down and turned her attention to the men around her. She needed to make sure she was an asset instead of a liability. The last thing she wanted to do was to be a burden on these men. She’d do what she could to help them.

Penelope had no idea how long the firefight lasted. She concentrated on reloading the pistols that were handed back to her when they were empty. She noticed that Cookie had a sniper rifle, thank goodness. It would’ve been a very different fight without it, a much closer and more personal fight. As it was, the insurgents obviously knew where they were now hiding, but the sniper rifle kept them away from the entrance.

Finally the gunshots tapered off and then stopped altogether.

“Everyone all right?” Wolf asked quietly into the silence.

“Clear.”

“Clear.”

“Clear.”

“I’m good.”

The three SEALs and Penelope answered affirmatively.

“Ammo situation?”

The SEALs examined their leftover ammo and the result wasn’t good. They each had about three clips for their pistols and Cookie had about twenty more shots with his rifle. Mozart’s ammo was still unknown, but Wolf guessed it was probably about the same.

“We’ve got about an hour, I’m guessing, before the next wave hits. Some of them were bound to have retreated as soon as bullets started flying to get backup and to report our position to the others. We either move up, or try to get past them going down as they’re going up.”

There was silence for a moment until Benny responded. “I say up. I might be the one with the head injury, but it’ll be much easier for a helo to swoop in and snatch us up, the higher we are.”

Wolf nodded in immediate agreement. “Let’s get the lead out.”

“What about Mozart?” Penelope asked, happy to not be a sitting duck in their cave anymore.

“He’ll meet up with us,” Cookie said with complete confidence.

They packed the bags and had a short discussion about the safest way to get Abe out of the cave and up the mountain. As they were discussing it, he came to. Penelope thought he’d volunteer to be left behind, but she had never hung out with SEALs before. It was obvious he knew his teammates would never, ever leave him behind, so he didn’t even suggest it. “I’ll help as much as I can. Give me a pistol. If the shit hits the fan, I can at least shoot as you all carry my ass.”

Wolf laughed. Penelope couldn’t believe anyone could actually laugh about what Abe said, the picture in her mind was anything but funny, but she was finding out that these SEALs were a lot like the guys back home at the firehouse. When they were the most juiced-up on adrenaline and in the midst of danger, they seemed to get more and more crude. It was actually reassuring.

“With our luck, you’d shoot
us
in the ass, Abe.”

When the group was ready, Cookie and Dude took Abe by the arms and helped him stand up. He was shaky, and couldn’t put any weight on his injured leg, but he was upright. Cookie stuck his shoulder in Abe’s armpit and wrapped his arm around Abe’s back. Abe wrapped his arm around Cookie’s waist and they hobbled toward the entrance to the cave.

Penelope couldn’t have stopped the words from coming out of her mouth if her life depended on it. “You two look like you’re ready for the world championship three-legged race at the county fair down in Texas.” She was relieved that Cookie and Abe both laughed, rather than getting irritated at her inappropriate humor.

“Oh hell yeah, we’re
so
entering one of those when we get home, aren’t we, Abe?” Cookie said with a smile.

Abe’s voice was a bit lower and had less strength, but he responded with, “Yeah, when we get home.”

“Okay, Benny will head out first. We’ll give him a ten-minute head start. Our radios aren’t working for shit, so we’ll wait, and if he doesn’t come back and tell us otherwise, Tiger, you and Dude will be next, followed by Frick and Frack, and I’ll bring up the rear. Stay low when you get to the top and wait for us to get up there. If something happens, dig in and we’ll rendezvous as soon as we can. Got it?”

As everyone agreed, Benny slipped out and disappeared around the side of their hidey-hole. Penelope waited, holding her breath. Ten minutes passed slower than molasses in January. Penelope grimaced at herself. Why she was thinking about corny clichés, she had no idea.

Finally, Wolf gestured at her and Dude. She took a deep breath and headed out behind Dude, sticking as close to him as she’d done when they’d left the tent at the refugee camp.

The first part was the most difficult. Penelope slipped several times, scraping her hands as she caught herself. She had no idea how in the hell Cookie was going to get a semi-conscious Abe up the hill, but she figured if anyone could, it’d be the SEALs. They seemed to be able to do anything, at least from what she’d seen so far.

She made sure to stay behind the small scrub bushes as they passed them, just in case any of the insurgents were still watching. The thought of being shot in the back not a pleasant one.

She’d reached the top of the ridge and looked around, not seeing Benny or Mozart, when she felt an arm wrap around her from behind. A hand covered her mouth and she was pulled into a large, hard body.

She immediately flailed, trying to get away, but she was a beat too slow.

Another arm came around her waist and held her in a grip so tight she had no prayer of moving. The arm around her compressed against her chest, and her cracked ribs. It hurt. Penelope panicked. No, hell no. She hadn’t survived all she had to be kidnapped again. She frantically struggled in the tight grip holding her still, to no avail. She felt herself being half dragged and half carried backwards, and there was nothing she could do about it.

Just as Penelope was about to fall into complete despair, she heard Mozart’s voice. She looked up and saw six and a half feet of pissed-off Navy SEAL. He had a pistol aimed somewhere above her head. His words were stifled and deadly. “Let her go, asshole, and I might let you live.”

Penelope held her breath as the man behind her didn’t move.

T
here’s still
no news of kidnapped U.S. Army Sergeant Penelope Turner. She was kidnapped almost four months ago by ISIS and it’s been a while since any video of her has surfaced. We continue to follow this story.

In other news, a new reality show premieres tonight featuring men competing to become the ultimate Alaskan. Stay tuned for an interview with one of the contestants.

C
aroline turned
off the television in disgust. How anyone could watch that reality show drivel was beyond her. It wasn’t as if it was actually real. The only reality show she’d ever been remotely interested in was some sort of dating show set in Australia…at least the man had seemed down-to-earth. She didn’t remember how it turned out, but she thought she remembered some sort of scandal, but in the end the man found an actual real love.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the ringing of her cell phone. She headed over to the kitchen counter where she’d left it and picked it up. She recognized the prefix of the Naval base, but not the number itself.

“Hello?”

“Hello, is this Caroline Steel?”

“Yes, who is this?”

“This is Commander Hurt.”

“Oh, sorry, Patrick. I didn’t recognize your voice.” Caroline stiffened suddenly. Oh shit. Why was Wolf’s commander calling her? “Is everything all right? Is Julie okay? The guys?”

Ignoring her question, Hurt said solemnly, “I wanted you to hear it from me, rather than the Casualty Assistance Officers who will be showing up at your door within the hour.”

Caroline felt her knees give out and she slid to the floor with her back against the kitchen cabinets. She couldn’t get any words out.

“Wolf and his team are considered Missing in Action.”

Caroline’s breath came out in a whoosh. “What?” she whispered.

“MIA. We haven’t heard from them since the other SEAL team they were working with reported that they’d completed their mission. They should’ve been home by now, but we haven’t heard anything from them.” Patrick knew he was misleading Caroline a bit, but didn’t want to tell her everything he knew…not yet. Tex had given him coordinates of where he thought they were, but until their location had been verified by the Delta Force team, the government was declaring them MIA. The trackers weren’t common knowledge and Patrick wasn’t going to let that detail slip to Command.

Caroline took in a deep breath. “They’re not dead?”

The commander’s voice lowered. “We don’t know. As of now, they’re missing.”

Caroline nodded to herself. Okay, this she could deal with. “Then they’re just out of pocket. They’re not dead. They’ll figure it out and get in touch when they can.”

“Caroline—”

The commander’s tone was sympathetic and a bit pitying, but Caroline didn’t let it deter her. “With all due respect, Patrick,” she interrupted the senior military official she’d known for a long time, “I appreciate you giving me a head’s up. I do. But I’d hope that, as long as you’ve known Matthew and his team, you’d know that they’re tough as hell. Until I see and touch Matthew’s cold body for myself, I’ll never, ever believe he’s dead. Call me naïve, call me idiotic, but I know deep in my heart that they’re good at what they do. If there’s any way possible they’ll be able to make it back home, they will. Even if the odds are a hundred to one. Or a thousand to one. There’s still a chance. So if you’ll excuse me, I need to start Operation Girl Time and get my posse together. I’m assuming the others will have visitors as well?”

“Yes.” The commander’s voice held so much respect in that one word, it made Caroline want to weep.

“Okay, then I need to deal with the Navy Officers about to descend on my door, then make some calls to my girls.” Her voice softened, sounding uncertain. “You’ll keep me informed?”

“Yes ma’am. I’ll be sure to call you personally the second I hear anything.”

“Thank you. I’ll make sure you get an invite to the huge party we’re gonna have when our men are home. Deal?”

“Deal. Let me know if you need anything. And I mean
anything
, Caroline. It’s the least I can do.”

“Just tell me the truth. And keep me informed. That’s all I need.”

“You got it. Caroline?”

“Yeah?”

“Julie asked if you thought it’d be okay if she came over too. I said I’d talk to you about it. She doesn’t want to overstep, but she’s worried about all of you.”

Caroline swallowed hard. She and the rest of the women hadn’t been very nice to Julie when they’d first figured out who she was. Knowing she was the woman who Fiona had spent time with down in Mexico, and who’d been so horrible to her, was a surprising blow to them all. But slowly, Julie had proven that she had changed, and they’d all decided if Fiona could forgive her, so could they.

Besides that, she was now married to Commander Hurt. They saw her all the time and were genuinely thrilled with how happy their husbands’ commander was with her. “Yeah, I think we’d like that.”

“Thanks. I’ll let her know and send her over in a bit.”

“Sounds good. I’ll talk to you later then? You’ll let me know the second you hear something?”

“Of course I will. Bye, Caroline.”

Caroline clicked off the phone and laid her head on her knees briefly before stiffening her spine. She had shit to do, there was no time to cry. Hell, there was no reason
to
cry. Every word she’d told the commander came from her gut. Matthew was alive. Everyone was. She had to believe it.

L
ater that night
, Caroline once again sat in her living room with a full house. She’d been able to catch all of her friends on the phone before they’d had their visits with the officers from the base, except for Fiona. She’d been out running errands, and had missed both her call and the visit from the base…thankfully.

Alabama had finally gotten ahold of Fiona and told her to drop what she was doing and get her butt over to Caroline’s house. She was the last to arrive. Even Julie had made it there before Fiona, and had been just as shocked and upset as the others, but now they sat around talking about what might be happening with their men.

“Caroline, what do you really think is going on?”

Caroline thought hard about Fiona’s question, trying to decide what to tell them. She caught Melody’s eyes from across the room and her slight nod. She took a deep breath.

“We’ve never been the type of Navy SEAL wives to question our men, or even to speculate about where they might be when they’ve been sent on a mission. I don’t feel comfortable doing it now, but with what’s going on, I feel like I need to.”

She looked around at her friends and knew she had their utmost attention. Most of the kids were sleeping. Sara and John were downstairs in the basement, April and Taylor were snoring in their mother’s arms, and Akilah was upstairs with Brinique and Davisa, entertaining them as they played with their dolls. It was just the eight of them. Six women who were worried and stressed about the loves of their lives, and Melody and Julie, who were just as worried that their friends’ men wouldn’t come home again.

“I’m pretty sure they went over to the Middle East to try to rescue that kidnapped American soldier.” Caroline ignored their gasps and continued on quickly, “Matthew didn’t tell me, but I kinda guessed, and asked enough leading questions that he actually answered to figure out I was right.”

“The helicopter crash?” Summer surmised quietly.

Caroline nodded. “Yeah, I think so.”

“But the news reports say there were only four men aboard, and that they were brought to Germany,” Cheyenne said.

“Yeah, it doesn’t make sense. The only thing I can think of is that chopper was on the way to get them out when it crashed. And Patrick said they were missing, not dead. So I think maybe they’ve found the woman, and they’re just not able to communicate with anyone for some reason. Maybe they’re just hunkered down waiting for the right time to come out.” Caroline tried to reason what was going on out loud.

“How can they be missing if they have their trackers on? Couldn’t Tex just tell the commander where they are?” Jessyka asked the group.

Everyone looked at Melody and Julie. They both looked uncertain.

“Let’s leave Melody and Julie out of this,” Caroline told everyone as she pulled out her phone. “It’s not fair to put them in the middle. I should’ve thought of it before, but I’ll call Tex and we’ll see what, if anything, he can tell us.”

Julie piped up before Caroline could get ahold of Tex. “I don’t know.”

“What?” Summer asked.

“I don’t know anything about your husbands. Patrick and I don’t talk about his work. I know what he does is extremely sensitive and he could get in big trouble if he told me anything, so I never ask him about it and he never tells me. I would tell you if I knew even the smallest detail. I swear.”

“Thanks for that,” Alabama said softly. “We appreciate it.”

Caroline nodded at Julie and dialed her cell and put it on the coffee table. All eight women hunkered down around it and waited for Tex to answer.

Finally on the fifth ring, he did. “What’s up, Caroline?”

“Where are the guys?”

Tex was silent for a moment before he asked, “Why do you ask?”

“Cut the shit, Tex,” Fiona said more harshly than she’d ever spoken to Tex before. “I’m sure you already know we were all visited by the base Casualty Assistance Officers today. They’ve declared Hunter and the others MIA. But we want to know how they can be missing if they have their trackers on?”

Tex cleared his throat. “You know I can’t talk about this, Fee. Even though I’m not active duty anymore, I’ve still got my government clearance since I work for them, but it’s not cool that you’re putting me in this position.”

“And you know I wouldn’t do it if I wasn’t completely freaked-out that I’m gonna lose the best man I’ve ever known, the love of my life, and the lives of the bravest fucking men I’ve ever met. We’re at our wits end here, Tex. God, please. Can’t you tell us anything?” Fiona’s voice started out hard and unrelenting, but at the end of her impassioned plea, she was near tears.

“Fuck,” Tex said. He sighed deeply, obviously effected by Fiona’s tone of voice, then said, “Only five of them brought their trackers with them. I can only assume someone forgot it. I doubt whoever it was would deliberately not bring it with him.”

“Do you know who forgot it?” Jess asked.

“Yes, but I’m not going to tell you, it doesn’t matter,” Tex told her.

“So they really are missing then?” Cheyenne’s voice was low and strained.

“Sort of.”

“Sort of?” Caroline snapped. “Jesus, Tex. You’re killing us here. Just spit it out…and in regular English, not any of that coded crap you’re so good at.”

Tex ignored the snark in Caroline’s words, knowing she was stressed-out beyond what most women would be able to handle. She, and all of the women, were actually accepting this very well, all things considered. “They’re missing, but I believe I know their general whereabouts. I’m hoping there will be information soon.”

There was a lot Tex wanted to tell the women. That there was still a tracker working and he was pretty sure it was with the group. That he’d been in communication with the Delta Force commander and knew they rescued the helicopter crew and were on the trail of Wolf and his men. He hoped the women would trust him to do what was best for their men.

Silence filled the room for a moment before Summer spoke up. “Thank you, Tex. Seriously. I know you told us way more than you should’ve, but it means everything to us.”

“Yeah…Mel?”

Melody spoke up for the first time. “I’m here.”

“You still coming home tomorrow?”

Everyone in the room could practically feel the longing in Tex’s voice. Sometimes they forgot he was more than just the person who looked over them and kept them safe. He was a father, a husband, and a man who very obviously was feeling the pain of his friends being missing and wanted his wife by his side.

“Yeah. We leave around noon and land around eight your time.”

“I’ll be at the airport waiting.”

“Okay, Tex.”

“You ladies need anything else?” Tex asked, obviously asking the other women in the room.

“No, we’re as good as we can be at the moment,” Alabama told him honestly.

“Okay. For what it’s worth, I have a feeling we’ll be hearing good news soon,” Tex said in a cautiously optimistic tone.

“From your lips to God’s ears,” Caroline said fervently.

“I’ll talk to you guys later.” His voice dropped. “See you tomorrow, Mel.”

Everyone said their goodbyes and Caroline clicked off the phone. The women stared at each other for a moment before Caroline announced, “Sleepover time. Nobody’s going anywhere until our men are found. You too, Julie. You’re here, so you’re staying. We need all the support we can get.”

No one disagreed. They found comfort in being with each other. No one cared that they’d be cramped and things would be crazy with all the bodies in the house. It was better than going home to their empty, lonely homes that would remind them of their missing husbands.

Julie didn’t complain, thankful that she’d finally broken through the “acquaintance barrier” that had seemed to stand between her and the other women. Over the couple of years she’d been with Patrick, she’d heard story after story about all of these women and how amazing they were. The fact that Caroline had asked her to stay meant the world. She’d stay with them and support them until their men came home…or through the horror if they never came home at all.