Chapter 9
9
The chopper set down and D-Day, Buck, and Zorro exited. The minute his boots touched the ground, the hair on the back of his neck bristled. He tensed. His eyes, always scanning his surroundings, sharpened. He looked at Buck and Zorro, and they were as aware as he was that something had changed. Whether it was in the air or a vibration that only warriors could discern, danger was close.
His senses ramped up, awareness hard-wired into every cell the same way the muscles in his body were ramped up and hard-wired for speed and strength and very quick reaction times. Each of them automatically checked their weapon with a heightened sense of readiness passing through them.
“TOC, D-Day.”
“Go for TOC.”
“What’s going down?”
“What do you mean?” Bailee’s voice was buzzing with tension.
“Something isn’t right. The twins aren’t here, and neither are their men. The medical team hasn’t returned. Where the fuck are they?”
“Hang on,” she said.
“Recon,” D-Day said, and Buck and Zorro moved into the camp, then the two of them disappeared into the jungle. He waited, getting extremely impatient. “TOC. What the fuck is going on?”
“Be advised,” Bailee said, her voice hushed. “Government troops have engaged the NPA in your area. There is heavy fighting not far from the village that the medical team was visiting. The fighting is flushing out other…undesirables. We have the last location of their van.” She rattled off the coordinates. “We’re sending the rest of your team in. Find the medical team and get them out.”
“And the op?” D-Day asked, his brain frying on the edges with fear. No one could see it, but it was taking everything he had to not run toward Helen’s last known location and go on the rampage, looking for her. The only thread of reason he had was knowing the guys were on their way, and they would scour the jungle for her and her colleagues.
“We’ll reassess once we figure out what is going on with the Ambong twins. They are allied with the NPA, so there’s no worry there, but the government troops won’t give them any quarter. You’ve got to find the twins and engage them if you can. Get the location of those damn triggers. But for now, find our people.”
Buck came out of the jungle and shook his head. He looked tense as hell, overcome with the same emotions and fear D-Day was experiencing. In this situation, with Helen and her team missing, it was easy for him to make tactical decisions like consult the last coordinates and move out to intersect. Or they were late, which meant they might be in distress. Those were straightforward decisions.
“Copy that,” D-Day said as he started for Buck and Zorro. Buck was already calculating what direction they needed to travel. Without any spoken words, they were all in unison as they started to run. His mind was fully on his surroundings, but the thought of what Zorro had said about making a decision and getting off the fucking X really started to sink in. He had made a mistake with Helen and their on-and-off relationship. He kept thinking about what he could do not to upset the balance and make sure he was fulfilling all his duties. He was doing it out of the way he felt for her, and out of his fear of losing her. It was the same way he was thinking about his teammates, terrified of losing his support system. That kind of toxic thinking had trapped him because he wasn’t sure how to face the consequences. But what Helen was, and the team intertwined, were safe spaces filled with respect, genuine affection, and a deep, fulfilling connection.
Maybe, just maybe he needed to not only trust his instincts but trust all of that to remain unchanged no matter what happened. Defensiveness was the enemy of progress, and fear was the enemy that kept him from moving forward. He wanted to step on that path and be free of both. One way to do that was honesty, and the other was to give himself over to the people who had never let him down in his life. His past was a reflection of a lack of support and pride, but all of that was wrapped up in this terrible, persistent fear…of betrayal.
There was no place for any of that in the teams, or with Helen. It was time to think hard and forge a new path, and unlike the coordinates he ran toward, that new path was unknown, and therefore obscured.
Helen kept putting one foot in front of the other, sticking close to Lando, with Greg at her back and the rest of them, including Taer’s litter, following behind.
She’d never been this deep into the jungle before, and it was an odd, kind of lost feeling to see nothing but green surrounding her without one urban landmark in sight. The remoteness made her feel vulnerable, and the danger all around them enough to drive anyone into panic mode, but she was an RN, and nurses were calm at all times. They had to be.
They were far from help or resources and at the mercy of someone who had already threatened to kill them, depending on Lando for food, water, and protection. In the distance she could hear automatic weapons, and her body tensed even more. It was close, and she had no idea who was battling not far from their position. The only lethal apex predators in the Philippines were human males.
Lando looked over his shoulder at the sudden bursts, appearing just as tense as she felt. It struck her how young he was…maybe nineteen or twenty. It was a shame that they had been forced into living this way, or even if it was by choice, something had prompted it.
But that look of maturity in his eyes made her realize he was a seasoned combatant. He squared his shoulders, a determined, intractable set to his jaw. He studied the terrain. “Move until I tell you to stop.”
So, she plodded onward while Taer moaned in pain until Greg insisted that he be given some more morphine. They stopped briefly for the injection and Taer fell unconscious. She thought about Greg’s words and the kind of pain Taer was in, and her heart squeezed in sympathy. The tightrope they walked just got tighter with each step away from any form of help or rescue. How would D-Day even find her in this steaming greenery stretching for miles and miles?
She swiped her brow and the back of her neck as she walked. No breeze and the sun barely skipped the jungle floor. She threw her leg over a fallen log, and Greg extended his hand to help her over. It was excruciatingly hot, at least over one hundred steamy degrees, the air rich with the smells of loam and foliage. The heat surrounded her, clung to her skin, her mouth as dry as a bone.
Between the heat and the fear, she didn’t know what was making her sweat more—but she was betting on fear.
“Water,” Taer murmured, and Lando stopped then, went to his brother and gave him a drink from his canteen.
She took a moment to rest on that fallen trunk, and Greg sat down next to her. “We’re in serious trouble, Helen,” he whispered, his expression as grim as the situation.
“Why?” She swallowed hard, adrenaline slipping into her bloodstream. Her heart started to pound, a flush of helplessness and anger coursing through her.
Greg shot a quick glance toward Lando and lowered his voice even more. “Taer is going to die. There’s nothing I can do for him except keep him comfortable. Looks like Lando has plenty of morphine in his med kit. But even if we were at a modern hospital, surgery isn’t an option. His wound is mortal and it’s just a matter of time.”
She almost couldn’t wrap her brain around it. “You heard what Lando said. He’ll kill both of us.”
“I heard him.” His gaze flicked to Lando, then back to her. “But Taer’s got, maybe, if he’s lucky, two days. We’ll have to find a way to escape before he dies. It’s our only play. Be ready.”
Oh crap , she thought and tried not to panic. Her life was measured down to forty-eight hours. She had no intention of dying anytime soon. Whatever it took, she wanted to see her family again. She wanted to work out all the problems she had keeping her from being with D-Day. She wanted him again in many more ways than just his body.
It dawned on her that she had experienced so much pain and suffering of other people, had she used it to mask her own, to keep her from finding a genuine relationship, to keep her from having to face uncertainty, her own pain, her own suffering. Had she cut herself off from all of that to remain neutral? But she now wondered if D-Day felt so dangerous because he was the catalyst that had knocked her out of this cycle. He was the first man ever to make her question what she was doing and why. It was clear to her now that she’d chosen this job as a distraction because she’d had a difficult time facing pain and suffering in her own life.
She nodded, deciding to do what it took to survive, upset that she wasn’t going to get much time to get the information she needed for Bailee. She wasn’t even certain she could get Taer to give her that kind of intel, but all she could do was try.
“I’m a crack shot, Greg, but we need to be very careful. If he finds out that Taer has no hope…”
“Agreed.”
“I need to tell you that there are Navy SEALs here. Don’t ask me how I know, but they will come for us.”
“Fuck, will they? That’s great news.”
“Of course they will.” She needed D-Day so much right now, and there was no doubt in her mind. “That’s what they do, and they are masters at getting people out of trouble. But since this is such a fluid situation and we have no idea how long Taer will really last, we have to be constantly aware.”
He nodded. “I’m scared as hell, but Taer deserves our help. He’s in for a very painful death.”
“He isn’t as bad as I thought he was.” She looked over and watched the brothers interact. It was clear they were close, and she could only think about her relationship with Buck. Once he found out she had been taken, he would move heaven and earth to get to her. Then there was D-Day. She felt sorry for anyone who stood in his way. Nothing would stop him from getting to her. She was sure of it. No obstacle too difficult, no jungle too deep. A chill went down her spine at the thought of that man let loose in his state of mind with his kind of skills. She held onto those thoughts as Lando gave them water, then they moved on.
The sound of gunfire drew closer, and Lando signaled for them all to crouch down. A runner left the group, presumably to discover what was going on.
Gunfire was so close she could hear the sound of bullets smacking into the leaves with a whizzing sound. It seemed to be coming from all over. Greg moved close to her. “The sun is going down, and that will give us an advantage in the dark,” he whispered. “We’ve got to make a break for it while Lando is distracted.”
Startled into stillness, Helen stared at him, the urgency of his words registering. She closed her eyes, and a violent shiver coursed through her, then she forced herself to pull it together.
Concentrating on what he told her, she met his gaze, indicating with a small movement of her head that she understood. Greg stared at her, his eyes dark, then he gave her a gentle little shake. “Okay?” he asked, his voice tense.
She managed a weak smile and nodded again. “Okay.”
A burst of gunfire made everyone duck down even further, but Greg and Helen were off and running for their lives.
Then Greg made a strange noise, and she turned in horror to find him on the ground. In the dim light she crouched down to him. His voice was weak, the air wheezing in and out of his lungs. Oh, God. He’d been shot.
Someone grabbed her arm and jerked her away, and she looked into Lando’s angry face. The air was practically frosting between them. He seemed ready to choke her.
Without looking at Greg, he yanked her into a hard run. The jungle swallowed her up, and tears streamed down her face as they left Greg behind without even a thought.
She was alone with killers, alone with a dying man that she couldn’t help even if she had the medical knowledge. If she got any information out of Taer, she wasn’t sure she was going to get out of this jungle alive to deliver it.
Moving at double their speed, Zorro just behind them watching their sixes, they were silent and very deadly. They covered the half mile or so in under two minutes. Bailee’s voice came through their comms.
“All call signs be aware. The fighting is getting terribly close to their location. You need to get them out A-SAP. A chopper is on the way.”
Joker’s voice followed the silence of Bailee’s. “We’re at the rendezvous point. What is your ETA?”
“Under a minute,” D-Day responded. He worked at remaining calm, his gut clenching at the thought of Helen’s life in jeopardy, but no matter how he tried, that thought was followed by a swift kick of anger.
He slowed his approach. The dark outline of the road was clear except for the stationary van and the dead men lining the side of the road just in front of the vehicle. He could see drag marks in the rutted dirt. “We’re in position,” D-Day said into his comm, and Joker acknowledged as he scanned for Helen, his heart in his throat, sharp disappointment cutting through him. “Stay put. They only know you three as gunrunners, and let it stay that way.”
“Copy that,” D-Day said. Suspended on a wave of apprehension, he gritted his teeth.
“Dr. Aquino?” Joker called. A small, thin Filipino man came around the van, peering into the jungle where they were obscured by the thick foliage. His hands, shirt, and pants were bloody in places, and after another glance at the bodies, it looked like they had tried to give their would-be kidnappers medical treatment.
“I’m Dr. Aquino. Who are you?” he asked, caution and hope in his voice.
“US military,” Joker said as they all converged on the three huddled figures.
“Helen and Dr. Matthews are missing,” D-Day growled, now sure that Helen wasn’t with the other medical personnel near the back of the van. Everything went haywire inside him, and he shifted as adrenaline shot into his system. He wanted to be on the go. He wanted to be out there after Helen, get to her before something terrible happened.
He thought about her family. Her great dad, who always pretended not to like him, her sweet mom, who had been so determined on the phone that he was going to come back to the ranch for the holidays, Daisy, Cole, and Wyatt. They would all be devastated. How would they all feel if he and Buck failed to get to Helen in time? He could barely breathe around the agony of that thought.
“Where is Miss Buckard and Dr. Matthews?” Joker asked.
“Those warlords…the twin ones took them,” Monique said desperately. “You have to find them.”
“One of them got shot by those thugs, and they needed them to patch him up. He was bleeding pretty badly,” Dr. Aquino said.
“Where did they take them?”
He turned and pointed to the jungle. “They left about fifteen minutes ago.” Before Joker gave him the go ahead, D-Day was moving, the decision made in a split second, and Buck and Zorro had no choice but to keep up with him. Joker turned slightly and said into the comms. “Get them back here as quickly as possible. This is about to be a hot LZ.”
“Copy,” D-Day said on the run. The trail was easy to follow with the footprints and broken plants. This area was pretty much uninhabited, the setting sun turning the area bright orange-gold. They hurried through a thick line of trees, sensing the troops all over the place, spreading out in the jungle, combing it for NPA. And if they were searching for NPA, they couldn’t be too far away.
As night fell, they crested the ridge and burst onto flatter land. They paused long enough to pick up the trail again, then ran for a half mile without stopping, bashing through the jungle.
Gunfire erupted and D-Day, Buck, and Zorro took cover. The unseen shooters weren’t firing at them but at each other, and if the three of them were caught in the crossfire…had Helen and Greg been caught too?”
Rain started to fall as the exchange of gunfire faded, soft at first, then harder, drenching them. The pounding obscured a lot of the noise, so they waited a few moments to move, impatience slicing through D-Day. That’s when he heard the moan of pain.
Water dripping off his hair and chin, he glanced toward the noise. Then the gunfire suddenly stopped, and his attention diverted back to the bigger threat. The moan came again.
He moved carefully toward the sound, then discovered a prone man. “Guys. Body,” he said into the comms.
He cautiously approached. His muzzle pointed at the still figure. Dropping down beside him in a squat, he rolled him over. Greg Matthews.
Zorro reached them and slid to his knees, assessing the damage. “He’s lost a lot of blood,” he murmured, starting to dig into his medical bag. Greg’s hand stopped him, as he swallowed hard, his face contorting into pain and confusion. “Who are you guys? I thought?—”
“We’re not who you think we are. Where is Helen?”
“He needs medical attention,” Zorro persisted, while Buck got on the radio and let TOC know they’d found Greg Matthews and that he was wounded, not likely to make it.
Greg smiled softly. “She said SEALs would come for us.” Greg shook his head, his breathing heavy with a wheeze on each breath. “It’s too late for me…Helen…get to her.” His hand curled around D-Day’s vest in desperation. “Taer is mortally wounded, and if he dies, Lando threatened to kill us both.” The words slammed through D-Day’s mind like a brutal sledgehammer. “He’s got maybe two days to live. Please, save her.” He swallowed again, water sliding down his temples, and D-Day wasn’t sure if it was the rain or his tears. He closed his eyes hard, then opened them. His breathing was even more labored, the wheeze terrible, telling them he was fighting for air. “I had to hang on for her. For you to find her.” He took another slower, softer breath. “Tell her that I’m sorry.”
His last breath rushed out and he was still. Zorro swore, reached out, and closed his staring eyes as he tried to ignore the apprehension spreading through him. He wasted no time. Jerking to his feet, he started looking for the trail in the dark, rainy jungle. Footprints were hard to see, but it was clear which way they went. He took three steps.
Bailee’s voice came over the comms. “All call signs. The government troops say they can’t guarantee anyone’s security. They want all of you out of that jungle now. No arguments, but if you do come across the troops, the safe word is, ‘ kaibigan. ’ It means friend.”
That directive was followed by one that was even firmer. “You heard the lady. D-Day, Buck, and Zorro, did you copy? I want you back here for exfil in five.”
Zorro reached for his radio and D-Day grabbed his arm. “Don’t respond to that.”
Rage flowed through D-Day’s veins, and he wanted to kill the men who’d dared to threaten Helen.
“What? You can’t be serious. That was a direct order.”
His rage boiled over into white-hot violence. “I don’t give a goddamned fuck. I’m not leaving here without Helen.”
Buck, looking as rigid as ice, his jaw clenching, said, “We have two days to get to her. If we don’t go back, we might not get the chance to be part of her rescue.” Anger crept into his voice; the anguish in his gaze was vivid and real.
He couldn’t leave, not without her. That thought, mingled with the realization of just how precarious her situation was right now and his deep-seated feelings for her, increased the gut-twisting turmoil within him. His entire body was strung so tight, he felt as though he was going to snap. “ Again . I don’t give a goddamned fuck. I’m not leaving here without Helen.” His words rang with a firm warning for Buck to back off. There was no response for a moment, then Buck raised his head and looked at him, a hard, cold expression on his face, his jaw set. He said nothing.
Joker’s growled demand for them to answer played through his comm. D-Day swore under his breath, drawing on every ounce of control he had so that he didn’t come unglued right then and there.
Buck was an intractable bastard. This was a waste of time. He’d made his intentions completely clear. He turned and started to move toward the broken path in front of him. Someone grabbed his shoulder. “You can’t possibly be ignoring a direct order!” Buck growled.
D-Day exploded. Violently shrugging Buck off and whirling, he set his hands flat against Buck’s chest as he slammed into him pushing him hard until he stumbled and almost lost his balance. “She’s your fucking sister! I can’t believe you want to leave her out here to die!”
“That’s right. She’s my sister.” The air sizzled with tension. “What is she to you?”
The question hit him like a brick to the head and a knife to the heart. “Everything!” he said fiercely, a desperate feeling unfolding in him. “Every fucking thing! I fucking love her. I’ve been sleeping with her since we met! Goddammit . I broke every vow because I couldn’t stop myself. I made myself sick trying to stay away from her, for you, for my integrity, and my honor. For all of you because the team also means everything to me. But none of it seems to matter when she’s in the picture.”
Buck’s jaw clenched and he lunged forward, grabbing his arms. “You stupid son of a bitch,” he said, incensed and furious. A horrible feeling started to unfold in D-Day, his ribcage expanding and contracting with uncalculated pain. A taut silence hung between them, and the feeling engulfed him, torpedoing his anger and leaving him emotionally suspended. In that moment, D-Day thought he had lost them all and it was like dropping into a bleak, dark hole. The hurt was deep and fast, and D-Day stared at him, the hurt spreading.
He took a hard, uneven breath, knowing that what Buck thought about him changed nothing. D-Day bent his head and dragged his hand across his eyes, then inhaled raggedly. “Don’t make me leave without her, Buck. I’d rather be court-martialed…die a thousand deaths.” D-Day’s voice cracked with raw emotion, and he cleared his throat before continuing. “I can’t live with her death on my conscience. I can’t. If this means losing everything, then so be it.” He looked away, the muscles in his throat convulsing, and he nearly lost it before he got the words out. “You two do what you have to do, but I’m going after her. End of discussion.”
“It’s about time you told me what the fuck was going on. I’ve told you before. Helen is her own woman, and her decisions carry water with me. It takes some getting used to having a team member in love with my sister, but I’d rather have the honesty of your feelings for her, than for you to make yourself sick over her. And just for the record, making her miserable in turn.”
“So, that’s why he’s a stupid son of a bitch,” Zorro quipped. Both he and Buck glared at him, and he held his hands up in supplication. “So, I guess where you guys are going, you’ll need a medic. It’s your lucky day, boys.” Then he grinned.