Chapter 9 #2
“I’ll leave the rest of the discussion to the two of you, but the thing you need to know, Jacob, is that Nick is badly wounded. He wouldn’t tell you, but he is.”
She grabbed the satphone and held it to Nick’s left side, showing his bloody face and the open gash which had begun bleeding.
“It’s nothing—” Nick began.
Parker shot him an angry glare and continued that glare when picking up the phone and scowling at Jacob.
Not many people scowled at Jacob. “It’s not nothing.
Nick threw himself over me when he realized it was a major quake.
We were at the bottom of the excavation of a room in the villa and a ton of rubble fell over Nick.
He was bleeding copiously from his head wound and he has an open gash on his shoulder.
I don’t think he can pull himself up and I sure can’t do it.
So whoever comes will probably have to have some rope or something to pull him out.
And I’m not leaving him, so that someone will have to be prepared to pull me out, too. And you need to send a medic.”
“Understood, Dr. Donovan.”
“Parker.”
“Parker. I’m going to start mobilizing. Probably the first responders will be from elements of the Sixth Fleet stationed in Naples and they can take up guard duty and get you two out of there. And they will protect the site until the NEST people can arrive.”
Parker nodded and handed the phone back to Nick.
He should have been angry at her, but he found it hard.
She was trying to protect him. It was crazy to think of someone protecting him, but she’d been right to let Jacob know that they’d probably need help getting out.
He was too proud to say it, and it could get dicey trying to get them out.
“Show me the arms cache,” Jacob ordered, and Nick walked slowly around, filming everything. Jacob would show it to his contacts in Washington.
Everything was old—at least seventy years old, but everything was in superb condition.
The guns were well packed, and he could smell the gun oil.
Everything neatly packed, ready to go. The supposition had been that resistance fighters and NATO soldiers would have immediate access to weaponry and comms to start fighting back the instant the Soviets attacked.
And there was enough here to start a small war. Even beyond the nuclear weapons. None of this could fall in terrorists’ hands.
He finished the rounds and saw Jacob’s grim face. Yeah. The weapons and explosives were old-fashioned, but they could do a hell of a lot of a damage.
“Okay,” Jacob said. “I’ve seen enough. WhatsApp me that video. I’ll get back to you as soon as I know something, ok? Stay safe. But then you have Parker to protect you.”
He grinned suddenly and broke the connection before Nick could say anything. Nick ground his teeth.
Parker didn’t notice. She had made the rounds of the space twice.
“There’s nothing really useful here, except for arms. And they aren’t useful to us now.
I wasn’t expecting food or water but maybe a rope?
A ladder? Our ladder is probably in a million pieces back in the Blue Room. What on earth are you doing?”
Nick looked up. He had an M1 Garand in his hand, which had been wrapped in oil cloth. In perfect condition. He lifted it one handed so he could peer down the sight. Then he picked up an FN FAL rifle, chambered in NATO rounds.
“Checking them. They are in prime condition. They work and cannot fall into the wrong hands.”
She nodded her head. “Not to mention the nukes.”
He put down the rifle. “Not to mention the nukes,” he agreed.
Okay. He was going to try one last time. “Listen, I think if I stacked two boxes and got on top of them, I could boost you right out of here and—”
Parker rounded on him, blue eyes crackling fire. “Could you boost yourself?”
Could he boost himself? Nick measured distances with his eyes and felt his way through his body, which he knew inside out. “Maybe…not,” he said. She just stared at him, arms crossed. “OK. Probably not.”
“We’re either both getting out or nothing. I thought I made myself clear. I’ve been told I express myself clearly. Few people have difficulty understanding what I say.” Her jaw muscles moved, she was clenching her teeth in exasperation.
God. She was filthy, she’d crawled through dirt which clung to her face, hair and clothes. That crawl had ripped her blouse and pants. She looked like she’d been through a war.
And she was so beautiful it hurt to look at her.
But that wasn’t it. It wasn’t just her beauty.
She was proving to be the best possible partner—steadfast and helpful, even when she was mad at him.
She’d come back for him when she could have just kept going.
She didn’t want to be rescued unless he could be rescued too.
He’d been fascinated by her and had had the best sex he could recall last night. But this was more. This felt like having a partner. This felt like what his parents had, an unbreakable bond. His mother could no more leave his father in a dangerous situation than she could fly.
Nick had been falling since he first laid eyes on Parker. Easy thing to do. She was fascinating, classy and gorgeous. But it was right now, with her glaring at him, covered with dirt, dinged and angry, that he slid all the way.
He gave in with a sigh, recognizing that his life was going to be fundamentally different from here on. Everything had changed. And he also recognized that Parker very definitely had a will of her own and had no hesitation in speaking it.
He reached out and touched her shoulder.
“Sorry. I wasn’t listening to you. You told me over and over again you didn’t want to leave me, and I let my emotions get the better of me.
I hate the thought of you being here, in the rubble of an earthquake and in an Operation Gladio arms cache.
A lot of things can go wrong, and I’m trained to think in terms of worst-case scenarios.
But to tell you the truth, I’m really glad you’re staying. ”
Her body language had changed. Her arms weren’t folded tightly against her chest now, and she wasn’t glaring at him. “You mean that?”
He nearly sighed. “With all my heart.”
She rushed into his arms, jostling his wounded shoulder. Pain shot through him like a bolt of electricity. He gritted his teeth. It was a small price to pay to have her in his arms, not angry at him. They’d escaped death by a miracle. He’d been given a second chance.
“Oh,” she mumbled into his torn shirt. “Now I can say how scared I was and still am. I couldn’t say how scared I was and then run away like a rabbit.”
Nick held her more tightly, head resting against hers. “Couldn’t have that, no.”
Parker sighed and relaxed into him, and they stood there, holding each other tightly. Parker was the first to step away. She sniffed, put a finger under her eyes where a little moisture had gathered—she’d absolutely reject the idea of that moisture being tears—and straightened.
“I think you’re going to have to call Aunt Caroline.”
“Yes.” This was tricky. Because the Consul General didn’t necessarily have the right to confidential military intel. There would be no protocol against it, but there wouldn’t be a protocol for it.
But she’d be worried about Parker and that decided him.
He dialed her cell.
“Hello?” There was heavy background noise. She was either on the street or at the consulate with repair work going on. “Who is this?”
She wouldn’t have the satphone’s number in her cell’s address book, only his regular work phone.
“Caroline,” Nick said slowly. “This is Nick Garin. Please listen carefully. We have a Broken Arrow situation.”
Silence.
Caroline would know exactly what that was.
“Where are you?”
“We’re at Parker’s excavation site. And during the quake we discovered an Operation Gladio arms cache underground.”
She would know what Operation Gladio was and what could be contained in an arms cache.
“Are you both ok?”
“We’re a little dinged, but essentially ok. I’m wounded and cannot pull myself out. I called Jacob Black to coordinate a military response.”
She took a moment, and he gave it to her.
There were a thousand unexpressed things here.
Caroline would be a little miffed that he hadn’t called her to organize a cordon around the arms. But she knew it wasn’t really her call, and the Consulate was not officially involved.
And the Consulate would definitely not have specialized personnel.
The Consulate had some Marines but was mainly staffed by admins.
She also knew Jacob Black would know exactly who to call.
“Right. Do you need anything?”
“Nothing that the Consulate can provide.” The Consulate’s Marine guards were good men, but there weren’t enough of them. And the Marines could not desert the Consulate, particularly after a heavy earthquake.
“Right. So Parker’s okay?”
“Yes.”
“Make sure she stays that way,” Caroline said and closed the connection.
“Is Aunt Caroline alright?” Parker asked, with a little frown of anxiety. “She hold up in the earthquake?”
“She seemed fine.” Nick bent to kiss the frown away. “A little miffed I didn’t call her first. And I have strict instructions to look after you.”
“Call her first? Why would you call the Consulate first? Isn’t this a military matter?”
She got it. “Exactly. I called her as a courtesy and probably shouldn’t have. But I’m not in the military anymore and don’t have a chain of command. I called Jacob Black because he knows exactly—”
Nick’s satphone rang and he held up a finger, looking at who the caller was. Jacob, getting back to him. That was quick. Jacob had set it to a video call.
“Speaking of the devil… Hey what have you got?”
Jacob nodded. “The Naples Security Force from the Naples naval base is arriving right away to secure the site. They’re en route.
A NEST team from Norfolk is en route too, but they won’t land until after midnight.
NATO is scrambling its CbrN unit from Brussels.
But you’re free to go as soon as the Security Force gets there.
They’ll extract you and you get the hell out of Dodge. The Security Force will have a medic.”
“Gladly get out of Dodge. And get Parker out of Dodge. Can’t wait. But I don’t know what state my vehicle is in.”
“No problem. I’ll let them know they need to provide a car and a driver. Someone will get your vehicle later. You guys okay?”
“Yeah. Will be good to get out of here, though.”
Jacob gave a wintry smile. “Trust me. When the cavalry arrives, they won’t want you there. They can’t wait to get you out of there, either.”
“Ditto.”
“Oh, Dylan’s coming, too. He was in Rome, wrapping up negotiations with Niram Shipping, as you know, and he’s flying in, to help.”
Dylan Gardner. Besides Jacob Black, his best friend. They’d fought together, bled together. But why the fuck—
“Wait.” Nick scowled at the screen. “You told him I was wounded, didn’t you?”
Jacob remained impassive. “Maybe.”
“Damn.” If Dylan thought Nick was in need and wounded, there was nothing in this life, or even after, that would keep him away. “So when is he arriving?” he asked, resigned. This excavation site was going to be busier than the train station in Rome, Stazione Termini.
Jacob checked his watch. “Probably in about an hour. I sent him your coordinates.”
“Dylan loves skydiving. He’ll probably jump out of the plane, land right on top of us.”
“Probably. Keep me informed.”
“You coming too?”
“Love to. But tonight Alex is getting some kind of science prize. Can’t not be there. She’d dump my ass. I’ll fly over tomorrow when it’s all over.”
His wife was as madly in love with him as he was with her. She definitely wouldn’t dump his ass if he wasn’t there when she got a prize. She was always getting prizes. But Jacob knew Nick was more than covered. If Nick were on his own, Jacob would already be on his way.
They’d always had each other’s backs.
Which was why Nick loved his job, except the part where he had to deal with shithead psychopaths. That part sucked.
Jacob closed the connection.
“Nick?”
Parker. She must be exhausted. And thirsty. Nick was thirsty too, and they had no access to water. He had several bottles in his SUV, but it could have been on the back side of the moon for all the good it did them.
But Parker wasn’t complaining. She hadn’t complained once. She was pale and dirty and dead on her feet, but with all that, focused on him. Her eyes kept going to the gash on his shoulder. It hurt, yeah, and needed disinfecting and stitching up, but he’d had worse.
“So,” she said. “I guess now we wait for the cavalry to arrive.”