Chapter 8
CHAPTER EIGHT
“Try this.”
His brother’s voice woke Blink the next morning. He felt stiff and sore, but amazingly, better than he had the day before. Tate’s fussing over his wounds had obviously done some good, as had the antibiotic he’d taken with dinner. He’d slept hard. Probably because with his brother and team leader there, he felt safe to completely let down his guard for the first time since he’d been captured.
Turning his head, he saw Josie and Tate sitting at his feet. His brother was encouraging her to try what looked like the cherry blueberry cobbler that was inside the MRE he and Josie had shared the night before.
Seeing Josie with his twin felt…good. She was skittish, with very good reason, but clearly not afraid of the other men.
Josie. Just knowing her name felt as if they were taking a step forward. It was a strong name, yet cute. Just like her. She still wore the brown T-shirt and the socks, was still caked with dirt and frightfully skinny, but her eyes were bright. And that she kept her food down last night, and was able to eat this morning, even if it wasn’t very much, was a good sign that she’d be okay.
“That’s the best part of the MRE,” Blink said as he sat up.
Josie’s gaze immediately found his, and she smiled. Blink would do literally anything to see that smile on her face every morning for the rest of his life.
She held the sweet treat out to him.
He shook his head. “No. You have it.”
Josie shook her head stubbornly and wiggled the fork at him.
Chuckling, Blink shuffled his feet around and sidled up next to her. He took hold of her wrist, much as she had last night when she’d held the fork with the meatball, and brought the treat to his lips.
They held eye contact as he took a bite and chewed. The flavors exploded on his tongue. A little sweet for this early in the morning, but he didn’t care. “Good,” he said with a nod.
Josie smiled again and returned his nod.
“Sit rep?” he asked Tate, tearing his gaze from Josie’s. As much as he wanted to revel in her infrequent smiles, he needed to get her to safety.
“Pyro and Kevlar are scoping out the area. Everything’s been quiet.”
Blink relaxed a fraction.
Until Pyro came back into the cave with Kevlar at his heels and announced, “We need to go. Now!”
Tate was moving even before Pyro had finished talking. He stuffed the trash from the MRE into his pack, and Pyro balled up the emergency blanket Blink and Josie had used, putting it into his own backpack.
“What’d you see?” Tate asked, as Kevlar moved quickly and efficiently to erase any signs they’d been in the cave.
“About a dozen men moving this way. Doesn’t look like they’re actively searching for anyone or anything, but I don’t want to take the chance that they found some indication of where we are.”
“Agreed,” Tate said as he shrugged on his backpack.
Blink had stood as the other men were talking. He turned to Josie and saw she was standing with her back against the wall of the cave, looking freaked way the hell out.
“Breathe, Josie,” he told her gently. “If they knew we were here, they’d be making a beeline for us. We’re okay. We just need to move out fast and silently.”
Her eyes were huge in her face and it looked as if she was on the verge of bolting.
Blink stepped toward her with his hand out. “Give me your hand,” he ordered.
She looked surprised at his request but immediately held her hand out.
He took it, marveling at how small and thin it felt in his own. “No one is going to take you captive again. I swear.”
She didn’t nod. Didn’t do anything other than look at him with intense emotions swirling in her eyes.
“We need to move hard and fast. I’d like to carry you.”
Josie shook her head aggressively.
“ Please . Listen…” Blink said. They didn’t have time for this, but the last thing he wanted was to have to throw her ov er his shoulder and carry her off without her permission. He felt as if he was just breaking through her thick shields. He didn’t want to do anything that would ruin his progress. “You don’t have any shoes. And your body isn’t up for another hard day’s walk. Not that I don’t think you’d walk until your feet fell off and you couldn’t take another step. You’d probably crawl if that’s what it took. Let me help you, Spirit. Hell, the packs my brother, Kevlar, and Pyro are carrying probably weigh more than you. You can get on my back and help keep a lookout for tangos rather than having to watch where you put your feet. I’m not saying this to hurt your feelings, but we can move faster with me carrying you.”
Josie frowned and pointed at his torso. Then his legs. Then his face.
“My injuries?” he asked.
She nodded.
“They’re okay.”
That earned him a furious glare.
“They are,” he insisted. “I’m sore as hell, can’t deny that those burns on my legs fucking throb and my ribs don’t feel one hundred percent. But the day I let a few little torture sessions get the better of me is the day I give up my Budweiser pin.”
Josie didn’t react. Simply stood there staring at him.
“Please, Spirit. Let me help you. You aren’t alone anymore. We’re a team, the five of us.”
“Blink,” Pyro said warningly from the mouth of the cave.
But Blink didn’t move. He heard the concern in the pilot’s tone, but he’d stand in this cave forever if he had to and let Josie decide for herself what her next move would be. She’d had enough choices taken from her in however many weeks she’d been a prisoner. He’d be damned if he took her free will away the second she was free.
If she wanted to walk, they’d make it work. It would be riskier, there was no doubt, as she would slow them down considerably. But he wouldn’t force her to do a damn thing.
After an agonizing second or two, she gave him a small nod.
Blink didn’t sigh in relief or tell her that she’d made the right decision. He simply turned his back to her and crouched down. “Hop on. Let’s get the hell out of here.”
He felt her hands on his shoulders, and he helped her get up on his back. Just as he’d thought, she was lighter than most of the packs he’d carried on missions. Blink hooked his arms under her legs to help give her leverage and her arms went around his neck.
He nodded at the others, and the five of them set off, leaving the cave behind. Blink felt Kevlar at his back, ready to step in and take over carrying Josie if needed. Protecting their six. It felt good. Really good.
The mountains were beautiful at that hour of the morning, but Blink barely took notice. All his attention was on the woman on his back. The warmth from her body seeped into his and the farther they walked, the more comfortable she seemed to get.
Her body weight evened out, and she rested her upper body on his back as they walked. They were making good time, were moving probably twice the speed they had yesterday. They had no destination in mind as far as Blink knew, just to get away from the men Kevlar and Pyro had seen and put more distance between themselves and the downed chopper.
They walked for about an hour before they stopped to get their bearings and take a short break.
Blink slowly lowered Josie to the ground, then turned to check on her. “You okay?”
She nodded. There was no expression on her face. It worried him.
“Here,” Kevlar said, holding out a bottle of water.
Blink took it and offered it to Josie. She drank a few sips. Then his brother handed him a packet of crackers from the MRE he’d had the night before.
Glancing at it, he smiled. “Pepperoni pizza crackers,” he told Josie. “Not quite the same thing as a gooey, warm pizza pie from the store, but they’re still pretty good.”
He held one out to her, but she didn’t take it. Blink took a chance and stepped into her personal space. She could’ve backed away, could’ve shaken her head at him and he would’ve given her space. She didn’t. She just looked up at him, now with that same worried look on her face that she’d had way too often recently.
“I wish you could tell me what you’re thinking. We’re okay. My brother and Pyro know what they’re doing. They’re pilots, yes, but they’ve also had extensive SERE Training, which stands for Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape. They aren’t SEALs, like Kevlar and me, but they’re pretty damn close.”
“Gee, thanks for the effusive compliment,” Tate grumbled .
Blink ignored him. “You can trust them. You can trust me . We aren’t going to let anything happen.”
Josie’s mouth opened and closed as if she wanted to say something. Then she closed her eyes and scowled in frustration.
Blink slowly wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close. Her forehead rested on his chest, but her arms remained limply at her sides. It seemed as if the adrenaline that had kept her going throughout their escape had finally run its course. He’d seen this time and time again. People stayed strong until they had no more to give.
He didn’t say anything, they just stood like that, Blink holding her as she rested against him. After too short a time for his peace of mind, she straightened. Looking up at him, she nodded, then reached for the crackers he still had in his hand.
“Fuck, Spirit, you impress the hell out of me,” he blurted.
Once again, her lips moved as if she was saying something, but no sound came out.
He led her over to where Tate and Pyro were sitting and helped her to the ground. They ate some snacks—Kevlar ate his while standing, head on a swivel, watching and listening for anything out of the ordinary—as the pilots discussed the best LZ for whoever might be coming to extract them
“I’m thinking that way,” Pyro said, pointing to their west. “We don’t want to find ourselves out in the open, but the peaks seem to be farther apart there. A chopper could easily slip down between them and pick us up.”
“Not north?” Tate asked, looking in that direction.
“No. The last thing we want is to get too close to the Iranian border. Iraq won’t be thrilled with an extraction, but at least it won’t cause an international incident.”
“I’m not completely sure where we landed, but we want to stay away from any towns or cities if we can. We don’t want the Taliban extending our stay in any way.”
Blink snorted. Landed . His brother was funny. But he supposed anytime a chopper went down and they walked away relatively unscathed could be called a landing and not a crash.
“Right. How’re you doing, Josie?” Pyro asked. “Your legs okay? It can be tough to be carried for long distances…feet and legs going numb and all that.”
Blink looked at her, interested in her answer.
She nodded at Pyro and held up a foot, rotating it a couple of times, then shrugging.
“Good,” he said. “You should eat more,” he added, tossing a packet toward Blink.
He caught it instinctively, reading the slender packet before glancing at Josie. “You should feel special, the applesauce with mango and peach puree is one of the best things in these MREs. They’re highly sought after.”
Instead of looking happy that Pyro had obviously given her such a precious food item, she frowned and shook her head.
“Nope. Not taking it back. It’s for you,” he told her.
Josie looked at Blink expectantly, as if seeking his support in her need to refuse it.
“Sorry, Spirit, I agree with Pyro. At least try it. You might not like it.” Blink tore the top off the squeeze tube of applesauce and handed it to her .
As she took it, he saw how dirty her hands were still, even though he’d done his best with the wet wipes the night before. He hated that for her. He wanted to be able to give her a long hot shower. But it would have to wait until they were out of there.
She kept eye contact with Blink and brought the applesauce up to her lips. She squeezed a bit into her mouth…and her eyes widened as the flavors hit her taste buds.
“Good, huh?” he asked with a small smile.
She nodded.
“I can’t wait for you and Remi to meet,” Kevlar said out of the blue. “She has that same sense of…enjoyment and appreciation for the little things in life.”
“We should keep walking,” Tate said, not giving Blink a chance to question Kevlar’s bold statement. As Remi was one of his closest friends, he’d love for Josie to meet her. But he knew nothing about her life in the States and couldn’t make assumptions…even if he wanted to.
She tried to hand the packet of applesauce back to Blink, but he shook his head. “You can eat while we walk,” he said, turning to let her get on his back.
They were both used to him carrying her now, so they set off this time without hesitation.
They all pushed fairly hard as they headed for the mountain peaks Pyro had pointed out. Blink never would’ve chosen them as a good extraction point, but the two pilots knew what their fellow Night Stalkers could and couldn’t do, and if they thought that was the best place to be picked up, he wasn’t going to argue.
After several more hours of tromping through the mountains, his legs were throbbing and felt like they weighed eight hundred pounds, but he didn’t utter a word of complaint. He’d learned the hard way that things could always be worse. They’d been walking all day, and while Josie wasn’t a heavy burden, his body had been through hell recently and was finally protesting what he’d asked it to do.
It was late afternoon when Tate finally stopped, looked around, and said, “This’ll do.”
Blink didn’t hesitate to lower Josie to the ground. Then he leaned over and put his hands on his thighs and closed his eyes as he did his best to work through the pain coursing through his body. He was strong. Tough. But he did have his limits, and it seemed as though he’d reached them.
Feeling a hand on his arm, Blink opened his eyes to see Josie standing next to him with a worried look on her face. She took his hand in hers and pulled. Following her, frowning at the way Josie was limping, he sat where she indicated, relieved he was off his feet.
“Forgive me for saying so, but you two look like shit,” Tate said. He wasn’t joking, and wasn’t being mean, he was simply stating a fact.
“Feel like it,” Blink told him.
Now Tate looked worried.
“I’m okay,” he said. “Just had a difficult few days.” He tried to stand again, but he froze in surprise when Josie hissed.
She was glaring at him and frowning. She stabbed a finger down at the ground a couple of times, then pointed at him.
“All right, all right. I’m staying here.”
She nodded, then walked over to the pack Kevlar had just dropped to the ground. She opened and rummaged through it for a moment before pulling out an MRE. She walked back over to where Blink was sitting and joined him on the ground, where she attempted to open the tough plastic bag.
“I’m kind of scared to give her my knife,” Tate murmured with a chuckle as he held it out to Blink. “If I piss her off, she might use it on me.”
Josie turned her glare on Tate.
Blink simply laughed. “Here, Spirit, let me help.”
She let him cut off the top of the MRE packet, then pulled it back toward herself.
“Enjoy dinner,” Tate said with another laugh, before heading back over to where Pyro and Kevlar sat, opening their MREs.
Meanwhile, Josie had pulled out all the small packets inside the MRE and laid them out next to each other.
“Beef ravioli. One of my favorites,” Blink told her.
He wanted to help, but at the same time, it felt good to be taken care of for once. He didn’t speak as Josie figured out how to use water to heat up the ravioli. She read the packets, seeing what was inside each, before carefully opening one at a time. Before he knew it, using the empty MRE bag as a makeshift platter, she’d made a charcuterie board of sorts with the various food items. The salted caramel marshmallow crisp bar had been torn in half, the breadsticks were laid out to form a perimeter for the food, the cheddar cheese spread was in the middle, and she’d sprinkled the M&Ms in and around everything.
When she got to the fruit punch electrolyte powder, she hesitated, then gestured toward Blink’s pocket. He was confused for a moment, until he remembered. He pulled out the small metal cup and handed it over. She put a bit of the powder in the cup, then poured in some water.
When the ravioli had finished heating, she put the pouch down with the other food items, then looked up at him and smiled.
Blink had honestly never been so touched in all his life. It was just an MRE. He’d eaten hundreds of them. But he’d never had someone work so hard to make it look more like a gourmet meal than this woman just had.
“Looks good,” he told her.
She picked up the cup and held it out to him. For the second time, she was offering him water that she so desperately needed.
This time, Blink didn’t hesitate. He took it from her and swallowed half the liquid in one gulp before handing it back. She finished it, licking the extra from her lips before turning her gaze back to the food.
She picked up an M&M and studied it with a small smile before popping it in her mouth. She chewed the little chocolate candy with her eyes shut, obviously relishing the treat.
Blink loved seeing her enjoy the candy, but she needed nutrients. He picked up the pouch of ravioli and speared one with the fork before holding it out to her. “Try this.”
Her eyes opened, and she leaned forward, her mouth open.
It felt so intimate, feeding her, and even though he’d done it the evening before with the meatballs, this time felt just as satisfying deep in his soul.
They took turns eating the ravioli, and she had a couple bites of the other food. Just as before, she stopped way before he thought she could possibly be full. But then again, her stomach had probably shrunk because of the lack of food.
Feeling anger rise up within, and the need to exact revenge on the assholes who’d taken this innocent woman captive, he looked at his brother, needing a distraction. “What’s next?”
Tate shrugged, seemingly unconcerned that they were camping out in the middle of the mountains in Iraq and anyone could stumble upon them at any moment. “Depends.”
When he didn’t elaborate, Blink asked, “On?”
“You and Kevlar. How closely do you think you guys are being monitored?”
Before his team leader could respond, a harsh snort escaped Blink’s lips. “Like a parasite under a microscope.”
“Then I’d say this time tomorrow, we’ll be back on the naval carrier enjoying a shower and a real meal.”
Josie made a noise next to him, and Blink glanced at her. Her eyes were wide in her face, and she looked both scared to death and excited at the same time.
“We made it as easy as possible for our fellow Night Stalkers,” Pyro added. “This extraction point is a piece of cake. They can lower between these two peaks, and even land on the ground there if necessary.”
The area of ground Pyro pointed out wasn’t exactly level. It was full of boulders and actually not flat at all. And the peaks he was talking about didn’t look wide enough to accommodate the rotor blades of a chopper to Blink, but then again, he wasn’t an expert on choppers. If Pyro said this was the best place for an extraction, he believed him.
For the first time, he thought about what would happen immediately after they were rescued—especially for Josie. The US government didn’t make it a habit of picking up people from behind enemy lines without knowing something about them. And while he knew in his gut that Josie was no threat, the officers on the carrier didn’t. Hell, he didn’t even know if she was American or not. He thought she was, but without knowing anything about her other than her first name, there would be questions. Lots of them.
His belly churned. The food he’d just eaten threatened to come back up. He wanted to shield Josie from what was to come but he didn’t know how.
“We need to talk,” he blurted as he turned to Josie.
She tilted her head in question.
“When we’re extracted, we’ll be taken to a Navy ship in the gulf. There will be questions…for both of us. I’ll be taken to one area to explain what happened to me, and you’ll be?—”
Josie didn’t let him finish. She shook her head almost violently and fisted his shirt sleeve.
“It’ll be okay. You’ll be safe and?—”
She shook her head again and made a growling sound. To Blink, she sounded terrified.
“Look at me,” he ordered, reaching up to stop her from continuing to shake her head. He put his hands on either side of her face and literally held her still as he looked into her eyes. “You’ll be fine. No one on the ship will hurt you.”
She didn’t pull out of his grip but pointed at him, then pointed at herself. She did it again. And again.
“You want to stay with me?”
She nodded as best she could in his grasp.
“I’m not sure that’s possible,” he said .
As soon as the words were out, Josie closed her eyes and began to shake. It was a full-body tremor. If he didn’t know better, he would’ve thought she was having a seizure.
“Josie!” he said urgently.
But she stubbornly kept her eyes shut.
“Do you think I’m going to let anything happen to you? I’m not,” he said, answering his own question. “But they aren’t expecting you. The rest of my team has probably already informed the higher-ups that you were a captive in the same place I was, and that you were extricated at the same time, but they don’t know anything about you. For all they know, you could be a plant. Someone who was put in that cell to gather intel about our ships. Our manpower.”
She snorted and her eyes flew open. She pulled out of his grip and frantically looked around for something. Then she grabbed the plastic knife that had been in the MRE kit and crouched over an area of undisturbed ground.
For a second, Blink was afraid she was going to try to hurt herself, but instead, she started writing in the dirt.
England
“You’re from the UK?” Blink asked.
She shook her head in frustration, then wrote something else.
Josie England
“That’s your name?” Tate asked. He’d come closer when she’d started writing.
Josie nodded. Then wrote some more.
Las Vegas Vacation Kuwait
“You’re from Las Vegas and were on vacation in Kuwait? Not exactly a hot spot for tourism,” Kevlar commented. His team leader, Pyro, and Tate were all gathered around now, reading her words.
But Blink’s attention was laser focused on the woman herself. She was on her knees in the dirt, already scrubbing the words away with her hand to write more. Her face was flushed, and she looked almost desperate to give them information about herself. She was terrified of being questioned when they got to the carrier, that much was obvious.
Ayden Hitson Army R&R Boat ride
“He’s your boyfriend?” Tate asked.
Blink’s stomach rolled again.
Was Break up after
“So you came to visit your boyfriend, who was on R&R in Kuwait, and you were going to break up with him? And you went on a boat ride?” Tate asked almost gently. “What happened? Where’s Hitson?”
Shot dead Took me
“Fuck,” Blink said. He stood abruptly and began to pace. He’d gathered something bad had happened in regard to a boat, considering Josie’s reaction to getting into one back in Iran. But he hadn’t expected this .
“Right. You’re an American named Josie England, from Las Vegas,” Kevlar summed up. “You were in Kuwait visiting the military man you were dating. You went on a boat ride, probably crossed over into Iranian waters, and your captors came after you. Ayden Hitson was killed and they took you hostage. Why?”
Blink wanted to know the answer as much as the others. But Josie didn’t attempt to write anything in the dirt. She shrugged .
“There has to be a reason,” Tate pushed. “Did they ask you anything? Want information about anything related to the military? Did they contact anyone for ransom?”
Josie stared at them for a beat, then once more used her hand to wipe away the last words she wrote and picked up the plastic knife.
Beaten Left alone Forgotten No food no water Didn’t care
The words looked stark and ugly scratched into the ground. He couldn’t wrap his mind around what she was telling them. Of course, the condition she was in gave credence to what she was saying, but it was still hard to believe.
She angrily scrubbed out the words, then began to write again.
Woman trash Not Army Not worth trouble
Blink was done. “You are not trash,” he said almost angrily.
They think Not me
But Blink wasn’t sure she truly believed what she’d written. He could see it in the way her shoulders slumped. How she tried to curl into herself. She’d been thrown into that cell and forgotten, like she’d said. Or maybe she wasn’t forgotten, but clearly no one gave her enough thought to neither continue to torture her, nor keep her alive. She was literally nothing to their captors. Just like she said. And it pissed Blink way the hell off.
“You have family, Josie?” Tate asked gently. “Someone we can get in touch with to let them know you’re okay? Someone has to be worried about you.”
Josie stared at Blink’s brother for a tense moment before shaking her head and shrugging again. She dropped the knife and stood, pointing toward the bushes where they’d been going to pee, and slowly disappeared behind them.
“Well, shit,” Pyro said.
“If she had anyone who was worried about her not returning from vacation, surely they would’ve contacted the authorities by now. Told them that she’d gone to Kuwait and hadn’t come back. That information would’ve gotten to someone in our circles eventually,” Kevlar stated.
Blink would’ve liked to think so, but he wasn’t sure. If she truly didn’t have anyone who’d noticed she was gone…
That was unfathomable.
Josie returned before they could discuss it further. She began to clean up their dinner, carefully putting the uneaten food back into the pouches so they could eat it later. No one felt much like talking after learning what they had about Josie’s situation. So everyone simply settled in to wait. For darkness to fall. For rescue. Something.
Blink couldn’t stay away from Josie if his life depended on it. Without a word, he scooted up behind her and urged her to lay on her side to rest, then spooned her. His arm went around her waist, and he held her against him, secure in the cradle of his body. He completely dwarfed her. But it felt right, as if he was protecting her from the world.
She was stiff at first but gradually relaxed. Blink shifted until his other arm was under her head, so she could use it as a pillow.
Neither of them slept, but it felt good to just lie there. With her.