Chapter 31 #2
Finn hadn’t been on a ship in forever. The waters were choppy tonight, and his stomach did a few somersaults as he waited for news about Wyatt.
All of Bravo and Echo were on board, but Carter’s men had headed back to their TOC, and Finn hated he’d yet to see or even talk to Julia.
First, he needed to hear that Echo One would be okay, and then he’d find a way to reach out to her.
“How many of us have had head injuries lately?” Roman cupped the back of his neck with one hand, pacing alongside Finn.
“Hopefully, he was only knocked unconscious, and his busted leg will be . . . well, let’s hope he can still operate.” And survive. Damn it, survive was the number one focus.
But Finn knew Wyatt wouldn’t be able to handle news that he couldn’t operate again.
He may have been nervous with a baby on the way, but Wyatt was a SEAL.
A warrior. He wouldn’t know how to be anything else.
Not anytime soon, at least. Same with the rest of them.
And regardless of how terrified Natasha had to be after learning Wyatt had been injured during the op, she knew and understood her husband.
She knew the kind of man she married. And she supported him through and through.
Can Julia support me? Will there be an us?
The idea of losing her shredded him, but he had to focus on Wyatt. He couldn’t think about himself right now. But his thoughts were also making him a little crazy. Or maybe it was the waiting that made him nuts.
“We didn’t lose anyone. Amin is dead. And we also picked off a bunch of Hamas fuckers,” A.J. said, joining them, “so stop acting as though we did lose someone.”
“Wyatt will be—”
“Fine,” Chris cut off Finn, which was probably for the best since he had no idea where that sentence was headed.
But now, all of Echo, minus their team leader, paced like a bunch of crazies topside.
“If Knox hadn’t called his dad, and this ship hadn’t been here, then yeah, we’d be in a different boat. You know, literally and physically.”
Finn stopped walking, and his shoulders fell. “Wyatt had a bad feeling. He knew this was going to happen.”
“Wyatt will be fine,” Roman noted in a deep voice. “His pulse was strong. Chest looked okay when you examined him on the bird here.”
No blood on his chest, but there’d been a lot on his head that the helmet had hidden, and his leg had been . . . in rough shape.
“How are we swinging the story of what went down?” Finn asked, needing a distraction.
“Luke spoke to POTUS,” Roman began. “From the sounds of it, no one is claiming to know anything about what went down in that desert. Not the Sudanese, the Saudis, and sure as hell not POTUS. They’re all feigning ignorance to keep shit peaceful, I suppose.
Saudis don’t want to fess up to what Amin was doing there any more than the Sudanese government wants to admit a known terrorist cell was there. ”
“So, no one will know Amin was really a terrorist, then?” Finn’s shoulders dropped at the news. And what would that mean for Oliver? Would Kaira be able to convince the police in Dubai that it was Amin who had killed her husband? Or was Finn going to need to plan a prison break?
Roman grimaced. “The drugs are destroyed. A bunch of terrorists are dead. And we’re all—”
“Okay.” It was Luke. “We’re all okay.”
Finn abruptly spun, and his hands dropped to his thighs as he bowed his head. “Wyatt?” He lifted his eyes to look at Bravo One.
Luke stepped before Echo Team and crossed his arms. “Wyatt is going to be okay. It might take him a long time in PT to undo the damage to his leg, but he’s alive. And the doctor says he should still be able to operate if he wants to.”
Filled with relief, Finn lowered to a knee and closed his eyes.
“Oh, he’ll want to,” he overheard A.J. say.
“Thank God,” Chris said under his breath.
Finn slowly opened his eyes to look at the man who’d recruited him back in 2013. He’d always said he’d follow both Luke, Wyatt, and any other person on his team to hell if he had to . . . and tonight, facing what had felt like Osiris’s army of the dead, sure as hell felt like they had been in hell.
“How’s Natasha?” Finn asked as Roman hooked an arm under his and helped him to his feet.
“Much better now that she knows her husband is okay. And I’m pretty sure she would have infiltrated the White House and threatened POTUS had he not made the right call to save our man tonight,” Luke answered.
“Oh, she would have,” Knox said, coming up behind Luke. “I warned my dad you don’t want to mess with a pregnant woman. I speaketh from experience,” he said with a smile while slapping a hand to his chest, referring to his pregnant wife.
And the entire mood on deck was now much different. Because they hadn’t lost any brothers tonight.
“We can’t bring Julia to the ship, and now that we know Wyatt is good, Asher is catching a ride to Jessica.” Luke looked to Finn. “You wanna go see your girl, too?”
My girl? “I need to put eyes on Wyatt first. Make sure he’s okay.”
“Wyatt would want you putting eyes on Julia to ease her worries, trust me. Echo One would kick your ass for staying here and leaving Julia there,” Luke said, and how’d Luke even know he and Julia were a . . .
What are we?
“Roger that.” Finn smiled, but his nerves were still all mangled from the night, and he also had no clue what this night had done to Julia.
He’d been shot in Aswan. His helo had gone down tonight, and they’d nearly lost Echo One. Would she be able to handle more of these nights in the future?
“Just a heads-up, there’s a chance we might need to break Oliver out of jail in Dubai if Kaira can’t convince the authorities that he’s innocent.” Finn looked around at his brothers with a serious expression. “I, uh, made a promise to Julia.”