13. Wynn
WYNN
The gunfire behind us began to fade.
Not stop.
Fade.
There was a difference.
Stopping meant the danger was over.
Fading meant we were getting farther away from it.
I tightened my arm around the elderly man’s waist as we struggled up the narrow trail.
His name was Farid.
He had spent thirty-seven years teaching history at a university that no longer existed.
Now his left leg dragged behind him, blood soaking through the makeshift bandage Janice had wrapped around his thigh.
“I can walk,” he insisted.
“You are walking.”
“You are carrying me.”
“I’m helping.”
He looked at me from beneath thick gray eyebrows.
“You are very stubborn.”
“So I’ve been told.”
Behind us, another explosion shook the mountains.
Several children screamed.
Farid stumbled.
I caught him before he fell.
“Keep moving!” Russ called from the rear of the group. “Stay close to the rock wall!”
The trail wound between two towering ridges, barely wide enough for everyone to move single file.
Boone had taken the lead.
Russ protected the rear.
Janice moved through the middle, checking the wounded while trying to keep frightened families together.
Adam, Hawk, and Lucas were still behind us.
Holding off an army.
My stomach twisted.
I glanced back again.
Dust filled the canyon.
Smoke climbed into the night sky.
I couldn’t see Lucas.
Hadn’t seen him since he and Boone disappeared into the ravine.
Boone was ahead of us now.
He had returned.
Lucas hadn’t.
Neither had Adam or Hawk.
My heart beat harder.
Boone turned and caught me looking behind us.
“They’re coming.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I know those men.”
“So do I.”
His expression changed.
Only slightly.
But enough.
He understood what I hadn’t said.
I knew Lucas.
Or at least, I used to.
“He won’t leave anyone behind,” Boone said.
“That’s what scares me.”
Farid leaned more heavily against me.
I forced myself to face forward.
Lucas had spent most of our marriage running toward people who needed him.
Hostages.
Soldiers.
Children.
Strangers trapped in places most of the world had forgotten.
I’d never asked him to stop.
Not once.
I had loved that part of him.
The courage.
The honor.
The way he believed one life was worth crossing the world to save.
But loving a hero came with a price no one talked about.
The empty side of the bed.
The unanswered telephone.
The knock at the door you feared every time he left.
I had spent years pretending I was strong enough not to be afraid.
Until fear became the only thing I felt.
A rifle cracked behind us.
My entire body stiffened.
Boone looked toward the canyon.
“That was Hawk.”
“How can you tell?”
He smiled faintly.
“Hawk has a particular way of saying hello.”
Another shot followed.
Then three quick bursts of automatic fire.
“That wasn’t hello.”
“No.”
Boone’s smile disappeared.
“That was goodbye.”
He raised his radio.
“Adam, status?”
Static answered.
Boone stopped walking.
“Adam?”
Nothing.
The civilians crowded together behind him.
A frightened murmur moved through the group.
Russ pushed forward.
“What is it?”
“I lost communication.”
“The mountains could be blocking the signal.”
“Could be.”
Neither man sounded convinced.
Janice met my eyes.
She didn’t have to say anything.
I saw the same fear reflected in hers.
Farid touched my arm.
“You should go.”
I looked at him.
“What?”
“Your soldier.”
“He isn’t my soldier.”
The words came too quickly.
Too sharply.
Farid studied my face.
“No?”
“No.”
He waited.
I hated that he waited.
“He’s my former husband.”
“Former?”
“Yes.”
“Ah.”
That single sound carried far too much understanding.
I adjusted his arm around my shoulders.
“We need to keep moving.”
“But you keep looking back.”
“I’m watching for danger.”
“No,” he said gently. “You are watching for him.”
Before I could answer, Boone lifted one hand.
“Quiet!”
Everyone froze.
At first, I heard nothing.
Then it came.
Engines.
Not behind us.
Ahead.
Boone dropped to one knee and raised his rifle.
Russ immediately began moving the civilians off the trail.
“Get down!”
“Find cover!”
“Stay together!”
Janice grabbed two children and pulled them behind a cluster of boulders.
I helped Farid to the ground.
The sound grew louder.
A heavy engine climbing the western road.
Boone pressed a finger to his earpiece.
“Adam, we’ve got a vehicle approaching from the west.”
Static.
“Lucas?”
Nothing.
Boone looked at Russ.
“We’re on our own.”
Russ moved beside him.
“Could be the extraction team.”
“Could be the men trying to kill us.”
I crouched behind Farid and peered through a narrow opening between the rocks.
Dust rose beyond the bend.
The engine slowed.
Then stopped.
A door opened.
Another.
Boots struck the ground.
Boone raised his closed fist.
Every frightened whisper vanished.
A shadow moved across the trail.
Then a man stepped around the bend carrying an assault rifle.
He wore a dark uniform without markings.
A second man appeared behind him.
Then a third.
Boone’s finger tightened against the trigger.
“Identify yourself!”
The first man immediately raised one hand.
“Colonel Hayes sent us.”
Boone didn’t lower his rifle.
“Verification.”
“Bluebird Seven.”
“Challenge?”
The man looked directly at him.
“Courage runs deep.”
Boone’s shoulders relaxed slightly.
“Love runs deeper.”
The man nodded.
“Good to see you, Brave.”
Relief swept through the civilians.
Some began crying.
Others hugged the people beside them.
I closed my eyes for one second.
Extraction.
We had made it.
Almost.
The rescue team moved quickly.
Medics rushed toward the wounded while other soldiers established a defensive perimeter along the trail.
A medic knelt beside Farid.
“I’ve got him.”
I slowly released my hold.
Farid caught my hand before I could move away.
“Go find your soldier.”
“He isn’t?—”
He raised one gray eyebrow.
I stopped.
Then I stood.
Boone was already speaking with the extraction commander.
“How many vehicles?”
“Two armored transports and one medical unit.”
“Enough room?”
“It’ll be tight, but we’ll make it work.”
A nurse hurried toward Janice.
“Where’s Samir?”
Janice spun around.
“What?”
“He stopped near the split in the trail and said he couldn’t breathe. He told me to keep moving and that he was right behind me.”
Janice went pale.
“That was nearly half a mile back.”
My blood turned cold.
Samir.
The young man with the gunshot wound.
The one who had been growing weaker with every step.
Boone cursed beneath his breath.
“I’ll get him.”
“So will I.”
His head snapped toward me.
“No.”
“I know where we stopped.”
“Wynn—”
“He was barely conscious. You could walk right past him among those rocks.”
“I said no.”
“And I heard you.”
Boone stared at me.
For one second, I saw something dangerously similar to Lucas in his expression.
Then he looked toward Russ.
“Get everyone loaded.”
Russ shook his head.
“Lucas is going to kill you.”
“He’ll have to survive first.”
The words struck me harder than they should have.
Boone must have seen it.
His expression softened.
“Adam, Hawk, and Lucas know our extraction point. They’ll meet us here.”
“If their radios are working.”
“They’re coming.”
“You said that before.”
“And I meant it.”
Another explosion rolled through the mountains.
Closer this time.
Boone looked back toward the canyon.
“We don’t have much time before those fighters regroup.”
“Then we shouldn’t waste any more of it arguing.”
I picked up a medical bag.
Boone closed his eyes briefly.
“I understand why Lucas looks tired all the time.”
Despite everything, I almost laughed.
Then we ran.
The trail was harder going downhill.
Loose stones shifted beneath our boots while smoke drifted between the ridges.
Boone moved ahead of me, rifle raised, checking every bend before signaling me forward.
“Samir!” I called.
No answer.
We kept moving.
The distant gunfire had stopped.
That frightened me more than the shooting.
Silence meant one side had won.
I had no idea which one.
“Samir!”
A faint sound came from somewhere below us.
Boone stopped.
“There.”
We scrambled down a steep embankment.
Samir lay wedged between two boulders.
His skin was gray.
His eyes barely open.
Blood covered the front of his shirt.
I dropped beside him.
“Samir, can you hear me?”
His eyelids fluttered.
“Wynn?”
“I’m here.”
“You came back.”
“Of course I did.”
Boone crouched on the other side of him.
“We’ve got to move.”
Together, we lifted him.
Samir cried out.
“I know,” I whispered. “I’m sorry.”
A rifle fired.
Boone shoved us behind the rocks.
“Contact!”
Bullets tore through the brush above our heads.
The enemy had reached the trail.
Boone returned fire.
“Stay down!”
Samir trembled against me.
I pressed both hands over his wound.
The blood kept coming.
Too much.
“Boone!”
“I know!”
He fired again.
Enemy soldiers moved between the rocks above us.
Boone changed magazines.
“We’re cut off.”
My heart pounded.
“Can we go down the ravine?”
“Not carrying him.”
Another bullet slammed into the boulder beside my head.
Stone fragments struck my cheek.
Boone fired twice.
One soldier dropped.
The others spread out.
They were surrounding us.
I bent lower over Samir.
For six years, I had walked into dangerous places believing I understood the risk.
I had told myself the truth was worth it.
That someone had to show the world what was happening.
But crouched behind that rock with a dying man in my arms, I finally understood what Lucas had lived with every time I left.
Helplessness.
Fear.
The terrible knowledge that love gave the world something it could take from you.
Footsteps crunched above us.
Boone raised his rifle.
The magazine clicked empty.
He reached for another.
Too late.
A soldier stepped onto the rocks.
His weapon swung toward us.
A shot cracked through the ravine.
The soldier fell.
Another enemy spun toward the ridge.
Two more shots.
Two more bodies dropped.
Boone stared upward.
A figure emerged through the smoke.
Tall.
Blood streaked one side of his face.
His tactical shirt was torn.
His silver eyes found me instantly.
Lucas.
Relief hit me so violently I couldn’t breathe.
He moved down the ravine with Adam and Hawk behind him.
Boone gave him a crooked smile.
“Took you long enough.”
Lucas ignored him.
He came straight to me.
His gaze swept over my face.
My hands.
The blood covering my clothes.
“Are you hit?”
“No. It’s Samir’s.”
Lucas closed his eyes for half a second.
When he opened them, anger burned beneath the relief.
“What are you doing back here?”
“We left someone behind.”
“So you came back?”
“Yes.”
“Into an active battlefield?”
“He would’ve died!”
“You could’ve died!”
“So could he!”
Lucas stared at me.
I stared back.
Six years disappeared.
We were standing in our kitchen again.
He was holding deployment orders.
I was holding divorce papers.
Both of us terrified.
Neither of us willing to admit it.
Adam knelt beside Samir.
“We can fight later. We move now.”
Lucas took one side of Samir’s weight.
Boone took the other.
Hawk turned toward the trail and covered our retreat.
I started after them.
Lucas looked at me over Samir’s unconscious body.
“Stay beside me.”
It wasn’t an order this time.
It was a plea.
I moved closer.
“I’m here.”
His silver eyes held mine.
“Don’t leave my sight.”
Something inside my chest cracked open.
Because six years ago, I had wanted him to say those words.
To ask me to stay.
To tell me losing me would hurt.
But Lucas had never asked.
And I had been too proud to wait.
Gunfire erupted behind us.
We began climbing.
Together.
Not husband and wife.
Not yet friends.
Two people who had once loved each other enough to promise forever.
And might still love each other enough to try again.
If fate allowed us to survive the mountain first.