“I’m not sure, but you can ask him,” Ms. Ortiz said, walking over to the small kitchen table where she had dropped her purse earlier. She took out her cell phone and then recited her brother’s telephone number so that Victoria could write it down.
“Thank you, Ms. Ortiz. For all of the information that you have given to me about your son,” Victoria said as she walked to the door.
“Please, Ms. Sanchez. Find out who did this to my boy.”
Victoria paused again at the door, turning to face Ms. Ortiz, looking the grief stricken mother in the eyes. “You have my word that I will not stop investigating until I have answers.”
Chapter Four
One Day Later
Landstuhl, Germany
“
Oh. My. God. Did you see all those fine gentlemen out there? Is there a GQ male model convention today in lovely Landstuhl that you forgot to tell me about?”
Olivia Lewis peered up from the clipboard that she had been filling out charging sheets on to see her friend, Jackie Garrett, leaning over her desk.
Jackie was an army ward nurse for the U.S. medical center at the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany. The Landstuhl Regional Medical Center was unique in that it was the largest U.S. run hospital located in a foreign country. The U.S. Army and the Department of Defense oversaw the everyday operations of the hospital.
Jackie was a pretty woman in her mid-40s, with cropped blonde hair and an athletic figure. She was an accomplished female body builder and loved to regale Olivia with the stories of her competitions. She also had a habit of flirting with young, handsome men. This was mostly a front because as much as she loved to flirt, she was in a very committed relationship with a German doctor at a local civilian hospital. Jackie was originally from New Jersey, but had been living in Germany for about three years, now. She was one of the only civilians on the medical staff at Landstuhl.
In contrast to Jackie, Olivia had a caramel colored skin tone—courtesy of her Swedish mother and African American father. She was of medium height at 5’6’’ and slender, almost tomboyish in her figure. In addition, she had sparkling eyes that were such a deep shade of blue that they appeared violet.
Olivia also had long, curly brown-blonde hair that had the unfortunate habit of frizzing up at the ends. Because of this tendency, she usually wore it flat ironed and in a bun or a ponytail that hung down to her waist, such as was the case today.
Olivia was finishing the second year of her general surgery residency at the German medical facility. At the beginning of last year, she had been lucky enough to complete the prestigious U.S. Air Force Flight Surgeon School. She was going to return to the States in the next few months to begin completing the remaining three years of her surgical residency at the UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles.
Olivia’s first two years in residency training had gone as well as could be expected, given the grueling schedule of a surgical doctor. Today, surgical residents only had to work 80 hours per week instead of the 100-hour weeks that were the norm until 2003. However, physician fatigue was still a significant problem even with the new scheduling restrictions.
During one of Olivia’s first few weeks in her residency, she had been paged to scrub into an intestinal surgery that was being performed on an elderly man. Olivia’s excitement about the new experience had been dimmed by the fact that she had just finished with a 24-hour “shift” and then was assigned retractor duty for another six hours. She had almost blown the surgery when her grip on the retractor slipped; causing the lead surgeon to accidentally puncture the patient’s intestinal wall. Luckily, the chief resident had been able to prevent further damage. After the chewing out she got, Olivia made sure to load up on extra cups of caffeine throughout the day.
While working some of her other shifts as an emergency room trauma surgeon in a busy Los Angeles public hospital, she had seen people come in with a myriad of ailments: multiple gunshot wound victims, stabbings, child abuse cases, rapes, and assault cases—just to name a few. The extent to which human beings could sink into depravity and senselessly cause violence to other human beings still managed to make her sick to her stomach at times.
Olivia still took pride in her career. She genuinely loved helping people. Despite some of the truly awful things that she’d witnessed, she recognized that she had been given the opportunity to make a real difference in someone’s life. And on some occasions she could even save lives.
“Yeah, they are U.S. Navy SEALs. One of their teammates was wounded during some sort of mission, and they flew him here,” Olivia replied, looking back down at her charts.
“Oh yeah, how is he?”
Olivia looked back up at Jackie. “He’s holding up pretty well, all things considered. He needed an orthopod. His right femur was cracked pretty badly from the force of the bullet, but luckily, for him it wasn’t shattered. With some intense physical therapy he should be as good as new.”
“Good. That’s great to hear. It would have been a shame if his career had to end over the injury. How is Congressman Henning doing? Well, former Congressman, that is. I heard that he was banged up pretty badly. I still remember him from his campaign two years ago; he was a very formidable figure. A little scary, actually,” Jackie commented, bending her body down over the counter to peer down at Olivia.
“I didn’t handle his case specifically, but from what I’ve gathered he’s doing a lot better. He was roughed up—had a lot of bruising and abrasions, but he is now conscious and he has been able to speak with his family,” Olivia looked up and to the right of Jackie as the glass double doors that separated the waiting room from the back patient area whooshed open.
Dear Lord. In walked one of the GQ models that Jackie had been drooling over. Well, at least Jackie hadn’t been exaggerating. This guy was built like a Greek God. He was at least 6’4.” He had a square jaw and an overgrowth of beard that largely hid his facial features. Given that Navy sailors were usually a clean cut group, his beard likely meant that he was either just coming from or going to a not so American friendly country in the Middle East. His dark blonde hair was tied in the back in a ponytail. The soldier also had heterochromia, with his right eye being blue and his left eye being green.
The mystery man wore standard military fatigues and combat boots. The name CASTLE was emblazoned across the left front of his military-issued, camouflaged jacket.
“Well, aren’t you a tall drink of water,” Jackie said. Olivia stood up by her desk as Jackie stepped in front of her and gave the mystery soldier a lengthy “up and down” look. Apparently, she liked what she saw because she actually winked at him.
God. If Jackie wasn’t embarrassed by her behavior, Olivia was mortified enough for the both of them.
The mystery soldier laughed, showing off two rows of perfectly straight white teeth. “I’ve been called a lot worse, darling,” he replied in a deep southern drawl. His striking eyes shifted from Jackie to Olivia, and then fixated on Olivia. He was standing there, staring at Olivia, his muscular arms folded across his chest.
“Do you speak English?” the soldier asked Olivia as his gaze lingered on her, giving her a lengthy once over.
“Yes, of course I speak English,” Olivia replied.
He quirked up a corner of his mouth and raised an eyebrow. “Indeed you do. With a voice like that, how far below the Mason Dixon Line are you from, doll?”
“May I help you with something?” Olivia asked, ignoring his question. He was flirting with her, but she recognized the game that he was trying to run on her—and she wasn’t interested in playing.
“Yeah, sweetheart, we’d like to get some more information about our friend Jax,” the SEAL erupted into a mischievous grin. It was the type of grin that suggested that he was laughing at some internal joke. A joke that involved Olivia, one that he was too smart to utter aloud.
“My name is Dr. Lewis, thank you. Or Lieutenant if you so prefer. Not sweetheart or doll. Try to remember that.” It really ticked her off when men
did not take her seriously. She had worked extremely hard—four demanding years of medical school—to get that particular prefix in front of her name. “And who exactly is ‘we’?” Olivia continued.
As soon as the question left her lips, the double doors whooshed open again and in walked another incredible male specimen, but this time a familiar one—Joshua Laurent. Joshua was an old friend and happened to be one of her best friend’s ex-boyfriend.
Looking up from his iPhone, Joshua treated Olivia with a broad grin. “Well, if it isn’t none other than the Dr. Olivia Lewis. What the hell are you doing here?”
Returning his smile, Olivia walked directly past the newly intrigued blonde soldier and reached up to give her old friend a big, warm hug.
“Well, if it isn’t none other than the Lieutenant Joshua Laurent. Congrats on your promotion,” Olivia said. Since the two of them had mutual military friends she had heard through the grapevine that Joshua had ranked-up a few months back. “I should have known that you were a part of the mayhem that brought us a wounded warrior and a former U.S. Congressman,” Olivia continued, “Are you doing okay?”
“Thanks, Olivia. Yeah, I’m doing just fine. You know me, master of mayhem. Kicking ass and taking names. It will undoubtedly take more than some nut-job extremist to kill me. How long have you been stationed here?”
“I’ve been here for about a year now. My tour is up in a few months and then I’ll be heading back to the States.”
“Nice. Are you still living in Southern California? Looks like you are a big time surgeon now,” Joshua said, gesturing at her green scrubs.
Olivia laughed off his compliment. “I wouldn’t quite say that. I still have another three years of residency to go. But yeah, I still live in SoCal. I had just moved to Glendale before I was assigned my rotation in Germany.”
“Nice, Olivia. I’m glad to see that you are doing so well. I always knew that you could do it.” Joshua glanced behind her, over her shoulder at the hallway where an orderly was pushing a hospital cot into an empty patient room. Then clearing his throat he asked, “So um, yeah … how’s Vicki doing?”
Vicki was Victoria Sanchez, a Dallas-based local TV news reporter and one of Olivia’s best friends. Vicki also just happened to be Joshua’s ex-girlfriend. The two had dated for a couple of years until their relationship had epically crashed and burned. Vicki had quite literally cut and set fire to a significant portion of Joshua’s wardrobe.
Suffice it to say, the two of them had been like hot embers together. When they were happy with each other the heat between the two had left Olivia envious. Olivia hadn’t been pining for Joshua, but for a love that was that passionate. The downside was that when Joshua and Vicki had been on the outs with each other, their tempers had flared with just as much intensity.
“She was doing well the last time I heard from her. I haven’t had a chance to talk to her in a while though. She’s still working at the Dallas Star Gazette in Texas as a crime reporter. How is Emmani doing? She’s graduated by now, right?”
Emmani was Emmanuelle Laurent, Joshua’s twenty-two-year-old little sister. Olivia had been able to get to know Emmani when Joshua and Vicki were dating. Emmani absolutely adored her big brother, and Josh was super protective of his little sister. Both of the siblings shared their mother’s dark Italian features, “Roman” nose, and piercing brown eyes.
“Oh, okay. That’s good to hear. Emmani is doing great, thanks. She graduated from UT-Austin back in May and just got a job as a nurse.”
“That’s really awesome, Joshua. I know you must be very proud of her,” Olivia said. She had lost track of Emmani since Joshua and Victoria’s breakup. After his parents’ death, Joshua had become the legal guardian of his sister who had been sixteen at the time. Joshua had still been on active duty with the Navy and given his transient lifestyle, it hadn’t been an option to have his sister move into military housing with him.
So, he’d taken a significant portion of the money left from the inheritance that both he and his sister had received to pay the tuition for her to attend The Thacher School. Even with a partial scholarship, Joshua had dropped $20,000 a year on the prestigious boarding school in Southern California. A lot could be said about a man who took care of his family.
“Yeah, I am very proud of her. She’s a tough kid. Anyway, Will and I here just wanted to get some information on our friend, Jack Manners. How’s he been doing since his surgery?”
“He’s holding his own,” Olivia answered. “He’s in serious, but stable condition. He lost a lot of his blood volume. He’s resting right now. We gave him morphine for the pain, so he will be sleeping for a while. His right femur was cracked, but we were able to pin it back together in the operation. You’ll be able to visit him when he wakes up in a few hours. He certainly won’t be running any marathons anytime soon, but with about four to six months of physical therapy he should be able to make a full recovery.”
Glancing over at “Will,” she saw that he was still staring down at her with a wry expression on his face. He had stuffed his hands in the pockets of his military fatigues.
“Great. Thanks a lot, Olivia. Hey, we are all going out later tomorrow evening—to check out the town and blow off some steam before we return to the States. You should join us. It’d give us a chance to catch up,” Joshua said.
Out of the corner of her eye, Olivia saw Will throw Joshua another raised eyebrow that Joshua chose to ignore. “Maybe … I will try, but no promises. I’m not sure what time I’ll get out of here. I’m on a twenty-four hour shift and I never seem to be able to leave on time. Something always has a way of coming up right when I have one foot out the door.”
“Tell you what, when we swing by later to check on Jax we will see if you are able leave,” Joshua said before he looked down at his fatigues, prompted by an incessant beeping noise emanating from one of his side pockets. Joshua reached inside of his pocket, pulling out his cell phone.
“Hey Prince, time for us to roll out. CO wants us back for a briefing by fifteen hundred sharp. See you around Olivia,” Joshua said and turned to walk toward the exit. Will followed Joshua, but before doing so he first gave both Olivia and Jackie a goodbye wink.
“Unbelievable, who does that guy think he is?” Olivia muttered under her breath. It was meant to be a rhetorical question, but Jackie gladly provided an answer for her.
“Every girl’s dream and maybe someone who could loosen you up a bit,” Jackie said, the corners of her lip turning up to form a smirk.
“I am loose. I just don’t appreciate men like him,” Olivia shot back.
“But you just met him, how could you really know that you won’t appreciate him once you get to know him?” Olivia was saved from having to respond by a loud voice that came over the PA system.
“Paging Doctor Lewis. Doctor Lewis needed in operating theater 3.”
****
“So man, are you tapping that ass or what?” Will asked while sliding into the passenger seat of the black, doorless military-issued jeep. Joshua had already claimed the driver’s seat. Even though they were only staying in Germany for a while, the team members had the luxury of checking out jeeps for their stay while on the base.
“Who? Are you talking about Olivia?” Joshua asked while starting up the vehicle. Joshua couldn’t help but to cast a curious, sidelong glance in his friend’s direction.
“Yeah man, the smoking hot woman we were just talking to. The babe that you were all touchy-feely with—Dr. Lewis. What ethnicity is she? She looks pretty exotic.”
“Nah, Olivia’s just a friend man. She is one of my ex’s best friends, but we didn’t stop communicating after Vicki and I called it quits. She’s part white and black. I think her mom is Swedish or Norwegian or something.”
Will looked over at Joshua, his eyebrows raised again. The skepticism was clear on his face. “No shit. Yeah, I wouldn’t stop communicating with her either … babe is prime. Are you trying to get with her or what? How come you n
ever told me about her?”
Joshua laughed as he decelerated the jeep, pressed the clutch, and then pressed the brakes. A few seconds later, he obediently stopped at the four-way intersection between the first main entrances to Ramstein Air Force Base.
“No, Olivia’s not really the type of woman that you ‘get’ with. And she’s more of Vicki’s friend than mine so it never occurred to me to introduce the two of you,” Joshua replied.
“So what do you mean she’s not the type of woman you get with? Is she batting for the other team? I mean I definitely have nothing against that, but that’s such a fucking waste,” Will said with a mournful shake of his head.
“Nah. She’s just focused. She’s a lot tougher than she looks too. She’s incredibly smart and she doesn’t take a lot of shit … from anyone. And don’t let her sweet voice fool you either. She’s a firecracker.”
“Oh, be still my heart,” Will grinned, playfully grasping his chest. Joshua knew that his friend Will had dated women of different ethnic backgrounds. Will was very much a “ladies man,” but Joshua also knew that his friend had his work cut out for himself if he wanted to become involved with Olivia Lewis. “So you don’t mind if I ask her out?”
Joshua laughed. Clearly, Olivia had managed to pique his friend’s interest. “At your own peril man, at your own peril.”
Joshua slowed down the jeep as they pulled up to the entrance gate. After flashing their military IDs to the guards on duty, Joshua rolled the vehicle through the gates. He parked the jeep in the front row of parking spaces. He and Will exited the vehicle and headed inside for their team’s post-op briefing.
Upon entering the spacious, rectangular-shaped conference room, they saw that the rest of their team members were already present. They had gathered around an oval-shaped table and were waiting for the meeting to begin. The conference room was located in a secure, medium-sized building about one and a half miles from the medical facility, but still contained within the Ramstein Air Base complex.
Pushed to the Edge (SEAL Team 14) Page 3