“We had called in that this would be a hot extraction. We were almost fucking there when I saw the flash. The next thing I knew we were flying through the air and slammed into the river. It was dark, water poured in from every direction. My first instinct was to get to the surface. I took a deep breath and started looking around. I helped Taylor to the waiting boatmen and saw them helping Miller and Javier onto a boat. Another boatman had Reed. I dove back into the vehicle to look for Captain Riley and Sergeant Colin.” Stark began to sweat. He could feel the dark water closing in on him.
“I found them both at the same time.” Stark’s voice was low and tense. “Captain Riley was loose in the water but not moving. Sergeant Colin was trapped. He didn’t seem to be conscious. I pulled and pulled on him until my lungs were burning. I knew I had to get Captain Riley to the surface soon … But, if I left Colin …” Stark couldn’t finish. He knew he had let his best friend die in that dark water. This was the one final choice that cost Colin everything.
“I couldn’t get him free. I pulled Captain Riley out of the vehicle and swam to the surface. The boatmen took her and pulled her on the boat. I started back for Colin and they stopped me. I told them he was still down there and two boatmen came with me. It took forever to get him free. I wasn’t going to leave him. I was going to get him out or drown trying. He finally came free and the boatmen helped me pull him toward the boat.” Stark punched the bed. He could still hear them performing CPR trying to bring Colin back. “This was my fault. It should have been me. This is my …” he let out a guttural sob, “fault.”
Stark ran his fingers through his hair. He still couldn’t believe Colin was gone. His best friend was lying in the ground and it was all his fault. “If only I could have gotten him out sooner. I should have pulled harder the first time. He was always there for me when I needed him, and when he needed me, I let him down. I failed him, and he died.” Stark’s hands trembled and tears ran down his face. He didn’t give a fuck who saw him. His brother was gone.
The major stood and came to his side. He put his hand on Stark’s shoulder. “Son, you did everything you could. When did you first realize, your leg was hurt?”
“When I was pulling everyone out of the car my right leg was not cooperating with me, but I didn’t have time to worry about it. In the water, I guess I didn’t really have to bear weight, so I didn’t notice it until we were on the boat. I tried to move over to Colin. I … I just wanted to help him … Grab his hand … something. But my leg didn’t hold me, and I fell. That’s when I heard them yelling about my leg. The last thing I remember was someone yelling for a tourniquet.”
The other officer came back into the room carrying a plastic bin that contained his belongings. Everything was tagged and cataloged. The officer set the bin down on the tray table in front of Stark and the major. The major picked up the item list and began to scan over it, while Stark carefully handled each item. His uniform had been neatly folded. He checked all the pockets. They were empty. He removed his boots, vest and combat gear. Everything else was in small manila envelopes. One by one Stark opened them, examining the contents.
“I don’t see a flash drive on the list,” the major said, disappointment filling his voice.
“Maybe they didn’t get it on the list,” Stark offered, determined to find it.
He was down to the last two envelopes. He opened the first and the tattered tiffany box fell out. Stark pulled away the disintegrating remnants, revealing the black velvet box inside. He opened it, and stared at the beautiful ring.
The major cleared his throat and squeezed Stark’s shoulder again. “Now, I understand why you finally accepted your commission for captain.” The older man cleared his throat again, working hard to stifle his emotion.
“Yes, sir,” Stark said quietly. “This was going to be my last mission as a sergeant. When I got back, I was supposed to start alpha school.” Stark paused, and shook his head. “Guess that’s all shot to shit now. Not that it matters anymore anyway. I don’t deserve to lead men.”
The major dismissed the rest of the crew, including the psychologist from the room. “Listen to me, son. You have a fine record and you have done an outstanding job thus far in your career. Men come back from injuries like this nowadays. The advancements in prosthetics have guys like you back doing all kinds of things, even coming back to special forces. You just have to want it bad enough. You are not a regular soldier. You are part of the warrior class. Warriors never give up. It’s in every fiber of your being. It’s who you are.” The major took a deep breath.
“Having said that, I need to go over the official version of your mission. Your team’s assignment was and is highly classified. The fact that you were there to eliminate Galvez and Guzman cannot be disclosed in any way. Captain Holt believes that your team came in response to his tracker and that is the official story that we are going with. When the compound came under attack, Captain Holt was able to escape and locate Kira. With the help of Javier, he was able to stabilize her condition. Your team came in as an exfil team to get them out. Your vehicle was in fact blown up as you reached the extraction zone. Your involvement with Captain Riley and shooting her are classified and will not be part of the public record. However, you need to stay away from Captain Riley. You cannot discuss this with her or anyone else, except of course Dr. Meadows, who will be your psychiatrist. I’m sorry, son. I know this is a tough pill to swallow, but you are a quiet professional. Your successes will never make the news.”
“I understand,” Stark said quietly. He did understand, but he felt like he had been punched in the gut. Everything they worked for, everything Colin died for, would never be known.
“Off the record, fight to come back. If you are a captain …” the major began.
Before the major could say anything more, Stark opened the last envelope. He reached inside and pulled out Colin’s cheap ass Casio watch. The damn thing was still ticking.
KIRA SAT AT THE study table with four other girls from her anatomy and physiology II lab. Midterms were almost over. She enjoyed school, but she had been studying about six hours a day for the last two weeks, and she was ready for a little break. Between flashcards, the girls were planning an after-midterm pub crawl to let off a little steam. She was excited to hang out with her friends, but hesitant since she had to work the next day.
“All you do is work,” Brandice teased her.
Kira had to. Her scholarships paid for tuition and books, but she still had to eat and live somewhere. Kira knew they thought she was prude, but when she worked twenty hours a week and took twenty-two credit hours a semester, there wasn’t time for anything else.
Just then, the boy she had crushed on all semester walked in and sat opposite her at the study table.
“Hey, hon,” Brandice said sweetly, welcoming him to the group. Brandice batted her big brown eyes at him. She was everything Kira was not. Bubbly, outgoing, drop dead gorgeous …
Kira sighed quietly. She knew that Robert would never even know she existed.
“Hey yourself,” he responded, giving Brandice a smile that melted a girl's panties right off. His sandy blond hair looked windswept. He sat there in his navy Henley and dark jeans like an Abercrombie model, perfectly poised for the college look.
Shit he is so out of my league. Kira thumbed through the pages of her anatomy book.
“We’re planning a pub crawl after midterms. Are you in?” Jamie asked, with the confidence of someone who always gets what they want.
“Of course,” he responded, and turned to Kira “How ’bout you, Kira? Are you coming too?”
Kira looked up shocked. Was he actually speaking to me? Does he really know my name?
“Me? Um, yeah. Yeah, I’m going to go,” Kira stammered. She hated her cheeks for blushing, which just made them all the redder.
“Great. See you then,” he said with a half grin.
The library morphed into a bar. Kira looked around startled for a moment. She saw her frie
nds congregated by the bar and she joined them.
As she approached, Brandice called out, “Where have you been? We are about to do another round of shots. You want one?”
“I better not. I have to work tomorrow. I’m just here to dance and hang with you guys. Besides I’m your DD. If I drink, how are you going to get home?” Kira asked.
“We can call a cab,” Brandice insisted. “Come on, just one.” She stuck out her lower lip, pouting at Kira.
“Fine. Just one,” Kira consented, anticipating the headache she would have to endure at campus safety tomorrow. Kira worked the desk at campus safety/security on nights and weekends. It wasn’t a bad job. She usually just did her homework while waiting for the phone to ring and listening to the eternal Weather Channel. Kira hated the Weather Channel. It played twenty-four hours a day in the office.
“Hooray!” Brandice cheered, and handed Kira the glass.
She stared at the clear fluid. It smelled like burnt grass. Great. This is going to taste awful. Not wanting to seem like a baby, Kira pulled her resolve together and downed the liquid. Holy shit balls! It burned all the way down. She gagged and sputtered.
Brandice and the other girls erupted in a cackle of laughter.
“Have you never drank vodka before?” Brandice inquired, still laughing.
“Not everyone's a lush like you Bran,” a male voice said behind her.
Kira turned to see Robert Bentley.
He looked her up and down and smiled approvingly. “Would you like to dance?” he asked, sweetly.
“Yeah, sure.” Kira did her best to sound casual. On the inside, she was a nervous wreck. She hadn’t dated anyone thus far in college, as she had been too focused on her studies and work to relax. They moved to the dance floor and merged with the crowd. The thump of the music led every step. Kira began to move with the music. She absolutely loved to dance.
Robert moved with her and put his hand on her hip pulling her a little closer. Kira felt it was as if she was floating through time and space. Cool air hit her back as he left her side for a moment.
At first, Kira looked around but didn’t see him through the crowd and went back to dancing. By the end of the next song, Robert returned with drinks in hand. He held one out to Kira.
She stepped back. “I really shouldn't. I have to work in the morning and I am supposed to drive Brandice home.”
“I’ll get a cab and take you girls home, and trust me, this is not like that last one. It was straight alcohol. This is mild and mixed with Coke. You are dancing so hard you need something.” His voice was so caring.
Kira was still nervous about drinking too much, but just one wouldn’t hurt. Could it? She took a sip. It didn’t taste very strong. He is right. I should relax a little and have some fun.
She danced and drank. His hand was back on her hip pulling her close to him. By the time she finished the glass, she could feel herself getting tipsy. She began to swirl to the music.
Suddenly, the whole room was spinning. “Robert, I’m … I don’t feel so good.” She leaned into him.
Robert supported her weight, holding her close. “Getting a little sleepy?” he asked. “Maybe it’s time we get you home. I’m not so sure you are used to the alcohol.”
“B … Bran,” she slurred.
“I'll get Bran. Come on, let's get you home.” He half carried her over to Brandice. “I think she has had a bit much. Are you ready to go? I need to get her back.”
“Already?” Brandice whined. “But we just got here. I still have three more pubs to crawl. Maybe get her some coffee, or a Coke?”
“I don’t think that’s going to help. I need to get her out of here. I’ll take her back to my place and get her a cab in the morning. Do you have a way home?”
Kira could hear them talking but they sounded a million miles away. Somehow her brain understood what they were saying, but she couldn’t respond. She began to drift into a dizzy sleep.
The room spun into darkness. Kira could hear his voice, his laughter. She was no longer in the bar. Panic struck her. Kira knew this room, this floor. She had to get out. Suddenly, she could feel her arms and her legs being restrained and she could hear the laughter getting louder. He was everywhere, and nowhere, and he was all around her.
“Please let me go. I don’t know why you’re doing this! Please let me go!” Kira begged and thrashed. She heard voices, but they didn’t make sense. She recognized them but she didn’t. “Who’s there?” she tried to cry out, but she couldn’t speak or breathe.
The laughter was gone. The boy was gone. At once, a dark-haired man was there, sexy and rugged, with a dark beard and the most intense eyes she had ever seen. She knew him, she was sure of it. He was speaking, but she couldn’t understand what he was saying. He stretched his arm out to her but she couldn’t reach his hand. Just when her fingers touched his, someone stabbed her in the chest. The pain ripped through her body and shot down both arms. Kira screamed, but her mouth was gagged. He was yelling, and more voices filled the room.
Then she was falling weightless, surrounded by the color green, and then blue. She liked blue … Such a soft color, so cool and smooth …
Flashes of light appeared in the darkness. She could hear voices. Some she recognized, but couldn’t place them. Others were strange. They talked about her rather than to her.
“Let’s get you cleaned up, shall we? Captain Holt, you’ll have to step out for a while,” a female voice called.
Captain Holt. She knew the name. At least she recognized it. Flashes of light came and went. She felt drawn to them but each time she got close, pain in her throat and chest resurged and she slipped back into the darkness.
Gradually, her mind became stronger and her thoughts knitted together the sounds around her. Her throat was sore, but the gag and severe pain were gone. She blinked several times, slowly becoming aware of her surroundings. Despite her blurred vision, she could tell that she was in a hospital. She could hear the beeping of the monitor. Fluorescent light filled the room. Her chest hurt and she felt like she was breathing with a thick sponge in her chest. Each breath took effort. Her head felt heavy. She willed it to turn toward the soothing male voice speaking to her, but it would not move. He had come to her over and over in her tortured dreams, yet each time his presence comforted her. His presence pulled her closer to consciousness, out of the dark recesses of her mind toward life. They were connected in a way she would never be able to explain. She longed to see his face.
“Make your way back to me, Kira. I know you can do this.” His voice, his scent, called to her.The aroma of bergamot, pepper, and lavender wrapped her up and took her home. “I will never let you go.”
There was something so familiar about him, like he was a part of her and she of him. Kira struggled to wake up, desperate to let him know she was there. I can hear you. She yelled but no sound escaped her lips. His rough warm hand held hers. The warmth caressed her and pulled her to him. She tried desperately to grip his hand back. Weakly, she curled her fingers around his and fell asleep.
Kira awoke to the clatter of a nurse banging into her bedside table. She turned wide eyed and stared at the woman in blue scrubs.
“Good morning!” the overly joyful woman sang out. Her voice, like her movements, were loud and coarse. “Nice of you to wake and join us.”
Kira just stared at her. Where the hell am I, and who is this woman? This was definitely a hospital, but this wasn’t her hospital. She had never seen this nurse before. She tried to remember how she got here. Her memories seemed like a jumbled soup. She couldn’t make sense of it. She knew she worked in a hospital, but for the life of her she couldn’t remember which one.
She opened her mouth and tried to talk. Her soft palate and buccal mucosa were as dry as the Sahara and burned in need of something to drink. “I … I …” a hoarse whisper was all she could manage. Razor blades lined her esophagus and larynx.
I know what buccal mucosa and larynx mean. How do I know that?
“Don’t try to talk too much yet, honey. They just pulled your tube two days ago.”
“Water,” Kira squeaked out painfully. Tube? What tube? That sounds bad.
“That, I can do.” The woman walked out and promptly returned with a mauve plastic pitcher and small Styrofoam cup. The sound of the water and ice pouring into the cup intensified the torture of her parched throat.
“My name is Cameron. I’m your nurse today,” she said, placing a straw in the glacial water and guiding it to Kira’s lips. “There you go. Drink slowly. It will be a little uncomfortable at first.”
Kira could care less about the pain of swallowing. The cold water felt amazing. She sipped slowly at first, then tried to gulp through the straw and choked.
“Slow down, Captain,” Cameron instructed with a little giggle. “If you aspirate, they might put a tube back in your throat.”
She said it so jovially, Kira couldn’t tell if she was joking or not. Cameron was pleasant and so far, kind. Her dark hair was swept up into a bun, but little sprigs seemed to want to escape at every angle. She wore dark blue scrubs and brown glasses. Kira studied her as she moved busily around the room.
“I’m going to get you all cleaned up. You’re going to have a lot of visitors today. Everyone is going to be so excited that you are awake,” Cameron sputtered as she gathered a basin and towels.
Visitors? Kira wondered who would be coming to see her. She searched her mind for people she knew, but she couldn’t place anyone. What the hell is going on? Kira’s heart began to race. Where the hell am I? What happened to me?
“What happened?” she squeak whispered. “Where am I? What the hell is going on?”
Cameron stopped in her tracks and laid the supplies on the bedside table. She stepped closer to Kira. “Captain Riley, you are in Walter Reed Hospital. You were shot in the chest, and may have had a head injury in a car crash. They flew you here and did surgery. You were intubated and sedated for a few weeks until your lungs healed enough to support you on their own. I’m so happy to see you awake. Captain Holt is going to be very surprised.” She gave a little nervous giggle at the mention of his name.
Stark Resolution (Stark Trilogy Book 3) Page 9