Heroes in Uniform: Soldiers, SEALs, Spies, Rangers and Cops: Sexy Hot Contemporary Alpha Heroes From NY Times and USA Today Bestselling Authors

by Sharon Hamilton

  “What’s going on?” Thompson rasped.

  “Passage leads into a cave in the mountain,” Sandberg answered. “Got a light?” he asked Erin.

  She fished a slim flashlight out of her ruck and switched it on. The tunnel they stood in was narrow and small enough that even she would have to crouch to get through it. Staring ahead into the blackness beyond the beam of light, a sickening sense of dread filled her. The walls seemed to squeeze closer together even more, making the old panic rise up. She swallowed and forced herself to take a slow inhalation as she fought the old fear.

  “I can’t carry Thompson through here. You’ll have to take point,” Sandberg said to her in a low voice.

  She nodded, doing everything she could to mask the terror trying to wind its tendrils up her spine. Keeping the light steady, she carefully picked her way down the tunnel. Don’t think about it, don’t think about it, she repeated to herself. “How far?”

  “Until we get to the cave on the other end. Few hundred feet or so.”

  Great, she thought sourly. She pushed away the panicky sensation in her chest and kept going, reminding herself that she wasn’t trapped in here. Yet. “You trust that guy?” she made herself ask.

  “No reason not to. They’ll keep us hidden and come for us once the soldiers leave the area.”

  No reason not to? “How do you know?”

  “Pashtun tribal code. It’s an honor thing.”

  “You believe him enough to risk our lives, waiting in here?” Being trapped in this tunnel with only two possible exits, in what could be a hostile village.

  “Yes.”

  His immediate response surprised her. Since she didn’t have a choice but to go forward now, she made herself walk on. The air in here was chilly, the stygian darkness ahead making her heart pound. Knowing Sandberg’s and Thompson’s big frames blocked the exit behind her intensified the fear. She was all too aware of the seconds ticking past, of the rock squeezing in from all sides, making her throat tighten more and more. Only she must not have masked her fear very well, because Sandberg’s low voice broke the silence.

  “You okay?”

  Not even close. “Yeah.” There was no help for it; she’d have to keep going until they reached the cave.

  It seemed to take forever for her to inch her way through the rock tunnel, her heart pounding a painful rhythm against her ribs with every step, but finally she noticed a lightening up ahead. She picked her way over the uneven ground and the crushing fear began to recede as the tunnel finally widened a bit. The light ahead grew stronger and stronger until she was able to see well enough to turn off her flashlight. At last the tunnel took a slight turn. Their footsteps began to echo slightly, alerting her that a larger chamber lay ahead.

  “Stop here,” Sandberg whispered.

  Without feeling like she was entombed in a rock sarcophagus, Erin was at last able to draw a full breath as she hunkered down and pulled off her ruck. “You hanging in there, Thompson?” she whispered.

  “Trying to,” he answered, his voice strained.

  Sandberg shifted behind her and lowered the other man to the ground. “Aim your flashlight on him and let’s check the wound.”

  She did, liking that he wasn’t pulling alpha male bullshit and actually treating her like an equal in the process. In the beam of light, Thompson’s bandages were soaked through with blood. Sandberg peeled the tape away from the edges to pull it back. The clotting agent was still doing its job, because the wound was only bleeding sluggishly despite all the stress just placed on it. Thompson was shivering as she added more Quick Clot gauze and re-bandaged the wound.

  Once she was done she switched off the light, reassured by the faint natural light seeping in from ahead. “Now what?” she whispered to Sandberg.

  “We wait for them to come get us.”

  Though she understood the basic tribal code and the sense of honor that ran deep among these people, she still thought it was a huge mistake to trust them with their lives. Honor was one thing, but she’d been over here long enough to know that allegiances here shifted as quickly as the weather. But if they left the cave now, they’d be exposed to the men now combing the hills for them. In the expanding silence she was aware of the thud of her pulse in her ears. “What happened at that checkpoint?”

  He shifted but didn’t answer.

  “It was you they were after, wasn’t it?” It was the only thing that made sense.

  He grunted.

  “Why?” she pressed, growing frustrated. After what they’d been through, she and Thompson deserved to know the truth.

  A deep sigh filled the space. “Long story.”

  “Yeah, well, you’ve now got a captive audience with the two of us here. So what the hell’s going on?”

  He hesitated a long moment before answering. “Has to do with a job I was recently on.”

  She could just imagine what sort of “job” he referred to. “And?”

  Another grunt and the sound of material shifting, as if he’d just shrugged. She opened her mouth to say something else but the distant sound of voices made her whirl to face the cave entrance. She could feel the tension radiating off Sandberg as he squeezed past her. Crouching in front of her, he reached back and put a hand on her shoulder, whether to reassure her or order her to stay put, she couldn’t tell. Instinctively she backed up toward Thompson and withdrew her weapon from its holster.

  Sandberg’s wide shoulders all but blocked the trickle of light coming down the tunnel. The male voices grew louder, then came the sound of footsteps in the cave. Voices echoed off its walls, carrying to them. Erin couldn’t understand what was being said, but the angry tones told her all she needed to know. Someone from the enemy security force was there, arguing with at least one of the villagers.

  Her fingers tightened around the grip of the pistol as she waited, barely daring to breathe. Sandberg was still-as-stone in front of her. One man snarled a string of what sounded like curses at someone else, then the crash of what sounded like crates or boxes filled the air. Tension rolled off Sandberg at whatever they said, pulsing from him in tangible waves. Erin swallowed, fought to calm her racing heart as she strained to hear if anything was happening behind them in the tunnel. Were they being cut off? Surrounded?

  The arguing continued for long minutes as the soldiers searched the cave. Then, finally, one man gave a terse command and everything got quiet. Real quiet.

  Sandberg stayed poised ahead of her. After an unknown amount of time passed he began inching his way toward the cave opening. She stayed where she was, ready to grab Thompson and start dragging him back the way they’d come, or rush out shooting to defend Sandberg. He paused just out of view and remained there for a few minutes. Not long after that, a man called out softly. She was shocked to hear Sandberg answer him a moment later. Why had he just given away their position?

  Shuffling footsteps came closer, and she relaxed when she recognized his big silhouette blocking the opening. “Come on,” he said softly, reaching out a hand to her.

  She hesitated for a heartbeat, then took it and allowed him to help her to her feet. His warm, sure grip helped calm her racing pulse. “What’s going on?”

  “They’re gone. Looking for us up the mountain. But they won’t be here long—backup’s already on its way up. Should be here within a half hour, the elder said, judging by their progress up the hill. We’ll wait just at the cave entrance for them. Can’t bring a helo in here without giving away our position and there’s no good place for one to set down, so we’ll likely have to hump it out to an extraction point for them to pull us out.”

  Erin eyed him. She might not trust Sandberg fully, but he’d gotten them to safety and had put himself in front of her to protect her and Thompson. She’d follow his lead for this part of it too. “Well,” she said into the darkness after a long silence. “Guess this means we’ve missed our flight.”

  Something close to a chuckle answered her, but it sounded rusty, as if it had be
en so long since he’d done it that he’d forgotten how. There were so many things she was curious about with him. Just what the hell had he been doing on this last “job” of his? She settled back against the rock wall, resigned to spending at least one more night at Bagram.

  The man was still hiding something big from her, something that had almost gotten them killed. Once she got back to Bagram, she intended to find out exactly what had precipitated all this.

  Danger Close: Chapter Five

  Erin trudged back to her B-hut in the early morning sunlight a few hours later, still trying to come to terms with everything that had happened in the last twenty-four hours. After staying in that cave all night and hiking nearly four kilometers to the extraction site with the rescue team, then the debriefing she’d just come from, she was exhausted. And since she wasn’t going anywhere until at least tomorrow morning, she was looking forward to some serious rack time.

  Opening the door of the hut, Erin stepped inside to find Ace standing next to her bunk, in the process of stripping off her flight suit. “Hey.”

  Ace paused in the act of pulling down the zipper and blinked at her in surprise. “Hey. What are you doing back here?”

  “Short version of that story is that I had quite a little adventure yesterday on the way to Kabul that I can’t talk about. Except I can tell you that I got to spend some quality time with Cam earlier this morning.” Cam Munro was a Pararescueman, and engaged to Devon, a former roomie of theirs. He and the CSAR team had dropped in by parachute before hiking in to the rescue site to lead them to the extraction point. She’d never been so glad to see a familiar face when he’d shown up in the cave just before dawn.

  Ace’s dark eyes widened as she scanned her from head to boots. “Holy shit. Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine. Just tired and shaken up.” And pissed that no one would tell her anything about the incident. There was no way those guards would’ve just randomly targeted them. She knew this whole thing had something to do with Sandberg’s “job” he’d mentioned, but he hadn’t told her anything more. When she’d stopped to see Thompson at the hospital after he’d been stitched up—no surgery required other than a good debridement, thankfully—he’d told her he hadn’t heard anything either. He was bad enough that they were sending him home though, and he was slated to be on a transport bound for the States in a few hours. Ironically, it now looked like he’d arrive home before she did.

  Ace eyed her in concern, taking in the fresh scrapes and cuts on her forearms. “You sure you’re all right?”

  “Yeah, just tired.” The only sleep she’d gotten was brief combat naps in that tunnel, until she’d at last succumbed and fallen fast asleep sometime before dawn. She’d woken to find her head resting on Sandberg’s muscled shoulder rather than the rock wall when he’d shaken her slightly to alert her that the rescue force had arrived. Though she couldn’t be sure, she suspected he must have settled her against him at some point during the night. And even though he was a virtual stranger who’d inadvertently put them in grave danger, she couldn’t deny the magnetic pull she felt toward him. Waking up against his powerful frame had made her feel oddly safe and protected.

  Ace sank onto her bunk, frowning. “Will you still get to take your leave?”

  “God, I hope so. You just get in?”

  “Yeah. Had a good night. Took out two targets.”

  “Perfect. We can crash together.” And after everything that had happened, she’d feel better knowing Ace was close beside her while she slept. Erin dumped her ruck at the foot of her bunk, unlaced her boots and pulled back the fresh sheets she’d put on before leaving yesterday. Ace hit the lights and within minutes of crawling between the sheets, Erin was asleep.

  A brisk knock on the door woke her sometime later. Still groggy, she lifted her head from the pillow and looked behind her at the other bunks. Ace was already up and gone, and she was alone. What time was it?

  Another knock. “Lieutenant Kelly?”

  She sat up, rubbing her aching eyes. “Yes?”

  “I’ve been asked to escort you to a debriefing, ma’am.”

  Oh, God, another one? “All right. Hold on a minute.” She got herself together, put her boots on, grabbed a bottle of water and opened the door to find a young sergeant standing there. “Where’s the debriefing?”

  “I’ll show you.”

  Well, duh. Who wanted to see her this time? Already cranky due to lack of sleep and being deprived of what had really happened at that checkpoint yesterday, she fell in step with him and chugged half the water during the walk across base. He escorted her into a secure building and down a long linoleum-lined hallway to the door second from the end. When someone responded to her knock, she opened the door to find two forty-ish men dressed in khakis and button-down shirts seated behind a wide metal desk.

  “Lieutenant Kelly, come in,” the dark-haired man said.

  She crossed to the chair he indicated opposite the desk. The man stood and reached out a hand. “I’m Agent Bertrand, and this is Agent Filiponi,” he said, indicating the blond, balding man beside him.

  “Are you with the FBI?” she asked as she shook hands.

  “No.” Bertrand sat and when it was clear he wasn’t going to expand on that, Erin sat. She opened her mouth to ask something else, but the door suddenly opened. She glanced up to see Sandberg stride in and her belly did an annoying little flip. He was just so rugged and masculine, radiating all that quiet, controlled power. Coupled with that dark scruff on his face and those intense dark eyes, he was one hell of a distraction.

  His irritated expression flared with a hint of surprise when he saw her, but he quickly turned his attention to the two men behind the desk as he sat in the chair beside hers. “Was it necessary to bring her here for this?” he asked, sounding annoyed.

  Erin blinked, taken aback by the sharpness of his tone. Why didn’t he want her here?

  “Yes,” Bertrand answered. He looked at her. “I’m sure you know by now what a shit storm this incident has caused with the Afghan government. They’re refusing to admit that it could have been a planned attack, or that insurgents could have infiltrated the military and police personnel stationed at the checkpoint. And because of the firefight and the wounded they incurred as a result, they’re not being cooperative with the investigation. But,” he continued, and something in the way he paused sent a shiver of foreboding up Erin’s spine, “we do know a few things.”

  “Like?” Sandberg prompted, sounding aggravated. Erin didn’t blame him. As far as she knew he’d been awake the entire time they’d been in that cave and she knew without a doubt he’d been called to far more debriefings than she had since arriving back at Bagram. He had to be exhausted, especially after keeping watch all night.

  “Like Lieutenant Kelly’s passport and other ID has gone missing from the checkpoint, as has yours and Sergeant Thompson’s.”

  “Is that it?” Sandberg asked in a clipped tone.

  “No,” the balding one, Filiponi, responded. “Recent chatter indicates that whoever took your ID at that checkpoint was working for Rahim.” His pale blue gaze shifted to her. “Do you know the name?”

  “I recognize it. Don’t know much about him, though.” Except that he was rumored to be a Taliban leader who operated in the mountains to the east, and that he was considered highly dangerous to U.S. forces in the region. She cast a questioning glance at Sandberg, but he was still staring at the two agents. Did his mysterious “job” have something to do with the terrorist leader?

  Filiponi continued. “Your information has been passed up the chain of command, so it’s likely already reached Rahim. Based on the chatter we intercepted this morning, he knows you and Agent Sandberg—”

  Erin’s eyes shot to the man next to her, and narrowed. Agent Sandberg. That shiver of foreboding was more like a full-fledged earthquake now.

  “—were seen together at the hospital in Kandahar, and that you left Bagram together, arriving at the checkpoint a
few hours later. And after the firefight Agent Sandberg told the village elder you were husband and wife—”

  She stifled a gasp and threw an accusatory glance at Sandberg. He had his arms folded, that hard jaw clenched as he stared at Filiponi. The man could’ve been carved from granite from all the expression his face revealed.

  “—so it’s likely that’s reached Rahim too,” Filiponi finished.

  Erin shot another glare at Sandberg, not that it did any good, since he wasn’t looking at her. What the hell have you done? She understood that he’d told the elder that to protect her, but it had backfired big time. Instead of shielding her, apparently that lie had now embroiled her in the bigger picture unfolding around her. An incredibly dangerous one that had her stomach in knots.

  “In short,” Agent Bertrand said to her, leaning forward to lace his fingers together atop the desk, “you’ve been linked to Agent Sandberg three different times at three separate locations. By now Rahim will no doubt suspect you’re working together.”

  She swung her gaze back to him, her hands tightening on the arms of the uncomfortable plastic chair.

  “In short, Lieutenant, until we can prove otherwise, it’s likely you’re now a target of Rahim’s network as well.”

  Erin absorbed the words in silence as they crashed through her with the force of a sledgehammer. Holy. Shit. For a moment she couldn’t speak, could do nothing but stare.

  “Do you understand what I’m saying, Lieutenant?” Bertrand asked.

  She nodded, forced herself to swallow past the sudden restriction in her throat. Maybe she didn’t know what Sandberg’s history or involvement with Rahim’s network was, but she understood just how deadly the possible threat against her was.

  “Are you all right?” the agent asked her, frowning.

  Sandberg snorted. “What the hell do you think?” he snapped, glaring at the two other men. “Is that seriously it? That’s the best evidence you’ve got to bring her in here and tell her this shit?”

  “It’s protocol,” Bertrand answered evenly.