by Dale Mayer
“You need to stabilize him.”
“We need a hospital,” she said. “If I was at home, I could do this but not right now.”
“You can,” Levi said, his voice sure, calm.
She looked at him, panic in her eyes. “It’s Rhodes, Levi.”
He nodded, reached out a hand, held her shoulder firm and said, “That’s why you’ll do it. Because it is Rhodes. He would understand.”
Swearing, she grabbed as much gauze as she could. Clamps in hand, she cleaned up what she could of the blood pooling everywhere to stem the flow until she found the damaged artery. “Be easier if I had a straw to hold it in place so we could keep this artery open.”
Levi held out a piece of plastic tubing, and Ice smiled. She gently slid it inside the delicate tissue on both open ends and clamped it down. The tube filled with blood that recirculated through his system. With that wound eased, she set about looking for more injuries. She found damaged muscle, but it looked like it was soft tissue only. No bone. The bowel had escaped being nicked, and, when she had as much cleaned up as she could, she nodded. She kept the wound open but covered with sterile gauze and turned to Bullard. “Get me home to my clinic.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said with a grin. “Nice to see you too.”
She laughed a real laugh, and Levi knew Rhodes now had a chance.
Chapter 8
The relief of helping Rhodes and maybe, just maybe, giving him a chance to survive overwhelmed her. She called up to Bullard. “Damn good timing on your part. I didn’t think you would make it.”
“I was hoping to meet with you for the main op, but you’d already left, so I stayed with Stone to keep an eye on the compound until I could see where I was needed.”
“Did you come alone, outside of Ryland?”
He snorted at that. “Hell, no. I came loaded for bear. I’ve got seven men with me, counting Ryland. The others are at your compound, watching.”
“Watching what?” Levi asked.
“You’ve got a band of infiltrators coming in.”
Ice sucked in her breath and stared at Levi in horror.
“That’s all right,” Bullard said. “We got it. Also the military stepped in, once they realized what was happening. So I think a double meet is set up. Didn’t Stone fill you in?”
Instantly Stone’s voice came over the comm. He coughed a couple times and said, “Um, I just might have forgotten a few details.”
“God damn it, Stone,” Levi swore at him.
“You needed to keep your focus, and we needed you to keep Rhodes alive. Filling your head with the rest of this shit wouldn’t help,” Stone said, his voice cool and also in control. “The reason I run the command center is because I filter who needs to know what at what time.”
There wasn’t anything they could say to that. Rhodes was just as much a best friend to Stone as he was to Levi and Ice.
“Are we safe to land at home?” Ice asked.
“Yes,” Stone said. “But I don’t know that you’ll have enough fuel to make it all the way back.”
“I loaded up the tanks before leaving,” Bullard said.
“I didn’t see you do that,” Stone said. “Good for you.”
“We’ll still have to stop and refuel,” Bullard added.
“No, you won’t,” Ice said, trying to clean the blood off her hands, but it wouldn’t come off. “Where did you stick them?”
“On the back, right beside the tank.”
She nodded and stood. She put on a harness, hooked herself onto the bird, and, with the door open and Levi guiding her, she pulled herself to the fuel tanks, hooked up the extra one and started refueling.
Bullard crowed from inside. “God damn it, that’s Ice.”
Outside, she was grateful for doing one of the mundane jobs in her world. She’d set up a system like this a long time ago, after she’d landed in a jungle without any possibility of getting fuel, and she swore she would never run out again. She always kept extra tanks close by. Levi had helped her build a platform to keep them loaded on the helos themselves. The fact that Bullard had thought to check the fuel was huge, but then he lived the way she did. It was good for them, but it was also getting old real quick. She tried not to think about all the people back at the compound. It would be a nightmare to land this thing. If they were heading into a full-on war, it would be even worse.
With the tank refilled, she stepped inside, while still connected, and asked, “How’s your gauge now?”
“We’re just over half.”
“That’s fine,” she said. “We have the other tank if we need it.”
“Good enough,” he said. “We should make it from here.”
She just laughed, unhooked herself and said, “With any luck.” She came inside, sat down and settled in for the rest of the flight.
*
Levi wrapped an arm around her and whispered, “He’ll pull through.”
She stared down at her bloody hands, now completely dried, and whispered, “So many things can go wrong.”
“We’ve been there, all of us.”
She smiled and said, “I know.”
She closed her eyes, and he held her close. She crashed, her head on his shoulder, taking the moment to power down. The adrenaline rush was huge, but, when it wore off, it was done. He remembered her fighting for the fuel tanks platform to be attached to her helicopters. It was extra weight he didn’t want to have to carry because it made the trips more expensive, but she had been beyond insistent about it. And he could see why now. Her forethought had saved their bacon yet again.
When they finally reached the compound, they met a drone, already in the air, looking for signs of anyone. Stone’s voice crackled, “All clear.”
Bullard landed the helicopter on the landing pad, and a gurney came flying toward them, the team right behind it. Ice supervised Rhodes’s removal and said, “Get him down to my surgery room.”
“Oh, he’ll be in your surgery room,” a familiar voice said, “but you’re not handling it. I am.”
She looked over in surprise.
Levi started to grin. “Well, well, well, look who’s here.”
Ice’s father, a medical doctor in his own right and a hell of a surgeon, stood with his hands on his hips as he glared at his daughter. “What kind of shit have you gotten yourself into now?”
She raised both hands in frustration. “Shit that I’ve been trying to get out of,” she snapped. The two of them raced to the surgery room with Levi right behind them.
They ordered him out, but he refused. “I’ll stand at the doorway, but I’m not leaving. Rhodes is my buddy too.”
Ice’s father turned to her and said, “Wash up.”
She scrubbed down. They had two of the other wives on standby. One was Alina, a nurse, and Sienna, Rhodes’s partner, was beside Levi. As much as she wanted to help, it wasn’t a good idea.
Within seconds they had Rhodes stripped down and covered in a sheet, while her father gently worked on the open wound. They washed out the wound, and he carefully removed the piece of plastic they’d shoved inside the vein and stitched it up again. He set up an IV, looked at her and said, “Have you got blood?”
She nodded, walked over to her cooler and said, “Rhodes is O negative,” and brought it to her father.
“Do you keep everybody’s blood on hand?”
“Wouldn’t you?” she asked, giving her father a flat stare.
Levi smirked. If there was one thing Ice would never admit to being, it was a mother hen, but there was nobody under her command she didn’t look after.
Her father nodded, and they hooked up the IV line to help replace the blood Rhodes had lost. “He’ll need quite a few more units,” he said.
“I’ve got more, and I have six team members with the same blood type.”
“Then keep them healthy,” her father ordered. “This could get ugly.”
“He’s strong. He’ll pull through,” she said, smiling.
&nbs
p; Levi chuckled. “Pretty sure I’m the one who told you that not very long ago,” he said.
She smiled, looked down at Rhodes and said, “He’d damn well better come back, or I’ll have to cross over and haul him back.”
Sienna chuckled, relief in her tone, a visible easing of the tension in her shoulders. “If ever he had a reason to come back, believe me, that would do it. I know you did everything you could.”
“He’s coming back,” Ice said. “His pulse is strong. His blood pressure is low, but we’ll get that back up again. I just want to make sure no other bleeding is in there.”
Her father was still rooting around inside the open wound, but he nodded and said, “It looks clean.” He slowly started to stitch up Rhodes.
With that done and a fresh dressing on top, pain meds were administered, and Rhodes was covered in a clean sheet. The floor was mopped up, and then both Ice and her father washed up.
When she was finally done, with Levi standing beside her, she turned to her father and said, “I love you dearly, and your timing is perfect, but why are you here?”
Her father looked at her, his eyebrows raising.
She looked at Levi and said, “Wow, this is an interesting scenario.” She glared between the two of them. “Have you got any idea?”
Levi shook his head. “No. Why?”
Her father started to laugh. “I’m not sure I should tell you,” he said.
“Yes,” she said, her temper prickling. She was too tired for games. “You should.”
He smirked. “For your wedding.”
Chapter 9
Ice was back in the office. Hiding. … She should have gone to her bedroom, but she was afraid of getting caught by Levi. Instead she was at the office, trying to sort out where they were in this war on her compound. She understood they were still in danger, and a group of men still gathered outside. She called down to Stone. “Update.”
“We’re under watch,” he said. “Appears to be two men to the east and two men to the west.”
“Have they moved from their position?”
“No,” he said. “What’s with the temper?”
“Don’t ask.”
“Not me,” Stone said. “I’m always mild and moderate.”
She laughed at that. “I suggest we have a talk with our visitors.”
“What do you have in mind?”
“A lot of men are inside now,” Ice said. “I highly doubt only those four are outside. But we need to have a talk with them and see if they’re planning on taking information back or attacking. Right now, I’m more than ready to kick somebody’s butt.”
“You could try sleeping,” Stone said. “I get that Rhodes is hurt, and I get that you feel responsible, but I highly doubt it had anything to do with you or that you could do anything more about it.”
“I don’t know,” she said. “He’s in my sickbay right now. He’s likely to pull through, although we might need more blood …” Her voice dropped off as she reached up to rub her temple.
“You know we’re always ready for that,” Stone said. “You need to take a couple chill pills and relax for a bit.”
“Our compound is under siege,” she snapped, her anger once again rising.
“And it’s under control,” he said. “We’re all inside. We’re all safe, and now it’s time to do something about the men who have us under watch.”
“Why are they watching us?” she asked. “That’s what I want to know.”
“I think that’s what we all want to know. I was expecting an attack before now. The fact that it hasn’t come makes me wonder if they’re waiting for more people.”
“Which isn’t good,” she said. “Maybe they didn’t get the message that their own compound is gone.”
“Gone?”
“Their boss who signs their paychecks is dead. Levi took him out.”
“Won’t matter,” Stone said. “You know that, as soon as one leader is gone, ten more are fighting for his position.”
“In this case, I think a bunch of the top guys are gone. Not my problem as long as they leave us alone.”
“And maybe that’s what these guys are doing. They’re just keeping an eye on you to see what you’re up to.”
“Then,” she said, liking the idea more and more, “I think I’ll go have a talk with them.”
“Whoa, no,” Stone said in alarm. “You’re not going out there.”
“Watch me,” she said. She slammed down her comm. She was spoiling for a fight, and she knew it. It all had to do with her father’s words. The last thing she wanted was to have a surprise like that sprung on her. She and Levi had been fighting about the wedding date as it was. This was just enough to send her around the bend. She glared at the phone and realized the other two women in the office were staring at her.
She glared at them too.
They crossed their arms and raised their eyebrows.
“Why won’t you guys let me intimidate you at least a little bit?” she complained in frustration but felt her temper easing at the same time.
“Because we care about you,” Sienna said. “We’re all in this together.”
“Which is why we need to find out what the hell these guys are after.”
“More to the point,” Sienna said, “you need to figure out what the hell you’re after.”
“I don’t have to figure anything out,” Ice said.
“You can’t blame Levi for it.”
That stopped her in her tracks. She spun around, having almost reached the doorway, to look back at the women. “If he’s not responsible for my father appearing for our supposed wedding, who is?”
The two women looked at each other, shrugged and said, “Basically all of us.”
“What do you mean?”
Sienna explained. “We all arranged it. Because all you two do is fight about it. You might as well just get married, then you can fight as a married couple but without that big bone of contention in your relationship. So we thought we’d spring a surprise on you by bringing in your father and a minister—who’s arriving tomorrow, by the way.”
Ice stopped and sagged against the closest desk. “Why would you do that?” she cried out in bewilderment.
“Because you would never get there on your own,” Sienna said gently. “And it’s important to you. This is the one thing you’ve always wanted, outside of a child.”
Ice hated it, but her hand instinctively went to her belly. “It doesn’t matter,” she said. “I’ve just come back from watching Rhodes take a bullet. Merk and Levi both got burned by bullets too. My father is looking at them right now.”
She blew the loose tendrils of hair from her face and stared up at the ceiling. “I don’t understand why you guys would think that was okay.”
“Is okay, not was okay,” Sienna said, her tone firm and confident. “Because we love you. We love both you and Levi, and we know this is an issue. So we wanted to arrange the wedding for you.”
“And what if I wanted to arrange it myself?” Ice asked darkly.
At that, Sienna laughed uproariously. “You don’t want to arrange your wedding,” she said, grinning. “You’d like to have it all done, so you didn’t have to worry about it. You want it perfect, but you’ll never make it perfect because you have no idea how to do any of this, and that was bothering you.”
Ice’s jaw slowly dropped as she stared at Sienna. “Well, how did you know that was bothering me?” she demanded. “I mean, I don’t do that stuff normally …” She waved her hand, encompassing the entire office, as if that would explain anything.
Sienna still grinned at her. “I know,” she said. “You wouldn’t know how to do flowers for a corsage or anything. You did a great job helping out the women in Badger’s group, but they made all the decisions, and I know Bailey thought it was an over-the-top job. But it was absolutely phenomenal, and you were worried you couldn’t do something half as nice for your own wedding because it’s not your thing.”
Ice cr
ossed her arms over her chest as she stared at her friend who was also an employee. “How many are involved?”
Bailey stood, smiled and said, “All of us.”
Ice shook her head. “Everybody knows?”
“Yes,” Sienna said. “The only ones who didn’t were you and Levi.”
Her mind glommed onto that. “So Levi wasn’t part of this?”
“No.” The two women shook their heads.
She sighed gently. “I guess maybe that’s one saving grace.”
“I’m not sure why that would make it better in your mind,” Sienna said, “because honestly that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me. But I can see that it bothers you to think he would do this behind your back. Where, instead of doing it behind your back, he would also be trying to do it to make you happy.”
Ice nodded. “And I get that,” she said. “I really do. It’s just a little daunting to think that everybody else was arranging all this without me.”
“It’s not a case of without you,” Sienna said. “It’s more because of you.”
Her shoulders sagged at that. “I don’t even know what to think anymore,” she said.
“Which is why you’re focusing on the men outside,” Sienna said. “We get that we need to know why they’re doing what they’re doing, but, at the same time, you’re focusing on that so you don’t have to deal with this. And what we’re trying to say is, You’re right. You don’t have to deal with your wedding. We’ve got it handled. Now, go deal with these guys and keep yourself calm because this is happening whether you like it or not.”
At that, Ice jumped to her feet again and glared at Sienna.
Sienna waved her off. “Go take your temper out on somebody who wants to get his ass kicked. I have no intention of being part of it.”
Ice stormed from the office, wondering how the hell she’d ended up with people so confident in what they did that they could basically tell their boss to take a hike.
Of course it had something to do with the women themselves. They were strong women to go with strong men. It was certainly eye-opening to watch how well they had made their own arrangements without her. She didn’t even know what the arrangements were.