Her stomach growled and she realized she was starving! Getting out of her raincoat, she hung it on a rocky outcropping and pulled off her gloves, all soaked and muddy. She placed each of them on a rock near her wet jacket. The idea of getting fed was very appealing to her.
She never heard Beau reenter the cave until he knelt down next to her at the pool. The light was increasing, and she saw the gleam of sweat across his face, seeing more clearly the toll their run was taking on him. “Is everything okay?”
“Yes,” he murmured, washing his hands in the water. “It feels nice to get clean,” he said, giving her a warm look. “How are you doing? I need a report from you.”
She tried for a light smile. “Till today, I’ve never had my knees feel like they were going to crack and shatter on me.”
“That comes from the rough country we’re traversing. It’s hard on all the body’s joints, but especially our knees,” he said. “How about that left calf?”
“It’s still tender,” she admitted, soaping the cloth, eager to wash her face and neck. “But it’s not cramping, thank God.”
He smiled a little. “Yeah, makes you a little gun-shy once a charley horse bites you.”
For the next five minutes, they didn’t speak. Once Callie cleaned off her face, neck, and hands, she handed the soap and washcloth to Beau. It felt wonderful to have a dry towel to pat off her face and neck.
Callie swore she would never take for granted the small, everyday pleasures in her life. Beau was on his knees, resting on the heels of his boots, and she could see the fatigue in his bloodshot eyes.
“If I wasn’t with you, where would you be by now?” she surprised him by asking.
Beau smiled a little and hung the damp towel over a rock. He knew where that question was going. “We’re making good time, Callie. In fact, by my estimate, we covered about ten miles. We’ve already turned on the south leg of our journey and we’re roughly twenty-five miles from Bagram. Add on that seven miles we had to walk to the river first, and you’ve covered seventeen miles.”
He saw her eyes widen with a pleased sense of shock. As weary as he was, his lower body stirred because she was so damned beautiful to him. “So see?” he teased. “We’re doing fine.”
“That’s such good news,” she whispered, then felt her eyes filling with tears. “I didn’t realize how far we’d come.”
“We’re making progress, gal.” Beau sensed her guilt over being slow and saw it clearly in her eyes. He’d gone through all the scenarios Callie was probably beating herself up over. She’d been out to this particular village four times a year, and she’d talked her big sister, who hadn’t wanted to go outside the wire, into going with her to the village. Now she was guilt-ridden for placing Dara in this kind of danger. And even Beau didn’t know what was happening with Matt and Dara. He wished he did, because then he could try to alleviate the terror he saw banked deep in Callie’s eyes. He knew the doctor had no training or knowledge of this kind of situation, but she was with Matt and couldn’t have been in better hands.
Callie, at least, was in decent shape, thanks to her belly dancing and gym routine. She was more physically fit than most other civilians, including her older sister. Beau was glad he had Callie with him, because she was a stubborn fighter who didn’t give up. He was grateful for her strong Montana ranch upbringing, and he hoped Dara would dig deep and find that same strength. Otherwise, she and Matt were in a shitload of trouble up in those unforgiving mountains.
“Hungry?” he asked, rooting around in his rucksack.
“I’m starving,” Callie admitted.
“Hmm, I like a woman with a good appetite.” His eyes sparkled. “And who enjoys her food,” he added, hauling out two more MREs. “Let’s go over there and I’ll spread out the sleeping bag and blanket for us.”
“Let me help, okay?” Callie offered, needing to contribute something to their comfort level.
Beau nodded. “Okay,” he said, pointing to the blanket rolled up in his ruck. “Why don’t you take that over there and get our bed laid out?” He instantly saw gratitude in her eyes. Her hair was thick, mussed, and needed desperately to be combed. He might be able to find that small comb he carried in his ruck. Callie would be more than appreciative, but first things first. Food was their priority now.
Later, after they’d eaten and were leaning up against a part of the wall that was less rocky, Beau picked through his ruck. He found what he was looking for and presented Callie with a gift that made her gasp.
“A comb!” she whispered as she reached for it. “What else do you have in there?”
“Just some necessities,” Beau chuckled, watching her quickly pull out the small black plastic comb, looking as if she’d been handed pure gold.
“How about a hot bath?” she suggested with a twinkle in her eyes.
“Yeah, I wish. I bet you’re having fantasies about one right now.”
“That’s all I can think about!” she said, grinning. “A hot bath and getting the ache out of my knees and ankles.”
He watched her begin to comb the damp strands of hair. “You have beautiful hair,” he told her. It wasn’t the first time he’d said so, but she grew warm with pleasure.
“Thanks,” she said, sending him a grateful look. “I’ll be so glad to get back to Bagram, where I can wash my hair, get this awful sweat off me, and the grit all over my skin …”
“The grit is the worst,” he agreed, pushing the ruck aside. Callie had opened up the sleeping bag and put it on the floor. There was a dry wool blanket to put over them, and with the temperature in the cave in the high sixties, it would probably do the job.
“And you guys go through this all the time?”
“Well, on long-range missions, yes. A lot of the time we’re dropped by helo into a particular place, far enough away so we aren’t heard by locals. Then we steal into an area to perform our mission, after which we’re picked up.”
“And this is all because you have radio contact?”
He grinned. “Yeah. We always carry two sat phones on us. If one gets banged up and inoperable, we always have a backup. It’s not a good thing out in the badlands to have a nonworking sat phone on us.”
“I’d never have known what you really do out here if this hadn’t happened to us.”
“Well,” he murmured wryly, “it’s not something I think you’ll want to repeat.”
“Isn’t that the truth!” Callie grumped. She gave her hair a pleased look, the strands shining in the low light, free of snags and knots. “Just getting my hair combed makes me feel better. Thank you.”
“Looks pretty.” Beau knew how much it meant to Callie to at least get cleaned up a little. Different things made women feel better. For him? He’d have given anything to have the hottest shower he could stand and just wash the damned grit chafing his skin raw. He couldn’t have cared less about his hair.
“It feels so nice to get slightly cleaned up,” Callie admitted. “Are we staying here for the day?”
“Yes, we are. It’s stopped raining and it’s probably going to start clearing up. We can’t afford to be out in the daylight because the Taliban would spot us sooner or later. We need to hole up here, and we’ll take off at dusk.”
“It will be so nice just to rest,” she murmured, continuing to comb her hair.
“I know. I’m ready to stretch out,” he agreed.
“Are you staying awake?”
“I’ve got to,” he said. “You know I’ve got to stay awake for both of us.”
Frowning, Callie said, “That doesn’t sound fair. What if we took turns? I could stay awake for two hours and then wake you up in two hours. That way, we’d both get sleep, Beau.”
“Sounds good,” he agreed readily. “You take the first two hours of sleep, okay?”
She gave him a sharp look. “No, Beau, you need to get some sleep first.”
He tried not to smile. Callie wasn’t dumb. “What? You don’t trust me, gal? Think I wouldn’t
wake you in two hours?”
“No, I don’t trust you on that, Beau. You’re looking really tired. You haven’t slept in forty-eight hours.”
“I’ll catnap,” he assured her, smoothing out the sleeping bag. “Come on, you need to lie down. You can use my closed ruck as a pillow and I’ll cover you up with the wool blanket. You’ll be toasty, dry, and warm.”
She gave him a wary look. “What kind of ‘catnap’?”
He chuckled. “I can see I can’t fool you.”
“You look exhausted, Beau. I’m worried about you.”
He reached out, caressing her cheek. “Sweet woman’, I do this all the time. I’m used to it, and so is my team.”
“Yes, but you usually have a team. Each man can take a watch and the rest can sleep. Instead, you’ve got to babysit me, Beau.”
“Okay,” he said more firmly, “lie down on your side here.” He pointed to one side of the sleeping bag. “What I’ll do is lie with you.” He saw her eyes grow teary for a moment. Callie obviously needed some special care. Their escape from the Taliban was emotionally stretching her in ways she’d never experienced, and Beau sensed the toll it was taking on her.
“You’d actually sleep with me?”
“I’ll catnap,” he said, correcting her. “But I’ll hold you, okay?” That was easy—nothing would ever feel so damned right to him for all the right reasons.
“I’d like that.”
“Lie on your side and I’ll join you,” Beau offered, bringing the blanket up over her. Then Beau spooned beside her, using his arm as a pillow for his head. He wrapped his other one around her waist, bringing her against him.
Callie groaned. “Oh, Beau, this feels so good.”
Beau couldn’t have agreed more. “It does, and there’s more of this to come once we get back to base.” He wanted to keep Callie’s hopes up. For now, he was enjoying the pure, raw pleasure of feeling her small body tucked alongside his longer one. Beau could give her warmth, a sense of security, and he knew that just lying beside him, she’d quickly drop off into sleep.
As for him, he lay there, his eyes open, listening to every last sound. Taliban were known to have frequented this cave precisely because it had pools of water in it. But while they drank from it, he wouldn’t. The water was full of bacteria and God knew what else. It was okay for washing, however, and once Callie was sleeping deeply, he’d get up and refill their gallon jar with the water and put the purification tablets in it.
For a moment, he closed his eyes, his hearing keyed to every noise. He felt the soft rise and fall of Callie’s breasts against his arm, but this was no place to make love, much as he wanted to. Dawn was coming, and he knew the Taliban would soon be awake and back on their trail. Worse, if they had horses, Callie and Beau would have much less time to elude their pursuers.
His mind ranged over Matt’s situation with Dara. So much could go wrong up in the mountains. At least down here, it was warmer and not snowing. Up there, it was—another challenge for Dara to deal with. He worried about her. A lot.
Callie fell asleep almost instantly and Beau hated easing away from her. He knew that if he didn’t, he’d fall asleep, and he couldn’t let that happen. Instead, he rose quietly to his feet and picked up his rifle to check out the other cave.
He didn’t want any surprises. There was a greater likelihood of Taliban moving around with the skies clearing. The sun would quickly dry up the area, the ground hardening once more. He hoped their run along the riverbed had slowed the enemy down. As far as he could figure, he and Callie had done everything right, or at least as well as they could have done under the circumstances.
With clear skies, Bagram would send at least one drone up to begin hunting for them. Beau knew that the black ops community would realize he and Matt would hole up during daylight hours and move only at night.
Still, he hoped there was already a drone in the sky searching for them. If nothing else, it could find their pursuers, and if it was a Predator drone, it could take them out. Predators carried Hellfire missiles and could easily remove a cluster of Taliban if it spotted them. And Beau was sure the Taliban was around, even though they hadn’t seen traces of them.
It was a special gift for Beau to watch Callie restore herself with a deep, uninterrupted sleep—one he’d been able to give her. It was nearly dusk now, the sun lancing through the thick brush covering the cave’s entrance, spraying shots of gold light on the rear of the cave wall. He stood near the tunnel, the M4 in his chest harness, simply watching the play of light against her clean, soft features. He would never tire of watching this woman wake up, aching to have her in his arms, her naked body against his, in the warmth of their bed. The dreams he had for them were so damned many, but wanting to share them with her was impossible right now.
He forced himself to leave her, moving silently down the tunnel. This was a popular cave, and he knew he was taking a risk by even stopping here, but Callie was physically and mentally exhausted. If she didn’t get the rest she needed, they couldn’t make that last push of twenty-five miles. It would take them to within a mile of Bagram, where he could finally use his personal radio.
This time frame would hold the most danger of all. There would be fewer hills, although he was going to move to a small mountain and use it as cover. The last four miles were wide-open desert, with only a few desert trees here and there.
This part of their journey would be the most hazardous of all, but because it was night, they had a chance to get back home without being seen. Still, as Beau well knew, nothing was guaranteed, and if the Taliban were roving around the area out of season, it threw more danger into the mix.
*
Callie hungrily ate everything in the MRE. Beau sat beside her, his long legs crossed. It was getting dark outside and she knew it was soon going to be time to move. He’d cautioned her not to talk because the Taliban was active from dawn through dusk. She hoped they were bedding down for the night somewhere other than in this cave. Earlier, he’d whispered to her that tonight they would walk at a fast, steady pace to reach Bagram. Then, within a mile of the base, he could contact his HQ by short-distance radio. Never had Callie wanted anything more than to be safe on that Army base.
By the time it was dark, they were on the move, leaving the cave behind. Overhead, the stars glittered in the ebony sky above them. The chilly wind blew around them, sometimes with unexpected harshness. They left the hills behind, heading toward Beau’s next objective. It was about six thousand feet tall, with rocky slopes and covered with many groves of stubby trees.
Callie knew Beau wanted to thread through the groves to hide from any local Taliban. Her gloves had finally dried out, as had her parka, and it was nice not to have numb fingers as she held on to Beau’s belt. She tried to walk as quietly as Beau did, and they continued on until near midnight on the slope.
At that moment, Beau suddenly halted and moved into a slow crouch, his M4 up, and pointed ahead of them. Instantly, Callie’s heart took off at a wild gallop. He’d taught her to not move quickly; slow was definitely preferred, bringing less attention to them.
Callie’s ears picked up sounds. Pashto. Oh, God! Gulping, she slowly crouched down behind Beau. Taliban? She was pretty sure of it. There were no villages in this area. There was low laughter and more talk. What was Beau going to do?
He slowly stood up and she followed suit, terrified. He turned and she followed, a huge tree between them and the Taliban encampment. Never had she wanted to be more careful about where she placed her boots. She kept her focus on the ground and hung on to Beau’s belt so tightly her fingers ached.
Her heart was pounding in her ears so loudly she couldn’t hear anything else. Beau led them downward for more than ten minutes before he stopped. Then, crouching, he brought his arm around Callie to draw her up against him. He could feel her tension and sensed her anxiety.
His lips near her ear, he said, “Taliban. Don’t know how many. We’re going to keep working our way down t
his slope.”
“A-are there more?”
“I don’t know. Just watch your step.”
She nodded and slowly rose with Beau.
Beau looked around, his hearing never sharper. The gusts of cold wind certainly didn’t help, but lucky for them, the wind was blowing in a direction that took their scent away from the Taliban. The group was bedding down for the night. He’d heard no horses moving around or snorting. This could be another band of enemy that was not tracking them.
He and Callie could have gotten unlucky and walked into their camp, and it had been a close call—too close! He could feel the terror coming from Callie because the reality of their situation had become far more immediate. Before, she’d asked how he could know that the enemy was searching for them since they were never visible.
He had smiled and told her that by the time she saw them, they would have been surrounded and captured. These people melted like ghosts in and out of the surrounding areas. Callie had looked at him skeptically, and he knew she didn’t believe him.
Well, now she did.
Beau knew they had five miles to go to reach Bagram. He angled their approach steeply down the slope, hoping that Callie would watch her feet, since the rocks were sometimes loose. There were large, clear areas of hard dirt and not much brush now, and he tried to stay away from them because the more cover they had, the safer they’d be.
Suddenly, he froze, picking up noise, movement. Callie crashed into him. He absorbed the impact, remaining motionless. There, coming from below and to the left of them on horseback. Beau saw two Taliban soldiers. Their horses were tired, their heads hanging, their shaggy coats gleaming with sweat from being ridden hard for hours, or perhaps days.
Gripping Callie’s gloved hand, Beau moved her to a nearby huge pine tree. Without a word, he guided her so that she crouched down behind it, fully hidden from their view. The riders were coming closer, and he had no way to hide her in a cave because there were none in this area. The Taliban were also wearing NVGs. Sonofabitch!
He turned, lips close to her ear. “Whatever you do, stay here. I have to take them out. Don’t move an inch. I’ll come back for you when it’s over.”
Hold On (Delos Series Book 5) Page 16