Don’t you fucking die on me, Josephine. Ghost pulled at the bolt with the last of his strength, feeling a small pop in his shoulder that sent pain radiating down his arm. He didn’t care; he continued pulling with all his might until it was finally loose enough for him to pull out. He secured Josephine in his arm, wincing as her dead weight rested on his now injured shoulder and swam out of the van and toward the surface. His lungs burned as he swam, willing himself to hold on just a few seconds longer. He had to do this; Josephine was counting on him.
He broke through the surface with a gasp, trying to get as much air into his lungs as possible. A boat was already waiting on the water when he returned to the surface. He swam over and passed Josephine to them before allowing them to pull him out of the water, wincing as the pain from his shoulder increased.
“I have to make sure she’s okay,” he said between breaths, crawling over to where Josephine lay. One of the divers stopped him.
“We got it from here. Let’s take a look at that shoulder,” he said. Ghost watched as they performed CPR on his sister, Pia watching in the corner of the boat as she huddled in a blanket in tears. Sirens sounded from the bridge above them as they moved closer to shore, two medics alternating between doing chest compressions and breathing into Josephine’s mouth. Her skin was pale and cool to the touch when he held her hand. Come on, Jojo.
Paramedics rushed to the boat as soon as they arrived to shore, helping Pia off the boat and relieving the medics. Ghost refused to leave his sister’s side as they continued to work on her, the chances of survival growing dimmer with each passing minute. A mixture of anxiety, anger, and fear brewed inside of him as he watched.
“Come on, Jo,” he said, rubbing her hand between his. After another twelve minutes, they stopped and a gentle hand rested on Ghost’s uninjured shoulder. The paramedics looked at him with sympathetic eyes and shook their heads. Josephine was gone.
“No,” he whispered, looking down at his sister as grief and anger came to the forefront of his emotional tidal wave. “No!”
This couldn't be how it ended. After all he'd done to try and save her, it still wasn't enough. She had her whole life ahead of her with graduation in a couple of months. His mind reverted back to her smile as she stood in front of her mirror in her cap and gown. We’re all we got, he'd told her, which was true. Without their mother, it was just the two of them and he'd failed her. It was a failure he couldn't accepted.
With tears in his eyes, he moved over her chest and began compressions once again. “We’re all we got, Jo,” he said, right before he breathed into her mouth. “You can't leave me now.”
His shoulder ached with each motion, but he grit his teeth through the pain. He only needed her to wake up. Everything would be okay if she'd just wake up.
“Please, Jo,” he said through gritted teeth, a single tear rolling down his cheek. Every single memory he'd had of her flickered through his mind like a rainfall of Polaroids; from when their mom first brought her home, when she first learned how to say his name and even the most recent ones of them teasing each other and her being upset with him. It wasn't until now that he realized how much of an impact she'd had in his life after the few years she’d been with him and he'd be damned if he allowed her to be taken from him.
The gentle hand appeared on his shoulder again. “Sir, she’s—”
Josephine coughed up water and rolled away from him, throwing up on the deck. Hearing her gasp for breath was music to his ears. Paramedics rushed over to her and quickly put an oxygen mask on her as they loaded her onto a stretcher and carried her off the boat.
“You did good, SEAL,” Wolf said when Ghost finally got off the boat.
“You fellas are military men?” Léon asked in wonder. “That explains a whole lot of things.”
Ghost chuckled. “I can never thank you enough for your help, Léon,” he said, clasping the man’s shoulder. Léon gave him a small smile.
“I needed to give your sister the chance my daughter didn't get,” he answered, his voice cracking slightly. He cleared his throat and straightened his posture. “Um, so did you give him a good whack with the hammer on my behalf?”
Ghost hadn't even thought to see if the man was still alive when he'd rescued the girls, but he was probably long dead if he hadn't surfaced by now. With everything Léon had been through over the last decade or so trying to catch this man, the least Ghost could do was give him the closure he sought.
“Sure did,” Ghost answered. “Took the hook and sank it right into the back of his head. Didn't even know what hit him.”
“Fuck yeah!” Léon looked up to the sky. “You hear that, baby? Daddy said he’d catch him and he did it!”
Ghost’s heart ached for the mourning father. He could've been experiencing the same grief had things had a different turn of events. He’d forever be grateful to the man that risked his life to help him save his sister.
“So what now, Léon?” Wolf asked. “You've finally caught the bad guy; what's the next chapter of your life going to be?”
He put his hands in his pockets and smiled. “It's time to get back to a normal life.” He paused for a moment. “To finally live again. That's what my Abby would've wanted.”
With a final handshake to both Ghost and Wolf, Léon turned and walked down the road to his car alone. Ghost watched as he drove away. God speed, Léon. Thank you for everything.
“So…” Wolf started. “You realize he was our ride, right?”
Ghost blinked. In the chaos of it all, it had completely slipped his mind and here he was watching the man drive off in the sunset.
“I'd call you a cab, but…” He pulled his damaged phone from his pocket with a grin. “Didn't make it.”
“Tragic,” Wolf said with a chuckle. “Well, guess we better hitch a ride in the ambulance. You need that shoulder looked at anyway.”
Chapter 11
Adrienne burst through the doors of the A&E, her eyes scanning around the waiting area for a familiar face. Seeing no one, she stopped at the registration desk where a petite elderly woman with vintage glasses sat in front of the computer.
“Hi, I’m looking for two of my students that were brought in from a wreck into the river,” she said in fluent French. The woman sucked her teeth and shook her head.
“Do you have identification?” the woman asked. Adrienne pulled out both her license and work ID and handed it to the woman, folding her hands on top of the counter to keep from tapping her fingers. After a few moments of clicking the woman shook her head, sympathy crossing her wrinkled features.
“Those poor young girls. They're both in room 113,” she said with a gentle smile, pointing to a hallway. Adrienne retrieved her IDs and gave her a small smile and rushed down the hallway. Her eyes scanned the room numbers, slowing down when she saw Myles sitting outside the room further down the hall. One of his shoulders was in a sling and his head rested in his other hand. She slowly approached him, unsure of what to say. When he called the hotel to let her know they were at the hospital, he didn’t sound like himself. She didn’t know if he blamed her for what happened or if he was just stuck in his own head from his guilt.
“Myles?” she called out softly as she stopped next to him. He looked up at her, exhaustion covering his handsome features. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” he said and ran a hand down his face. “Just a little tired.”
“I can stay here with the girls if you—”
“No, I’ll stay,” he interrupted.
She shifted her weight from foot to foot. “I should probably go check on the girls.”
“They’ve been sedated, so they’re both asleep,” he said with a sigh and leaned back in the chair, resting his head against the wall. “Then again, maybe I need to at least go back to the hotel to get out of these wet clothes before I catch pneumonia in here.”
“What in the world happened? And are the girls okay? Why have they been sedated?”
“We were able to find
them with the tracker on Josephine’s phone, but then the guys grabbed the girls and left again. During the car chase, the van crashed and fell into the Siene river with the girls in it.”
Adrienne gasped. “Oh my goodness. Are they okay? I—”
“I think Pia will be fine. She was sedated mostly because they couldn’t get her to calm down. She’s pretty traumatized right now.”
“And Josephine?”
“Almost lost her,” he said, his voice dropping as he shook his head. “It was harder to free her than it was to free Pia. She was out by the time I was able to pull her out of the van. Two divers did CPR on her until the paramedics arrived, but nothing happened. They were going to pronounce her as dead.”
Adrienne looked through the glass window into the room to see Josephine with an IV in her arm and an oxygen mask on her face. Her skin still looked a little pale and her chest moved up and down quicker than it should have. “Is she going to be okay?” she asked.
“She has a few cracked ribs from the CPR, but I think so. I think they’re going to keep her overnight for observation and discharge her tomorrow if she’s feeling okay. I think we may catch an early flight home for her to recover a little before going back to school,” he said.
She nodded. “That’s probably a good idea.” She gestured to his shoulder. “And what about you? What happened?”
He slightly shrugged, wincing a little. “It’ll heal. Just dislocated it.”
She placed a gentle hand on his good shoulder and gave him a small smile. “Why don’t you go back to the hotel and take a hot shower and change? I’ll stay here until you get back,” she offered.
He glanced back at his sleeping sister, hesitation flickering on his face. “I don’t know…”
“I won’t take my eyes off of them. I promise,” she said. He looked at her for a moment before sighing.
“Okay,” he said, standing to his feet. “I won’t be long.”
“Take the time you need. There’s no rush,” she said. He nodded and turned to walk away. “And Myles?” He stopped and looked over his shoulder. “You saved their lives today, which is nothing short of amazing. I know you did everything you could.”
“Yeah,” he simply said and continued walking down the hall. She watched him move, fatigue settling into every stride he took. She couldn’t begin to imagine what he’d been through today. She was sure things like this weren’t new to him since he was in the military, but it becomes a lot different when the person in danger was someone close to you. Her heart broke for him as she thought of him having to do CPR on his sister when everyone else tried to convince him she was already gone. He was a hero, but he couldn’t see it. With his demeanor and the guilt harboring in his eyes, all he could probably see was what he didn’t do and questioning himself. She wished she could make it better. She didn’t really know how to comfort him other than to be there for him, and it didn’t even seem as if he wanted that. She sighed. They just needed a little time to process all of this and she’d just do what she could to support him, Josephine, and Pia.
She pulled out her phone and FaceTimed Pia’s mother, who answered immediately. “Hi, have they found her?” she asked frantically. She looked as if she hadn’t slept a wink with her hair frizzy and her make up still smeared from crying when Adrienne had called her hours ago.
“Yes, she’s been found and I’m at the hospital with her now,” Adrienne answered.
“Oh, thank God,” her mother exclaimed as she began to cry. “Clint! They’ve found our little girl!”
A small smile touched Adrienne’s lips as she watched the woman hug her husband. She was so happy she was even able to deliver the good news instead of having to tell them the opposite. It was one thing to send your daughter on a trip in a different country, but to have her kidnapped was nerve wrecking, especially when you felt helpless in another country.
“Can we talk to her?” her mother finally asked.
“She’s actually sleeping right now, but I can show her to you to give you peace of mind.”
“Oh, thank you, Ms. Barrera. We’d like that,” she said.
Adrienne quietly entered the room and moved over to the foot of Pia’s bed, switching to her front-facing camera so that the view was on Pia. “She had to be sedated since she was shaken up when they arrived, but she’ll be fine,” Adrienne said.
“I wish we could bring her home right now,” her father said.
“Actually Myles and Josephine will probably be leaving tomorrow if she’s discharged. If you’d like, Pia can return back on that flight as well.”
“Myles? Josephine’s brother?” her mother asked.
Adrienne nodded. “Yes, he was a chaperone for the trip. He’s actually the one who saved the girls.”
“Well, thank goodness he was there,” her mother said. “If he doesn’t mind, I’d really like for Pia to fly back with them.”
“I will let him know and keep you two updated.”
“Thanks again, Ms. Barrera. Talk soon,” she said and disconnected the call.
“Ms. Barrera?” she heard a meek voice call out across the room. She rushed to Josephine’s side as she struggled to sit up, whimpering in pain.
“Hey, hey, take it easy,” she said, pressing a button on the side of the bed to raise the head of the bed up. “How are you feeling?”
“It hurts to breathe,” Josephine croaked, pulling the mask from her mouth.
“It’s because you have a few cracked ribs. Do you need the nurse?”
“I need medicine,” she said. Adrienne pressed the call button on the bed. A nurse appeared in the doorway in an instance, which almost freaked Adrienne out.
“I was already coming in here to check on them when you pressed the button,” the nurse said when she noticed Adrienne’s bewildered face.
“She’s in pain,” Adrienne finally answered.
The nurse nodded. “I’ll bring back your pain medicine, sweetie,” she said and disappeared. Josephine groaned and looked around.
“Where’s Myles?”
“He went to the hotel to change clothes. He’ll be right back.”
She ran a hand through her hair and focused her gaze to her lap. “He’s mad, isn’t he?” she murmured.
Adrienne sat in the empty space on the foot of her bed with a sigh. “What you did was dangerous, Josephine. You almost died. Right now, I think he’s more concerned about you being okay.”
Josephine looked up at her, her eyes glistening with tears. “I’m sorry. I just…I didn’t think something like that would’ve happened.”
“What did happen? Why did you go out there?” Adrienne asked.
Josephine fiddled her thumbs in her lap. “He’d texted me and said that he and his friend had a gift for Pia and me. He told us to come outside because he didn’t want to cause any problems with my brother if he saw him in the hotel. I should’ve seen that as a red flag.” She took a breath, wincing as she did. “We snuck out of the bathroom and went outside to meet him. They were standing a good ways away from the entrance, like past the windows so they wouldn’t be seen. I thought they were just trying to make it to where we couldn’t get caught, but when we got to them, he asked if anyone saw us leave. As soon as I said no, this van pulls up and they pick us up and throw us in it.”
“Things could’ve ended very differently if your brother wasn’t here.”
“I know,” she said softly. “It was very stupid and irresponsible for me to do. I’m sorry.”
Adrienne sighed and patted her leg gently. “I’m just glad you’re safe now.”
Josephine looked up at her. “He really likes you, you know,” she said.
Adrienne’s heart skipped a beat. “Does he?”
“He may have said he came on this trip to watch over me, but he mostly did it to get to know you,” Josephine admitted. All of the teasing between them when she was around now started to make sense. Though he’d kept a watchful eye over Josephine, he was never too far from her either. She didn’
t think too much of it when he’d come over and talk to her or when he chose to work with her today in cooking class when he could’ve chosen Josephine or someone else.
“I see,” she finally said.
“He told me that you don’t like guys in uniform because you lost someone,” Josephine said, catching her off guard. “But…just give him a chance. Even though he’s annoying with big ears, he’s a really great guy.”
Adrienne gave her a small smile. “I’m sure he is,” she said, just as the nurse walked back in with Josephine’s medicine.
“Okay, I have your medicine here,” she said. Adrienne watched as the nurse drew the medicine into a syringe before connecting it to Josephine’s IV. “You may feel like the room is spinning for a few seconds, but it’ll go away.”
The nurse pushed the medicine into the IV and Josephine’s head lolled before it fell back on the pillow. “Whoa,” she said.
“Are you still in pain?” the nurse asked.
“It doesn’t even feel like I have a body right now,” she said, a small smile settling on her lips as she closed her eyes and tried to take a deep breath. “Ouch. I probably still shouldn’t try to do that just yet.”
“You just relax and let the medicine do its job,” Adrienne said.
Josephine looked at her with sleepy eyes and pointed at her. “Just give him a chance, Ms. Barrera. He takes care of everyone and not himself. You two would be good together,” she said before closing her eyes again.
Special Forces: Operation Alpha: Going Ghost (Kindle Worlds Novella) (SEALed Brotherhood Book 2) Page 10