He circled around, keeping low. The soldiers would notice he was missing, he didn’t have a lot of time. It would depend on how long his team could keep them occupied.
The woman in the first tent hurled loud threats at whoever was in there with her, and she wasn’t afraid of being vocal.
Damon crept to the next tent. It wasn’t Sloane’s voice he recognized, but the asshole who’d taken her.
“I want you wet before I ram my cock in you,” he heard the guy say.
Anger threatened to dislodge his purpose.
“Oh, yeah.” The soldier’s voice grew raspy with need.
The sound of a wet tongue on skin solidified Damon’s intent. Rage twisted his guts as he peered under the canvas. Strapped to the steel frame of the cot, Sloane strained against the nylon ropes securing her wrists. The soldier kneeled between her legs. Repositioning, the guy rose and thrust himself inside her body. Sloane screamed.
Damon shot across the short distance, ripping the soldier off of her by the throat. The guy went into preservation mode, but he wasn’t skilled in hand-to-hand combat, not like a SEAL. Three moves, one block, and the soldier’s neck snapped, his body draping on Damon’s arm.
Sloane lifted her head, the look on her face one he’d never forget: fear, relief and horror at seeing what he’d just done, all written there. Her gaze shot to the floor. Checking, he saw the guards hadn’t moved in front of the tent. A knife lay on the ground and he swept it up, slicing through each rope with four single strokes.
She lunged for the soldier’s jacket. Damon put his finger to his lips as excited shouts came from the direction of the cages.
Exiting at the rear of the tent, Sloane squirmed under the canvas wall, then held it open for him. With a quick check of his surroundings, he motioned with his hand. Sloane followed him deep into the darkness. He should have grabbed the guy’s pants, but he was a much smaller man and there was no reason to fight physics. Making their way barefoot and him in his skivvies was nothing to be concerned about right now. Putting distance between Sloane and the cages was.
Sloane held onto his hand as he pushed on as fast as he could.
Minutes turned into an hour by the placement of the moon. It shone with half brightness but it was enough for Damon to pick a safe route. They climbed into the hills behind the encampment. A cave lay five kilometers ahead where they could take cover. It was hard going, but Sloane stayed behind him with no complaint.
They’d rest, and then he’d try to get them to the highway. Who would pick them up half naked, he didn’t know, but he’d make it happen somehow. Shit would hit the fan when he reached the base. He already knew this exercise had turned a corner. He’d killed an American soldier, and they’d want revenge.
* * * *
The rest of the men were forced back into their cages. Winston had taken more than a few gun butts to the nuts and guts. So had the other guys.
He eased his breathing and scanned the commotion in front of them. Shouts. Disturbed voices. Something was going on, and it meant the Lieutenant had reached Sloane.
“Did you hear that?” Randeen said, drawing his attention.
No, Winston signaled.
“Someone’s dead.”
What the fuck?
They listened intently. More soldiers gathered near enough to the cages to overhear them.
“Fucker’s dead if I catch ‘em,” one soldier promised, lighting up a cigarette, the glow hot and red in the darkness.
“The son of bitch killed Milton over some cunt.”
“This is FUBAR, man,” another voice growled.
Christ, what the hell was going on? If the Lieutenant exterminated the soldier who’d taken Sloane, he must have had a good reason. Where were the other women? Had he rescued them too?
The answer came seconds later when four women appeared under the lights. Obviously not, but the Lieutenant had put a stop to what could only have been rape.
This was out of control. It was one thing to sign up and take the punishment to accomplish SEAL training. Overcome your fears, control your mind—but rape? No fucking way. This was bad. It had turned a corner from exercise to a mission on domestic soil.
Randeen gazed at him through the bars of his cage with a deadly look in his eyes. “Yeah, man. This is for real. And if it’s for real, we don’t hold back.”
His teammate turned and said something to the man next to him. They all quieted, seeing the women pushed toward the cages. His little redhead was thrown on top of her cage face first with a hard hand, and she yelped when her forehead hit one of the bars.
“Katy.”
She couldn’t take this. She was a delicate little woman, barely a woman. Twenty-years-old, she’d told him.
A soldier opened the cage and shoved her inside. She rolled into a tight ball but her shoulders shuddered from crying. The slither of hoses told him what was coming. Shit.
“Katy,” he whispered. “Katy honey, give me the word.”
Slowly, she raised her head. “I don’t think it matters anymore,” she said, trying to hold back her tears.
“What happened, sweetie? Did he…” Jesus—had they all been raped?
Katy swiped her cheeks with the back of her hand. “He didn’t finish what he started.”
Which meant what? Disgust churned in his stomach. How the hell could any American soldier rape any woman? They must have handpicked these pricks for cruelty. Men who wouldn’t say no to an order, even if it was against the laws of the country.
The sound of water exploded from the hose.
“Katy, listen to me. Give me the word, we’ll end this.”
“I can’t,” and she broke down, crying hard.
“Why not? Tell me why not,” Winston demanded. The hose was getting closer and the bellows from the men and cries from the women being tormented only three cages away.
Katy’s eyes beseeched him to stop what he couldn’t unless she gave him the damn word.
“The lifted ban on women and combat.” Her voice strained, knowing what was coming. “They want us to fail to prove a point.”
A coil of cold dread spun down his spine at the same time the water bulleted into his aching side, drawing an angry shout from him. He clutched the bars so tight his skin almost split.
This degree of torture to prove a fucking point! The heat from his anger, understanding why the women were taking this pain and suffering, gave Winston the determination he needed. The uncertainty had made him, and no doubt the other men, weaker. Some fucking asshole somewhere up the chain wanted to prove they were not as strong or determined with a woman by their side, or that women couldn’t hack combat.
The guy must be a fucking pansy because a woman would draw the last ounce of hero from any man, especially the SpecWarfare operators. If they wanted to see what a man was made of, what he could do, they’d picked the right bunch of guys.
The Lieutenant wasn’t the only one who was about to take a life.
Katy’s scream thinned his veins. His blood ran colder than the piercing spray of water. He thrust his arm through the bars of her cage and clutched her tiny shoulder. Her hand clamped over his as if she were hanging onto him for dear life.
“Take it, Katy. You can do this,” Winston yelled.
The music started again. Floodlights rained down on their heads. Their own kind had declared war on twenty-six men and women, and war was what they would get back.
* * * *
Three quarters of the way to the cave, Damon stopped. Sloane trudged behind him with her head down. Gently, he palmed her arms. “Let’s rest.”
“No.” Her breath came in short pants.
He knew where her mind lingered. She’d broken every step into cellular bits, one foot in front of the other, each stride a testament to the woman’s endurance.
She wavered, and he drew her to his chest, wrapping his arms around her. This was not how he imagined holding Sloane for the first time. She leaned against him utterly exhausted, but finally rel
ented. Her arms wrapped around his waist as she laid her warm cheek against his bare chest.
“I just need a second.”
“I know. We don’t have far to go, and then you can get some sleep.”
“What about you?” Her eyes, although strained with exhaustion, sparkled under the moonlight.
“I’ll wake you if I have to get a quick nap. One of us has to stay alert and watch.”
“Where are we going?”
“A cave about a kilometer away. I found it once during S.E.R.E training. It’s well hidden. Small, but secure.”
“How did you escape the cage?”
“Motivation,” he whispered down to her. “The other men created a diversion so I could slip away to find you.”
“What about the other women?” Her voice shook for only a second, and then she squared herself off.
“I think they’re back in the cages. After finding the guy in your tent, Northcott’s men will regroup and search for us.”
“With bloodlust on their minds.”
Damon thumbed a dirty smudge off her face. “Probably. When our team finds out that guy is dead, they’ll understand what’s going down. Exercise is over, they’ll go for broke. Every one of us was holding back, but they’re dealing with seasoned SEALs for the most part, and two angry Marines who’ve earned their stripes in the dust. I’m betting chaos is about to erupt back there and those soldiers aren’t going to know what hit ‘em.”
“I hope so.”
He swallowed deeply. His breath stuck in his throat as he asked, “Did he hurt…you?”
“No.” She released him and her gaze darted to the ground.
Sloane couldn’t lie worth a damn. He’d heard her scream when the guy drove himself hard inside her. It had been the soldier’s death sentence. The difference between Damon only knocking him out by pinching off his artery or breaking the guy’s neck was decided the second he’d invaded this beautiful woman. A split second decision, but he’d do it again.
“You’re as brave as your father.”
She shook her head. “Not my dad.”
He shook his head. “Who?”
“My mother. She’s a raven.”
He waited for her to explain.
“My mother is half Haida. She was born on Haida Gwaii, on the west coast of British Columbia.”
He brushed her cheek. “So that’s where your beautiful skin comes from. Your mom has the same.”
Sloane nodded. “Some people think my mom is a cold woman. In the Haida Nation, women are warriors. She’s not cold, she’s stoic and brave.”
“Because of something in her past, I’m assuming.” He scanned the horizon, searching for movement. “Come on, let’s get to cover and you can tell me more.”
Damon turned, but sensed her stillness. He’d begun to sense a lot of things from her. It happened in life and death scenarios and that’s where they were, under attack from their own people on US soil.
“I’m glad you picked me,” she said quietly, stilling his thoughts.
“I’m not.” Now that he knew her age, the gap between his and hers really unsettled him.
His brain told him seven years was too far apart, but it didn’t stop his other basic desires. Sloane didn’t act like a twenty-three-year-old, at least not the ones he’d met who hung around the SEALs, giving them anything they wanted and giggling like young girls.
Sloane’s mouth seamed to a straight line for a moment. “Feelings aside, I can do this. This whole thing was set up to push us all to the edge and hope we jump off.”
“Why would you say that?”
“This has been in the planning for months, probably longer.”
Her comment ground every one of his thoughts to a halt. “What?”
“My father’s last portfolio dealt with issues so deep and clandestine, only a few people knew the operation.” She shrugged. “He was always given carte blanche and a blind eye, as long as he could deal with the darkest, worst things that threatened our country.”
Damon didn’t doubt a group like that existed. “What do you mean it’s been in the planning for months?”
“My father retired, but he didn’t want to. He made the decision under duress. I overheard him talking with Mom one night. The CIA wanted to test something. Something he couldn’t fathom and refused to take on. He said it had to do with the lift on women in combat.”
The ban had been lifted twenty years ago. He nodded for her to continue.
“Admiral Paulson took over from my father. He came to our house after Dad retired. They had a heated argument about the same topic. Dad argued it was going too far, while Paulson reassured him it would be under control. At the time, I didn’t know what the ‘it’ meant.”
He was trying to follow along, but wasn’t doing a good job of it. She’d completely forgotten she had nothing on underneath the combat jacket that hung wide open, exposing her. In the moonlight, her body glowed with an ethereal pulse. Her shapely legs and flat stomach drew his eyes down to a smooth, hairless mons. Sheer need gripped him hard.
Focus SEAL. “Women in combat?”
“That’s why we’re here, Damon.”
The light bulb flared so bright in his brain it almost made him stumble backwards. “Are you shitting me? All this—to prove a fucking point? Is that what they told you girls?”
“Eva Braun, aka Warrant Officer Deneuve, General Craggy Face’s female counterpart tried to convince us it isn’t about the women. She said it’s a controlled exercise to monitor how the men conduct themselves.”
He surveyed the quiet of the night, doing his best to keep his eyes off Sloane, but it wasn’t working with his dick hard and pressing at his shorts. Thinking how her father would kill him outright with the blazing thoughts speeding through his mind didn’t even help.
“It’s about how men act when they fight alongside a woman, or if they can,” he said, trying to stay on topic. At this very second, he was sliding toward the General’s point of view.
She nodded. “But it’s a load of shit. It’s a diversion. It’s really about the women, and it’s slanted toward failure. We’re not trained like you. We weren’t prepared. They stacked an eight deck boot of cards against us, and now General Asshole is going to sit back and wait for us all to drop out so he can walk his fat ass into some congressional meeting and slap down the findings, no doubt requesting a reversal on the lift.”
His brow rippled with amusement. “An eight deck boot of cards?”
She shrugged. “Dad taught me how to play poker. Mom and I both kick his ass. He hates it.”
He couldn’t help it, and broke out in a hearty laugh. The thought of the powerful admiral getting trounced by his two special ladies was pretty damn funny.
Sloane smiled up at him. “What? He’s a lousy liar. Always has been. Adam and I always figured out what we got for Christmas by the time it rolled around. Mom finally stopped telling Dad so we couldn’t worm it out of him.”
She cocked her head at him and smiled in a way that made his insides tumble. The woman was the sexiest creature he’d ever run across.
Stop fucking thinking that shit. She’s out of reach. She needs a guy her own age.
“He might be a legend to you SEALs, but he’s just blood and bone, ya know,” Sloane pointed out.
He wondered where that saying came from. Regardless, her dad would grind Damon’s bones to dust if he knew a guy seven-years-older than her couldn’t think of anything but ravaging her until they were both sweaty and depleted.
For fuck’s sake, SEAL! Get back on point.
This operation wasn’t under control. It had gone off course real fast. The water torture was one thing, rape totally another. Determination pounded a heavy stake into his heart. Avoiding further contact with the general’s soldiers was paramount, and getting Sloane out of here his primary mission.
“Lieutenant, promise that no matter what happens in the next few days, you won’t give up. I want that bastard General to eat his words.
”
Her constitution wasn’t subdued for long. A low chuckle rumbled through him. He really liked this woman. She’d braved hours of torture and had been ready to endure the General’s grunt between her legs.
Never mind the fact Sloane did something crazy to his insides. He absent-mindedly rubbed his chest while considering their next move.
“This is kinda like camping, isn’t it?” she asked, putting an optimistic spin on an unreal situation as she gazed across the dark forest they’d passed through.
“I guess, but I’d rather be taking you to see a movie. That is, if you’ve changed your mind on dating a no-good SEAL.” What the hell? Now his mouth was attached to his dick and operating without his brain.
A small smile creased her lips. “Thought I was just a little girl in your eyes, but that combustible erection in your shorts tells me you could be up to no good,” she said flippantly, and strolled past him.
Great!
“Coming?” she asked, and dug her feet in, climbing the last rise toward the cave.
Very possibly, he thought to himself, seeing her fatigue jacket rise with each step, and the glorious ass beneath it.
They say to look at a girl’s mother to know what the daughter will be like. Admiral Austen wasn’t just a legend in combat. He’d had a few other notable traits, particularly with women. Sloane’s mom had stopped him dead in his tracks. Now that Damon had met the infamous Snow White, he could easily see her daughter as noble and beautiful as her mother.
A strange kinship with the Admiral started to solidify inside him. He didn’t really know the man, but watching the beautiful Sloane scramble up the hill ahead of him had Damon throbbing with need.
Admitting defeat to his secret cravings would get them both killed.
Chapter Thirteen
Her pace too quick, Damon slowed her down, knowing dehydration could slay a man faster than an enemy. They didn’t have water, and the closest source was miles away.
Less than an hour later, they reached the cave.
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