“Roger, good copy. A vehicle is en route to your position. Standby.”
Tony shut the craft down. He tossed his helmet and knelt beside Lumin, cradling her in his arms. Fear dug its biting nails into his chest, making him sway back and forth. When he’d been a kid, scared and alone in an empty house while his mother worked in the bar, he’d sit in the corner and wait for her to come home and do the same thing. There’d been no one to comfort him, and there was no one now. He closed his eyes and whispered to her, “My light. My beautiful light. Can you hear me?” Lumin’s pulse barely beat beneath his fingers as he clutched her wrist.
“My hero,” she breathed. Lumin’s beautiful eyes shone with fever and a tear trickled from the edge.
“We’re together, and I won’t let them separate us again.”
“I don’t want you to die.” She reached up and brushed his cheek.
“Wouldn’t be much of a hero if I didn’t rescue the woman I’m falling in love with.”
She coughed and her entire body shuddered. “I thought you blamed me for Nina.”
Truth pirouetted on the end of his tongue. He shook his head. “No. Your hero lost his nerve. I saw my best friend coming apart because he loves Nina so much. Truth is, it scared me. I hate feeling vulnerable, and that’s what you do to me.”
A smile creased her feverish lips. “Tony?” Her eyes closed, and he couldn’t feel her breath on his cheek it was so shallow.
He kissed her hot forehead. “Stay with me,” he urged. Cold fear gripped him. “No, Lumin. No, just a little longer.”
“Don’t be mad,” she said in a sweet, small voice.
“Mad? Never,” he rasped. “You’re my forever girl. I want to hold your hand when we’re old and grey. You have to live to keep me on the straight and narrow. The second I looked in your eyes, my heart pumped so hard I broke into a nervous sweat. I became a man with a future in that moment, but I need you with me.” Lumin’s inhale rattled and his heart skipped then stopped.
Big blue eyes filled with love and pain looked up at him. “I believe you.”
He looked up and saw two transport trucks approach through his tears. Failure had been an enemy he always put aside when he became a SEAL, but in this moment he was a man. Scared that the delicate creature who’d made him laugh and his heart swell within a short time would be taken from him. Nothing he’d seen or done could harden him against the bitterness of losing Lumin. They were opposites, his darkness and her brilliance collided, and he had fallen into her dainty net, caught within her innocence. He’d lost his ages ago, but she offered hers, and he had to have her. Keep her. Protect her.
“Stupid wishes,” she murmured.
“Tell me your wish, my lady. I’ll move heaven and earth for you.”
“I wish,” she paused and licked her lips. “Wish…we had time to make dreams come true.”
Three men exited the back of the truck wearing bio suits. Lumin hadn’t wanted to die in an airtight bubble. He didn’t either. Life, he wanted it, but not without her. He squeezed her wrist tighter, the weak beat a small, feathered flutter. “Baby, please, we’re the center, remember? We’re the center. Everything else is moving but us.” He looked down to see her eyes closed. “Lumin!”
Her fingers released their grasp on his, and his heart broke into a million pieces with the last flutter of her pulse as her light burned out.
“Oh God, no. Hang on. Hang on to me.” He rocked her in his arms, his cheek against her hot skin as his body jolted with heartbreaking sobs. “Don’t take her from me,” he begged the heavens. “Please, don’t take her from me.”
Chapter Fifteen
Thane charged through the anteroom door to Base Command. “Barry, SITREP on Snow White?”
“Negative, sir. It’s been thirty minutes since she checked in.”
Kayla wasn’t answering her phone and neither was Mace. His SEAL sense was on high alert and it was screaming with a red warning bell. When it came to his wife, he was so tuned into her it was like half of him walked away every time she did. “Try again!” he ordered.
“Yes, sir.” Barry slid his chair to another console and attempted with nil results. “Admiral, Petty Officer Bale has landed. They’re transporting him and Lumin to the quarantine tent. She’s unresponsive at this time.”
His cell rang. It wasn’t the Canadian anthem Kayla kept programming into his phone, and he tucked it back into its pouch without answering. “Unresponsive?”
“Cardiac arrest.”
“Shit! Put a chopper on standby, I’m flying to Irvine.”
“Yes, sir.”
Thane had the pilot land next to Kayla’s Black Hawk waiting in the middle of the football field of the campus. The first kid who made eye contact was motivated into showing him the way to the Virus Research Center. His heart beat fast as he ran into the muddle of people surrounding an office. A stretcher was being rolled out, the sheet covering the entire body. It’s not her. Not her. He repeated to himself. He pushed through the throng of people rammed into the small office. Police and campus security all looked at him when he entered.
“Kayla?” he shouted, his eyes searching. Three men lay dead on the floor. Where was Callahan? A cop approached him. “Where’s my wife?”
The cop gave him a once over and nodded. “Admiral,” he paused looking at his name tag, “Austen. Kayla Austen is being escorted along with the SEAL and Professor Linden to a lab downstairs.
“Is she all right?”
“Um, not really, but she refused medical attention.”
His insides turned cold. “How bad?”
“Bullet grazed her arm. She’ll be fine once she gets it stitched up.”
He shook his head, knowing he should have stopped her from running after Bjornson. “What happened here?”
“Trying to work that out ourselves, but it appears your SEAL, I assume he works for you, took out four men. There were more bad guys, but they escaped. We’ve put out an APB on Callum Dafoe.”
“Take me to my wife.”
“Right behind you, Admiral,” Kayla said.
He swung around. She clutched a small cooler in one hand and her other palm clamped her upper arm. Blood seeped down to her wrist and through her fingers, but she was smiling. “You’re going to the hospital.”
“Where’s Lumin? We have to get this to her first.”
Mace entered the room.
“Take the vaccine, Petty Officer Callahan. I need to take care of my wife.” He prodded the box from her and handed it to Mace. “And we’re gonna have a little talk about keeping communications open on our way to the hospital, woman.”
She scowled at him. “How about an atta-girl, Admiral?”
He pulled her under his arm and guided her out of the office. “How about I put you over my knee for scaring the shit out of me—again,” he growled into her ear.
“Thane—”
“I’m rescinding my orders. You’re retired. As of fucking now. Do you understand me?”
“I—”
He grilled her with a look, and she closed her beautiful lips. “I’ll be talking to Callahan and if he tells me you put yourself in front of a bullet, I’ll put you on a plane and secure the buckle myself.”
They zigzagged down the hallway, ignoring the stares of the university students.
“Give me a break. It was that or let Dafoe win.”
“Where is he?”
“Ran for it when Mace took out four of his security team.”
He lifted Kayla into the back of the Black Hawk and ordered the pilot to the base hospital. The other Black Hawk was already lifting off the ground with Mace and the vaccine. He rummaged through the med kit and then pulled her hand away from the wound. It bled freely, and he darted a glance at her. Gore was something a SEAL got accustomed to quickly or he wouldn’t be a SEAL for long. Kayla had endured a few injuries since he’d met her and each one had the same affect. Bile rose in his throat and his heart thumped hard. She watched him carefully, and
although he could keep his composure in front of his men, Kayla unraveled him like he was unraveling the gauze.
“Thane—”
“Don’t talk to me. I’m pissed at you.”
She rolled her eyes. “No, you’re not. You’re worried.”
She’d fessed up while they walked across the football field as to what she’d done in the office to throw Dafoe into a rage, giving Mace a chance to take out some of his men. It had worked, but his wife had a big chunk of flesh gone from her arm and Dafoe was still on the loose.
He palmed her cheek. “I want my wife to be safe. It’s old-fashioned as hell, but I need you to be there for me when I come home. Not because I demand it. You know I’d never do that, but because we have a family to raise. You are my life. I can’t even think about you standing toe to toe with a terrorist. It terrifies me.”
Her gaze dropped to their hands twined together. Her blood covered his fingers. She’d spilled too much and it had to stop. She nodded.
He gently raised her chin. “Was that a yes?”
“This was extraordinary circumstances, Thane. You know that.”
He leaned against the bench seat after securing the gauze with some tape and gave her a stern look. One that worked on his men, but he knew it did nothing to faze his wife. “This time, but I don’t care if the world comes to a screeching halt, topples on its axis or fire ants take over the North Pole. If we live through this, we promise never to break stride again.”
Her deep, beautiful eyes stared into his. “I hate those hoity-toity dinner parties.”
“You think I don’t? It’s part of the job, and if you don’t want me on the front lines, it means me in my number ones and you in silk from time to time.”
She shuffled over and leaned her head against his chest. “That sounds a lot like blackmail, Admiral.”
“Whatever it takes, Snow White.” He kissed the top of her head and held his delicate wife in his arms. She showed her soft side to him more and more, and he loved how they had evolved from two callused warriors into a couple who had formed a united front that no one could tear apart.
As the chopper began to descend, she turned her face up toward him and the anger melted away with the warm brush of her mouth. He loved her too deeply, but it would never dissipate, it had only gotten stronger and more entrenched with every day that passed. When her lips curved into a smile, the one she saved for him, he shook his head and rolled his eyes knowing what was coming.
“I want to see Lumin. Where is she?”
“Your arm first, then you can see her. Admiral Pennington erected a quarantined area on the southern edge of the base. Tony infected himself to save her,” he said, as he gently gripped her waist and pulled Kayla from the craft. They both leaned and cleared the whirling blades of the chopper. Two attendants with a gurney appeared from the back entrance of the hospital.
“I’m walking in on two feet, Thane.”
He swept her into his arms and laid her on the stretcher. Leaning over her, he said, “I’m joining up with the squad. When you’re finished here, call me.” A brief brush of his lips to hers made his body come to life. Her soft hand palmed his cheek, and she kissed him ferociously. With a gentle swipe, his palm stretched across her stomach, his fingers making small circles to reassure his baby girl growing in her stomach. “I love you. We’ll find Dafoe, bring him down and then we’re going home.” He kissed her again quickly. “I’ll call Nina’s mom and find out how Adam is doing.”
She nodded. “I’ll head back to Base Command after I check on Lumin and Tinman.”
“Bye, baby.” He nodded at the attendants and watched as they wheeled her away. He knew she was safe, but it didn’t stop his stomach from rolling over. Every time his wife was out of sight he worried about her. No matter how many years would pass, it would always be that way. Every day was a blessing, one he didn’t deserve, but coveted with his soul. He turned his gaze toward the sea, and hoped Tinman would have a chance to find what he, Mace, and the other married men on the team had.
Home and heart kept them alive, gave them a place to center themselves when faced with an endless battle. Once upon a time he took up arms because of the rush it gave him, now he did it for his son and for his little girl who would soon join the world. His priorities had shifted since becoming a husband and father, but the end result was the same. There was no room for terrorism and tyranny, and if he could bring those responsible to their knees, he’d neutralize them all. Callum Dafoe was at the top of the list.
* * * *
Mace hit the base tarmac running. The cooler he carried wasn’t just vaccine; it held his best friend’s future. Lumin had touched Tinman like no other woman. Not even Nina had brought out the dormant qualities of Tony, long ago hidden by a harsh upbringing. Two Frogs from SEAL Team Three stood guard in front of the quarantine tent. “How is she?”
Paul Armstrong pulled aside the entry flap. “Bad, really bad,” he said.
Four figures in airtight suits mulled around the mobile equipped enclosure. One of them raised a hand and passed through two small partitions to meet him. “Is that it?” the man muffled through his mask.
He handed the cooler to the guy and peered through the plastic walls where two beds surrounded by medical equipment sat. Lumin lay in one, Tony sat by her side, gripping her hand in both of his, his head bent watching her chest rise and fall with help from a ventilator. Mace read the taut, scared expression on his face as he looked down at the girl who’d swept his heart away like sand in a windstorm. “How is she?” Mace asked.
“She should be dead by now, but she’s hanging on. We resuscitated her twice,” the suited figure said, taking the cooler from him. “It’s safer if you wait outside.”
Tinman looked up and closed his eyes in relief. Mace gave him a thumbs-up. “Never give up, buddy,” he yelled. Tony nodded, but he recognized the face of a man whose faith only had a few precious drops left to draw from.
As Mace pushed the plastic flap aside he came face to face with the base priest. “Why are you here?” It came out with a sharp edge.
“I was requested to perform Last Rites.”
Mace shook his head. “Father, with all due respect, if you do that, you’re giving her permission to die, and she can’t. She has to live.”
“And if she does die, she’s a soul without preparation and absolution.” Father Pickering gave him a sympathetic smile. “You know this, Mace.”
Mace was Catholic and so was Nina, but Tony hadn’t been raised in any particular religion. He wouldn’t understand. “How did you know? Who called you?”
“Dr. Mallory comes to Mass. He’s in there with her, and she asked for a priest.”
Mace blew out his breath. “One second. Stay right here.” Mace skirted the tent and got as close to Tony as he could, remaining outside the walls that kept the virus trapped within. “T-man,” he said loudly.
Tony released Lumin’s hand and stepped to the plastic wall. His eyes were red and tired, his features aged with worry.
“Tinman, the priest is here. I don’t want you to kill a man of the cloth. Lumin asked for him.”
“Why?” he said, his voice ragged.
“Last Rites, my friend.”
Tony paled and his head whipped around. When he set his gaze on him again, Tony’s brow was wrinkled tight. “No. She can’t.”
“Remember when my sister Leslie was dying? I explained it to you then. Lumin was raised Catholic. It’s important to her. It doesn’t mean she’s going to give in, but if God makes the decision for her,” he paused, “she was born a Catholic, she must die as one.”
“She’s not going to die,” Tony said gruffly.
“Buddy, you know that’s not all up to her.”
“Bullshit.”
“Tinman, your heart is talking right now. I know what it’s saying to you, but faith is part of her life and if you want to help her, you have to help every part of her, including this.”
Tony’s lids snapped s
hut and tears ran down his face. His agony tore at Mace’s heart. A hand touched Mace’s shoulder, and he turned his head to see Kayla standing there. Her arm was bandaged, but there’s no way she’d already been tended to by a doctor. “Did you go to the hospital?”
She ignored his question. “Mace is right, Tony. We all have to believe in something, especially in our darkest hour. Lumin is desperately hanging on for you. In the warehouse, she told Nina and me how much she loved you and what she shared with you. As a Catholic, she was raised to believe that sex before marriage is a sin, but she saw so much goodness in you that she gave you her innocence. I know this is hard to understand, but she needs to ask for forgiveness. Don’t deny her this right.”
Tony hung his head and nodded.
“I’ll go talk to the Father, maybe he can offer a prayer for our friend as well. I think he needs one,” Kayla said quietly.
Mace squeezed her hand.
“Kayla’s going to tell the Father he can come in.” He gnawed on his lip. “How are you feeling?”
“Doesn’t matter,” Tony said, still staring at the ground.
“You matter to us.”
“What else could I have done? What did I do wrong?” Tears welled in Tony’s eyes when he raised his head. “How can I protect her now? I’ve never felt so useless and empty.”
“No easy day, buddy. Especially today. I hope years from now, you and Lumin will look back and say this was the hardest day.”
“I’ve never felt like this. I hate it,” he choked out.
Mace nodded, remembering when he held his sister in his arms as she took her last breath. He’d been gutted from the inside out, and nothing before or since that day hurt as bad.
Code Name: Luminous Page 20