The helicopter jolted, and Brittany sat up, eyes open, alert. The voice of the pilot, Sergeant Potts, came over the headset. “Mechanical problems. I’m calling a mayday. Hang tight, people.”
That was all he said. A second jolt, and the vibration of the engine ceased. Curses and prayers in her ears, terror in her heart, Brittany realized they were going down. Her mind flashed to her parents and her brother…and her guys.
They hit hard, and pain seared her left ankle and foot, traveling up her leg. I don’t want to die! Not now when I’ve just found Sean and Noah! It was Brittany’s last clear thought as blackness took her.
Chapter One
Landstuhl, Germany, February 24, 2018 0100 HRS
Sean hadn’t stopped shaking inside since Tommy Rogers had called and told them of the accident. They’d seen Brittany for a few minutes just before they loaded her onto the plane in Windhoek that would evacuate her to the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany.
She’d been only semiconscious when they’d been allowed to see her. But she’d said his name, and Noah’s. They’d both kissed her and told her to hang on. And they’d promised her they would be with her in Germany.
They’d scrambled, calling a quick meeting with the staff of Kendall Explorations. They were in the middle of setting up mining projects in concert with the Namibian government. Diamonds were a main source of wealth in many parts of Africa, and this particular government was more disciplined than most when it came to the management of their natural resources. Business dispatched, they’d leased a private jet and had flown more than ten hours so they could be with their woman. Noah had arranged for a car to meet them at the airport, one fitted with GPS, with the route to the medical center programed in.
Trusting his brother to keep up with him, Sean sprinted from the parking lot to the main entrance of the hospital and approached the reception desk. After passing through security and inquiring, they were directed to the surgical department.
There, the soldier guarding the ramparts informed them only that Lieutenant Phillips had arrived safely, that she’d just been taken into surgery, and that the surgery was expected to take at least four hours.
“I’m sorry, sir, that’s all the information I’ve been authorized to give you and only that much as a favor to the lieutenant’s commander.” Then, sensing exactly how upset he and Noah both were, she leaned forward. “If next of kin authorizes you to have access, then we can be more forthcoming.”
Sean read her nametag. “Thank you, Sergeant Weaver.” Sean had already noted the location of the waiting area. “We’re going to work on that. We’ll be in the waiting room.”
He didn’t relax when they reached the waiting room. Instead, he sat on the sofa, and when his brother, Noah, was beside him, Sean opened his laptop and activated his personal, secure hot spot. He logged onto Skype and then initiated a conversation with Brittany’s parents.
They hadn’t met in person yet, but in the two months they’d known Brit, they’d chatted a few times over Skype with her parents, Margaret and Bickford Phillips, and even once with her brother, Peter, a Navy SEAL who was currently deployed to an undisclosed location.
The worried faces of Mr. and Mrs. Phillips filled his computer screen. It was seven in the evening, yesterday, in Indianapolis.
“We’re here at the hospital. Brittany’s just been taken into surgery, and that’s all they’re authorized to tell us.”
“You men made good time,” Bickford Philips said. Brittany’s dad was a retired chief warrant officer in the U.S. Navy and familiar with how the military worked.
“Yes, sir. Have you heard anything more from the Corps?” The Phillips had, of course, received official notification when Brittany had been put onto the medical evacuation plane headed for Germany. However, Sean had called them personally as soon as they’d heard that Brittany had been hurt.
“No, nothing more. You’re there, and we’re not.” He turned to look at his wife, who nodded. “We want you both to stand in for us. I know we’re asking a lot.”
“Chief, it’s our honor to do so. Of course, we will. But you’ll have to officially authorize it,” Sean said.
“Already in the works. I still have a few contacts, one of them an admiral whose hide I saved a few years back. I figured this was the time to call in my marker. Before our girl’s out of surgery those folks there should have received word.”
“Thank you, sir. You know we’ll do everything we can for Brit. We won’t leave her once they let us in to be with her.”
“That’s good. I can’t bear to think of her being hurt and all alone.” Margaret was holding up pretty well. Women were made of strong stuff, Sean thought, and none exemplified that fact more than military wives and mothers.
Margaret Phillips was both.
“She won’t be alone, I promise you, Margaret. And as soon as we hear from the surgeon, we’ll let you know. Do you want us to open Skype when we speak with the doctor?”
Sean read something in Bickford’s gaze. He recognized the look of a man whose goal was to protect his wife.
“I don’t do well with that medical gobbledygook. You talk to him, let us know what he says, and then have him call us in an hour or so after that. It’ll give us time to think of questions.”
“Good plan, sir.”
“Thank you, Sean, Noah.” Margaret drew in a shaky breath. “Brittany is a strong woman. She’s alive, and that’s the most important thing.”
“Yes, ma’am. That is the most important thing.” It was the one sure fact Sean had been clinging to. The woman he loved—the woman they loved—was alive.
“We’ll let you go,” Bickford said. “Try to get yourselves some chow. You’ve been on the move for fifteen hours.”
Sean smiled. “We ate and dozed on the plane. We’re fine. Thank you, Bickford, Margaret.” He had trouble swallowing. “Thank you for the privilege of entrusting your daughter’s welfare to us.”
“She already trusted you, Sean.” Margaret gave him a small smile. “Our girl has always had sound judgment.”
“That she has, son. We’re just supporting the choice she made.” He nodded once and then severed the session.
Sean thought it likely the man was as close to tears as he, himself, was. He closed his laptop and looked over at his brother. They’d been on tenterhooks since receiving the news Brittany’s helicopter had gone down. It had been a flurry of activity until they’d managed to charter that plane. On board, they had eaten but they hadn’t slept. Sean acknowledged to himself they probably wouldn’t relax until they knew Brittany was going to be all right, not until they saw her and talked to her and held her.
“I’ll go get us some coffee. You stay here.” Noah placed a hand on Sean’s shoulder. “You can get the next round. Surgery is expected to take a while, but I think it’s better one of us is always here.”
“Thanks. I feel the same way.” He met Noah’s gaze. “We’re in this together, brother.”
“Yeah.” Noah swallowed hard, nodded once, and left the room.
While he waited for his brother to return, Sean called Tommy and gave him as much information as he possessed, which wasn’t much. But he promised an update when he knew more.
Tommy had told them he was riddled with guilt because Brittany had been the most seriously hurt of all of them. The rest, even the pilot, ended up with cuts and bumps but had been able to walk away.
Survivor’s guilt isn’t logical or rational. Nor, he thought wryly, was it predicated on having been involved in the accident in the first place.
After ending his call with Brittany’s substitute big brother, he called their manager in Windhoek. Perry North answered on the first ring.
“Any news, boss?”
It didn’t surprise him that would be Perry’s first question. Sean and Noah didn’t have a huge crew because they hired people locally, but the people who had signed on with them all had heart. There hadn’t been time for a private word with their manager b
efore they left for Germany. Despite the lateness of the hour, Sean knew he had to take the time now.
“Brit’s in surgery, but beyond that, we don’t know anything. So, we wait. Perry, I just want to reiterate that you’re in charge there from here on out. Is that going to be a problem?”
“Shouldn’t be. You’ve made it clear to all our partners, suppliers, hell, the whole damn nation, come to it, that you have complete faith in your management team. You’ve done that since the onset of this project, so we should be good. If there are any sticking points, there’s always Skype.”
“Good.” He couldn’t say why he felt the way he did. He kept telling himself that Brittany was alive, but he had the sense that she could be in for a very long recovery. “Good,” he said again. “We’re going to be here for a while, and then there’ll be recovery. We have no idea what we’re looking at. That could take weeks…maybe months. She’s more important to us than anything.”
“Damn it to hell, Sean. I’m so fucking sorry. Brit is such a sweet soul. And a kick-ass marine. It just sucks that this had happened to her.”
“She is all of those, and yeah, it sucks. I’ll keep you apprised, Perry, but as I said, from here on out, you’re in charge down there.”
“Okay, boss. You don’t have to worry about anything except your woman. Tell Noah that, too.”
Perry had known them for more than a decade, and there wasn’t much about them he wasn’t privy to. He knew that both Sean and Noah were courting Brittany.
“I will, man. Thanks.” Sean finished the call just as Noah returned to the waiting room, coffee cups in hand.
He passed one off to him then sat down. “Chief Phillips sure does work fast. Sergeant Weaver just let me know that she’s received authorization allowing us to stand in as kin. She said the surgeon will come see us when the operation is over.”
“Good. Now all we have to do is wait.”
They sat together, brothers who’d been inseparable since adulthood, despite the two years separating them. Silence between them was companionable more often than not and was so now. For about an hour.
“I keep thinking about all the blood.” Noah’s quiet words resonated.
“I know, I saw it. Her lower left leg.” Sean wasn’t surprised his brother’s thoughts echoed his own. He sighed and then met Noah’s gaze head-on. “The doctor in Windhoek said she was stable, which was why they were able to evacuate her to Germany. I’m holding on to that. I just want her to live, that’s all. I’m good with whatever else, as long as she’s alive.”
“That’s the way I feel, too,” Noah said. He swallowed hard. “We can’t lose her, Sean. We’ve barely begun, but already she’s…everything.”
“Yeah.”
Sean didn’t voice what he thought the outcome was going to be. He didn’t want to borrow trouble by speaking anything negative into existence. He knew Noah wouldn’t, either. It was enough that they’d faced the fear of the unknown, together, and decided that it just didn’t matter all that much to them. They hadn’t told her, but they loved her. Silence returned, and time passed. Sean got up and went in search of more coffee. He found the cafeteria and grabbed two coffees and a couple of fresh-looking pastries, too.
They sipped after they both practically inhaled the food then shared a chuckle because they’d often done that—what their mother used to call a “Hoover maneuver,” which was to say they simply vacuumed up every crumb.
He let his mind wander, and his thoughts went all the way back to December and their recent visit with family in Texas. “That was a hell of a Christmas party back in Lusty, wasn’t it?” Sean looked over at his brother, getting the response he expected when he saw Noah’s smile.
“It sure was. Imagine them having it a couple weeks early because we had to leave and they wanted to include us.”
“I think that Grandpa Noah learned that whole ‘family is family, and family comes first’ mantra of his from his cousins down there in Texas. When I told Aunt Samantha that he was thinking of relocating to Lusty, she decided that she’d just go visit him in Wyoming and see what was what.”
“Mom and Dad won’t mind his moving there,” Noah said. “The uncles might be pissed.”
“You mean a couple of the aunts might be pissed, don’t you?” It hadn’t taken either of them long to figure out that the aunts and uncles up north were a heck of a lot different than the relatives in Texas. Their aunts Terri and Lorna were the reasons no one in the family—except their parents and Grandpa Noah—knew how financially successful the two of them had been. Their cousin Jerry, Uncle Braeden and Aunt Terri’s oldest, was always ragging on them about being wandering ne’er-do-wells.
Sean and Noah just let him have at it. They didn’t have to prove anything to anyone. They knew their own worth.
“Yeah,” Noah said. “A couple of the aunts.” His brother’s meaning was clear. It was only those two aunts who were a problem. Everyone loved Aunt Alicia, their Uncle Ronald’s wife.
They fell into silence but not thoughtlessness. Sean didn’t need to verbalize his feelings for Brittany or relive aloud how they’d met. He knew his brother better than he knew any other man. Noah was thinking of their woman, just like he was. Thinking, remembering, praying.
There’d been something about her at first sight that had felt like an arrow, straight to his heart. Her almond eyes captured his attention first. Soft brown and graced with fine, almost sculpted brows, they’d drawn him in and warmed his soul.
Her dark brown hair, drawn back and worn in a neat, tight roll set his mind to imagining her with those long tresses loose and fluttering in the breeze. She’d been blessed with a sweet oval face, a delicate little nose, and lips so perfect he wanted to nibble on them all night long. He supposed if he’d seen her dressed to the nines that first time, with the kind of makeup a model or an actress might wear, he’d have imagined her a siren, focused on seduction.
But dressed in the green utility uniform of the United States Marine Corp, the woman looked like the American girl-next-door—and Sean had never been so instantly captivated in his life.
It wasn’t like him to react to a woman so strongly. He’d wondered, at the time, if it was just being in a new place and so soon after spending a few weeks in Lusty. Being surrounded by uncles and aunts, cousins, and, yes, especially Grandma Kate was to be reminded of the importance of family, of making connections. So many of their family members in Lusty could attest to having known fairly soon after meeting that they’d met their soul mates.
Sean hadn’t lived with that daily the way his cousins in Lusty had done. He figured he’d give it a few weeks and he wouldn’t feel as drawn to Brittany as he had in that first moment—as he knew both he and Noah had.
Only that hadn’t happened yet, and he doubted now that it ever would. The more time they spent with her, the more convinced they were that she was meant to be theirs. Forever theirs. Brittany had been just as drawn to them. They’d sensed it, and she’d admitted as much to them. It didn’t really matter that they hadn’t made love yet. She was theirs and they, by damn, were hers.
Sean closed his eyes, seeking the comfort of not-so-distant memories, and the one that surged to the top, the one that beckoned the most was their first kiss.
It had been a good evening. They’d gone to Joe’s for supper, the atmosphere there casual and relaxed, which was how they wanted Brit to feel. Then they’d brought her to their hotel suite, with the promise of a surprise for her. They heard her mumble the word “etchings,” saw her sideways glances and the cute little faces she liked to make, and knew those were only half in teasing.
They made her nervous and excited, and that wasn’t a bad thing at all because it meant she was attracted to them. To the both of them, and yes, they’d seen the confusion on her face at odd moments about that little thing.
He and Noah had decided that the time had come to clear up the confusion.
Their surprise had been the DVD they’d ordered especially for her
, the fiftieth anniversary edition of The Sound of Music—Brit’s favorite movie of all time. She’d actually squealed when they’d shown it to her, and then of course, they’d sat together and watched it.
He and Noah had discovered she had a pretty good singing voice.
The movie was over, and it was time to take her back to the Embassy compound, but they’d promised her they could watch it whenever she wished, because it was hers.
When she’d rejoined them in the living room after freshening up, Sean had taken her hand and drawn her slowly closer.
“I’m going to kiss you.” He saw the surprise and the heat and then the sorrow.
She placed her hand on his chest. “Don’t. I...” She looked from him to Noah. “I couldn’t choose between you. I won’t choose between you.”
“Ah, baby girl. We don’t want you to choose between us. We want you, simply, to choose us. Choose us both.”
Noah stepped in closer and ran his hand down her back. When Brit looked at him, he smiled and nodded toward Sean.
Sean eased her just a little closer.
“Is this a game?”
“No game, Brittany. We’ve never been more serious in our lives.” And then, as she’d looked at him, eyes wide and mouth slightly open, he laid his lips on hers.
Sean had always wondered what this moment would be like. Brittany Phillips tasted sweet and sexy and like every idea of ambrosia, of right, that he’d ever dreamt. Her tongue met his in a shy sweet dance, and he was lost and found in the same heartbeat.
Over and over again, he tasted her, gulping her essence down like a man whose life-long thirst was finally being slaked. Her body pressed closer to his, and he reveled in the feel of her finally, finally in his arms. Her nipples poked him even through the layers of clothing they wore, and he knew she could feel his erection because she gave her hips a sweet little roll against him.
Love Under Two Prospectors [The Lusty, Texas Collection] (Siren Publishing Menage Everlasting) Page 2