Steele (The Elite Forces Book 4)

by Kathy Coopmans

  “I would love that,” I divulge, knowing full well that after he drops me off at home, that it will be a long time before I discuss them with anyone, since I don’t really have any friends or family around to talk to. I kept to myself most of the time. The only real friend I had was Ivy, and I’m sure she’s long gone by now. I’m going to be too busy with school and getting things in order to make friends, anyway. I’ll be talking to myself before too long, which is a scary, treacherous thought. I’ve always been a talker and a dreamer.

  “He’s up here on the left,” he reveals; those long legs of his stride with confidence as they carry him down the hallway. He doesn’t even knock when we get to the door. Steele pushes it open, steps aside for me to enter before him, and shuts it behind us.

  “Wake up, you crazy motherfucker,” he shouts. I jump and so does Ace after being woken from undoubtedly the drowsy effect from pain meds.

  “You fuckface. Can’t you see I’m hurting here?”

  “No shit. I thought you’d be all doped up and hanging from the rafters by now.” Steele moves around me and braces his hands at the end of the bed, flashing that smile again. One of those smiles that reaches his eyes. “You look a hell of a lot better than you did the other day.”

  “Well, hello, sunshine,” Ace draws out, completely ignoring Steele.

  “Hello, Ace. How are you feeling?” I ask. My eyes are roaming back and forth between his and Steele’s. He’s higher than a kite on whatever they have him on. “Never mind. I can tell you have no idea how your leg is feeling; your mind is feeling good, though, right?” I laugh and turn to see Steele staring at me in a way that has me blushing.

  “You got that right, Doc.” He jerks his head back suddenly on his pillow. His eyes are squinting as he rakes me over. “Why the hell are you covered up like that? Woman, you are certifiably one of the prettiest little things I’ve seen. You came to me like an angel straight from the sky. You shouldn’t be hiding behind one of those things.”

  “You really must be high on those drugs if you don’t remember me wearing one when we first met. It’s customary for women to wear them in Iraq. I didn’t want to disrespect them, and well, now, I haven’t thought about taking if off. Does it offend you?” I hope not, or else I’ve pegged these two men wrong. I consider them to be brutally honest, but when they both respond with a resounding full-throated “No” that’s preceded by the lord's name in vain, I find myself letting out a whoosh of air.

  The room turns eerily quiet until Steele speaks about us leaving without Ace because of a job he’s been called to do. I let them talk while I imagine they don’t hate what I’m wearing per se, but these two men have seen and witnessed more hate, more killing, and more depraving things than I could ever begin to imagine. I know they have. How could they not?

  “Well, sunshine. I may be high, but I’m lucid enough to know that I wouldn’t have both of my legs if it weren’t for you. You’ll make one hell of a doctor one day. Thank you, Grace, and I mean that.” It’ll never get old hearing someone tell me that. I tried to learn as much as I possibly could from watching my father.

  “Thank you,” I say. “I’m sorry you won’t be going back with us. It’s best you stay here and heal before you make the trip anyway. If you ever come my way, I would love to hear from you.” I lean in and give him a hug. He nearly squeezes the air out of my lungs with his big arms.

  “That you can count on. Now, get her home. Vice has everything worked out with Kaleb to get us back. I’m good here.”

  “You call me if anything changes. I’ll be here in a heartbeat, brother.” I sigh as I listen to these two men exchange their obvious caring for each other in a code only known to them. It’s sweet, endearing, and one I desperately hope to share with someone someday.

  ~~~~~~~~~~

  “Oh, my gosh,” I gasp when we step onto the plane. Here I was thinking we would be flying in one of those little bitty things across the ocean. It’s not huge, but it has lots of space. There are only eight seats and a long couch, but it’s luxurious all the same.

  “I don’t normally fly back and forth in these. I figured you might want to sleep or stretch your legs. It’s a long and boring flight. There is a small bedroom and a bathroom back there and a galley.” He points toward the back of the plane.

  I’m breathless and overwhelmed all at once. No one has done anything like this for me before. I’ve never been a materialistic girl. I never will be, but this means more to me than my words can express.

  “Thank you. Does this mean I can’t ride in the front?” I know I sound ungrateful, but his company is what I’m looking forward to the most.

  “Of course, you can; you can get up and move around whenever you feel like it. Unless the weather is bad. Which, the last time I checked, the storm was south of where we’re going. Come on. Let’s get out of here.” He steps further into the plane and then latches the door behind us. He places our bags in a side closet and guides me to the front of the plane by placing his hand on my lower back. Another simple gesture that burns through my skin.

  This spark I feel is becoming an occurrence whenever he touches me. I’m not naïve. However, my mind doesn’t know what to make of it. I don’t understand why a man who has no clue who I am would go to the trouble of flying a plane across the ocean for me, let alone be so concerned for my comfort.

  “Oh,” I say, my train of thought now paying particular attention to all the gadgets in front of me.

  “Don’t let it scare you. If you're lucky, I’ll let you help.” He closes the door to the small space and guides me to my seat.

  “I could never help. I’d have us spiraling to the ground in an instant.” My resistance proves my lack of self-confidence when it comes to something of this magnitude.

  “It’s easier than it looks. It’s the privilege of having technology on your side. This plane is state of the art and known for its amenities, but also for its ease on the pilot.” I watch him maneuver around all the knobs and buttons as if he could do this blindly. The passion on his face as he explains what he’s doing reminds me of my father’s face when he would speak of saving people. I recognize a love of life on others, because it’s all I’ve been around with my parents.

  “Well, I’m honored to travel in such luxury. Thank you for this.” He turns the engine on before he turns to look at me.

  “You’re welcome, Grace. Now, sit back and enjoy the ride. I’ll have you seeing the ocean below us before you know it.” I follow his lead and look straight ahead and watch the runway pass at an increased speed until we lift off the ground.

  “I can’t believe how much different everything looks from up here.” I try not to seem like an inexperienced fool as the shock of seeing the scenery flows through me. The terrain shifts as we fly over, and I take in all the shadows and changes in the view.

  The silence in the cabin is due to my inability to speak around the mixture of astonishment and nervousness as I say good-bye to everything behind me and watch everything new on the journey to the rest of my life.

  Less than five minutes after Steele announces we passed over Germany and into the Netherlands, an alarm goes off, things start flashing, and Steele bellows out a solid “Fuck.” My heart races as he quickly moves to push buttons, flips controls, and starts to speak to air traffic control in English, and yet his words all sound foreign to me. He glances my way, eyes wide, teeth bared, and the sudden urge for me to scream for my life threatens to rip from my throat. I can’t die. Not here, not like this. I made a promise; he made a promise.

  “Don’t you dare start to freak out on me. I need to land. One of my engines just failed, and there’s no way we’re flying any further than we have to like this.” The plane begins to dip right along with my stomach, my heart, and every other internal part of me. I’m freaking out, while he appears to be calm and in control. The closer we get to the ground, the more I begin to see my life flash before my eyes. He looks at the terrain ahead and turns us at an angle toward
a large field that’s relatively empty. I suppose I should be thankful we weren’t over the ocean when the engine went out, except the faster we descend, the more all the air tries to escape my lungs and my heart leaps into my throat. I see a huge strip of trees lining the horizon before the field where I assume he’s trying to land. Oh god, he’s going to swipe those trees.

  “Stay calm and hold on. This’ll be bumpy as fuck.” My sweaty palms slip along the smooth leather of the armrest. Every fiber in my body tenses and hurts.

  I hold my breath, while he focuses on saving our lives. The plane teeters, it swipes the trees, bolts my body forward, and the seatbelt burns my skin. This is a matter of life and death, and he’s much more stressed out than he appears to be now as his knuckles are white and his hands appear to be glued to whatever it is he’s holding. He guides us to the ground and lands us with a hard-thundering jar to the plane. My heart is vibrating in my chest as the plane breaks, steel against steel screeches through the small confines of the space. “Shit, the landing gear will be fucked,” he hollers before he slams his fist into the side of the plane.

  Everything stops in an instant. He turns to look me, pushing and pulling at his harness until he’s free. I think I’m in shock as I watch him transform from a raging, terrified man to a sincerely concerned one.

  “Are you hurt?” His eyes scan me from head to toe. When his gaze stops at my face, he cocks his head to the side. I’m assuming the scared look on my face has something to do with why I don’t answer him for the longest time. Either that, or I’m dead, and his handsome face is less than a few inches from mine.

  “I’m fine,” I mutter, my hands still clinging to the seat.

  “Unhook your harness and don’t come out unless I tell you to. Let me see how bad the damage is out there.”

  “Okay,” I say with a shaky voice, my eyes watching him go. I’m terrified the instant he’s out of my sight. I’m not sure where we went down, but I know being out in the middle of nowhere isn’t safe. I try to spot where he is through the window, but when I don’t see him, I start to panic. By the time I have my harness and headphones off, look at the burns across my collarbone, he’s talking to himself as he comes back up the stairs.

  “Let me see if I can get someone out here to help us.” He places the headphones back on, pushes several buttons, and speaks in his foreign code. I place my hands over my ears, the static loud and piercing as he tries to connect with someone. After a few minutes of no response, he removes them and sits back in his chair, looking defeated and frustrated.

  “We’ll have to wait until they find us. We should be safe here, but just to be sure, we won’t be leaving the surrounding area. If you need to go outside and I’m not out there, please let me know. Just don’t worry, everything is going to be fine. I know my guys will be en route as soon as I come up missing.” I don’t know if I should feel safe or not. I’m trying to, but it just isn’t coming easily.

  “Grace. I promise you’re safe. I won’t let anything happen to you.”

  CHAPTER SIX

  STEELE

  I can’t get a signal on this phone to save my ass, and that’s precisely what I’m trying to do. Mine, along with a woman who’s scared to death. Hell, I’ll be surprised if she steps foot off the plane. She looks terrified almost to the point of being traumatized. I can only imagine the possibilities running through her mind as she realizes we’re trapped here until they find us.

  I’ve lost contact with air traffic control, with everyone. At least they know the general area we were in when we went down. I have that to be thankful for at least. One thing I know is, this will be last goddamn time I rent a private luxury jet to haul some woman across the fucking nation. I’m better off sitting in the cockpit of my own planes. Son of a bitch, what was I thinking?

  “We have food and water. Also shelter. It won’t take them that long to get here. I’d say a day at most, if that.” I know Vice isn’t too far, but he isn’t a pilot. He’ll have to coordinate someone to come this way to search for us until Kaleb gets someone else on it.

  “What do you say I show you around the plane?” I’m trying to take her mind off the fact that we just crashed because I can see her mind whirling with all the possible dangers she’s dreaming up. I work to get her to talk just to help ease the tension and make sure she’s not in total shock over having to emergency land.

  The truth of the matter is, I won’t let anything happen to her. She’s a personal mission of mine. One that I promised I’d fulfill, and I plan to do so no matter how difficult it is to succeed. Which, I’d say landing a plane in the middle of bum fuck nowhere is a good start. Well, not good, but it proves how determined I am to get through this mission.

  “I think I’m bad luck.” She starts to speak as we make our way down the small hallway toward the back of the plane. I sigh in relief, because shit, she hasn’t said a word. I was beginning to think she really was going into shock. At least she isn’t all hysterical.

  “I don’t know what happened. It passed inspection perfectly, but we’ll get a different plane to head back. We may be stuck flying commercial, but it’ll get the job done if that’s what we have to resort to.” I watch her take in the tiny bedroom, her eyes remaining glued to the bed. It's not anything different from any other plane, except the fancy sink, mirror, and a small vanity. I guess she’s probably never been on a private plane like this before.

  “I’ll leave you exploring in here for a bit while I see what I can do about the landing gear. It’s bent all to hell, and I’m not sure it’ll get this off the ground the way it is now.” I leave her the second I see her catch a glimpse of herself in the mirror. It’s obvious she hasn’t seen a mirror in a while by the way she slowly attempts to touch it, never taking her eyes off of her own face in the process. A face that I’m sure is only the beginning of how beautiful she is. It’s hard to think that way about her when she’s all covered, but it’s her eyes. They’re pure and innocent. Something I rarely see in a woman, and if I do, it’s generally before something terrible happens to them in the name of war.

  “It’s a good thing I won’t be lifting this bitch off the ground,” I say to myself. The landing gear is beyond repair. The wheels are all bent to hell and twisted. I’m surprised they’re still holding this baby up.

  We landed just over the border in the Netherlands, next to a forest that can provide shelter if we need it. This is what I do, what I was trained for. Survival even in the wildest conditions, so should be a breeze. The Netherlands should be a very safe place for us to be, but I’m always looking for a plan in the event something goes wrong.

  I’m thankful as fuck that whatever the hell went wrong with this plane was something that I could handle. It scared the piss right out of me when that engine cut and the controls dipped, alarms going off and the cockpit wracking all kinds of haywire.

  I crawl from underneath the plane, wipe the dirt off my pants, and damn near fall on my ass when I glance up to see her take the first few steps down the stairs. Her long, brown hair blows in the wind, and for the first time I see Grace’s tiny, hot as fuck figure that’s not hidden by the bulky dress she wore. She has on a pair of light-colored jeans and a thin t-shirt that hugs her body. And boots, fucking black combat boots.

  “How does it look?” She looks down at me with her brows pinched together in concern.

  “Amazing,” I voice, then quickly realize by the loud gasp that escapes her throat that she’s not talking about her hair, clothes, or body. She’s talking about the damage to the plane. Shit.

  “I’m sorry. Please don’t take this as a way of me hitting on you, but since I’ve already stuck my foot up my ass, I may as well say what’s on my mind. You are absolutely beautiful.” She puts her head down and lets out a slight giggle that makes me smile. It’s a sound that I haven’t heard from her yet and one I won’t be upset to hear again.

  “I know you don’t mean it that way. I mean, how could you?” Say what? I unexpectedly frown at
her remark. She’s not an overly confident woman. That shit needs to change and fast. She’s going to have men all over her back in the States. I don’t know why, but the idea of any man looking at her the way I am doesn’t sit well with me.

  This unexpected side of her has me scratching my head, wondering if she didn’t smack hers somewhere along the way. In fact, I don’t think she has any idea as to how beautiful she really is. I’ll admit to myself that her stunning looks and incredible body have left me standing here like a fucking fool. I knew she was a pretty woman, but this view isn’t even close to what I imagined. Jesus, her skin is flawless. This is blindsiding me in a way that could lead to dangerous territory for the both of us. I need to stay away.

  “So, how does it feel to have all of those layers gone?” I divert the subject back to her to get her feeling more comfortable in her own skin.

  “It’s strange but freeing, if that makes sense. I’ve looked forward to removing those layers for some time now. Leaving behind my old life as I am, seems like the perfect time to do it.”

  “Well, I do prefer you this way. It allows me to see just how gorgeous you are.” I mean that shit right down to my bones. I can’t seem to move at the moment.

  “Thank you. I will miss some of the people I just left behind, it’s just, well, I’m an American. It’s time to act like one.” She shrugs, and I find myself caught up in watching the way she moves. Her hair is so long, flowing in the wind, and I’d bet my ass it smells just as good as it looks. I’m gawking at her like a wide-eyed idiot with a smirk spreading across my face. This woman is a whole heap of trouble for me. More trouble than I need. It’s important for me to rein this urge of desire in right now.

  Grace deserves to be respected in every way, and here I am looking at her like a starved lunatic. She deserves a simple life and a man who can give it to her. My own life is so far off the path that I live in the dark half the time. Besides, I truly can’t be a judge of anything; I’ve never had a long-term relationship with a woman in my life.