“Okay, so we have at least two hours before anyone comes in to get us.”
“Most likely.”
Joey pulled the bandages tighter on my leg. “Better?”
It was a small reprieve but I’d take anything at this point. “Yeah, but now we need to move ourselves into a more defendable position. We’re too exposed here.”
She shook her head. “You shouldn’t be moving around
“We don’t have a choice.” I pushed myself into a seated position and held out a hand to her. “Help me up.”
She wrapped an arm around my waist, holding me steady while I stood up, placing most of my weight on my right leg. The burning increased as the blood pumped harder into my leg.
“Our best bet is to stay hidden. When they realize it’s whole, they’ll be coming to salvage what they can.”
We took a position close to the door but out of sight of anyone approaching the aircraft. Joey helped me down until I could lean against the wall. My fatigues were soaked through with sweat and I was panting from the effort of moving.
“I’ll be right back. Those fuckers might have taken us down, but there is no way in hell I’m letting them take this.” Joey bent down under the control panel and started yanking out wires. Pulling a knife from her back pocket she cut the wires, then pulled a box from underneath.
The black box. They wouldn’t be able to collect any information from the craft if we needed to leave it behind. The loss of blood was slowly draining my energy, but I didn’t have time to be out of it. Talking would help.
“How did so many guys get out without serious injury?” I asked.
Joey finished what she was doing and came back to take the seat next to me, tucking the knife back into her pocket. “We took the hit on your side of the craft. I was able to land it without causing much more damage. The initial impact killed Davis and did enough damage behind you to throw you from your seat.”
“You’re that good?” I asked, surprised. Most times the choppers, when hit, went down in a fiery hunk of metal. Joey had actually managed to land it, almost in one piece.
“Did you doubt me?” One corner of her mouth lifted into the smirk I found incredibly sexy.
“No, I guess I didn’t.” I tried to smile but the longer I sat there, the more light-headed I became.
“Colin, you need to rest.”
“I can’t. You know as well as I do they’ll come to check out the crash site.”
She nodded. After that we fell into silence, both of us listening for any sign of approaching vehicles. Not only that, I was also doing the best I could to keep my eyes open. In the middle of nowhere with only the helicopter as cover, we were in the worst position possible to defend ourselves. Lucky for us, they’d want to make sure they gutted it before burning it to the ground.
Time seemed to pass in slow motion. The longer we were out there the more I worried about my ability to protect myself and Joey. I didn’t want anything to happen to her. What seemed like days had only been a matter of hours. Joey had done her best to keep the wound on my leg bandaged and closed, but without stitches there was no way to stop the flow completely. The time for the mission had come and gone. If they were successful, we should have word very soon that aircraft were en route.
The radio sparked to life. “We are en route and bringing Sam Adams with us.”
Joey’s head snapped up. “Did you hear that?”
I nodded.
“What does that mean?” she asked.
“That they’re en route to our location with—”
My words died in my throat with the sound of vehicle pulling up outside. The pain and exhaustion I was feeling faded away as my heart began to hammer in my chest, adrenaline coursing through me. Joey titled her head toward the door in front of us. In complete silence, she stood and moved to the left to give her a better line of sight outside, without being seen.
I knew there was no way I could keep the noise down, not with the injury to my leg. Instead, I got my right leg under my body, hoping to use it to push myself up if necessary. With her hands, Joey signaled that there were three men headed in our direction.
They were not friendly.
We couldn’t talk for fear of giving away our location. They’d expect the craft to be empty. At this point, the element of surprise was everything.
Pushing everything else aside, I readied my weapon. The only way we were getting out of this was shooting our way out. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Joey ready with an assault rifle.
The door creaked, four long fingers visible against the metal. My breath caught in my throat and I braced. There were raised voices and the sound of pushing.
Suddenly the metal gave way and the door swung open. I forced myself up on my right foot, shooting at the first insurgent to step through. He went down quickly, as did the guy in front of him. The third guy, however, hearing the shots, was prepared.
A helicopter sounded in the distance. The guy turned to run, firing his weapon as he fled. I couldn’t move fast enough on one leg.
I watched him stumble, falling to the ground, the dust whipping around his body like a whirlwind.
It was like watching a movie; a fight scene, where everything slows down. His gun fell from his hand but he’d already pulled the trigger.
It was too late.
“Colin!”
Pain exploded in my chest, the burning sensation radiating from the center of my chest and racing through my body toward my toes. I saw Joey diving on top of me. She looked panicked. I wondered why.
Then everything went black.
Chapter 12
Joey
I screamed at the man lying in the dirt, unloading my gun at him while I used my body to cover Colin.
The fucker stayed down. Agony like nothing I’d ever felt before seared through my shoulder but knowing we weren’t out of danger yet, I pushed it to the back of my mind. Standing, my arm hanging limply at my side, I quickly made sure that each one of the assholes weren’t getting back up again, before running to Colin. I almost froze when I saw what greeted me.
He had a hole in his chest, blood saturating the fabric around the gaping wound. Eyes closed, mouth open, sucking in air but without seeming to catch his breath. Panic gripped me and my hands shook as I covered the wound with my good hand, applying pressure like I’d been taught.
The sounds of the helicopter filled my ears, the whirling of the blades a comforting sound because it meant help was close. They’d have someone on board who would know how to help him.
Footsteps sounded but I ignored everything around me. All I could concentrate on was the gasping sounds Colin made, trying to draw air into his lungs. Tears poured down my face, and in that moment I didn’t care if it seemed weak to the men around me.
“Oh fuck, Colin,” a voice said, dropping down next to me. “Don’t move your hand, Joey. I’ll tell you when, okay?”
I looked up to see Tanner, pulling shit out of his bag. He bent over Colin with a piece of plastic.
How the hell is that going to help him?
“Move your hand now.”
I trusted Tanner. He knew what he was doing.
I pulled my hand back and gripping my elbow, I held it close to my body. Tanner covered the bullet hole with the plastic, bandaging it down. The bleeding was stemmed but Colin’s eyes remained wide as he struggled to breathe. I was about to yell at Tanner when he leaned forward, plunging a needle into his chest. A loud scream filled the air.
It was me.
Colin’s shoulders drew tight and he sucked in a lungful of air, the color beginning to return to his ice-white cheeks. My ass dropped to the ground at the sight and I took my first deep breath in what felt like hours. Colin was breathing, yes, but the rational part of my brain knew he wasn’t out of the woods yet.
Tanner continued to dress the wound. “Stretcher,” he yelled.
One of the other men with him came around to help me up. “Is your arm okay, ma’am?”
&nb
sp; “I’m fine.”
Even though it was excruciating, I let go of my arm. Their focus needed to be on Colin, not me.
He watched me. “No you’re not, ma’am. Marano?”
“Brant, show Hurley your shoulder,” Tanner demanded, not once looking up from what he was doing.
Hurley examined my shoulder.
“Looks like the bullet hit her shoulder, Marano. No exit wound.” He pressed on the wound, forcing a cry from my lips. He glanced down. “Probably broke something on the way in.”
“Grab two packs of gauze and put pressure on both sides. Don’t push too hard, just enough to contain the bleeding. I’ll get her in a sling, but I need to finish stabilizing Dunham first.” Tanner didn’t look up from placing an IV into Colin’s arm.
The men moved toward me with the med kit but I held them off. “I’m fine, don’t worry about me.”
“Knock it off, Brant. Let Hurley help you until I can look at the wound.”
I wanted to argue with Tanner, but as Hurley put pressure on the wound my knees got weak and a throbbing sensation traveled from my shoulder to my fingers, burning in its intensity.
“Shit,” I panted. Tears sprang to my eyes.
My eyes were glued to Colin. Tanner and a few other men rolled him to his side, pushing the stretcher underneath him.
Don’t you dare die, Dunham.
Please.
Don’t die.
“Marano’s the best we got,” Hurley whispered to me.
Somehow he knew exactly what I was thinking. Four of the men stood, lifting the stretcher with them. One held the IV bag high as they moved toward the waiting chopper. My legs itched to follow, but when I took a step Tanner blocked me.
“Okay, Hurley, let the front one go. I need to know how bad the wound is.”
“I’m—”
“Don’t even utter the word fine,” Tanner ordered. “If you were fine, you wouldn’t have blood dripping down your arm.”
I clamped my mouth shut. Tanner cut the shoulder off my shirt to expose the wound. The sooner he checked me over, the sooner we’d be in the air getting Colin to a hospital. I watched over Tanner’s shoulder as they loaded Colin in.
“Your collarbone is most likely broken. You’re lucky it’s not shattered. I need to get a sling on this and clean up the wound. You might need surgery to set the bones.”
I nodded and kept my mouth shut. The adrenaline was no longer blocking the pain. Surprised at his ability to stay calm in this situation, I waited while Tanner pulled a sling from his bag and carefully slipped it onto my arm. Two men helped me into the chopper, before climbing in themselves. Tanner checked on Colin, moving back to me with his med kit.
“Did you bandage his leg?” he asked me, pulling out a syringe.
“I did.” My gaze didn’t leave Colin, even as the needle slid into the skin surrounding the bullet hole.
“I figured. None of the guys on your transport have ever done that well. They do enough to stop the bleeding, but I normally have to clean up the mess.” Tanner continued to work on my shoulder, but I couldn’t feel a thing. It was blissfully numb.
“I didn’t even realize how bad it was until Colin started breathing again,” I said absently.
“I’m not surprised. I hear that a lot.”
“Is he going to be okay?” It was one of those questions you want to know the answer to, yet are afraid to ask at the same time. No, that was wrong. I wasn’t afraid to ask.
I was afraid to know the answer.
Tanner wrapped a bandage around my arm. “I don’t know. I just don’t know.”
I would have been confident had it not been for the break in his voice. I pulled my attention from Colin to look at Tanner. His eyes were glassy with unshed tears. And in that moment I realized the tears didn’t make us weak: they made us human.
He finished up and moved back to Colin again. Exhaustion took over. I rested my head against the wall behind me, letting my eyes slide closed. There was still about an hour before we reached the base.
As soon as we touched down, Colin was rushed off into surgery. I was taken in the other direction, toward the makeshift hospital.
Hurley had been right. Tanner was the best—or so I was told again when it was determined that he’d done enough to stem the bleeding and for me to be airlifted out for surgery to fix the rest of the damage.
The nurses helped me change and replaced the sling on my arm with something more constrictive to keep it from moving too much. Even with pain meds, the slightest movement hurt like hell. Once they left the room, I let the tears fall again.
Davis was dead.
Colin was fighting for his life.
I was lucky to escape with mine.
Tanner walked in and I brushed furiously at my face, trying to hide the fact that I’d been crying.
“Don’t. You have every right to be upset. I just came in to let you know that the doctors managed to get Colin’s lung patched up. He’s still going to need surgery to fix the damage and repair his leg, but he’ll be transported to Germany with you and a few others who were wounded taking the mountain.”
“Thank you.” Some of the tension left my body as relief washed through me. I knew there was more to come for Colin, but each stop along the way was a milestone worth acknowledging. “For coming to tell me,” I added.
He was silent for a second. “I’m not sure if Colin told you how he felt, but I’ll say that he cares more about you than I’ve ever seen from him. He would want you to know.”
My throat started to burn as I held back the emotions that wanted to spring forward. “Thank you,” I whispered. “He means more to me than I ever thought possible.”
Tanner stood and looked down at me. “Have a safe flight, and remember—don’t give up on him.”
The words he’d spoken less than a week ago rang much truer at that moment.
“Never,” I promised.
I’d never been a patient person and pretty soon the waiting began to kill me. I wanted to be loaded onto the transport. I needed to see Colin with my own eyes. Unfortunately, the sight that greeted me as I was wheeled into the cargo hold, froze the breath in my lungs.
There were so many machines attached to his body. He was no longer breathing on his own. The beeping and whooshing sounds of the machines sent a chill through me. Those were the sounds of pain and death.
The gurneys were strapped to the wall and in no time we were en route. The doctor and nurses checked on us periodically, but I noticed that at least one remained with Colin at all times.
My chest squeezed tight. They wouldn’t have flown him if he wasn’t ready to make the flight, but that didn’t keep the worry at bay. I was glad I hadn’t been hooked up to any monitors for fear of them hearing the pounding of my heart, but each minute that passed and put us closer to Germany helped me relax, if infinitesimally.
I knew one thing for certain.
Time was not on our side.
Eventually we landed and Colin was wheeled directly into surgery. The surgeons had been alerted before our arrival so they were able to have everything prepped and ready.
The nurses took me to have X-rays, then brought me back to my room to wait for the doctor. Nothing could settle my stomach. Tanner wasn’t there to bring me information, and there was no way they’d let me go check on Colin until after my shoulder was repaired.
“Afternoon, Sgt. Brant, I’m Capt. Fisher. I need to take a look at your shoulder so we can determine the best course of action. We need to get you up and flying again.”
He pulled my chart from the foot of my bed and gave it a quick scan, assessing the X-rays they’d taken earlier before removing the bandages and examining the wound.
“Looks like we’ll need to clean the bullet path and see if there’s any nerve damage. If there is, it should be minimal. My bigger concern is the fracture to your clavicle. I can repair the damage but because of where the break is, you’re going to need physical therapy to regain full mobility.
”
“As long as I can fly again, I’ll do any therapy I need to.”
He smiled. “It’s good to see that kind of positive attitude. We’ll be able to get you back in the field in no time.”
“Thank you, sir.” I didn’t have the heart to tell him I couldn’t give two shits about myself at the moment.
The captain left my room and I was prepped for surgery not too long later. A nurse came to talk me through the procedure and to have me sign all the paperwork. Truth be told, I could have been signing anything. My mind was with Colin.
I expected to be a few hours in recovery. Hopefully by the time I came around there would be some news on Colin.
***
My eyes fluttered open. It took a few minutes to figure out where I was. The heavy weight and constriction in my shoulder reminded me exactly what had happened.
“Sgt. Brant,” one of the nurses said from the foot of the bed. “I’m Cpl. West. You’ve been stirring for the last thirty minutes. I knew it wouldn’t be long until you woke up.”
My lips and throat were dry. I tried to speak, but my voice cracked with the effort.
“Hold on. Let me get you some ice chips.”
Cpl. West placed a cup on the tray next to the bed. With my free hand, I tried to push myself up but my body was too exhausted from the trauma and I fell back against the pillows.
“Let me help you,” she said, wrapping an arm around my back and sitting me forward. At the same time, she pushed a button on the side of the bed, bringing it upright. “Your procedure went as planned. Cpt. Fisher will be in later to check on you.”
I fed a few ice chips between my lips. That wasn’t exactly what I wanted to know. When I was satisfied I was no longer trying to speak through the Sahara Desert, I spoke. “I need to find out about one of the soldiers brought in with me.”
“I can’t give out any medical information pertaining to another soldier. I’m sorry.”
She busied herself, unable to meet my eye, her cheery disposition gone. For a brief second I felt bad, but the feeling passed quickly in my desire to know. I placed my hand on her arm, stopping from moving away. “Please, I don’t need to know all the details. I just need to know he’s alive.”
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