From Mission to Marriage

by Lyn Stone

  She looked up at the wide ribbon of sky visible over the walls of the ravine. “It’ll be dawn soon, Clay,” she shouted down to him. “I’m going to start down the mountain and get a rescue team. All you have to do is stay alive, you hear me?” When he didn’t answer, she stuck the light in the mud and braced it with some stones so he would have light. “Hang on. We’ll get you out soon.” She hoped with all her heart it would be soon enough.

  Vanessa had gone less than a quarter mile when she heard the thump, thump, thump of a chopper. Damn! She had no flashlight, no way to signal them. The one she had left in the ravine with Clay was shining down on him and might not be visible from above. No way to light a fire, either. Her clothing wouldn’t even reflect if they used a searchlight. The rain had thoroughly doused James’s fire.

  She started back up, hoping they would keep hovering around the mountain until she could reach that flashlight and beam it up. Wildly grabbing at bushes and trees to help propel her faster, she scrambled toward the ravine.

  What was the helicopter doing here anyway? Maybe her grandfather had gotten worried and called someone in to search. God bless him, he had wanted to come, too. She wished now she had allowed it. He would know exactly what to do.

  Almost there, she told herself, though she knew she still had a ways to go. The sound of the chopper faded. “Don’t go!” she cried aloud. “Please don’t go!”

  She got up and ran, stumbling the last fifty feet, threw herself on her stomach and retrieved the flashlight. Shining it up through the clouds, she prayed it would be seen, even as she realized there was no sound from up there now. They had abandoned the search.

  Choking back her terror, she rolled back to the edge and lit up the ravine where Clay lay. “They’re searching!” she called down to him. “Hang on! They’ll be back!”

  When he didn’t move or acknowledge her in any way, Vanessa lay back and switched off the light to save the batteries. Her eyes kept closing and she feared she would pass out from exhaustion and miss signaling if they did another flyover.

  Had to stay awake. She couldn’t let him die. To remain conscious, she began chanting a song of hope, one in the old language. Her grandmother had taught it to her years ago. Somehow it held despair at bay, so she repeated it. On her third repetition, she heard the chopper again and sobbed with relief.

  She switched on the flashlight and aimed it for the sound. Just as the batteries were weakening, the searchlight from above shone down on her. Vanessa waved her arms wide in welcome as the aircraft hovered. Unable to stand, she watched someone rappel down a rope and land a mere fifteen feet away in the clearing where James had built his fire.

  “Vannie?” someone called, running toward her. “Is that you?”

  Her grandfather? “Du-da?” she whispered, then called louder to him. “We have to get Clay! He’s been hit and he’s in the ravine. You can barely see him. Hurry!”

  He used a collar mike and spoke with those in the rescue chopper and told them an agent was wounded. Immediately, another man slid down the cable and joined them. She recognized Sam Wolf, of the emergency rescue team she had worked with when she’d been a guide. “There’s no place to put down,” he said. “We’ll have to reel him up.” He looked at her. “You hurt, Van?”

  “I’m okay. Just go get him,” she ordered, pointing into the ravine.

  Sam put a hand on her shoulder, thankfully her good one. “There’s no room for all of us but we’ve called for another chopper and they have your coordinates. If you can wait, I’ll go up with the victim.”

  Victim? He was calling Clay the victim. Vanessa pushed to her feet. “Agent Senate will need blood. He’s lost a lot.”

  Sam nodded and began rigging the cable and giving orders to whoever was operating it from the chopper. She and her grandfather moved out of the way. He held her close while they watched and worried.

  “They almost gave up,” her grandfather said. “Then we saw something on the rocks up there. Thought it was you, Clay or maybe Hightower. When they beamed the searchlight down, it was the panther.” He pressed her head to his chest and comforted her as he had when she was a child. “I knew you and Clay were near when I saw it. We followed it with the light until we saw your flashlight.”

  “His spirit guide protects him,” Vanessa said softly and looked out across the mountain.

  “You, too,” her grandfather assured her. “Maybe because you will belong to him. Think so?”

  Vanessa couldn’t answer that. In her heart, she did belong to Clay, but she knew it was much more complicated than that. Sex didn’t necessarily make them a couple. Neither did these strong feelings they had for one another. There were large issues in Clay’s life that he had to deal with before he shared it with anyone, even a woman who loved him. She just prayed now that he would live to work things out.

  Before they knew it, Sam and Clay were ascending on the cable that looked too skinny to support two men. She finally sucked in a deep, cleansing breath and released it in a rush once they disappeared into the chopper. It veered away, taking her strength and her heart with it.

  “He’s in good hands now,” her grandfather said gently, patting her back.

  “Thanks, Du-da,” she sighed and collapsed in his arms.

  When she regained consciousness, Vanessa wondered who had beaten her black and blue. Her arms and hands were a mass of scratches and bruises. Her legs felt like rotten rubber and she couldn’t get her mind around what had happened. It seemed someone had questioned her and she had answered, but she was still a little fuzzy on that.

  She was lying in a hospital room. Only her grandmother was with her. “Where are we?”

  “Finally, you’re awake! You’ve been out if it for nearly eight hours. Want some water?” She held a straw to Vanessa’s lips. “We’re in Asheville. They brought you here in the second helicopter. You were pretty much out of it. There were no apparent injuries except for bruises, but they’re keeping you here a while for observation. Do you hurt anywhere, dear?”

  “No, ma’am. Clay? How is he?”

  “In ICU. Don’t worry, he’ll make it. The bullet did some muscle damage, but was fairly close to the surface. Loss of blood was the worst of it. They fixed that. Every lawman in three counties volunteered to replace it with theirs.” Her grandmother smiled. “But they were preempted by those agents from McLean. Four of them flew down here. Apparently, your young man inspires great loyalty in his friends.”

  “He’s not my young man,” Vanessa argued with a wry laugh.

  “But you wish he was, don’t you, dear?”

  Vanessa nodded and lay back, wishing that, and also that she could see him, just to assure herself that he was recovering.

  The door opened and a tall, dark-haired man entered the room. He wore a business suit, a boring tie and a look of angry concern. “You are Vanessa Walker?” he demanded.

  She drew her lips to one side and gave him another onceover. “Says so on my chart, I expect. Who wants to know?”

  “Jack Mercier. I work with Agent Senate.” He nodded to her grandmother and asked politely, “Would you mind if I spoke to Ms. Walker alone?”

  “If you will be brief,” her grandmother answered, not at all intimidated by the man’s tough demeanor. “She has been through quite an ordeal.” She left when Mercier agreed.

  Their brief exchange had given Vanessa time to collect herself for what could be a confrontation. The man looked angry. “You mean Clay works/or you, right? You’re the agent in charge of Sextant.”

  “Yes. Did he tell you he was sent here to recruit you?”

  Before she could answer him, three other people walked in. What was this, Grand Central Station?

  Mercier looked around, obviously not altogether pleased to have an audience, yet he didn’t order them out. “Agents Griffin, Griffin and Vinland,” he said by way of introduction.

  “How do you do?” Vanessa said, going for formality.

  Mercier cleared his throat. “So, yo
u knew that you were being recruited?”

  “I did. Agent Senate was very forthright about it.”

  “He was to assist you in completing your mission, as well.”

  “Which he certainly did,” Vanessa stated.

  “It appears that you distracted him. As a result, he has been severely wounded.”

  Vanessa tried to keep her cool. This was Clay’s boss. He was upset that his man was hurt and wanted someone to blame. She could understand that. “I let him get shot. Yes,” she admitted. “And I assume full responsibility. If I had killed Hightower when I had the chance earlier in the day, Clay would have been safe.” She inclined her head and looked up at Mercier. “However, if I had, he would have detonated all that C-4 he planted and there might have been a number of innocent lives lost. If you think I feel no guilt about the man I love lying critically wounded, think again. I wish it were me and I’m sure you wish that, too.”

  “Well, well, she took the wind right out of your sails, didn’t she, boss?” The beautiful black woman with short cropped curls, long red nails and a matching designer suit stepped to the foot of the bed and winked as she spoke. “Way to go, hon. Jack’s got a mad on, so you’ll have to excuse him. See, he has a real soft spot for Clay.” She looked around, then back at Vanessa. “For all of us, if you want the truth. You doing all right?” She patted Vanessa’s foot through the sheet.

  “Fine, I think,” Vanessa said, noting the two male agents behind Mercier. One was a tall, buff blonde who would have looked more at home on a surfboard. He was smiling at her with secrets in those electric-blue eyes. The other was good-looking, too, in a Wall Street kind of way. He appeared a little impatient with the proceedings.

  Mercier cleared his throat again, meaningfully, as he glared at the woman. Then he addressed Vanessa again. “We have rules about our agents becoming involved. I will have to withdraw any offer Agent Senate might have made you concerning employment with the COMPASS team.”

  Vanessa laughed bitterly and wagged her head. “You think I care? Do you honestly think I’d be bothered by that when Clay is lying upstairs struggling to live? Get out of my room, Special Agent Mercier, and take your stupid job with you.” She shook her finger at him. “And if you think I’m going to back off Clay Senate just because you think we don’t suit, you know where you can go! And I don’t mean back to McLean!” She crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him.

  He pursed his lips and turned to the others. They peered back at him as if waiting for his response. “She’ll do,” he said with a nod and calmly walked out of the room.

  “Well, damn!” the woman at the foot of the bed said and raised her perfect black eyebrows. “Looks like you’re in, honey.”

  “In what?” Vanessa looked from one to the other of the agents.

  “COMPASS team. I’m Holly Griffin with Sextant,” the woman told her. “Married to this big ol’ rascal right here,” she said, giving the dark-haired agent next to her a backhanded knock on the chest. “This is my Will. The kid over there is Eric Vinland. He wants a few words with you. We’ll be outside.”

  Vanessa muttered something in the way of goodbye, nice to meet you and threw a questioning glance at Vinland. His name was all too familiar, one she had called from a mountaintop in an hour of madness. “What?”

  He grinned and stuck out his hand to shake. Vanessa took it.

  “You did call to me,” he said. “Came through loud and clear, too. Got me right out of a hot tub where I was about to get lucky with my new wife. I forgive you, though, and she will, too, eventually.”

  Vanessa stared. “You heard me?” Then she shook her head and withdrew her hand from his. “That can’t be. My grandfather called in our location and got the choppers there.” At his pointed smile, she asked, “Didn’t he?”

  Vinland leaned against the bars of her hospital bed and reached for her hand again. “I got your message almost word for word. Clay has a homing device implanted in his shoulder���Jack likes to keep tabs on our whereabouts���but we lost track. Figured he was underground somewhere, but his last transmission was on that mountain. I called your grandfather and he verified that’s where you and Clay had gone after Hightower. We arranged local rescue and you did the rest with that flashlight. Clay’s alive because of you, Vanessa.”

  “You heard me?” she asked again, unable to get past that.

  He laughed merrily. “Sure did. Surprised the hell out of me, too! That’s the first mind-to-mind connection I’ve had in over a year. Thought I’d lost the knack. It’s also one of the strongest I’ve experienced, ever.”

  “So you are all this way?” Van asked, trying to recall what Clay had said about it. It hadn’t been much.

  Vinland smiled. “These skills are Sextant and COMPASS’S secret weapons, so they aren’t discussed much, especially not when evaluating a prospective agent and trying to determine her own talents.” He continued. “And if you think Mercier doesn’t want you on the COMPASS team, you’re bad wrong. He knows you’re telepathic now and you can pretty much name your salary if you’re greedy. All that guff he gave you was just his version of a test. Trust me, he wants you. Today I can read his mind like a teleprompter.”

  Vanessa thought she must be dreaming. “But I’m not telepathic. All I did was what Clay told me to do. I didn’t even believe it would work. I still can’t believe it.” She scrunched up her forehead and blinked really hard to clear her mind. “It didn’t really. Did it?”

  “Yep. After setting up the rescue, we jumped on the plane and got here as quickly as we could. All present except Joe, who’s minding the store.” He held out his hands, palms up. “So welcome to the HSA family.”

  “I can’t think about that right now. All I want is to see Clay and make sure he’ll be all right.”

  “No can do. At least not right now. They’re very strict about only one visitor at a time, and as long as he’s unconscious, he has to have an agent with him.” He glanced at his watch. “Right now, that would be Danielle Sweet. She’s with COMPASS.”

  Vanessa saw red. “You have a female agent named Sweet in his room?”

  “Yep,” Vinland said with a wiggle of his eyebrows. “Dani’s a looker, too. Are you jealous?”

  “Perfectly green,” Vanessa admitted. “Get these bars down for me. I’m going up there. When he wakes up, it’s not going to be to a pretty face. It’s going to be to mine!”

  Vinland laughed out loud. “You’re gonna fit right into that bunch Jack’s hired.”

  He did just as she asked, then took her arm to help her up. “First, let’s get some of the mud out of your hair and wash your face a little better. Don’t want to scare the lad to death, do we?”

  “Oh, my God!” she cried when she saw herself in the mirror over the sink. Her hair looked like a fright wig. A huge bruise darkened her eye and one side of her face where James had butt-stroked her. And she was wearing a faded hospital gown several sizes too large and hanging off one shoulder with snaps missing. “Help!”

  “I intend to,” Vinland told her seriously. “If you’ll wait right here, I’ll be back with the necessary equipment.”

  “What equipment?”

  “Leave it to me. Disguise is my forte. When I finish with you, you’ll raise his pulse to danger level.”

  Vanessa couldn’t believe this guy who looked more boy than man. “Are you reading my mind now?” she asked.

  He smiled a secret smile. “No, I wouldn’t be that rude.” Then he cocked his head and seemed to reconsider. “Well, maybe I would, but I was actually busy checking out Clay. He’s dreaming about you right now.”

  “What? What’s he dreaming?” she insisted, caught up in the novel idea of getting inside someone’s head. No, not just anyone’s head. Clay’s. Call her interest prurient, call it intrusive. But she just had to know.

  Vinland teased her with a minute of silence, fingering his chin and squinting at her. Then he shrugged and spoke. “Clay must have some wild fantasy thing ab
out you and the rain.”

  Vanessa poked him in the arm with her finger. “Stop that this minute! Don’t you dare intrude on���”

  “Hey, peace, Van! I’m off it, okay? I only wanted to see if he was sleeping normally or in a coma or something. Now, dunk your head in that sink and be washing out some of that grime while I go steal some makeup and a hair dryer.”

  Vanessa wasn’t altogether sure she wanted him giving her a makeover. Not while she was trapped in a backless hospital gown and naked underneath. Oddly enough, she felt comfortable with Vinland, though.

  “Yes, I’m perfectly harmless,” he said with an exasperated roll of his eyes. “I’m well married and never one to poach on a friend’s woman, even when I was single. Okay? All I want to do is get you looking decent.”

  “Thanks, but you are a guy. Shouldn’t my grandmother or your friend Holly be doing this for me?”

  He cocked an eyebrow and pinned her with an exasperated look. “Hey, do you want to look merely cute or sexy as sin?”

  Vanessa snickered and tapped her temple. “Read my mind, Ace.”

  Chapter 14

  Danielle Sweet welcomed her with a smile when she entered Clay’s room. “Hi, Vanessa. Since you’re here, I guess I can take a break. He’s been pretty heavily sedated, the nurse says, but should be coming around soon.”

  Eric had been right. Danielle was a looker. An amber-eyed, brunette. And single, judging by the lack of a ring on her finger. She looked very professional in her silvery-gray suit and low-heeled pumps. The girl could pass for a newscaster or maybe a real-estate salesperson, but didn’t look tough enough to fight terrorists. She looked.. .sweet, like her name.

  She paused beside Vanessa and held out her hand. Her grip was firm. “I’m Dani Sweet. Eric tells me you’ll be coming onboard with us. Just want you to know how pleased we are. COMPASS includes only Cate Olin and myself right now, but we have another candidate hired. He’ll be joining us when he finishes his training. Clay gave you a glowing recommendation when he spoke with Holly on the phone.”