by Dale Mayer
Sandy said, “Could you, for good measure, wrap that chain around their waists?”
Parker looked at her in surprise and then grinned. “Are you hoping to drop them into an ocean somewhere?”
“I wish,” she replied with a small smile, but he could see the tremors still racking her frame.
“All right,” he said. “Just for you.”
It took a lot of effort to slide the chain first under one and then under the other, but soon enough he had it done. He said, “You want me to put a lock on him too?”
She found a great big lock and gave it to him. “And hopefully they don’t have a key.”
He started to laugh. “You have a vindictive streak.”
“I’ll have nightmares for the rest of my life,” she said. “I want this over with, and I want it over with now.”
He nodded, and, with the men now fully secured, he knew she was more important than getting the news out and took her in his arms. He put the gun down on the desk and held her close.
She shuddered several times and then, with a great big sigh working up her chest and finally getting out, she sagged against him. “Oh, my God,” she said. “I was so scared when he came back in. I thought you were out there to check on him, and then he was there in front of me, and you weren’t. I was so afraid he’d killed you.”
“Shh,” he whispered. “I’m fine. You’re fine. We made it yet again.”
“But for how long?” she asked, her tone somber. She twisted her head back and up to look at him. “How many times can we escape death?”
“I suggest we never get back into a position where we have to,” he said gently, stroking her cheek. “Honestly this has been a pretty rough ride, but it will end.”
She shook her head. “Not fast enough. What was that about our flights having been changed?”
“Only that we thought bringing us here early meant we were leaving early. But we weren’t. Our flight is still on time.”
She sagged. “Please tell me that we’re not staying here with those two until then? Not alone.”
“It’ll be fine.” He pulled out his phone. “Let me get this out.”
She smiled and said, “Are you contacting the colonel himself this time?”
“I would if I thought it was the colonel’s number, but I’m afraid we’re still not done yet.”
She stiffened and cried out, “What?”
He nodded. “Let me call Badger.” He took a few steps away from her.
When Badger answered, sleepy, as if he’d just woken up or maybe had been enjoying the fruits of having a loving partner, Parker said, “This shit keeps going downhill.”
Chapter 10
Sandy listened to the conversation. Getting the gist from a one-sided conversation took a bit. What she did understand was that Parker wanted Badger to contact Commander Cross again. Parker would use the other lines, but he had no way of knowing if they were being tracked. “And I’ll tell you why …”
She understood he thought somebody else was involved, but she didn’t want to contemplate such a horrific thing.
Finally he hung up the phone and smiled. “There is a fridge with cold water. Do you want some?”
She shook her head. “What if it’s poisonous?” She saw his grin and glared at him. “I’ve been through too much,” she cried out. “I don’t trust anything or anyone. And don’t make fun of me.”
“I’d never do that,” he said, holding out the bottle. “It’s got a seal on it.”
She inspected it closely, looking for any pinpricks in the seal, and then broke the seal herself and popped off the lid. She nodded. “All our water outside is dead hot now, isn’t it?”
“Yes.” Parker’s phone rang. He answered. His eyebrows shot up, and he said, “Colonel Barek, sir. Yes, thank you for contacting me directly.” And he hesitated and said, “I hate to ask this, sir, but I believe there is a code word.”
Her mouth dropped open in stunned silence. It took a lot of audacity to ask a colonel to hand out his code word.
Parker continued to talk, although it seemed to be more like encrypted code than anything. When he hung up the phone, she asked, “Is the cavalry finally coming?”
He nodded. “They will be, in about fifteen minutes.”
She moaned with joy and said, “Please let me get back stateside healthy. This is beyond ridiculous.”
“I know,” he whispered. He sat down beside her so they could watch the two men. Parker snapped his fingers, and Samson came running, obviously perturbed emotionally by what was going on. “This is hard on Samson too.”
Sandy felt bad. How selfish she was being. She shifted and called Samson in between the two of them. He came willingly and laid his head on her lap, but his gaze kept going to Gregg. She scratched him gently. “It’s really hard when people misbehave,” she said, “but it’s worse when it’s the ones we love.”
“Always the worst,” Parker said beside her. He gently stroked Samson’s back. “I can see how emotionally difficult this is. He’s partially bonded with us, but his main bond was with Gregg. And now he’s confused.”
“There’s no way we can let him go,” she said. “Not to another family. Not to somebody else. Every time he’ll get a little more damaged.”
“I don’t know about that,” Parker said. “But I do agree he’s better off staying with us. And I guess by us that means me.”
“Maybe.” She nodded slowly. “I’d like to be in his life too.”
He looked over at her, his fingers sliding down her fingers. “Just his life?”
She smiled. “Well, you too,” she teased. “It’s pretty hard to let go of a bonding event like this.”
“It does tend to make people come closer or tear them apart. They bond through something like this, or they don’t want the reminder of seeing the other person all the time.”
“Actually that makes a lot of sense,” she murmured. “But, before all this mess, I liked you anyway.”
His grin widened. “And since we’re both free …” he said, letting his voice trail off.
“We should spend some time getting to know each other a little better,” she said with a nod. “Not to mention you know it’d be very good for Samson’s mental health if we were to do that.”
He chuckled. “That’s what is important. We’ll spend time together for the dog’s sake.” And he burst out laughing. She punched him lightly. He sobered and grinned. “So we should take several steps in that direction for his mental health … and ours.”
“Personally I thought we’d already taken many steps in that direction,” she said with a wry smile. “It’s hard to not like somebody who saves your life.”
“Ditto,” he said, tilting his head toward her.
“Oh, right,” she said. And then she chuckled. “That we can even find something to laugh about in this place is amazing.”
“It’ll get chaotic when all hell breaks loose again,” he whispered. “So just keep that sense of humor and realize we will get through this.”
“Are they taking us back to the main part of the base again?”
He nodded. “We still have a few hours now, so most likely. Not to mention you want a coffee and a doughnut.”
She shook her head. “I would much rather be home and have that coffee and a doughnut. There’s this little place called Tony something. I’m sorry. I’m drawing a blank.”
“Tony’s Treats,” he supplied. “You’re right. Best doughnuts ever.”
“So, we can meet there, and I think we can even sit outside and have Samson with us,” she said.
“It’s a date.”
“That’ll seem awfully tame,” she said. “We’ve had mad gunmen after us, all kinds of stuff to entertain us. Maybe the relationship would be boring after this.”
He squeezed her fingers and said, “I’m pretty sure we can find lots of excitement to keep ourselves entertained.”
She smiled and said, “Don’t look now, but vehicles are coming.”
“Hell, no,” she said. “But I do want to see these men carted away. I’m just afraid it’ll be the wrong men.”
“Exactly,” his voice crept up. “I’m expecting to see the last traitor come through these open doors.”
She looked at him in horror. “No! That’s why you made all those phone calls, so he is picked up on the base and put away, without us ever having to see him again.”
“I know,” he said. “In theory that would work fine, but it’s all about proof when a man is accused of being involved in something like this. You have to have evidence. You can’t just let him walk.”
She scrambled to her feet, Samson scrambling with her. “Does that mean we’re heading into danger again?”
“Do you hear the vehicles? This isn’t over, but we should be safe.”
She snorted at that. “No,” she said. “I highly doubt it. But we can hope for that.” She glanced down at the two men and said, “I really want to kick them.”
He chuckled. “But they’re down, tied up and can’t move, so that’s not fair. But I do understand the sentiment.” As he checked both men for pulses, one of them opened his eyes and said, “You won’t get away with this.”
“Such a trite statement, Gregg,” Sandy snapped. “Couldn’t you come up with anything better?”
He glared at her. “You’re a dead woman.”
She kicked him in the head, smiling, then turned to Parker to say, “He was awake.”
Parker squeezed her hand and spoke to Gregg, still wincing from her kick. “Actually,” Parker said, “by the time the military is done with you, I suspect that death will be your end.”
Gregg closed his eyes and didn’t answer.
Holding Sandy’s hand, Parker led her to the window near the main door, where they watched three vehicles come in and line up beside each other in front of the hangar. He hit the automatic button and opened the big doors.
“Are you sure you want to do that?” she asked.
The men were already hopping out the vehicles.
“They’re not coming out with rifles,” he said.
“No. But what if there are six more men coming?” She gasped as she recognized one of the men. “The colonel came himself!”
Parker nodded. “Yes, that was part of my request.”
“He won’t like you yanking his chain,” she said.
He laughed. “I’m not yanking his chain. I’m cleaning his house. He should be thanking me.”
“I think he thought you had done enough,” she replied. “And that he’d cleaned his house.”
“Well, as we can see, that was not the case.” He walked over to stand beside the two men tied up.
As the six men approached, their gazes went from the men on the ground to him. And their gazes stayed on Parker.
The colonel stepped forward. “Parker?”
“Yes, sir.”
“You need to work on how you secure your prisoners.”
Parker grinned. “I think some of that you can be put down to Sandy. She wanted to make sure these suckers didn’t get up again. I was all for putting a bullet in their knees. But she is a nurse …” he said apologetically. At his words, all the men turned to her.
She took a half step closer to Parker and glared at them defiantly. “Pardon me,” she said a little sarcastically, “if I don’t seem too friendly. Since my arrival last night, I’ve been met with nothing but men trying to hurt me. US Navy men mostly and some local rebels. And if there’s a head wound on this guy, it’s because I hit him with the toolbox to knock him out while he was trying to shoot Parker and then trying to get Samson to attack Parker. Plus the kick to the head I gave him later when he told me that I was a dead woman.”
The colonel tilted his head as he heard the threat, then smiled at her. “The military will be losing an excellent nurse. We thank you for all your assistance while you’ve been here.”
“I just want to go home safe and sound. And, as much as I want to believe this is over, I somehow don’t think it is.”
“It is,” the sergeant said, walking toward her. He stepped beside the two men and shook his head as he stared down at them.
Parker dropped her hand, as if to step around and look too. He motioned at her, speaking softly. “Go over to the colonel. I’m sure he’s happy to let you sit in one of the vehicles.”
She took several hesitant steps forward, not sure what she heard.
And then he urged her to hurry.
She broke into a run toward the colonel as Sergeant Hall pulled out a weapon. He held it, facing the colonel.
“Samson,” Parker snapped.
Samson, still confused and slightly disoriented by the swift change in handlers, understood one thing though. “Attack,” Parker snapped.
Sandy turned around to see Parker lunge for the gun arm of the sergeant.
Only he turned his aim to target Samson …
Sandy cried out, “No.” That was all it would take—one shot. And Samson would be no more.
And then she heard it.
Pop.
Even moving as fast as he could, Parker couldn’t reach the dog in time. He kicked, catching Hall behind his knee. And Samson, with his heart as big as anything, was still a direct target. But when that shot had gone off, Parker had almost lost his footing, thinking poor Samson had taken the bullet.
But his kick had jerked Hall’s arm. And Hall’s shot had gone wide. Samson landed and lunged again. And Parker was on Hall too. Not just Parker but several other men who had come with the colonel were in the fray.
Parker didn’t know why it ended, but, all of a sudden, there was silence. And Hall was on the ground unconscious. Beside the other two captives.
Samson whimpered. Parker dropped to his knees and asked, “Are you okay, boy?”
Blood ran along Samson’s side, but, as far as Parker could see, it was only a burn. He wrapped his arms around the dog, and Samson put his head under his arm, still trembling. The two just sat there.
But it wasn’t just the two of them, it was now three. Sandy had wrapped them up in her arms. He pressed his head gently against her shoulder and whispered, “Can we go home now?”
She reached out and hit him on the shoulder. “You could have warned me,” she cried out.
“I wasn’t sure if he would make a move or not. The smartest thing would have been if he had stayed quiet,” he said. “But I guess that was too hard for him to do.”
The colonel spoke up then. “I think he figured that staying quiet wouldn’t do him any good. In this way, he could either go out in a blaze of glory and take out as many of us as he could and maybe still get away with it or potentially free his friends, and they could disappear.”
“Is it really possible to disappear anymore?” Sandy asked, her voice louder than normal. “For crying out loud, look at the world now.”
The colonel nodded, his face sad. He motioned his arms wide around them. “Rebels, insurgents, mercenaries are everywhere we look. All a soldier has to do is step out of service and become a private hitman. They’d have no problem finding work.”
Parker knew the truth behind that. He had seen it happen time and time again. “But not this time,” he said, standing up slowly, keeping a hand on Samson. “Although I think Samson is a very confused dog at this point.”
“I think Samson will have a fine life at this point,” the colonel said, watching the dog. “You were so concerned about him that you pulled him out of the line of fire. That shows a caring and compassionate nature we don’t often see.”
“If it had been targeted at anybody else, I would have done the same. But Samson’s already saved us several times. I didn’t want this time to be his last.”
The colonel stood, looked at his other men, and said, “Thanks for stepping in.”
“Honestly we were just here to clean up the mess,” one of them said, re
aching out a hand to Parker to shake.
“I feel like I’ve done nothing but put these guys down. Now if only they’d stay down.” Parker ran his fingers through his hair, turned back to the colonel and asked, “Now what do we do?”
His face was grim. “We now have five men in custody. Do you think we’re done?”
“I think now that we’ve picked up Hall,” Parker said, “chances are you’re pretty well there. There might be one or two in the supply chain, and that’s always a concern. But that’s for you to sort out. I’m sure that anybody who is part of this will try to lay low. The chances of getting caught and having their lives changed forever are too great right now.”
“Maybe,” Sandy said, her spirit returning. “We have yet to get back stateside.”
“And I’m sorry,” the colonel said, “but I have to push your flights back.”
She groaned out loud. “Seriously?”
The colonel nodded. “I do need all this documented and forensics done. So the airport just became closed for the next few hours. Might have to route you though Germany even then. Our planes are being rerouted to another base as it is. So I only have a smaller one to send you in.”
“Can you delay it just a little bit?” she asked hopefully.
Parker laughed and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “We should be good to stay a few more hours. Maybe even dinner is included this time.”
“I’d say so,” the colonel said. He turned to the rest of the men. “Get the crews out here.”
And, with that, organized chaos ensued. The colonel motioned Parker and Sandy toward him. Samson came with them. The colonel said, “You were supposed to depart at nineteen hundred, but let’s push that back to twenty-two hundred. We’ll try to get it all done by then. That way you can sleep on the flight. At least a few hours.”
“I’m good with that,” Sandy said with a heartfelt expression. “I’d really appreciate it if we could get away today.”
“Me too,” the colonel said. “Let’s see if we can make that happen. In the meantime, I want you to head back into the main part of the base. You’ve got a few hours here now.”