by Susan Stoker
“She’s our mission. We can’t leave her!” Phantom repeated, pulling against his friend.
“She’s gone, man,” Bubba said urgently. “We can’t get down the mountain with her body and get Piper and the kids out. We’ll come back and get her after the rebels are taken care of.”
Phantom looked like he wanted to protest further. Like he wanted to jump into the hole and grab Kalee’s dead body right that second. But he was also a well-trained Navy SEAL. He knew when the odds were against them.
He turned back to the hole and stared down at Kalee’s lifeless form once more. She was lying face down on top of the pile of small little bodies. Her feet were bare, and she wasn’t wearing a shirt.
Ace didn’t want to think about what she’d gone through before being tossed into that hole.
A muscle in Phantom’s jaw ticked, but just then, they heard the sound of men talking in the distance. They were going to have company soon. There wasn’t any more time to discuss whether or not they could get into the mass grave and get Kalee out to carry her home. The SEALs were trained to fight. But they had no idea how many men were headed their way, what kind of firepower they might have, and they had four innocent civilians to protect. They had to leave. Now.
“We’re coming back for her,” Phantom declared to Rocco. “Promise me we’ll come back.”
“We’ll come back for her,” Rocco swore.
Chapter Two
Piper could feel Rani shaking in her arms, and she couldn’t blame her. She had no idea what the Navy SEALs had been looking at, but whatever it was, it wasn’t good. She wasn’t an idiot. She knew the fact that none of the other girls from the orphanage could be found was a bad sign. She’d seen the bodies in the dining room when she’d snuck out of the hole to grab what little food she could find. She didn’t think the rebels had invited everyone to a fucking tea party or anything, but she’d still held out hope most of the girls had disappeared into the jungle around them and been able to hide.
“Can you run with her?” Ace asked urgently as he jogged back toward her and the girls.
“Yes.” The truth was that Piper had no idea if she could, but if the alternative was to be caught by the rebels, she’d do whatever it took.
He didn’t question her, simply nodded and turned to Sinta and Kemala. “I know you guys are only wearing flip-flops, but can you run?”
Both girls nodded.
“Good. If you get tired or your feet hurt, let me know and I’ll carry you. Okay?”
Piper blinked. He’d carry them? Both of them? He had a pack on his back, was carrying a weapon, and who knew what else in all the pockets he had on his clothes. She had to have misunderstood.
But she didn’t get a chance to ask. To question why he’d asked her about running.
The sound of men talking reached her ears—from somewhere way too close.
The next thing she knew, Ace was physically turning her and she felt his hand on her back, urging her forward.
As they all turned to flee, Rani tightened her hold around Piper’s neck and her legs wrapped around her waist as if she were a little spider monkey. Piper ran harder than she’d ever run in her life. She knew she wasn’t exactly being quiet, but she couldn’t seem to control her loud breaths wheezing in and out as she ran. She had a feeling she sounded like an elephant crashing through the underbrush.
But they’d gotten lucky. They’d disappeared from the clearing behind the orphanage just in time. The rebels hadn’t seen them. At least, she didn’t think they’d been seen. Gunfire had sounded behind them after they’d entered the dense foliage around the orphanage grounds, but it didn’t seem to be getting any closer. Which was a miracle, considering there were seven adults and three children running pell-mell through the jungle. She suspected it said more about the SEALs’ ability to blend in and lead them all, than anything she was doing.
They ran for about five minutes straight, and Piper’s lungs felt as if they were going to burst.
“Give her to me,” Ace ordered, holding out his arms.
Suddenly reluctant to give up the small girl in her arms, Piper eyed the special forces operative. They’d stopped to rest only a moment ago, and she’d barely had time to take in a lungful of air before his demand.
“I’m doing okay,” she countered.
“You are,” Ace agreed immediately. “But now that the immediate danger is over, I can take her and you can save your strength.”
He was right, Piper knew he was…but she still clutched Rani closer. The SEALs looked rough. They were dressed in camouflage pants and shirts and were covered in grime, much like she and the girls. Ace had a short beard that was trimmed fairly close to his face. His head was shaved on the sides, with a patch of longer hair on top. It should’ve looked silly; it was practically a mohawk. But on him, it looked badass. His dark eyes were piercing in their intensity as he held her gaze.
Next to him, Piper felt completely inadequate. She wasn’t nearly as in shape as she should be. Hell, she spent most of her time sitting on her ass working on her cartoons in her apartment. She didn’t work out, didn’t like to work out. She tried to eat healthy, but her weakness was chocolate. Consequently, carrying Rani was hard, without question. The girl didn’t weigh all that much, was smaller than an American child of the same age would be, but Piper’s arms still shook with the strain of running through the jungle with her tiny charge.
“Trust me,” Ace urged. “I’m not going to hurt her.”
Of course he wasn’t. Piper reluctantly nodded. “Rani?” The little girl picked up her head and looked at Piper. “Our new friend, Ace, is going to carry you for a while. Is that okay?”
Rani immediately nodded and turned to look at Ace. She took him in from head to toe, then held out her arms and leaned toward him as if he’d carried her every day of her life.
The look on Ace’s face made Piper’s stomach dip. He looked surprised and awed by Rani’s immediate trust. He carefully took her from Piper and settled her small body against him.
Rani looked so tiny in his arms. Ace was all muscle and strength, and he could totally crush the little girl if he fell while holding her. But Piper knew without a doubt that he would keep her safe.
Ace looked Rani in the eyes and said, “I’ve got ya, little one.”
He held her as if he was very familiar with children, and Piper suddenly wondered if he was married and had his own kids back home. If so, it made what he and the other SEALs did all the more amazing.
“You’re good with her. Do you have your own?” Piper asked, putting her arm around Sinta, who had sidled up next to her while they’d been resting. Kemala stood a little ways from the group, as usual. Piper figured teenagers were the same the world over. At least she hoped that was all it was, and the girl wasn’t being standoffish because she hated her.
Ace shook his head. “No. I’m not married or anything. I’ve always wanted kids, though.”
She wondered at her odd sense of relief at his answer. It wasn’t as if he would ever consider dating her. He was just doing his job. She was nothing but a mission. As soon as they got to the capital and they arranged for her to get home, he and the rest of his teammates would disappear from her life forever.
She ignored the unexpected feeling of disappointment that thought gave her.
“We have to keep going,” Rocco said from nearby. “The rebels don’t seem to be on our trail, but the longer we stand here, the greater the chance one of the roving bands will run into us.”
All emotion disappeared from Ace’s face, and he nodded then turned to Piper. “I’ll be right behind you. Just do your best to keep up. We’ll stop again soon so you and the girls can drink some water and have a snack. Okay?”
The thought of eating made Piper want to hurl, but she nodded anyway. She had no idea when the last time she’d eaten had been…maybe she’d nibbled on a piece of bread yesterday. At least, she thought it’d been yesterday. She looked down at Sinta. “Ready?”
> The little girl nodded and they headed out. This time they were walking at a fast clip rather than jogging, which was much easier. Piper had no idea where they were going. Everything looked the same to her. One tree looked like all the rest.
Concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other, Piper trudged on. She vowed that not one word of complaint would cross her lips. She had to set a strong example for the girls. If they could do it, so could she. The last thing she wanted was to be the weak link. She had a feeling if push came to shove, Kemala and the other two girls could probably outrun her in a heartbeat.
After what seemed like several hours but was probably half that, Rocco stopped. There had been three SEALs walking ahead of Piper and three walking behind her. The man the others called Phantom was bringing up the rear, which was fine with her, because he made her feel a little uneasy. Whatever had happened back at the orphanage had seriously pissed him off, and she hadn’t liked the intense look on his face before the gunshots had gotten too close.
She was huffing and puffing, and trying to hide that fact when they stopped. No one else seemed to be having a problem breathing. Just her.
Great, now she knew she was the weak link of the group. Not four-year-old Rani. Her.
Looking around, she realized that they’d made it back to the small village Kalee lived in. She hadn’t recognized it at first—because it looked nothing like what Piper remembered. The small wooden shacks that had once lined the main street through town were black, smoldering shells now. No one was milling about, the smell of fresh bread baking was absent. All she could smell was the smoke rising from the burned-out houses everywhere she looked.
“Holy crap,” Piper breathed. “Do you think Kalee came back here? She probably thought it’d be smart to grab our passports before heading down to the capital.”
She didn’t like the look on any of the SEALs’ faces when they turned to her.
“She didn’t make it,” Phantom said bluntly.
Piper gasped.
“Phantom,” Ace warned in a low, harsh tone.
Phantom took a big breath, then he said in a softer tone, “I’m sorry for your loss. I thought you’d want to know, rather than have us keep it from you.”
Piper looked from one man to the next and bit her lip to keep herself from crying. She suspected she now knew why Phantom had looked so angry back at the orphanage.
And the fact of the matter was…she’d known Kalee was dead. At least subconsciously. She’d hoped her friend had run off to get help, but she knew deep down that Kalee wouldn’t have left her and the kids there, hiding in the crawlspace, if she could help it. She wouldn’t have gone back to her house without coming back for Piper first.
“I appreciate you not keeping secrets from me. Did you find her body? Was she in that hole?” she asked quietly. “Was that what you were looking at before we left?”
Rex and Bubba gathered the girls and led them a small distance away, doing their best to shelter them from the conversation.
Piper knew all three girls kept their eyes on her, but she couldn’t do anything but stare at the remaining men in front of her.
“Yeah.” Phantom answered her question without elaborating.
Piper remembered the awful smell in the air when they’d exited the kitchen—and instantly gagged on the image that sprang to her mind. She turned and bent over to dry heave. There was nothing in her stomach to throw up, and all she could do was close her eyes and let her muscles spasm uncontrollably as her body did its best to purge her insides.
“I’ve got her.” Piper heard before she felt someone at her back. One large hand rested on her hip and another covered her stomach, supporting her.
“Easy, Piper.” Ace’s voice was low and comforting, but she couldn’t stop her thoughts from imagining what might’ve been done to Kalee. Her best friend. She’d missed her so much since she’d joined the Peace Corps, but all the adventurous stories Kalee shared in her emails had made it a little easier. She’d been loving her teaching job, loving the people of Timor-Leste.
And now she’d been killed by those very same people.
A thought struck her then. She straightened and turned toward Ace. “I got her killed, didn’t I?”
Ace immediately shook his head. “No.”
“I did,” she whispered. “She could’ve gotten in that crawlspace with me, but I let her run off to try to find more children.”
“You said it yourself,” Ace replied, putting his hands on her shoulders. “She ran off.”
“I could’ve insisted!” Piper cried.
“Would she have listened?” Ace asked.
She stared up at him without replying.
“Seriously. Would she have listened to you? It sounds to me like she was well aware of what she was doing, and that there was no way you could’ve convinced her.”
“Then I should’ve gone after her to help,” Piper said in a small voice.
“And you’d have been in that pit right along with her,” Ace countered. “And where would those three girls be then? They probably wouldn’t have stayed in that crawlspace either, and they’d be dead right now too. If you want to blame anyone, blame the rebels. They’re the ones who did the shooting, and they’re the ones at fault. Not you. Understand?”
Piper closed her eyes and saw Kalee as clear as day. Smiling when she met her at the airport in Dili. Laughing at something Piper had said while catching up in her small house in the village. Talking excitedly about the orphanage and how cute all the kids were. How proud she was of them for learning English. She was almost always smiling and laughing. Kalee had been one of the happiest people Piper had ever met. She’d kidded her about it, but as usual, Kalee had simply rolled her eyes and said she had nothing to be sad about, and everything to be thankful and happy for.
The thought of someone as beautiful and…good…as Kalee, wiped off the face of the Earth, was abhorrent. And for what? A power play?
Piper had never understood politics, and she certainly didn’t know anything about Timor-Leste and what had been going on in the country politically. Her only thoughts had been of have an amazing experience and seeing her best friend.
Another thought struck her, and her eyes popped open. “What were you guys discussing?”
“When?” Ace asked.
“Right before we left the orphanage. Before the shooting started and we had to run.”
Ace hesitated, and Piper answered her own question. “You were trying to figure out how to get her out of that hole and bring her home, weren’t you?”
“Yes.”
She appreciated that Ace didn’t even try to lie to her.
“But it was too dangerous,” Ace went on. “We might’ve been able to do it if we weren’t trying to evade the rebels.”
“And if you didn’t have a woman and three kids to keep an eye on,” Piper said, knowing she was right.
Once again, Ace nodded.
“I feel horrible that we can’t bring her home to her dad. He’s going to be so devastated.” That was the understatement of the century. Mr. Solberg lived for his daughter. He was uber-protective, had made her promise to contact him every day when she flew off to Timor-Leste.
Piper knew Kalee had felt suffocated by her dad, but she’d still loved him down to the marrow of her bones. It had been just the two of them for a very long time, since her mother had died, and their relationship was iron-tight.
Her death was going to destroy him.
“Look at me, Piper,” Ace said as he put his hand against the side of her neck. It was an intimate gesture, especially for someone she’d just met, but it was enormously comforting.
Forgetting they were standing in the middle of a burned-out village in the jungle, in a country thousands of miles from her home, Piper got lost in Ace’s gaze. It was intense, and she was the only thing he was focusing on at the moment.
“This. Is. Not. Your. Fault.”
Licking her dry lips, Piper nodded.
&nb
sp; Ace stared at her for a heartbeat. “And we’re gonna bring Kalee home. Just not right this second.”
She furrowed her brows in confusion. “How?”
“A SEAL never leaves a man behind. Once we get you home safely, we’ll come back for Kalee. One thing we’ve learned is to always have a plan B, C, D, and E. And sometimes we have to go to plan F.”
“This is one of those times, huh?” Piper replied, trying to shake off the depression she could feel herself sinking into her bones.
The brief smile that bloomed on Ace’s lips was a great distraction. It was the first time she’d seen him smile, and it completely changed his countenance.
“Exactly. Now, tell me you’re done blaming yourself,” he ordered.
Piper pressed her lips together and stared up at him without answering.
Ace sighed. His hand hadn’t left her neck, and Piper didn’t really want him to ever stop touching her, grounding her. The weight and warmth of his hand felt like it may be the only thing keeping her from falling into a million pieces.
“At least tell me you feel a little less guilty after our talk.”
Piper licked her lips again and gave him a small nod.
“Good enough…for now.”
Swallowing hard, Piper asked, “What’s the plan? Can I grab my passport and other stuff from her house before we go to the capital?”
From the look on his face, Piper braced for more bad news.
“The house is gone, Piper. Burned just like the rest of the huts around here.”
“How will I get out of the country?” she whispered. “I don’t have anything. No passport, no identification.”
“Leave that to us. We’ll get you out.”
And Piper believed him. She had no idea how he and his teammates would make it happen, but they probably had a lot more connections than she did. “Okay.”
Ace dropped his hand, and Piper immediately felt chilled. Which was insane, because it was extremely hot and humid.
“But we have to talk about the girls.”
She stiffened. She hadn’t even thought much beyond getting them out of the orphanage and making sure they were safe.