Casualties of Love

Casualties of Love

By Denise Riley

Published by: Denise Riley

Copyright © 2014 by Denise Riley

Thank you for downloading this ebook.  This book is the copyrighted property of the author and may not be reproduced, scanned, or distributed for any commercial or non-commercial use without permission from the author.  Quotes used in reviews are the exception.  No alteration of content is allowed.  If you enjoyed this book, then encourage your friends to download their own copy. Your support and respect for the property of this author is appreciated.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, incidents, and events are either a product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to actual persons (living or deceased) and/or actual events is entirely coincidental.

Adult Reading Material

Dedication: Thank you readers. I appreciate your willingness to spend time with these characters and stories! Thanks, also, to those of you who bought my other books (Friends and Lovers Series (At Last and Worth the Wait), Sweet Secret and Sweet Dreams). I hope you enjoy this story of love lost and found.  Thank you to the men and women who so bravely serve in our armed forces. Bless you and your families for the sacrifices you make. And as always, thank you to my family and to the best husband in the world - mine.

Chapter 1

             
Jessica struggled to breathe. Her heart was pounding and her vision threatened to blur. She broke out in a cold sweat despite the heat swirling in her surroundings. Everything went silent. It was like she’d lost her hearing. The roar of the helicopters, the pops of gunfire, and the shouts from the scene faded to nothing. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing,
who
she was seeing. She supposed it had always been entirely possible, probable even, that they would cross paths. She should probably be more surprised that it had not happened before now. But, Jessica had not been prepared for it today. She had no idea he was even in country, in Afghanistan at the same time that she was. Not that she should know. She hadn’t seen or talked to him since...since she walked away from him six years ago.

             
Six years.

The time apart did nothing to hamper her from instant recognition. The features were sharper, harder, and half-concealed with blood and dirt. Nothing of the boyish charm she remembered was evident, but she knew who he was. Hell, if tested, she could recite his every feature and attribute. He was her past. The man that haunted her dreams. Her most profound regret.

Tyson Kidd
.

The face she was shock-locked on was full-grown male. And right now, its handsome appearance was pinched in discomfort. Light grey eyes she remembered so well were hidden behind lids that were shut tight. Even though he was near unconscious his body was flinching in what had to be excruciating pain. It was tightening his features, tensing his strong, muscular body. It’s what held her immobile, un-breathing, and nearly unthinking.

Tyson had a gash over his left eye that had to be at least three inches long. It was bleeding all over his face. Two fingers on his hand on the same side were knotted in odd places, surely broken. He had abrasions over nearly every exposed surface. And, there was a large, sharp piece of shrapnel, about half-a foot long, jammed into his left thigh. It looked deeply lodged and he was bleeding, a lot and all over the desert ground.

Bleeding out.
The words crashed around in Jessica’s brain, but she couldn’t seem to operate her limbs. What if he didn’t make it? Too often she saw guys barely even old enough to be called men die in the field. Die under her hands from wounds she couldn’t compete with. Her chest constricted. He had to make it
. I just found him. Lord, please
…

“Sarge!”

“Ma’am!”

“J.C.!”

Jessica broke out of her trance with the shouting of her name. The cacophony of battle sounds rushed back to full volume. She looked up to see Villano standing over her. He’d been waiting for her attention.

“Ma’am, you okay? You got him?” Villano asked. “How do you want us to work this? There’s a lot of ‘em.” Villano was breathing hard, not doubt reacting to the chaos around them.

“Yeah. Yeah, I’m good,” she shouted back over the noise. Then, Jessica looked back down at Tyson Kidd. She had to save him. She had to make sure he made it to the doctors so they could help him. She started to apply pressure to Tyson’s injury as she gave Villano instructions. “I got him. You take care of that one.” Jessica pointed toward a large soldier near an overturned Humvee. “Looks like the injury to the foot is severe. Get him immobilized and tourniquet that limb. Do what you can to stabilize him, try to save the foot, and quickly move on the next one. Get Avery to get some more trauma kits and get them out to the others. Greene should be out here. She wasn’t far behind me. Tell them to scout out any other major injuries and get to work prioritizing and stabilizing. Get the mobile ones headed to the LZ. If any of them have strength enough to help out, tell them to pitch in with moving the ones that can’t walk to MEDEVAC. We’ve got to get these boys in. When we load up, I’ll radio ahead.”

Villano gave Jessica a quick “Yes, Ma’am” and took off to follow her orders. She went about immobilizing Tyson and attending his leg to slow the bleeding. She kept an eye on her surroundings to make sure the situation was stable enough that she didn’t have to worry about getting shot in the back.

The metal in Tyson’s leg was deep into his thick thigh and she was afraid to move it, but she couldn’t see if he had a damaged artery or femoral nick with it in the way. She cut away the fabric of his uniform and gently removed the offending object. Blood rushed out, and Jessica struggled to staunch the flow. She worked on him for about 10 minutes using everything she’d learned in her training for her Expert Field Medical Badge to give him the best possible chance of surviving. When she finished all she could do, she was nearly emotionally drained from her fear of him dying and having to dictate to the others in triaging and caring for the many other casualties.

Jessica tended to a couple more wounded Soldiers and then loaded up on the helo. They headed back in to the airbase from the Afghan border where the platoon had been hit. Grabbing a clean rag to wipe her hands of sweat, dust and blood, she sat down next to Tyson and made a radio call to the military hospital to alert them of the pending arrival of all of the wounded. In her opinion, at least three of the ones on the helo with her needed emergency surgery and four or five more would need it later, though they were stable enough at the moment to hold.

Putting the radio down after the call, Jessica looked down at her patient. She noted the double bars on his patch. He was a captain now. Captain Tyson Adam Kidd. She had thought about him without fail every year that they’d been apart. She wondered if he ever thought about her, about them, and she fought against the urge to touch him. She shouldn’t, because she didn’t have a reason to put her hands on him now. Shaking her head, Jessica focused on the chopping whir of the helicopter blades and forced her eyes away from Tyson’s prone body. She couldn’t believe he was here. She prayed he’d live.

******

Pain. Sharp and deep. Flashes. An explosion. Shouts.              

“Engage, engage!” he shouted. He could see the men that had fallen. How? Ambush? No intel. No option but to fight. Fight and win. Or die. No choice.

Tyson was deafened by the sounds of chaos – loud, banging, booming in his ears. He knew he needed to fight. He had to move, or he was dead. The insurgents hit them hard. He didn’t know where the hell they’d come from. His team was out working the border. Simple cordon and search…or, it should have been. They were not expecting any contact with the enemy. Intel had suggested all was quiet. The crossings were expected to be tame, and today was supposed to be easy. But, everything had gone from calm to clusterfuck in a matter of seconds. Now, he needed to move, but something was holding him back. They were holding him down. He shouted, raged.

              “Hey, hold him still before he opens that thing up some more!”
              Tyson could hear someone shouting over the crashing in his head. He thrashed, but couldn’t get free.

              “We need get him under. I don’t want him bleeding out. Femoral artery might be nicked with all this blood.”

              Tyson struggled. Who was bleeding out? Him? Jones? Where the hell was Jones? He yelled for Marcus. Where were Lassiter and Collins? He gritted his teeth as he suffered more pain. He felt strong hands on him arms and legs. Straining he tried to heave himself up, struggled to open his eyes. No good. He felt anger swell up inside of him. Then, soft hands were on his face. A voice he knew, one he had once cherished, was in his ear. It was pushing past the pain and the noise.

              “Tyson, stop fighting. Shh. You’re okay.”

A touch. Tender. Soothing.
              “Jess?”

              “Yes, I’m here. I need you to be still. You’re okay, Ty. Stop fighting.” That voice. It sounded so good; it eased him. But, it couldn’t be. It couldn’t.

“Jess.” A ragged sigh.  A plea. “Don’t go.”

Tyson’s eyelids fluttered. He needed to see. He needed to know if she was really with him.
Jessica.
But he couldn’t fight through the dark fog, and soon the black overtook him altogether.

Chapter 2

              Jessica walked by Tyson’s bed for what had to be the fifth or sixth time in the last couple of hours. She stopped and listened to the low hum of medical equipment as she observed him. She told herself she was helping out, but she knew it wasn’t true. She couldn’t stay away. She needed to see him. She needed to know that he was okay. That was why she’d volunteered to stay late into evening when it wasn’t her job, when she really needed rest. Instead, she did rounds, checked vitals, updated the doctors on the statuses of trauma and kept moving. All so she could get glimpses of a man she hadn’t seen or spoken to in years. A man that she was profoundly glad to know seemed to remember her. Well...he had at least recognized her voice.

              Tyson had not awakened since he’d been brought in. So, he had not seen her. Jessica was half afraid to be around when he did regain consciousness. She had no idea what his reaction to seeing her would be. She was more afraid that he hadn’t opened his eyes, yet. His injuries included a pretty hard hit given the size of the knot on the back of his head. He was concussed. That coupled with the blood loss was cause for concern, though he seemed to be stable. Stopping at his side, she looked down at his still form. He was breathing well. His skin color was returning to normal. Thankfully, he’d come through the surgery well. Having not woken up could be an issue, but the rest he was getting was also greatly needed for his body to begin healing.

              She had surprised her colleagues when she caressed Tyson to quite him. He had been violently upset, not aware of where he was or what was going on. They had feared he’d cause more damage to his injury in his struggles. Tyson was a big man; he was strong and they had barely been able to restrain him. Jessica had done what was natural to her. She had put her hands on either side of his face and leaned in close to speak directly to him. He had responded and calmed down. He had called her name.

Jessica could still feel the sensation of the contact in her palms. She looked down at her hands. That touch had been like magic – a tingle in her fingertips, a stirring in her spirit. To hear him whisper her name had been like an awakening. The people who had witnessed it were curious as to how she knew Cpt. Kidd, but she had easily dodged the questions. She had told everyone that they’d met a long time ago, that she remembered him from her time in college. Everyone had seemed to take that and let it go. For that, she was very glad. That it was…
mostly
true was a good thing, as Jessica didn’t like lying to her colleagues; many of them were good friends. But as close as she’d allowed herself to become to the people she worked with, none of them knew her full story. Not even Tyson Kidd knew all of it, and he played leading role in it.

Six years ago, US Military Academy, New York

              Jessica was sitting in the Commandant’s office waiting for the man to come back in. She had just turned in her resignation. He had been speechless, an uncommon thing for him. She was only about five months from graduation.  Five months from walking across that stage and getting her coveted Cullum number. With three years and some months under her belt at the United States Military Academy (USMA), the Commandant couldn’t understand why she would quit. He knew she was more than capable of completing the final requirements of her year as a first class cadet. In less than 180 days she could complete the journey with her class. He asked her numerous times why she was leaving, but she didn’t want to tell him. She didn’t want to discuss it with anyone…well, except for Tyson. But she couldn’t talk about it with him.