The PJ was marked for death.
Cam carefully rolled another body over with the toe of his boot to ID him.
The heavily bearded man was young.
Through his NVGs, Cam studied the face.
Whoever he was, the dead man was not Nasrallah or one of his deputies.
He shifted his grip on his weapon and moved on, grateful to be able to keep moving to stay warm.
It was cold enough to make him uncomfortable.
They’d been out here for over two hours since the rescue birds left, and still no sign of the warlord the SEALs wanted.
He knew in his gut they wouldn’t find him out here on the battlefield.
The SEALs must know it too.
The squad leader came on the radio, his voice low so it wouldn’t carry.
There might still be survivors tucked away where they couldn’t see them.
“Extraction in twelve minutes.
Meet back at the LZ.”
“Roger that.” He’d be glad to get back to base.
They were all low on ammo and he was dying to see Devon.
His glance stopped on another group of bodies lying in a shallow dip.
The two men on the ends were obviously dead.
Their limbs were frozen in place and bent at awkward angles.
The one in the middle drew his attention.
He swore he saw vapor rise up from the man’s nose.
Was he still breathing?
Cam went on full alert and motioned for one of the SEALs to head over.
His steps were silent as he approached, his finger resting on the trigger.
The young man’s bearded face was turned toward him.
Eyes closed.
He looked peaceful enough that he could have been sleeping.
Cam caught the scent of blood before he reached the group.
His eyes fastened on the man’s hands.
They were wrapped around a rifle.
He could see the SEAL in his peripheral vision.
His weapon was also aimed at the group of bodies.
Inching closer, Cam never took his eyes off the hands.
When one of the dead men suddenly twitched and sucked in a gurgling breath, Cam jumped.
He jerked the barrel of his rifle toward him, heart pounding.
For that split second, all his attention was riveted on the dying man.
Before he could blink, the man in the center lunged upward with a guttural snarl.
Everything went into slow motion.
Cam swung around.
The man had his rifle up.
He squeezed off a burst of rounds.
Cam ducked as he brought his own weapon up.
Rounds whizzed past his head.
The SEAL grunted and fell.
Cam’s finger squeezed his trigger as a booted foot came up and knocked the muzzle away.
The momentum threw Cam sideways.
He splayed out a hand to catch himself and hit the ground hard on one knee.
The man was yelling.
In English.
“
Die, PJ!
”
Cam didn’t have time to think or wonder how the guy knew what he was.
He twisted around to fire and caught the glint of a knife in the man’s other fist.
It swung downward at his throat in a vicious arc.
He threw up an arm to block it.
The outer edge of his forearm smashed against the man’s wrist.
The blade narrowly missed his neck.
Cam threw his upper body back and out of range.
Two rounds slammed into the ground beside them.
From the other SEALs somewhere in the distance.
A third hit the man in the chest.
He screamed and hit the ground.
Somehow he managed to bring up the muzzle of the rifle.
Cam couldn’t get his weapon up fast enough to shoot the bastard.
He lashed out a hand to slap the barrel away.
The man’s strength was shocking as he centered the muzzle on Cam’s chest.
Cam started to roll, dragging his gun up to fire.
A shot rang out.
The bullet hit the man between the eyes, but his finger locked around the trigger as he fell.
Two rounds spat out.
They punched into Cam’s belly like a sledgehammer.
Pain exploded in his gut as he dropped to the ground in a wash of blackness.
Devon glanced at the clock on the wall for what seemed like the thousandth time since arriving back in her room.
The tests were all done, and the doctor had confirmed she had ruptured ligaments and an avulsion fracture of the tibia.
She didn’t care about her knee.
She wanted answers about the ground team.
She wanted to know Cam was okay.
A team had come in to debrief her, but hadn’t told her anything about him.
When they’d left she’d broken down and cried some more.
She was sick of crying, but all she could think about was Cam lying out there bleeding to death, waiting for the sounds of the rescue bird’s rotors.
Like Ty.
But no, Ty had at least had the elder with him, hadn’t he?
The knowledge was cold comfort to her right now.
Candace rubbed her back soothingly.
At least she had her friend to talk with about what had happened out there.
At least Ace understood.
The minute hand had to be stuck on that clock.
God, it had been hours since they’d pulled her from the field.
There had to be some news about the ground team.
Footsteps sounded in the hall, and a moment later Ryan appeared in the doorway.
Alone.
“Ryan!” She held out a hand.
He stopped short when he saw her.
Her stomach plummeted at the look on his face.
She bolted upright away from Candace, wincing when a burst of pain shot through her knee.
“Where’s Cam?” She fought the hysteria that threatened to overtake her.
He didn’t answer right away.
“Where is he?” Her voice was shrill but she couldn’t control the sudden spike of fear.
Ryan stared at her helplessly, his eyes tormented.
He took a step toward her.
Scalding tears blurred her vision, so hot they burned like acid.
She held out a hand to ward him off.
“God damn you, Ryan.
Don’t
you stand there and tell me he’s dead.
Don’t you dare tell me he’s—”
He grabbed her up in a tight hug, and pressed her face into his shoulder with one strong hand.
“Command received a transmission that they took more enemy fire.
There’s some wounded.
Maybe some KIA.”
Fuck that.
“No!” she yelled, shoving at him.
“He’s not dead!
I’d know if he was dead.” She slammed her fists down on his shoulders, but Ryan wouldn’t let her go.
He just curled around her, as if he was trying to absorb her pain.
“I wish I had an answer,” he said thickly, “but I don’t.” His fingers clenched in her hair.
“We just have to hang in there, Dev.”
She clutched the back of his T-shirt in her fists.
“I c-can’t lose him.” She was shaking so hard her teeth chattered.
Cold all over.
Going into shock.
“I c-can’t.”
“Shhh,” he whispered.
“Don’t give up on him.
Hold on with me.”
She buried her face in the hollow of his shoulder and held on, fighting to breathe.
Candace perched on the edge of the bed and laid a hand against her shuddering back.
Her friend’s voice washed over her.
“We’ll stay with you.
We’re not going to think he’s gone unless we hear it from the top.”
Too far gone to speak, Devon reached for her hand and nodded.
Cam watched her from the hospital doorway for a moment, his heart constricting when he saw her tear-ravaged face.
Ah, sweetheart.
“Hey, baby.”
Her head jerked off her pillow.
Her eyes went wide and for a split second she stared at him like she was seeing a ghost.
“Cam!” She bolted upright like she would have leapt off the bed, and held her arms out.
He caught her before her foot hit the floor and wrapped her up tight in his arms, ignoring the ache in his bruised belly.
With her held close to his chest, all the pain disappeared.
They were both alive and she was warm and safe up against him.
“I’ve got you,” he whispered, holding her tight and squeezing his eyes shut.
Shit, he’d never been so thankful for anything in his entire life.
He barely noticed when Candace and Ryan walked out and closed the door behind them.
“Are you hurt?” She pulled back and ran her hands over him, searching for injuries.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m okay.”
She was crying.
Jerking with it.
Her arms wrapped around his neck so hard she almost cut off his circulation.
He didn’t complain.
She let out a hiccup.
“I thought you died.
They told us you were MIA, that there’d been casualties…”
Her pained whisper cut through him like a knife.
When he’d hit the ground, for a moment he’d thought he was dead.
If those rounds had hit a few inches lower, his body armor wouldn’t have done shit to save him.
“No, baby, not me.
I told you I wouldn’t leave you.”
“What happened?”
“I took a couple rounds in the stomach.”
Her face blanched.
“What?” She looked down at his front and laid a hand over his belly.
“I wasn’t paying attention like I should’ve been.” His abs hurt like hell and had to be black and blue beneath his body armor.
Hell, his insides were probably bruised too.
Taking two point blank rounds to the gut wasn’t a lot of fun, even with Kevlar.
But at least he was alive.
“You’re sure you’re okay?”
“Yeah.
The plates took the brunt of the impact.
Just banged up underneath is all.”
She didn’t seem convinced.
“You should have them look at you.
Maybe you’ve got internal damage and they should do an ultrasound or—”
“Baby, I’m fine.
I swear.” He hugged her and nuzzled her temple.
Still holding him, she let out a soggy chuckle.
“I love you.
I don’t know what I’d do if anything happened to you.”
“I love you too.” He stroked her hair with one hand, thinking of the tattered photograph in his chest pocket.
He really shouldn’t say anything to her about it until after the debriefing, but she had a right to know what he’d found.
“Dev…”
“What?” she whispered.
“The guy who shot me knew what I was.
He spoke English, knew I was a PJ.
It was like he’d been waiting for me.”
She stared up at him, listening to every word.
“When I searched him after, I found this in his pocket.” He pulled out the photo and showed it to her.
Devon gasped and grabbed it.
Her face was white and her eyes were huge.
“It was him!
Jesus, it was that Sadiq guy.”
“What?” She knew him?
“The elder said—”
“What elder?”
She shook her head impatiently.
“The elder said Sadiq took this picture off Ty’s body.”
He listened incredulously as she relayed the events of that horrific night.
When she was done, she looked up at him with haunted eyes.
“He couldn’t kill Ty, so maybe…” She swallowed.
“Maybe he recognized your ID patch and wanted to kill you instead.”
Her words echoed in his skull.
It wasn’t impossible.
If the story was true, then his part in it made a weird kind of sense.
Had that asshole been out there hunting him the whole time?
A shiver snaked down his spine.
“Jesus.” He held her tighter, trying to take it all in.
“But you’re safe.”
He kissed the top of her head.
“I’m safe.”
And damn glad the bastard’s dead
.
Devon pulled back and smiled into his eyes.
Then she held his head between her hands and kissed him.
Hard.
Quick, ecstatic kisses that spoke of her love and the fear she’d felt.
Cam settled her back on the bed without breaking contact and kissed her just as desperately.
Love wasn’t near strong enough a word for what he felt for her.
The emotion swelling in his chest was a thousand times more powerful.
And painful.
She was part of him.
He lifted his head and brushed at the tear marks on her cheeks.
“What a bitch of a day, huh?”
“My worst and best all in one.”
He looked down at her knee that the medical staff had wrapped into a brace.
“What’s the verdict?”
“Exactly what you said it was.
Maybe you should be a doctor.”
He grinned.
Putting a hand on the back of her neck, he shook his head.
“I was so damn proud of you out there today.
Using your co-pilot as a shooting platform to lay down suppressive fire.
You’d make one hell of a PJ, honey.”
She flushed and opened her mouth to respond when someone knocked on the door.
Cam looked over his shoulder.
Jackson stood on the other side of the door.
He cracked it a few inches.
“Hi, ma’am,” he said to her.
Devon laughed at his politeness.
“Oh my God, don’t call me that—especially after what we all went through today.
Come on in.”
“Thanks, but…” He looked at Cam.
“They want us now.
Sorry, man.”
Damn.
He didn’t want to leave.
He faced Devon.
“Do you have a surgery scheduled yet?”
“Not that I know of.
They’re pretty busy around here.”
He stroked her soft cheeks, drinking in the sight of her.
Even with her eyes swollen from crying and her nose red she was still the most beautiful woman in the world to him.
“I’ll be back as soon as I can, okay?”
“I’m counting on it.” She put a hand against the side of his face and leaned up to kiss him one last time.
Devon glanced up at the clock again, fighting off the dread.
Something was up.
He hadn’t come back yet.
She glanced over at Candace, asleep in the pullout chair beside her bed.
They’d waited for over two hours, but Cam hadn’t returned.
She doubted the debriefing would take that long.
Trepidation fluttered in her belly.
Was something wrong?
Erin poked her head in.
“How you feeling?” she whispered.
Devon forced a smile.
“Just sore.
But relieved to the tips of my toes.
I guess you heard Cam made it back okay?”
She crossed to the bed.
“Yep, and I’m damn glad for both of you.” But her happy expression faded.
Devon tensed.
“What?”
“A team’s coming in to move you shortly.”
Something stilled inside her.
“Move me?
To where?”
“To Landstuhl, for surgery.”
She sat up, wincing when her knee throbbed.
“What, now?
Can’t it wait until morning?”
“They’re flying some of the less serious cases out to free up some OR space.
You’re scheduled to be on the flight.”
No
, she wanted to cry.
That would put her a continent away from Cam, and then after surgery they’d probably send her stateside to recuperate.
She’d be on the other side of the world from him.
It might be months before she saw him again.
She glanced over at Candace, who was wide awake and taking in every word.
She put a hand on Erin’s arm.
“But Cam’s still being debriefed, and—”
“No, he’s not.” Her expression was almost guilty.
Devon’s heart started a slow, sickening thud.
“What do you mean?
Where is he?”
“He got called out again.”
“What?” She refused to believe it.
“I don’t know the details, but I saw him and your other friend heading out with all their gear.”
“Who?”
“The combat controller.”
Oh shit, had they gone back out to hunt down the last militants?
Or to follow up a lead on Nasrallah?
“Dev.”
She looked over at Candace, fighting down the panic.
“What?”
“I’ll get the message to Cam when he comes in.
He’ll be able to get in touch with you once you’re in the hospital in Germany.”
She would have thought she was out of tears, but they boiled up anyhow.
“Oh my God…I can’t
believe
this.”
Erin squeezed her hand.
“I’m so sorry, hon.
We’ll get word to him as soon as we can, okay?”
A sinking feeling took hold.
She wasn’t going to get to say goodbye.
When the team came to transport her, she closed her eyes and turned inward.
They loaded her onto the C-130 with the other wounded and soon she was flying westward away from Bagram, back to civilization.
With her arm laid across her eyes to hide her tears, she wondered if Cam could hear the plane from wherever he was on the ground.