Finding Dani (Once a Marine, Always a Marine Book 3) (3 page)

“Is everyone okay back there?”

His voice made her want to cry, but also sounded so sweet in her ears that she couldn’t speak past the fist-sized lump in her throat. It had been at least eight years since she’d seen Damon in person.

“We’re all alive, thanks to you two,” Travis said.

The rest of her crew added their thanks, but Dani hadn’t said anything. She couldn’t yet. It was amazing that after all these years the sound of his voice had this effect on her. Her chest was tight and she had to close her eyes and count before she could calm down. It was as if the years had fallen away and she’d been given a precious glimpse into the past.

“How’re you holding up, Red?”

That made her eyes fly open, only to meet five very curious pairs. Good thing it was too dark to see the blush making its way up her neck and into her cheeks. No one dared call her that, and her team was waiting for the rare explosion that normally happened when someone did.

“As well as can be expected, Shadow.” She ducked her head to hide her grin. “How’d you get mixed up in this?”

“I heard there was a Copperhead sighting and happened to be in the area.”

That earned him a tired chuckle and some incredulous looks from everyone else. Dani’s team had never seen her act this way with anyone but themselves. And they’d only managed to loosen up her tight reserve after being with her for several years.

“It figures. Dad never does let me go completely off the radar.”

“Of course not, the last time he did you created an international incident.”

“I did not start that one, and you know it. That was all…,” she trailed off.

“Yeah, it was,” Damon finished for her and she could hear the distant echoes of the pain she carried with her in his voice. “Aren’t you going to introduce me to your friends?”

Dani looked around at her team, who were exchanging confused looks. “Everyone, this is Damon Dupree. My brother-in-law.”

Chapter 3

The temporary military base in Liberia had a tent with hot showers. Real hot water that rained down onto her head. It was a little bit of heaven for Dani, but due to the adrenaline dump, tears that were hotter than the water streamed down her face. Slow sobs bubbled up and escaped as she stood under the hot spray. Since she was alone, she let herself have a good cry. It was raw and ugly, but she didn’t care.
 

They could have died. All of them.

It took a bit, but her muscles began to unknot as the terror seeped from her body. It wasn’t as easy to wipe away as the soap, but she was under control again.

Dani made her way back to the tent assigned to her, thinking she still had an angel sitting on her shoulder. Gabriel. It had been a long time since she felt his presence, and even though she wasn’t a religious person, she believed in angels. He’d always been hers, even more so after he’d died and left her.

Obviously, his twin brother carried Gabriel with him as well. He’d even named his helicopter after his brother.
Archangel
. It warmed her heart to see the nickname.
 

And then suddenly he was there. The shadow to his twin’s bright light.
Damon
. Long wavy black hair with eyes the color of topaz. So achingly familiar and yet—not.

“Come here,” he said.

And she flew into his arms, wrapping herself in his muscular embrace. “Thank you for coming for us.”

“As if there were any other option.”

Dani broke their quick embrace and moved away before she did something stupid, like cry all over him. And just when she had gotten herself under control. It was just—well—so damned wonderful to be in his arms because for one infinitesimal moment, it was like Gabriel was back and holding her.

And she couldn’t use Damon that way. It wasn’t right.

“Why are you even here in Liberia?” she asked.

Damon shrugged. “Babysitting on Uncle Sam’s dime.”

“I heard you’d gone into business for yourself. Although, mercenary is an ugly word.”

He laughed and said, “That sounds like something your father would say.”

Dani sat on her cot with her legs crossed in front of her as she began to comb out the tangles in her long red hair. “Well, yeah, he’s the one I heard it from.”

Damon made himself comfortable in the chair by her makeshift desk. He looked older than she remembered, but then it had been at Gabriel’s funeral that she’d seen him last. And that had been through a haze of pain so intense that she’d blocked out most of that entire year.

He was leaner, harder somehow, than he’d been in the Marines. And even more handsome than the last time she’d seen him.

“Why are you still crusading, Dani? You should be in a private hospital, stateside, working normal hours.”

She ducked her head, not knowing how to answer him, because for the last couple of years, she’d been asking herself the same thing. But this was the only life she’d known, and it was hard to give up the familiarity, even comfort of it. “How could I give all this up?”

The smile that slowly emerged as he looked around the sparse tent made her stomach clench.

“True. World travel, danger, and no regard for personal hygiene. Now, that’s the life.”

“How about you? Why aren’t you married with five kids?”

That got a raised eyebrow from him. “What makes you think I’m not?”

Dani shook her head. “No woman in her right mind would let you continue being a Merc if you had five mouths to feed. It’s not exactly the most stable job. Or the safest.”

“Let’s just say that I’ve never found anyone who measures up.”

Instantly, an image of the one and only kiss they’d ever shared sprang to mind. It was the night she’d gotten engaged to Gabriel, and Damon happened to be home on leave. She’d had a bit too much to drink and made a mistake. An honest one, but embarrassing as well, because she’d never before had trouble telling them apart, but only because their hair was so differently styled. Everything else was startlingly similar, especially since she’d never had any experience with identical twins.

It wasn’t until she tried to bury her fingers in his hair that the shock of his buzz cut jerked her into reality. Gabriel’s hair was longer, softer, and his kiss had never been quite that wild. As if he were trying to eat her alive. Damon’s kiss had scared her.

“What are you thinking about?” he asked, when the silence had gone on a moment too long.

Dani could barely meet his eyes and was very much afraid that she blushed. “I’m sorry, I got lost in thought. What were we talking about?”

He didn’t believe her, she could tell, but he changed the subject anyway.

“My orders were to get you back to this base safely. What are you and your team doing next?”

“We were only two days from being deployed back home, but I wasn’t prepared to go just yet.”

He cocked his head to the side and stared at her. What he saw she wasn’t sure, but it startled her when he asked, “What did you find?”

Because he’d always been able to read her like that. Even Gabriel couldn’t do that, and it had always made her uneasy. “How do you do that?”

“I play a lot of poker, Red. I can spot a ‘tell’ immediately.”

“What gave me away?”

He grinned and shook his head. “If I let you know, then I wouldn’t have that ace anymore. So, what’s going on in that pretty head of yours that would prevent you from leaving?”

She sighed. Dani hadn’t confided in anyone, because she wasn’t sure of her findings. Not yet. And the last of her samples were left behind in that village. She had to get back there.

It would be nice to tell someone her fears. And Damon could be trusted.

“I think someone is altering the Ebola strain,” she finally said.

He didn’t question her or show any disbelief, which a statement like that might cause with anyone else. She could have hugged him for that. “Altering it how?”

“Shortening its incubation period and making it stronger.”

“Shit.”

“Exactly.”

“How did you find out?”

Dani threw the brush she’d been using on her hair down on the cot and moved toward her desk. Her personal journal was in her bag sitting on top. “We take samples of blood from everyone infected, and when we got to the village, we found exactly what we expected to. But then, one of the women, who’d seemed fine, suddenly had symptoms. And it progressed at a faster pace than it should have. Not only that, but we couldn’t trace where the strain came from.”

“That’s unusual?” he asked.

Finding the journal, she opened to the page where she’d sketched out the virus. It always reminded her of a backwards J with fancy swirls on top. She pointed to the normal virus. “This is what we see in almost one hundred percent of infection cases.”

Then she pointed at a second picture that was nearly identical with the exception of three lines that looked like hairs jutting off of the main body of the virus. “Do you see these?”

“It’s almost unnoticeable.”
 

“Exactly. And when we found the villager that we thought was patient zero, this was what the sample looked like.”

Damon looked up at her. “But?”

“But,” she leaned down next to him. “This wasn’t patient zero. And this woman died five days after we landed in that village.”

“So, what are you thinking?”

Dani could feel the horror creeping into her tone, something she’d lived with for the past month. “That someone on my team is altering this virus and killed several people in that village as a trial run. And, now, I don’t have any proof because my samples disappeared not long after those rebels attacked.”

“A trial run for something bigger. Maybe an attack on a larger, more important target?”

“I don’t know.”

***

Damon leaned back in his chair. The mild soap mixed with Dani’s unique fragrance filled his senses and he tended to lose perspective when she was close. And what she told him needed laser focus.

“How can you be sure it’s someone on your team?”

“I can’t be completely sure, but I have a feeling. Add that to the fact that we were the only team in that area, and it doesn’t make sense for it to be anyone else. And it pisses me off because I trusted everyone on my team.”

“How are they altering the virus?”

She sighed and rubbed her forehead. Damon could see the strain around her eyes. This was taking its toll on her.

“I don’t know. The only thing I can think is that it was manufactured in a lab, and then transported with us to the village. We just don’t have that kind of equipment available when we’re sent in.” Dani paced the length of the tent. “I just don’t understand why.”

Damon could answer that one. “It’s usually money.”

“But we take an oath to help people, to cure the world of its diseases. How could someone I work with do something like this?”

“And how many of you have big Tudor houses with fancy sports cars and large investment portfolios?”

Dani swung her head in his direction. “More than you’d think.”

He shrugged. Dani, and even his brother Gabriel, both had their heads in an idealistic cloud. Always had. “Money is power, Red. And if that isn’t the goal, then I would have to assume that one of your good doctors has a God complex.”

She sat down abruptly on the cot where she’d been brushing her hair and put her head in her hands. “I don’t have proof of any of this.”

“Could the virus have mutated on its own?”

Damon watched as she bit her lower lip and his body responded, but he ruthlessly pushed it down. His iron will had served him well in the past and he counted on it now to keep his mind on the present and potential threat, and not her full lower lip. Or her copper colored hair beginning to dry and curl in the humidity.

Dani shook her head. “Not this fast. Viruses mutate all the time, but it happens slowly. This was definitely lab grown.”

“So, who is your primary suspect?”

“I have a doctor on my team with that God complex you were talking about, but I’ve worked with him for years. Why now? And as for the rest of my team, I just can’t wrap my head around any of them deliberately causing the death of anyone, much less almost an entire village.”

“Sounds like we need to get you that proof.”

“Even with the blood samples, it still doesn’t tell me who it is.”

Damon smiled. “Once those samples come to light, I’m sure the government will take over the investigation.”

“And cover everything up, nice and neat. Problem solved. No need for anyone to know about it.”

“True. This could be a huge black eye for more than one agency, but it would stop mass murder, even if it never goes public.”

“How can you be so…so cavalier about it?”

“I’ve worked for the government most of my adult life and there are some things out in the big bad scary world that the general public is better off not knowing.”

Damon knew he was right, but he could see the determination in those leaf green eyes. The crusader was there, looking back at him in defiance. And he knew he wasn’t going to be able to resist her when she asked for his help. She would, eventually. And when she stirred up the shit storm, he’d be there to protect her.