Heroes In Uniform (62 page)

Unfortunately this whole goddamn situation with Rahim was a serious roadblock though.

She raised an eyebrow. “Yeah? Well, wow then. I can’t wait to find out what that entails.”

Staring down into her eyes, he felt closer to her in that moment than he had anyone else. She’d never seemed to mind his rough edges or lack of social graces. She lay beneath him now wide open, no shields, no games, and fuck, he didn’t want to be the one to hurt her when this was all over, but he didn’t see any way around it. She’d be going back to Bagram and he didn’t know what the hell he was going to do.

Letting his protective walls down a little more, he bent to kiss her, gently this time, cherishing her mouth rather than claiming it. She made a soft sound of enjoyment and kissed him back, the languid stroke of her tongue against his stirring him deep inside. When he began to slip out of her, he reluctantly pushed up on his hands and withdrew. She raked her gaze over him, a little smile on her lips as she took in the sight of his body and it went straight to his head. “I’ll be right back,” he murmured, getting to his feet. He cleaned up in the bathroom and brought some tissues back for her, surprised to find her already part way up the stairs.

“I’m gonna grab a shower, then crash,” she told him, pushing the dark waves of her hair over one shoulder. “Want to join me?”

The thought of sliding into bed next to her and holding her in the darkness through the night was way too appealing to turn down. He nodded. “I’ve got a few things to take care of first, but I’ll be up in a while.”

“Okay.”

As soon as she turned and headed up the stairs, he strode back to the fire and pulled on his underwear and jeans, then went into the kitchen. There were no messages on his phone from either Robert or Bill about Rahim or Schafer. He contacted the security team via the radio and received the all-clear. Keeping the radio with him, Wade peered out the kitchen window into the night. The storm lashed the house and it was unlikely anyone would actually be able to find their location, but Wade couldn’t shake the feeling that something big was brewing.

After dousing the fire and checking to make sure the house was locked down tight, he went upstairs to his room and found Erin curled on her side in his bed. From her breathing and lack of response as he quietly entered and eased the door shut, he knew she was already asleep.

Wanting to feel her naked body against him, he stripped and slid in next to her. As he drew her into his arms she settled into the curve of his body with a murmur of contentment. Wade absorbed the feel of her cuddled against him and listened to the rain and wind beat against the roof.

He’d fallen for her, hard, and he’d do goddamn anything to keep her safe. The warning hum in his gut told him Rahim was coming. Wade was fully prepared to stand between Erin and any danger that came their way.

* * *

Somewhere off the South Carolina coast

Pain and cold
.

The cold was cruel against his exposed flesh, but it barely registered past the excruciating pain that blasted through him with every breath.

He peeled his blood-encrusted eyelids apart to survey his own personal hell. It was the dead of night, the sky pitch black and the tiny sliver of moon didn’t give off enough light for him to see anything except the high walls of the crevice he was lying in. He tried to swallow, gritted his teeth to keep from crying out from the agony and thirst that tortured him. Three days he’d been lying here like this, best he could figure. Three days since that A-10 had unleashed its payload and taken out most of his platoon in a horrific friendly-fire incident. There had been other survivors, but their cries had all faded into silence sometime before dark.

Moving slowly, unable to hold back his own tormented cries as he inched his way forward to the wall of the crevice, he kept telling himself not to quit. He was a fucking soldier. He could make it if he found a way out of here. He’d heard the distant thump of rotors before he’d passed out from sheer exhaustion and blood loss, but the rescue crews hadn’t heard his yells for help. They hadn’t come back since.

No man gets left behind
, he reminded himself.
They’re coming back for you
.

Even as he said it he knew it wasn’t true. Three times rescue crews had combed the area. The operation would have changed from a rescue to a recovery mission, and most likely they’d already recovered the remains of his dead teammates. For months now he’d been questioning his role in this war. His country had invaded theirs. Tried to shove its political agenda down their throats. Left chaos and destruction amongst the innocent civilians caught in the crossfire, and for what? They’d never win this war. And when they pulled out, everything would go back to the way it had been before. The people of Afghanistan would continue to eke out their existence in this harsh and ancient land as they had for thousands of years.

At some point he’d started thinking about defecting, and even the idea of somehow faking his death to do it. Was this a sign? Was he supposed to use this moment to become what he was always meant to be?

Pushing aside his pain and despair, he fought his way up the steep side of the rock wall trapping him. He didn’t know how long it took him to finally reach the top. Hours. A day. But when he finally dragged himself over the edge and collapsed onto his stomach, he realized how still and silent it was.

He was utterly alone.

He lost consciousness and woke when he heard voices. He blinked against the sunlight, the clear, blue sky stinging his eyes. The voices came nearer, nearer, until he could hear them clearly. Men speaking Pashto.

His heart lurched. They’d see his uniform and kill him without realizing that he only wore it because he had no choice. He tried desperately to crawl away, find a place to hide, but he was too weak, too dehydrated. He lay sprawled out in the dust with jagged pieces of rock cutting into him, utterly defenseless. And when the men arrived and he gathered his remaining strength to attack, the Pashto words slipped from him like a prayer.

Please help me.

The four elderly men had gaped at him in surprise for a moment before approaching him. And rather than kill him or leave him to die even though he wore an enemy uniform, they gave him water and tended his wounds. Carried him to their village and took him in. Saving him when his own brothers had left him to die. Giving him the chance to embrace Islam and his true identity.

Rahim.

“Do you need anything else, sir?”

Shaking off the stark memory that had marked the pivotal point in his life, Rahim turned to face one of his men he’d brought on board with him. Traveling by boat wasn’t his favorite thing—hell, it was why he’d joined the Army rather than the Navy—but this trip wouldn’t last long, and this ship was American. Something he found immensely ironic and gratifying. “No, I’m fine,” he replied in English. “What about you?”

“Everything’s fine with me, too,” the man responded in a heavy Spanish accent, telling him there was no cause for alarm about their identities or plans being discovered. Yet. Rahim had disposed of a few original crew members and gotten him and two of his men on board with the help of some fancy computer work, and all without causing any suspicion.

Rahim nodded and gestured for the man to follow him out of the heavily reinforced iron cargo hold. Stepping out onto the deck close to the railing, he looked back at the container set close against the starboard wall of the cargo area and locked the door behind him. Facing the ocean, he took a deep breath of the salty air as the breeze whipped over his skin. The thrill of freedom and excitement about what he was going to do swept through him. Hidden safely inside that shipping container, the device had passed through security at the port without detection. Now they had only a few hours’ sail up the east coast to Virginia, where they’d arrive sometime late tomorrow morning.

Before he passed out of cell reception, he placed a call on another burner phone to Safir, who answered quickly. “Everything looks good on our end,” he told the other man in English, wrapping a hand around the iron railing as he gazed at the horizon and the South Carolina coast fading into the distance. “What’s going on there?”

“It’s been busy,” Safir replied. “That location we talked about looks good for sales. The inventory arrived safely at the store today.”

He paused, taking in the unspoken code. The hit team had arrived in Virginia. “You’ve checked out the location?”

“It looks good, yes. Do you want me to make an official offer?”

Officially authorize the hit. “Yes.”

“I’ll let the agent know right away.”

Anticipation lit inside him, a flame given a breath of pure oxygen. “Perfect. When will we know if it’s a done deal?”

“By noon tomorrow, I imagine.”

Around the same time that the ship would be unloading at the dock at Alexandria.
Perfect.
“That’s good news. Great work.” A memory flashed through his brain, of Jihad a few days after Rahim had hired him as his personal bodyguard. He’d killed two men sent to assassinate him. Alerted by a gunshot, Rahim had stepped out of the house where he’d been staying to find Jihad standing over the two soldiers’ bodies. He’d shot one and slit the other’s throat. The bloody knife had still been in his hand as Jihad turned his head and met his gaze.

Thank you, brother
, Rahim had said in Pashto.

Jihad had nodded in acknowledgement, his dark eyes burning with a fierce intensity Rahim had mistaken for loyalty.

But now he realized it had been hatred.

Safir acknowledged the compliment with a grunt. “I’ll call you tomorrow when the offer is final.”

“Sounds good. Have a good night.”

“You, too.”

Rahim put the phone into his pocket and offered the man next to him a little smile, then nodded for him to leave. Once he was alone, he returned to staring at the endless waves shifting under the ship. He rolled his shoulder, biting back a grimace as the healing tissues pulled, and counted his blessings.

All he had to do now was see that container unloaded and put on the correct truck, then sail back down to Bermuda, where a private jet would be standing by to fly him back to Pakistan. A donation from a wealthy and powerfully connected Pakistani man. From Karachi he would make his way back to the tribal region in the northwest corner and plan his next move in this new phase of the war he was about to unleash.

But first, he wanted to bear witness to the destruction this first attack would bring.

Tipping back his head to breathe in the sea air, Rahim savored the moment. Everything was nearly ready. He’d do what he could to ensure it happened according to plan, then the rest was in Allah’s hands. And Rahim had a bone-deep certainty that He would reward his efforts.

Danger Close: Chapter Fourteen

Erin woke to the feel of a hand on her shoulder. It took her a moment to remember she was in the safe house, and that it was Wade’s hard body curled around hers.

She rolled to her back, fighting off the haze of sleep. “What?” she whispered.

On his side facing her, he reached out to smooth the hair back from her forehead that felt damp. “You were having a bad dream.”

She pushed the covers away to cool her body down, aware that she was perspiring and her heart rate was elevated. “Yeah, guess I was.” She grasped at the fragmented images floating through her memory like wisps of fog.

“You were twisting and kicking the sheets away. Bad one?”

Bits and pieces came back to her. Blackness. The sense of being trapped in a confined place and the suffocating sensation it always brought. Screaming at David to stop, to come back as he boarded the Blackhawk that would take him to his death in the coming battle. “Nightmare, I guess.” She hadn’t dreamed about David in forever.

“Okay now?”

“Hmmm, yes,” she murmured, turning on her side to snuggle back into Wade’s hard frame. He wrapped one steely arm around her ribs and settled in close, his warm breath fanning the back of her neck. “What time is it?”

“Little after oh-two-hundred.”

She covered a yawn and burrowed back beneath the covers. It’d been a long time since she’d dreamed about the mine. Maybe the uncertainty about Rahim’s whereabouts and plans had triggered her nightmare. “I don’t like being confined,” she admitted. “Fell down an old mine shaft when I was a kid. I broke my leg on impact and couldn’t move. It was pitch dark down there. Took my dad over a day to find me, and only because our shepherd mix managed to track me. I’ve been claustrophobic ever since.”

He made a quiet sound to show he was listening, and tightened his arm around her. “Now I’m even more amazed at how you handled yourself in that cave with me.”

She snorted. “I hated every second of it, I promise you.”

“Maybe, but you still did it.”

“Yeah.” She was glad he hadn’t noticed her fear—or at least that it hadn’t gotten the best of her at a time like that. Facing a life and death situation like that, overcoming the claustrophobia had been easier than she’d imagined. Yawning, she cuddled deeper into his embrace. “Funny. I don’t seem to mind being confined by you though.”

His soft chuckle gusted against her nape. “That’s good to know.”

“And I was dreaming about David. A guy I dated a few years ago. We were together for seven months before he deployed. I loved him.”

Wade was completely still behind her, and she rushed to explain.

“He was killed by an insurgent two months before his tour ended. It was hard.” She swallowed, thinking of that horrible, endless ache of grief she’d carried around in her heart. At times it had felt like it would never end. She’d lost not only David, a good, kind man, but also all the dreams of getting married and having a family together. “Took me until about a year and a half ago to finally let him go.” To grieve for him and the loss of the life they’d planned.

“I’m sorry,” he murmured against her shoulder.

“Thanks. He was a great guy, and while part of me will always miss him, I know he’d want me to be happy. And right now I’m happier than I’ve been in a long while.”