Operation Swift Mercy (18 page)

Mercy wasn’t taking chances, she snapped the lock in place and went back to curl up in bed. Chase
had gone
out to bring back some food for them and check on Tupper. She felt a little bad for Tupper being left out,
even though
Chase had assured her he was a big boy and could take care of himself. Apparently, knowing Tupper, Chase had said, he’d find him playing poker with the crew somewhere on board.

Their afternoon had been unexpectedly perfect, considering they were in a claustrophobic room with only a bunk bed to sleep in
.
She couldn’t remember feeling this safe before—not in a long time…maybe even ever. Laying side by side after the best sex she’d ever had in her life, they’d talked a
bout everything under the sun. When s
he’d asked him about his time working with his reconnaissance
team,
she discovered
that was the one area he
wouldn’t
talk about, except to tell her some of the crazy things they’d gotten into on their down time or during their training, other than that he was like a bank’s strong room door—impenetrable
.
 

The pillow still smelt like C
h
ase
where he’d been laying only a little while ago and she cuddled up to it feeling tired and shut her eyes for a moment.

The banging on the cabin door jolted her from a  rather pleasant dream she’d been having and sitting up too fast she bumped her head on the bunk above and muttered beneath her breath as she hurried to unlock the door.

“Who is it?” S
he called.

“The man of your dreams?”

Mercy smiled, despite her sore head. “Hmm…Tupper?”
S
he said, unlocking the door. Before she could turn the handle, the door was open and Chase stepped into the room with a tray of food. “I wouldn’t say that too loud—he’s already got a big enough head as it is.”

“He’s not my type anyway,” she shrugged, following Chase to the bed where he placed the tray down carefully on the end of the bunk.

Slipping his arms around her waist, Chase pulled her against him, eyeing her with a playful glare. “And what’s your type?”

Standing this close to him, forced Mercy to tilt her head back to look up at him as he towered over her. “You,” she said quietly. All teasing was so
on wiped from hi
s
face, at her quiet words. A silence hung between them, and for a moment Mercy thought she’d scared him off. For a moment she thought she’d scared
herself
off! But then a slow smile spread across his face and their meal was forgotten as they discovered it wasn’t food they were hungry for after all.

****

They were on the ship for twelve hours in total before they were given the word that it was time for them to leave the ship. Mercy followed Chase out onto the deck, expecting to see bright lights welcoming them to some kind of port but sent him a confused glance when all around them was dark, open water
.

“Final leg of the trip,” he said, his hand gently cupping the back of her neck as they stood quietly waiting on the deck.

For a brief mo
ment, Mercy allowed herself to rest
against Chase’s solid
warmth;
it felt good to have someone to lean on—both
figuratively as well as
literally.
She hadn’t had this before, she’d been sheltered, pampered and taken care of, but it had never been in this way. Nikkos had people to take care of her—he paid people to cater for her needs, he had never stood by her side and openly comforted her. He’d never put himself on the line to protect her the way Chase had been doing from the first moment she’d met him.

From out in the dark came a flash of light, followed by more flashes and Mercy watched as somewhere on the ship a return series of flashes replied. A few moments later a small fishing boat turned on its lights and Mercy saw it bobbing in the water a few hundred feet away from the side of the ship.

“I take it, that’
s our next mode of transport?” S
he asked quietly.

“Yep. Ready?”

Like she had any choice
, she thought with a resigned sigh. “How are we going to get on it?”
S
he asked, noticing that they were several stories above the water level on the deck of the ship.

Chase pointed further up the deck where two men were working around a dark shape attached to pullies. It looked like the rubber ducks, the kind of rescue boats the surf lifesavers used,
but she was pretty sure she’d heard Chase and Tupper refer to it as the tender. “In that,” he said, leading her towards it.

Mercy hesitated before climbing into it, it was a bloody long way down the side of the ship and she was certain she’d seen these things snap and plummet to the ocean below in more than one movie!

Once
Tupper,
Chase and one of the crewmen were in the small vessel, the other crew on board pushed a lever and a hydraulic contraption began lowering  them slowly down the
side
.
Chase held her tightly and for that she was thankful as her nerves stretched as tight as the cables lowering them into the dark ocean below.

“Luckily we’ve got calm
seas;
the swell isn’t too high so it shouldn’t be too bad.”

“Aw, come on Maloney—tell me you don’t miss the ten foot swells we usually do this in,” Tupper
added
.

“Seriously?” Mercy
sent Chase a worried frown.

“We don’t always get the luxury of waiting for the weather to clear,’” he shrugged. “Tupper’s exaggerating though, hard to judge a swell when you’re curled up in the foetal position on the bottom of the boat squealing like a baby, hey Tup.”

“You’d know,” Tupper snorted.

Mercy was
grateful
for their attempt to lighten the mood, but seriously, if this was a calm night, she’d hate to see a wild one. She’d heard them saying this was only a 3 foot swell, but out here in open water, it still looked terrifying and more than a little dangerous.
It was clear there was no easier way to do the transfer, but still…w
here was a damn helicopter when you needed one? She thought, watching the water rise to meet them as the boat swayed slightly.

“Get ready folks,” Tupper warned.

“Ready for what?” Mercy demanded, trying to swivel in Chase’s arms.

There was no time to reply as the small tender was released from the hook holding them to drop into the last few feet remaining below them in the water.
They hit the water with a thud, and Mercy let out a hummfp as the tender splashed into the water, rising and falling with the swell of the ocean below.

“You alright?” Chase asked, running his hands along her arms.

“I think so. You could have warned me about that last bit though,” she managed in a shaky voice. She really didn’t like surprises like that very much.

“Yeah, sorry about that. That’s the worst of it now though,” he promised.

The ride across to the other boat didn’t take long and soon they were pulling up alongside it.

A leather-faced fisherman helped haul
Tupper on
board, without giving more than a nod of greeting while Chase lifted her up until she could take Tupper’s outstretched hand to clamber up beside him. She stood back and waited until Chase came on board and then followed them along the narrow
deck that ran
beside
the cabin area. It was a little hard to get used to going from the enormity of the cargo ship to a small, rather dodgy looking fishing vessel that looked decades past its prime.

They went below, down a narrow staircase and into the belly of the fishing boat where an open kitchen, dining and sleeping area shared the space.

“Why don’t you get some sleep,” Chase suggested, leading her towards yet another bunk bed—like she hadn’t had her fill of bunk bed sleeping over the last few days, she thought with a tired sigh, but she had to admit, it did look inviting right about now, and she wasn’t feeling all that good. The smaller vessel was pitching and rolling with a lot more ferocity than the big cargo ship had done, and she prayed she wouldn’t succumb to sea sickness now—she’d been handling it so well up until now
.

She climbed into the bed without comment, turning her back on the rest of the room and promptly fell asleep.

Chapter
Fifteen

Strange sounds of creaking and groaning greeted her ears when she finally woke up a long time later. That and the smell of cooking…and not the warm cosy smell of
baking
type cooking, this was nasty, fatty,
oily fish
,
kinda
’
cooking and Mercy felt a wave of sea sickness swell inside and slosh around inside her.

A faint groan escaped from her lips as she realised this time, she wasn’t going to be able to keep it down, and she threw back the covers someone had thoughtfully
p
laced over her and ran for the top deck.

She wasn’t sure how long
she stayed
hanging over the rail at the side of the boat, but she felt so wretched that she hadn’t even realised when the set of comforting, warm hands had started rubbing her back
, and gathered her hair
, holding it
back out of the way
. When she finally thought she had it under control, she dropped her head to rest on top of her folded hands on the rail, and wished she could just fall over the side and be done with it.

“Here, have a drink
. Y
ou’ll feel better now,”
Chase said, handing her a bottle of water.

Lifting her head up, she took the water and rinsed out her mouth, splashing some on her face
before taking
a small sip.

“Better?”
H
e asked, waiting by her side patiently.

“I think so.” She looked up at him then, and was glad she hadn’t thrown herself overboard after all
. S
he’d have really missed looking at this man. “Sorry,” she winced as
it suddenly occurred to her
what an unattractive—most un-sexy image she’d just
portrayed,
throwing up ov
er the side of the boat
.
Way to entice a guy, Mercy,
she scoffed silently
.

“Nothing to be sorry about—everyone gets sea sick once in a while,” he shrugged.

“Really?”
She didn’t believe for a minute that th
is
big Marine type
man
would ever be caught dead throwing up over the side of a boat, but it was nice of him to make her feel slightly better about it all.

“Yep. As medic, I see all kinds of things.”

“And do you hold
their
hair back too?”

“Only special cases get that service,” he grinned.

“Well, thank you for your help.”

“Do you want to go back down and get into bed for a while?”
H
e asked.

Mercy shook her head. “No thanks. I don’t think I can handle the smell of whatever it is they’re cooking down there, again. I think I’ll just stay up here.”

“I’ll be right back, take a seat here,”
he said, helping her over to a
bench seat against the wall of the cabin.

Now that she had time to look around, she saw that the sun was rising and before her the massive horizon stretched out into infinity in a spectacular burst of orange, pink and yellow. She took a deep breath of the
crisp
morning air and felt a moment of utter peace and tranquillity. She tried to think when the last time
she’d caught
a sunrise was and couldn’t. Why hadn’t she taken advantage of this more often? It was so breathtakingly beautiful,
that
she was mesmerised by it.

“Pretty impressive isn’t it,” Chase said as he sat down beside her, spreading a blanket around her shoulders and handing her a few dried biscuits he’d brought up from below.
“Here these crackers will help with the queasiness,” he said, watching her eye them cautiously. “
If you like,
I can give you a shot to make you feel better if it doesn’t pass soon.”

“I may just take you up on that,” she said, sending him a dry smile. “Kinda
’
comes in handy having a doctor around,” she added.

“Not a doctor—just a medic,” he said playing down her comment.

“Pretty close to a
d
octor, I’d say.”

“It’s something I thought about going into for a while,” he shrugged.

“Why didn’t you?”

“I gue
ss I like the adrenaline rush of combat a little too much to give it up to work in a hospital,” he smiled a somewhat self-depreciating smile.