Protecting Fiona (SEAL of Protection Book 3) (4 page)

Cookie swallowed his anger. He was furious. Not at Fiona, but at the creeps who’d held her for so long. The pleasure on her face from that one small bite hit him hard. He’d never been so hungry that one bite of food was total bliss. Of course during SEAL training and BUD/S, he and his buddies had
thought
they were going to die of hunger, but from the look on Fiona’s face just now, he knew they hadn’t even been close.

He turned away to give Fiona some privacy and went back over to where he’d left Julie resting. Cookie knew he sounded harsher than he wanted when he told the women a little while later that it was time to continue on. Julie groaned and whined about how much she hurt, but she got up, grabbed onto his pack, and they were ready to go again.

Fiona kept quiet as they walked. She concentrated on making the granola bar last as long as she could. She took tiny bites and counted every chew she made. It not only made the food last longer, but it took her mind off of how horrible she felt.

Her stomach hurt, but Fiona knew she had to keep eating something. It had been empty for so long, it actually physically hurt to eat. The water the soldier had given her was the best she’d ever had. She watched as Julie gulped hers down, but Fiona savored hers. It wasn’t cold, not even close, and it wasn’t designer, but it was clean, and that was a huge step up from what she had been drinking. Fiona didn’t feel any grit in her mouth after drinking it and while it had a slightly metallic taste from whatever cleansing tablet the soldier used to make sure it was clean and healthy, it still tasted awesome.

It was easier for Fiona to take her time eating the granola bar when Julie and the man weren’t watching her every move. Fiona had no idea what his name was, he hadn’t told them. She desperately wanted to call him something other than “the man” or “the soldier” in her head, but she thought it’d be rude to outright ask him. Fiona suddenly had a thought. If he was a Navy SEAL she probably shouldn’t even be calling him “soldier.” Didn’t they call themselves “sailors,” or was it “seamen”? Damn. Fiona’s head hurt. If he wanted to let them know what his name was, he’d tell them. Maybe he wasn’t even allowed to tell them. Maybe it was some top secret thing that SEALs weren’t allowed to tell the people they rescued who they were.

Fiona knew her brain was flitting from one subject to the other with no rhyme or reason, but she couldn’t help it. She was hanging onto her sanity by a thread. All she wanted to do was drop to the ground and curl into a little ball, close her eyes, wiggle her nose, and find herself back in her apartment in El Paso…but she couldn’t. Of course she couldn’t. Fiona had sworn to the soldier that she wouldn’t be any trouble. She could hang on for a bit longer…maybe.

Her hands still shook, and Fiona’s body’s craving for whatever drugs she’d been given was still there, but as long as she could concentrate on something other than having more of the toxic cocktail injected into her body, she could stave off the drug withdrawal reaction just a bit longer. Fiona didn’t want the man to know what was happening. He’d certainly leave her behind then. He had to get Julie out of there and back to the States. Or maybe he’d decide they shouldn’t continue on if she just stopped on the trail, and that wasn’t acceptable. Fiona wanted out of this jungle. She could hold on just a little bit more. It wasn’t that far until they’d get to where he said someone would come and pick them up.

They’d been walking for what seemed like a long time, but after a while the man stopped and signaled for she and Julie to crouch down in a clump of trees. Fiona sensed something was wrong. She watched the soldier closely. He hadn’t said anything, but he looked tense. He was crouched down beside them and there was a cleared section of the forest just beyond the trees. It wasn’t quiet, there were too many animal noises for it to be called silent in the forest, but Fiona still thought it was eerie…obviously the soldier did too.

He kept looking at his watch and up at the sky. Fiona figured their transportation was late, or wasn’t coming. She absently scratched a bite on her leg with shaking fingers. Her withdrawal symptoms were getting worse. If they didn’t get out of here, he was going to notice. Fiona didn’t know what he’d do. Leave her? Be disgusted? Get pissed at her? She couldn’t risk telling him. She’d just have to ride it through, just like everything else she’d gone through.

“What are we waiting for?” Julie whined softly. “My butt hurts and I want to go home.”

Cookie sighed. Shit. When things went bad, they did it in grand style.

He turned toward the women. Julie had crocodile tears running down her face and Fiona just stared at him as if she knew he was going to say something was wrong.

“Change of plans,” he said bluntly, making his decision. “The helicopter didn’t show and I can’t get through to my teammates. We have to move to the back-up extraction point.”

Cookie knew some people would assume the team was just running late, but SEALs didn’t “run late.” Something was wrong and it was time to move to the backup plan they’d rehearsed before the mission started. Cookie deliberately didn’t tell the women where the backup extraction point was, but Julie wasn’t having any of his vague explanations.

“But where is it? How much further do we have to go? I thought we were going to be picked up here.”

Julie’s voice was whiney and it grated on Cookie’s last nerve. He held on to his temper by the skin of his teeth. He was used to having his team with him as a buffer. Anytime a rescued person became too much, they’d take turns with the person. He missed his team. Cookie always preferred working with his friends than by himself. It was how the SEALs normally operated and this mission was making it clear to Cookie, once again, why. He was having a hard time dealing with Julie.

He sighed and scrubbed his face with one of his hands. “It’s a ways away, but we don’t have to get there today. We have a few days…”

Cookie was interrupted by Julie. “A few days?” she screeched too loudly for the quiet jungle. “What the hell are you talking about? I thought you were here to rescue me, we need to get out of mmph…”

Cookie moved quickly for a man with a huge pack on his back. His hand was over Julie’s mouth before the last syllable came out.

“Shhhhh,” he ordered furiously. “The men who kidnapped you could be anywhere. Besides them, this jungle is crawling with drug runners and other men we definitely don’t want to run into. We aren’t safe here. You need to remember that and keep it down.” Cookie watched as Julie nodded fearfully, her eyes wide.

Fiona could see the solider was upset. The entire rescue had been full of surprises, and not good ones. The least of which was her presence, and now apparently their ride hadn’t arrived. She wanted to reassure the man, but wasn’t sure what to say, so she kept silent.

Cookie slowly removed his hand from Julie’s mouth. “Here’s the plan. We’ll walk south toward the river, then double back again and head west. They’ll figure that we’ll follow the river, so we’ll do the opposite. Just stay close to me and you’ll be fine,” he said to Julie, knowing he didn’t have to tell Fiona to stick close. He knew she’d do it or die trying.

Cookie glanced at Fiona. She hadn’t taken her eyes off of him and something eased inside him with her calm acceptance of the situation. At least he wouldn’t have two hysterical women to deal with. He gave Fiona what he hoped was a reassuring nod and said, “Let’s go.”

Cookie had no idea where Mozart was, he couldn’t reach him on the satellite radio and obviously something had gone wrong with the helicopter, otherwise Dude and Benny would’ve been there by now. It could be that they had to pick Mozart up because he ran into trouble. Whatever the reason was, Cookie didn’t waste time dwelling on it. The team had made the alternate arrangements for pick up for just this reason. Sometimes things just didn’t go as planned and they’d have to adjust their plans.

The trio headed back into the jungle. They had a long way to go before they were safe.

Julie had finally ceased complaining about an hour before they stopped for the night. Cookie figured she had the right to be tired, but they were all in the same boat…actually they weren’t. He glanced at Fiona. He hadn’t heard her say anything for a while. She’d kept quiet and had kept up with them, as she’d promised. He could only wish Julie had the same inner fortitude as Fiona did.

Cookie didn’t know how long Fiona had been in captivity, but he was certain it was a hell of a lot longer than Julie had been. He knew something was up with her, but he hadn’t had the time to figure it out…until now.

They’d stopped and Julie had immediately sat on the ground and brought her knees up to her chest and clasped her hands around them. She laid her head on her knees and hadn’t moved as he set up their make-shift camp for the night. It wasn’t much; they couldn’t afford to light a fire, possibly alerting anyone lurking in the dark jungle where they were. Cookie recalled the short conversation he’d had with Fiona as they’d settled in. She’d asked if she could help him in any way. He’d thanked her, but told her honestly that she’d just slow him down. She hadn’t pouted or sulked; she’d just nodded, as if she’d expected his response, and sat against a nearby tree, out of his way.

He’d talk to her now that they were stopped for the night. It hadn’t been a big deal to set up three lean-tos instead of the two that he’d planned. Supplies were plentiful in the jungle, leaves and sticks. Cookie was traveling light and didn’t have any tents. He hadn’t thought he’d need them in the first place, but even if he’d planned on spending several nights in the jungle, he preferred to keep his pack as light as possible, and tents would’ve added quite a bit of weight. Cookie had handed out another granola bar to each of the women, and had heated up two Meals Ready to Eat. They’d all split the food, with Fiona only eating a little bit, claiming her stomach hurt from the heavy food that she wasn’t used to, and now both women were resting.

Cookie looked over at Fiona now. She was still propped up by the tree with her arms around her legs. Her head was resting on her knees and her eyes were closed. She was in much the same position as Julie had been, but somehow she looked more vulnerable than Julie had.

Cookie thought again as to what was “off” about Fiona. Was it her feet? They were pretty beat up. Had she been hurt by the branches and shit they’d walked through? She wasn’t wearing pants. Maybe the men had hurt her last night before he’d gotten there. Shit, she had to have been raped and was probably scared to be around him.

That last thought made Cookie visibly flinch and feel physically sick. He’d been around rape victims before, but for some reason this time was different. Maybe it was because he was the only one around. Maybe it was because Fiona was trying so hard to be brave. Whatever it was, all Cookie knew was that something inside him completely rebelled at the thought of her being violated that way.

Unfortunately, they had about ten more miles to walk before they’d get to the second extraction point. Ten fucking miles. They had two more days to get there, which meant two more days of hard walking. If someone had told him he’d have to have two kidnapped women hike over ten miles through the Mexican jungle, he’d have told them they were crazy. But here they were. Cookie wasn’t sure either woman would make it, and that worried him.

Julie was the stronger of the two, but she was soft. She wasn’t used to the exercise and she complained every step of the way. It was obvious in her “real” life, anytime something was “hard,” she was allowed to quit. Not able to keep the mean thought out of his head, Cookie wasn’t sure
he’d
make it another two days if he had to listen to Julie’s incessant complaints the entire time.

He thought Fiona should be able to make it, but he wasn’t positive. If she’d been at one hundred percent, Cookie had no doubt she would’ve made the ten mile hike look easy. Hell, she probably could’ve done it in a day. But she
wasn’t
a hundred percent. Hell, she probably wasn’t even at fifty percent. She’d been captive a hell of a lot longer than Julie, and she didn’t look good. But she hadn’t given up. She’d soldiered on all day without one word of complaint. Cookie was fucking impressed.

The flip flops Fiona was wearing worried him. Fuck, who was he kidding, everything about her worried Cookie. Her lack of long pants, the collar around her neck, her shaking hands, her dehydration, her obvious hunger…Cookie needed to find out what was going on with her tonight, so he could make better decisions for all of them.

Once Julie was settled for the night, Cookie walked over to where Fiona was sitting. She was still resting against the tree silently. If Cookie didn’t see her back lightly moving up and down he would’ve been afraid she was dead. As he walked up to her she opened her eyes, but didn’t otherwise move. Cookie sat down beside her.

“How are you holding up?” Cookie asked quietly.

“I’m fine,” Fiona told him. “I won’t slow you down.”

Cookie nodded and told her, “I know, you’ve done great so far.” He paused, then continued. “I don’t think I’ve introduced myself to you yet. I’m Cookie.” He didn’t bother reaching out his hand for her to shake. They’d gone beyond the social niceties.

“Cookie?” Fiona stared at the handsome man sitting next to her trying to make small talk. She felt like crying. He was trying to make her feel normal, and she appreciated it more than she could say.

“Yeah, everyone on my team has a nickname. There’s Dude, Mozart, Wolf, Abe, Benny, and me…Cookie.”

“Are you going to tell me why you’re called Cookie?”

“Are you gonna laugh if I do?”

Fiona loved the easy-going banter. Hell, just hearing someone talk to her in English felt awesome. “Probably. Especially since you seem to be reluctant to tell me.”

Cookie chuckled. He knew it was inappropriate, but he was enjoying the hell out of this conversation, especially after the tension and complaining from Julie all day. He’d obviously taken too long to respond because Fiona continued talking.

“Are you going to make me guess?”

“You’d never guess, Fee.”

Fiona jerked her head off her knees to look at him. What had he called her?