Protecting Fiona (SEAL of Protection Book 3) (6 page)

Cookie had seen it before, with Caroline. When Wolf’s woman had been kidnapped by terrorists and thrown overboard in the middle of the ocean with her feet tied together and weighted down, he’d been the one to get to her and give her lifesaving oxygen while Wolf and the team took down the terrorists. Cookie had been amazed at Caroline’s fortitude and strength then, and still was today. He hadn’t met anyone like her, until Fiona.

Cookie had promised himself that if he
did
meet someone like Caroline, he’d snatch her up and never let her go. When Cookie made that silent vow to himself, he hadn’t expected to actually find a woman he admired as much as he admired Caroline. But it wasn’t admiration, exactly, he was feeling about Fiona.

Cookie had been on hostage recovery missions that were way worse than this one. Bullets flying was the worst, but most of the time they were hard because of the lack of inner fortitude of the person, or people, being rescued. Cookie and the team never blamed them, after all, being kidnapped wasn’t ever a good experience, but the fact that this woman, held longer than anyone he’d ever rescued before, was dealing with a reaction to a withdrawal of some sort of drug, and knew she was only being rescued because someone else had been sent for….it made him respect her. Respect and pride. That was what he was feeling about this woman.

There were very few people in his life that Cookie truly respected. The fact that he’d known Fiona for two days and respected her said a lot. He was also fucking proud of her. Fiona was holding her own in a horrible situation. She deserved a fucking medal. Cookie eased down beside her.

Fiona was on her side curled into a ball, as usual. The woman stunk to high heaven, was covered in dirt and filth, and was wearing a metal collar around her neck. Cookie wanted to get as close as he could to her to offer comfort, regardless of all that. To let her know she wasn’t alone. He supposed that he shouldn’t do it, especially with Julie shooting daggers at them from across the way, but he couldn’t help but offer this woman comfort.

Fiona felt Hunter ease himself onto the ground beside her and fit himself around her. His front to her back. He didn’t try to move her, she was still curled into a protective ball, but she fit in the crook of his body better than she thought she ever would with a man. Fiona was pretty tall for a woman, around five nine, and had never found a man that had “fit” her as Hunter had.

Fiona knew that Hunter could feel her trembling, but she couldn’t stop it.

Cookie felt helpless. He was a Navy SEAL. He could solve almost any problem thrown his way. He could fight the meanest bad guy, swim the widest ocean, fall from the sky and come out shooting, but he couldn’t do anything for the woman trembling in his arms. Not one fucking thing. The only thing he could do for her was talk to her.

“You’re doing fine, Fee.”

Fiona shook her head in denial. “I don’t think I’m going to make it, Hunter,” she whispered, scared if she said it too loud, it’d somehow make it true.

“Are you kidding me? You’ve already made it.”

“What are you talking about? Did you eat a bad mushroom at some point in the last day?” Fiona tried to joke with Hunter. If she didn’t make a joke, she’d probably cry.

Cookie ran his hand over Fiona’s head, wiping the sweat off her forehead in the process. “Funny girl. I mean, you’ve already made it away from those jackasses.
That
was the hard part.
This
is a piece of cake.”

Fiona closed her eyes and whispered her greatest fear out loud. “What if I freak out and get you killed?”

Cookie’s heart about broke in his chest. Fiona hadn’t said, “What if I freak out and they take me back,” she’d been more concerned about him. Jesus fucking Christ.

“You won’t freak out, Fee.”

“You don’t know that.”

Cookie turned her head just enough and got up on an elbow so he could look into Fiona’s eyes. “I know we’ve just met, but I know you. You’ll hold on until we’re safe. I
know
you will.” Cookie watched as Fiona closed her eyes, but continued anyway, keeping his hand on her face, liking the connection it gave him to her. “And even if you don’t hold on, and you
do
freak out, you won’t get me killed and I won’t allow them to take you back. I swear.”

“Don’t get hurt on account of me, Hunter. You’re so much more valuable than I am.”

Cookie couldn’t take it anymore. Every time he tried to reassure Fiona, she turned around and said something else that slayed him.

“Shhhh, Fee. Rest. You’re safe. Just relax.”

They laid on the ground for a while longer. Cookie knew Fee wasn’t sleeping. “What do you count to?” he asked her unexpectedly.

“What?” Fiona stammered, feeling embarrassed. She hadn’t realized Hunter had heard her counting. It was the one thing that had kept her sane in the pit they’d held her in, but now it was the
only
thing that kept her from falling into hysterics with the withdrawal.

“I know you’ve been counting to distract yourself,” Cookie said softly. “Let me help.”

“Really, Hunter,” Fiona complained, “you should get some rest…I smell horrible, you have other things to worry about…”

Cookie cut her off. “What do you count to?” His words were hard and unrelenting.

Fiona sighed to herself. She didn’t know how Hunter counting would distract her, but she finally told him. “I usually start at one thousand and count backwards, but lately I’ve been starting at two thousand.”

Cookie said nothing, but leaned down and kissed her temple, holding his lips against her skin for a moment. Then he brought his lips to her ear and softly started counting. “Two thousand, One thousand nine hundred ninety nine, one thousand nine hundred ninety eight…”

Fiona counted in her head with him, loving the low, rumbly sound of Hunter’s voice. It was deep and soft and soothing. Her exhausted body soon fell into a troubled sleep with the sound of Hunter’s voice still counting in her head.

The next morning Cookie woke up early again. He enjoyed the feel of Fiona in his arms, even in their present not-so-good situation. He hated to wake her up and that they had another tough day of trekking through the jungle. Fiona had just about broken his heart last night with her words. She was trying desperately to hold on and be brave, but Cookie could tell she was struggling.

The situation wasn’t ideal. Fiona wasn’t at her best, hell that was the understatement of the year, but Cookie was still drawn to her. Even smelly, sweaty, covered in dirt, and suffering from withdrawal from who-the-hell-knew what drugs, Cookie thought she was amazing. He gently eased off the ground and removed his arm from around Fiona’s waist and got up. Cookie slid a lock of hair off Fiona’s cheek and tucked it behind her ear gently, then turned to get ready for the day. Knowing they had one more day of grueling travel before they could reach the extraction point, Cookie wanted to let the women sleep longer before having to wake them.

After stalling as late as possible, Cookie finally woke them up. Julie was irritable and had no problem letting Cookie know it. She bitched about the hard ground, the lack of good food, even about not having a damn toilet. Cookie ignored her as much as he could. He only had to get through one more day before she’d be someone else’s issue. It was a terrible thing to think after what she’d been through, but he couldn’t help it.

Once Fiona was up and moving, Cookie thought she actually looked a bit better than the day before, but she still in no way looked good. He could still see her hands shaking. She was able to keep half of a granola bar down and Cookie took that as a good sign. He was running low on food, but hopefully it wouldn’t make a difference after tonight. There was no way Cookie was letting Fiona know they had just one more granola bar left. She’d insist that he or Julie eat it, when it was obvious she was the one who needed the nutrients the most.

Fiona was glad she’d been able to eat something and not immediately throw it back up; she hoped she was coming out on the other side of the worst of the withdrawal symptoms she’d been experiencing, but she wasn’t sure. She still smelled horrible and most likely looked like a refugee from a third world country. Fiona was glad she hadn’t seen a mirror. She didn’t think she wanted to see her reflection anytime in her near future. She was covered in bug bites as well. They were maddeningly itchy. Her feet were not faring well in the flip-flops either, but Fiona knew she had no choice there. Hunter had tried to wrap them in tape before they set off yesterday, but the tape would only last so long. She had blisters between her first and second toes because of the plastic on the flip flops between them, but honestly, they were the least of her problems at the moment. Fiona purposely hadn’t asked Hunter how long they had to walk today, not wanting to know.

After their lunch break, Cookie told the women they were coming to the most dangerous part of their trip. There was a reason this was Plan B. First, it was a lot further from the kidnapper’s camp, but second it was in a more populated area and near a well-known drug runner’s hangout. They all had to keep quiet and not talk unless absolutely necessary. Cookie told them to watch where they were walking and try to make as little sound as possible. He didn’t think they’d have to worry about the kidnappers finding them this far out, but the last thing he wanted to happen was to run into drug runners while escaping from sex traffickers.

Finally, after a long quiet couple of hours of walking, Cookie stopped. “Okay, ladies, here’s the plan,” he told them quietly. “The chopper should be here in about an hour. We need to sit tight and wait. You can rest and get your strength back as much as possible. Be ready for anything when the chopper comes into range. If anything happens, and I mean
anything
, you two are to get your butts to that chopper. I’ll cover your backs and make sure you get there. Got it?”

Julie, not surprisingly, nodded enthusiastically, agreeing to anything as long as it got her out of the jungle. Fiona wasn’t as quick to agree. Somehow Cookie knew she’d protest.

Fiona had been feeling better earlier, but started feeling shaky again when they stopped to wait for the helicopter. She didn’t like what Hunter was saying and let him know in no uncertain terms. “No, not okay,” she said defiantly.

“Shut up,” Julie hissed meanly, not waiting for Cookie to say anything. “He’s here because of
me
, if it wasn’t for
me,
you wouldn’t even have been rescued. So let him rescue us and shut the hell up!”

Fiona looked at Julie incredulously. “You’re right; if not for Hunter,
you’d
still be in that stinking building or on your way to be some guy’s sex toy. You’re willing to let him
die
for you?”

Without waiting for an answer, to what was obviously a rhetorical question, Fiona turned to Hunter. “There’s no way we’ve come this far to leave you behind now. Tell us what to be on the lookout for and we can help you.”

Cookie shook his head and kept his voice even, yet firm. He couldn’t deny it felt good to have Fiona stand up for him, even if he didn’t need it. Not many women had the guts to go to bat for him. At least none in the recent past that he could remember.

“No, Fiona, that isn’t how this works. I’m the professional, you’re not. You’ll follow my orders and get on that chopper, no questions asked. I can deal with any situation that arises here. I’m a Navy SEAL, a professional soldier. If I know you’re safe I can concentrate better and I’ll be better off without the two of you here.”

His words hurt, but Fiona knew Hunter spoke nothing but the truth. She didn’t want to give up her argument though.

At the stubborn look in her eye, Cookie eased his voice a bit. “Fee, this isn’t my first mission. I know what I’m doing. Even if for some reason I can’t get on the chopper, I know what to do. I’ll dig in and hang out until my team can come back and get me. And they
will
come back to get me. A SEAL doesn’t leave a SEAL behind, ever. It’s much easier for just me to hide and wait them out than it would be if I have to look after you or Julie as well.”

Fiona heard what Hunter was saying, but she didn’t like it. Well, Hunter could say what he wanted; she wasn’t going to leave him in the jungle if she could help it, even if his team would come back for him. Fiona knew what it was like to be left behind, and she swore she wouldn’t put anyone else through it, ever.

Time ticked by slowly. The hour they had to wait was one of the longest hours of Fiona’s life. Finally,
finally,
they heard the faint sound of a helicopter.

“Come on,” was all Cookie said. He started off through the jungle, hacking the branches away from their path as he went. He wasn’t trying to be quiet, he was trying to get them to the landing zone as quickly as possible.

“It’s about a quarter of a mile through the trees, straight line distance, this way,” he’d told them earlier pointing toward the west. “No problem.”

It
was
a problem though. As soon as they heard the chopper, obviously so did the drug runners. While they didn’t know exactly where it was headed, they had a pretty good guess since there weren’t very many places it could land or get close to the ground in the area.

When Cookie, Julie, and Fiona finally reached the area where they were to be picked up, all hell broke loose. The drug runners had reached the area at the same time and easily spotted them and opened fire. Cookie didn’t hesitate and returned fire. The loud sound of gunfire startled Fiona.

The noise was extremely loud compared to the silence they’d been traveling in. Cookie’s teammates in the chopper began laying down cover fire. They signaled to Cookie and he urged Julie and Fiona toward a small opening in the trees. It was going to be tricky. They had to climb onto a lowered ladder and be hauled up. The chopper couldn’t land, and they were going to be sitting ducks while they were being hauled aboard.

Julie went first. Cookie and Fiona kneeled down in a patch of thick bushes. Cookie was firing toward where he thought the drug runners were hiding in the jungle around them. He’d taken off his pack to have better range of motion.

It was taking a while for Julie to grab a hold of the ladder. Fiona wanted to scream in frustration. Why didn’t she just grab the damn thing and get the hell out of there? Cookie was running out of ammo, he didn’t have an unlimited amount of bullets. They both knew if he had to stop firing, Julie could be injured.

Cookie was surprised, but supposed he shouldn’t have been, when he heard Fiona say, “Here,” and thrust his original pistol at him, fully loaded again. She’d loaded it while he was firing his backup. Cookie didn’t say anything, simply grabbed it and started shooting again.

Fiona re-loaded the pistol Hunter had just emptied. Her hands were shaking badly, so it was a tough job, but she knew Hunter had to concentrate or else they were all dead. She knew how to load and shoot pistols because in her world back in El Paso, she’d decided she needed to be proactive for her own self-protection. She lived alone and wanted to be sure she could handle a gun to protect herself. She’d taken gun safety lessons and actually owned a pistol herself. That simple decision she’d made so long ago was certainly paying off now.

Finally Julie was up safe in the chopper. Fiona hadn’t watched her go up; she’d been concentrating on loading the bullets into the gun. It was probably a good thing. If she’d watched, it might’ve scared the crap out of her.

Suddenly it was Fiona’s turn. Without a word, Cookie went to push her forward to take her turn, when suddenly he fell backward.

Fiona looked down in horror. Hunter was lying still on the ground with blood coming from somewhere around his upper chest. He’d been shot!

Fiona looked around quickly and made a split second decision. Hunter was going to live, dammit. He certainly didn’t deserve to die out here in the fucking jungle. He’d risked his life for Julie, and for her, and she wasn’t going to save herself and leave him here. Fiona knew she’d never be able to live with herself if she just up and left Hunter bleeding on the ground. She’d watched how Julie had to strap herself onto the ladder and figured she could do that with Hunter…but she had to have his help. She couldn’t carry him.

She frantically shook him. “Get up, Hunter, get up!” After a few more times of her yelling at him, he finally stirred, groggily.

Fiona continued to try to get him up and moving. “Hunter, we have to get to the chopper. I need your help.” She appealed to the soldier in him, in the side that saved people for a living. “Please, help me get to the ladder,” Fiona begged, hoping the desperation she could hear in her own words would break through to him.

It did. Hunter staggered to his feet, with Fiona’s help, and with her arm around his waist, he stumbled along beside her to the dangling ladder. Fiona tried to steady Hunter with one hand, while randomly firing his pistol with the other. She knew she wasn’t hitting a damn thing, but she hoped the bullets flying would maybe make the bad guys think twice about coming out of hiding. Hunter’s teammates in the helicopter were frantically shooting around them, trying to suppress the gunfire from the drug runners as well. Fiona hoped they were as good a shot as she’d always heard. She’d hate to end up dead from a stray bullet after everything she’d been through.

After what seemed like forever, but was really probably only about ten seconds, they reached the ladder. “Help me, Hunter,” Fiona fake-begged him again. “Hold on to the ladder to keep it steady for me.”

Fiona was completely lying to him, trying to get him near enough to the first rung so she could strap him in. “Step up, Hunter.” She watched him blindly step up to the first rung. Fiona wrapped the containment rope around his back and clipped it to the ladder again. It wasn’t much, and probably wouldn’t hold him if he passed out on his way up, so she prayed he’d be able to hold on for the short trip up.

“Hold on,” Fiona begged Hunter desperately. “For me, hold on. Don’t let go.” Hunter seemed to become a bit more lucid at her words, and just as his partners were hauling him up, he tried to grab her hand.

Fiona stepped back out of the way and ran back toward the break in the trees where they’d been hiding. She heard him swearing as he was lifted up toward the helicopter.

“Thank God,” Fiona sobbed while still trying to randomly shoot his pistol. When she shot the last bullet, she just watched as Hunter miraculously reached the chopper and was hauled inside by several grasping hands. The drug runners were finally backing off as a result of the fire power from the chopper.

Fiona wasn’t sure what the men in the helicopter would do. She knew they weren’t expecting to pick up more than two people. She didn’t even know if they had room for her. But they had to have seen her helping Hunter onto the ladder. Had to have seen she wasn’t the enemy. Fiona wanted to see the ladder drop back to the ground for her almost more than she wanted a three course meal, but she had no idea how much weight the chopper could hold and if it was even feasible for Hunter’s teammates to save her too.

Fiona grabbed Hunter’s pack with the intention of slinging it over her back as she’d seen him do time after time, and almost fell backwards when she tried to pick it up. The thing was heavy! She had no idea how Hunter had been able to carry it as far as he did without seeming to be bothered by it. Fiona wanted to leave it on the ground where Hunter had left it, she honestly didn’t feel strong enough to take it with her, but she knew she couldn’t leave it behind. Fiona figured there was probably a lot of electronic equipment in it and probably other top secret things.