Protecting Fiona (SEAL of Protection Book 3) (8 page)

No one answered her at first. Finally one of the other men in the van said, “No, we have our own medical facility nearby. It doesn’t behoove us to show up at the local hospital looking like we do sometimes. Don’t worry; we’ll take good care of him.”

Fiona nodded like it made perfect sense, not knowing her furrowed brow gave away her confusion. Nothing made sense. They hadn’t asked who she was, they hadn’t asked where she came from, hadn’t commented on the way she looked or smelled, they hadn’t really asked her anything. Just took it for granted that she was there. It confused the hell out of Fiona, and that wasn’t a good feeling, on top of everything else. Was she safe with them? What if they dumped her somewhere?

Just as she started to freak out, Wolf said, “Stop fretting, Fiona.”

At the use of her name for the second time, Fiona started.

Wolf noticed, and tried to reassure her. “Cookie told us who you were when we hauled him in the chopper, well at least your name. He was cursing a blue-streak saying you disobeyed him. We thought he was hallucinating until he told us your name when he woke up briefly in the plane.”

They all laughed and Fiona looked down at her lap. Fiona knew Hunter would be mad that she deceived him to get him on the helicopter, but honestly, it’d been for his own good.

Wolf continued seriously, “He also asked us to look after you until he got better. But it honestly doesn’t matter who you are or where you came from, Fiona, you saved his life. That makes you one of us. And we take care of our own. We’ll figure out the other stuff in due time, but in the meantime, we’ll take of him and we’ll take care of you.”

Fiona just stared at Wolf. “What?” she asked dumbly. She couldn’t get her brain to work right. She was tired, scared, sick, and hurting.

“Just relax,” Wolf soothed, seeing how stressed out she was. “We won’t hurt you and you’ll soon get to rest. I know you’re confused and hungry and tired, and probably scared as well. Let me introduce you to everyone, that might help make you feel better. Okay?”

Fiona nodded. What else could she do?

“I’m Wolf. Up there driving is Benny. Dude and Mozart are sitting in the seat in front of you, and that’s Abe next to you. I think you probably know we’re all on the same Navy SEAL team. I meant what I said. You saved Cookie’s life. You’re a part of us now too.”

Fiona meekly nodded her head. She had no clue what the hell Wolf was talking about. She felt as if she was in an alternative world. She wasn’t one of them. She didn’t even
know
them. Whatever. As long as they’d take care of Hunter she didn’t care what they said. Fiona just wished they’d hurry up and get to wherever it was they were going. She wanted to… no, she
needed
to lie down.

The van finally pulled up to a gate, Benny punched in a code and drove through with the gate closing behind him. Fiona watched it close warily. Was this another form of prison for her? She didn’t want to believe it, but the drug withdrawal was taking its toll. She felt nervous and jittery and couldn’t trust her own judgment. Fiona’s head was spinning and she felt paranoid. Dear God, she needed to be alone.

Fiona stepped out of the van as soon as she could after it came to a stop. She looked up at a beautiful house. It was a huge two story building with windows all around the upper floor. There was an old fashioned porch attached to the front with three rocking chairs. The front door was painted a dark red and she could see red curtains around the windows on the first floor. She had no idea whose house it was. It looked perfectly harmless, but for some reason it made Fiona nervous as hell.

Fiona watched as the men got out of the van and Wolf and Dude took Hunter into the house through the front door. Fiona took one more look around the yard, noticing the manicured lawn and bushes and slowly hobbled in behind the rest of the men. Before Wolf went down the hall behind Hunter, he took Fiona’s arm and led her toward a door.

“Fiona, this is your room. It has a bathroom attached. Please take your time and get changed and clean. I’ll bring some scissors down in a bit to help you get those shoes off your feet if you need it. I’ll also find some clothes for you to put on after your shower. They’ll probably be too big, but they’ll be clean. We’ll eat once you’re ready.” Wolf opened the door and watched Fiona walk in the room; he smiled at her then closed the door.

Holy hell
, Fiona didn’t know what was going on. She’d gone from living in her own filth and peeing in a bucket, to standing in the most beautiful room she’d ever seen. It was absolutely gorgeous. It was huge and the carpet was a pristine white. Fiona didn’t want to walk across it to the shower. She knew she’d get it dirty. What had Wolf been thinking leaving her here?

Fiona finally staggered toward the bathroom, ignoring the dirt she knew she was tracking through the room. She entered, then closed the door carefully and locked it firmly behind her. The bathroom was as beautiful as the rest of the room. There were two sinks and a huge marble counter. There was a Jacuzzi tub and a separate shower that had at least three shower heads.

Fiona would have admired it more carefully, but she was at the end of her rope. She’d simply been through too much, and her body wasn’t able to support her anymore. She sunk to the floor next to the sink, having the presence of mind to push the plush white rug out of the way, and toppled over. The last thing Fiona thought was with as bad as she felt, she hoped she would die.

* * *

Cookie finally regained consciousness. Wolf had sat next to him for thirty minutes, making sure the IV was opened all the way and that the wound in his shoulder was closed up properly. Mozart had done the honors for that. Wolf knew he was the best one of them to do it. Mozart had sewn up Wolf’s Caroline when she’d been hurt. Wolf could barely see the scar on Caroline’s side anymore. Mozart was that good.

The bullet had luckily gone all the way through Cookie’s shoulder, so Mozart didn’t have to dig it out. With luck, it hadn’t hit any major arteries, but had put two holes in Cookie’s arm. He was on some serious pain killers, but Cookie was a SEAL through and through. He was able to be functional, even with the drugs coursing through his body, especially since he was worried about Fiona.

“Tell me what happened,” Cookie demanded of his friend and teammate. “I remember Julie going up to the chopper and then only snippets after that. Fee did get in right?”

Wolf nodded. “The short version is that you were shot, Fiona half dragged you to the ladder and strapped you in, we hauled you up while she went back and got your pack. She shot at the tangos while we re-lowered the ladder. She staggered to it loaded down with your pack; we hauled her up while relocating away from there. We changed to a plane, landed here in Texas, sent Julie off on her way, and now we’re here in the safehouse Tex arranged for us. Now…you tell
me
what the hell happened out there.”

Cookie knew what Wolf meant. They hadn’t suspected a second hostage. Cookie told Wolf as much as he knew, which wasn’t much. He didn’t want to tell him too much about Fiona’s condition yet, as he knew it embarrassed her. But he knew eventually his teammates would have to know. They couldn’t help her with the drug withdrawal if they didn’t know about it. Cookie wanted to know more about Fiona and where she came from and how she’d ended up in that hellhole he’d found her in before he spoke with Wolf.

The door to Cookie’s room popped open and Benny stuck his head in.

“I brought the scissors and change of clothes to Fiona’s room, and when she didn’t answer the door, I looked in. She was in the bathroom and when I knocked on that door to let her know I’d brought her some things, no one answered. I knocked harder and she still didn’t answer. She’s not in the shower and I’m worried.”

Cookie immediately started to get up at hearing Benny’s words. If Benny was worried, Cookie was fucking terrified. Wolf stopped him. “I’ve got it,” he told his injured teammate, but Cookie wasn’t listening.

“Help me up,” he told Wolf gruffly. All he knew was he wasn’t going to lie around if Fiona was hurt. Wolf didn’t object, just sighed and helped Cookie to his feet and toward Fiona’s room.

Abe was at Fiona’s bathroom door when the other men arrived. “We didn’t want to barge in on her if she was in the tub,” Abe explained further, “but we can’t get her to open the door. She says she’s okay, but she doesn’t sound good.”

Wolf knocked on the door again and when there was no answer, helped Cookie get closer. Wolf gestured at him to take a shot at getting through to her.

“Fiona?” Cookie called out, “Can you hear me? Open the door, sweetheart.” The endearment came out without conscious thought.

Fiona couldn’t stop shaking. Her body was rebelling against her. She couldn’t breathe that well, and she knew something was seriously wrong. She thought she heard Hunter’s voice, but that couldn’t be right. He was unconscious…wasn’t he?

Cookie tried again, his voice a bit more forceful than before. “Fee, open the door right now or we’re coming in.” He paused. “I’m worried about you. Come on, open the door so I can see you’re all right.”

Fiona roused herself again. It
was
him. “Hunter?” she said weakly. “Are you okay?” She heard him laugh.

“Hell, Fee, I’m fine, it’s
you
we’re worried about. Now, open the door.” He said the last a bit more harshly then he intended to.

“I can’t come to the door right now, Hunter,” Fiona tried to explain, not really knowing what she was saying. “Maybe later.” She put her head back on the cold tile floor and closed her eyes.

Cookie gestured toward Benny. He was the best lock picker they had. They could all open just about any door and any lock, but Benny was the master at it. He could always manage to open any lock much faster than the rest of them. And this was certainly a situation where time was of the essence. Benny had the door open within a few seconds. The door swung wide and Cookie’s stomach dropped to the floor.

Wolf was at Fiona’s side before Cookie could move. She lay motionless on the bathroom tile, just as filthy as the last time Cookie had seen her. She’d managed to get into the bathroom, but not to clean herself up in any way. It was if she’d entered the room and fell to the ground immediately. Wolf easily lifted Fiona’s unconscious body and headed back toward the medical rooms with Cookie at his back following closely.

Wolf laid Fiona down carefully on the bed Cookie had just gotten out of, and looked back at Benny and Abe. “I need warm water. Lots of it. We have to get her clean before we do anything else. Grab the scissors too so we can get those shoes off her feet.”

Cookie looked on helplessly. He was feeling weak and swayed on his feet.

Wolf paused in his care of Fiona to drag a chair over toward the bed she was lying on and forced Cookie into it. “Sit, Cookie,” he told him sternly, “before you fall down, you stubborn ass.”

Abe and Benny came back with the water, towels, and scissors. They all started wiping down Fiona’s limbs, trying to get as much dirt and crud off her as they could without a full-fledged bath or shower. They moved quickly and professionally. Fiona moaned, but didn’t protest in any way.

Benny started with her feet. He cut the tape off and peeled the flip-flops off her feet. Her feet were absolutely filthy. He could see Fiona had blisters on the tops of her feet where the rubber of the shoes had rubbed against her skin. The amount of dirt and crud on the bottom of her feet was almost hard to believe. Benny dropped the shoes on the ground and carefully pulled off her shorts. He wasn’t even paying attention to how she looked; he was one hundred percent concentrating on getting this woman somewhat clean so they could give her any other medical aid she’d need.

Cookie watched absently as his teammates cleaned Fiona. He wasn’t upset that they were touching her and that Benny had removed her pants, he was too worried about why Fiona was unconscious and what was wrong with her.

Abe and Wolf cut Cookie’s long sleeved black shirt off of Fiona, which wasn’t hard to do since it was so large on her. They swore at the first glimpse they had of the metal collar around her neck. The shirt had hidden it until now.

“Jesus,” Cookie heard Abe mutter under his breath. They could all see how red her neck was. The rusted metal had rubbed her skin raw. It’d probably already been sore before they’d escaped, but now, after their mad dash through the jungle, it was beyond sore. It was red and inflamed and the amount of dried blood around it was somewhat alarming.

Abe continued removing her shirt, pulling it out from under her. Throughout it all, Cookie kept his eyes on Fiona’s face. She hadn’t moved, she hadn’t moaned, she hadn’t cried. She just lay on the bed, completely out of it.

The men continued their cleaning. They had warm washcloths they were using to try to get the worst of the dirt and grime off of Fiona. With each swipe, the washcloths were becoming more and more dirty, the water they’d been rinsing the rags in was practically black with the filth that was coming off her body.

Suddenly, at the same time Benny said, “Hell,” Wolf said, “Shit.”

Cookie looked away from Fiona’s face for the first time, wondering what they’d found. He’d clearly heard the grimness in each of his friends’ tones.

Benny gestured toward her leg. They all saw what they’d missed before. The dirt and grime had hidden a bullet wound. It looked like just a graze, but it was now slowly oozing blood over her leg and onto the sheet. The washcloth had obviously removed the scab that had been forming and allowed it to start bleeding again.

Both men looked at Abe, wondering what he’d been alarmed about. He simply gestured to her arms. The inside of Fiona’s elbows were covered in needle marks and bruises. Cookie had seen them before, but it’d obviously come as a surprise to the other men.

No one questioned Cookie, no one looked disgusted. They just continued to work in silence to try to wipe away this courageous woman’s time in hell. And it’d obviously been a hellacious experience. Besides the track marks and filthy condition of her body, bruises were revealed as the dirt was wiped away. She had different colors of finger marks on her upper arms, and more alarming, on her waist. There was a boot sized fading bruise on her back, but the most alarming were the bruises on her inner thighs, all different colors, alerting the men to the fact that some were older than others.

The track marks on her arms were ugly, but it really didn’t matter in the long run. Even if Fiona had taken the drugs eagerly, which none of them would blame her for; this woman had saved their teammate’s life. She’d saved their
friend’s
life. They all had questions, but they’d wait. Her health came first.

All went well until Wolf tried to put an IV into Fiona’s arm. One second she was deadweight in their arms, allowing them to move her limbs wherever they needed to in order to get her undressed and clean, and the next she fighting them as if her life depended on it.

“No no no
no,
” Fiona screamed out, fighting with all she had. She kicked out with her feet and narrowly missed Abe, who was standing near her. She was obviously remembering how she’d been drugged, or worse, been violated.

“Get off me, assholes,” Fiona snarled, while still twisting and turning in the men’s grasps. Fiona almost managed to twist off the bed and onto the floor before Wolf and Benny got a hold of her limbs and held her down, which only made her fight more frantically.

Cookie quickly leaned down toward Fiona’s head. “Fiona, snap out of it,” he said harshly, trying to get through to her. He put his hand from his good arm on her forehead. She stilled. Cookie continued, leaning in until his lips were right at her ear. “It’s me, Hunter. You’re safe. You’re back in the States; you aren’t in that shack anymore. Do you hear me?”

Fiona didn’t respond, but she didn’t fight either.

“I’m here with you and you’re in the hospital with me. We aren’t drugging you. I swear on my life you’re safe. Do you hear me? We’re trying to put in an IV. It’ll give you fluids; it’ll make you feel better. We aren’t drugging you. I promise.”