Protecting Fiona (SEAL of Protection Book 3) (9 page)

Still no movement from Fiona. “Trust me, sweetheart,” Cookie tried again. “Please, just trust me.”

Fiona finally sighed and turned toward Hunter. Her eyes opened into slits, just enough to see. “Hunter?” she said tentatively. “You’re really okay?”

“I’m really okay,” Cookie was touched in a way he’d never been before at her unselfishness. She had to be hurting and was confused, and still, she was worried about him. Cookie moved his hand from her forehead to the side of her face. Her skin was hot and sweaty, but Cookie could feel her lean her head into his hand as he spoke. The thought that in the midst of her terror, she’d trust him, made his stomach clench with an unfamiliar, but not unwelcome, jolt. “Just relax, Fee, everything is fine. I’m here and I’m not going anywhere.”

Fiona sighed and nodded. Her eyes went to Wolf and the other men and unknowingly impressed the hell out of the battle-hardened men standing around her. “Sorry guys, I’ll try to stay still, can’t promise though.”

Abe was the first one to respond, and he did so chuckling under his breath. “No worries, Fiona. We’ll take care of you.
Nothing
will hurt you here. Relax.”

Wolf was able to put in the IV without further incident, but all four men watched as she scrunched her eyes closed and as the sweat popped out on her forehead. Fiona finally fell into a fevered sleep without another word.

Wolf turned toward Cookie with barely leashed anger toward the mystery men who’d drugged and abused Fiona in his eyes, and said between clenched teeth, “Spill it.” They all needed to hear Fiona’s story. This obviously wasn’t a cut-and-dried case. They all needed to hear what was going on, and it’d have to be reported back to their commander.

Cookie sighed. “I’d hoped she was over the worst of it, but apparently I was wrong. They drugged her. I have no idea with what, but I’m assuming it was probably heroin, but her symptoms don’t exactly fit. Heroin withdrawal usually includes things like agitation, muscle aches, nausea, and vomiting. She’s experienced all of those, but they usually don’t last much longer than thirty hours. She should be over that by now.

“But if they mixed the heroin with meth, that could definitely cause some sort of substance-induced psychotic disorder. That makes this withdrawal more serious. It has its own set of symptoms, the prominent one being delusions or hallucinations. Fiona said they’d been drugging her for weeks. She’s embarrassed about it, and you can see she’s fighting as hard as she can, but it’s not enough. I’m afraid it’s going to get bad. I’m amazed she made it as long as she did.”

“She’s obviously tough,” Wolf told Cookie. “She’ll handle this. We won’t let her down.”

Wolf had apparently adopted Fiona as one of their own. He’d watched her put her life on the line for one of his best friends. There was no way one of the team could’ve safely gone down from the helicopter to help out and to get Cookie up. Fiona had literally saved both of their lives.

“We have to figure out what we’re going to do. We can’t stay here forever. Tex’s people are only allowing us to use this place for about a week and a half at most, and we have to report back to base. I’ll call the commander and let him know what’s up and that all of us won’t be returning right away. We have to figure out who’s staying to help take care of her and who’s going.”

“I’m not leaving her, Wolf,” Cookie said with steel in his voice.
              “I didn’t think you were.” It was said matter-of-factly, as if Wolf hadn’t even thought of the possibility.

“I’ll stay too,” Benny told them. Before Abe could volunteer to stay as well, Benny continued. “Abe, you need to get home to Alabama. You know how much she stresses when you’re gone. Wolf, you should probably get home too, you can talk to the commander and make sure you hold the fort down, besides, Caroline will be just as anxious to see you as Alabama is to see Abe. I’ll get Dude to stay here with us.”

“What about Mozart?” Abe asked, apparently having no issues with Benny’s plan.

“I think he can probably go back home as well. If we need him though, we’ll get in touch. We can play it by ear.”

“Cookie? Does that sound all right to you?” Wolf wanted to make sure Cookie approved whatever they decided, this woman was obviously important to him, even though they’d just met. Wolf didn’t question it. He’d made a connection with his Caroline just as quickly and if Cookie was feeling half of what he’d felt when he’d found out Caroline was injured, he knew Fiona was already a part of their close-knit SEAL family, even if she didn’t know it yet.

Cookie ran his hand over Fiona’s forehead, feeling the heat and dampness. He moved slowly and carefully, still feeling the pain of his own wound. “Yeah, I’ll get her through this and we’ll see where we stand.” His voice lowered in pain. “I don’t really know anything about her. I don’t know if she has a family somewhere wondering where she is. If she’s married, if she has kids…” his voice trailed off.

The mood in the room got heavy. Christ, they hadn’t thought of that. Wolf cleared his throat. “The main thing is to get her well. Cookie, you can deal with all that after she recovers.”

Cookie nodded. “Okay, you guys get going. Benny and Dude can stay here with me. Wolf, if you can talk to Tex and let him know we’ll be holed up here for a bit longer I’d appreciate it. I’ll stay in touch and let you know how Fiona is doing and what our next steps will be.”

The other men left the room, each looking back one more time at the woman on the bed and their teammate. They all silently hoped she’d pull through and that she was free. It was plain to see Cookie already considered Fiona “his,” and they hoped, for both their sakes, it could work out.

Fiona’s fever spiked. Cookie was in the room with her when she started thrashing on the bed. She was extremely hot to the touch. Cookie grabbed Fiona’s hand to try to reassure her, but that only seemed to make her reaction worse, and it pushed her over the edge. She jerked away from him and sat up, obviously trying to get up and out of the bed.

“Duuuude,” Cookie bellowed as he tried to hold Fiona still. He wasn’t very effective with his own shoulder injured from being shot. The door slammed open and not only Dude, but Benny also entered the room and summed up the situation quickly.

Dude grabbed hold of Fiona’s shoulders while Benny grabbed her shins. Cookie stayed at her head trying to calm Fiona down with his touch. All three men were silent while they watched Fiona twist and turn and struggle to release herself. Just as before, her efforts only exhausted her. This time when Cookie tried to gentle her with his voice, it did no good. His voice couldn’t bring her out of the drug induced haze she was in this time.

Finally, after what seemed hours, but was really only ten minutes or so, Fiona fell still again. She opened her eyes, gazing duly around the room. With glazed eyes she whimpered, “Why? Why are you doing this to me?” and then fell silent once again.

“God damn,” Benny exclaimed softly. “Let us know when she wakes up again,” he told Cookie sadly, knowing it probably wouldn't be the last time they were needed. “We’re just next door and can be here in a second.”

“I will, thanks guys. Hopefully she’ll sleep the worst of this off soon.”

Nodding, Benny and Dude left Cookie alone with Fiona again.

Cookie slept fitfully for the next twenty four hours. Waking when Fiona woke, trying to soothe her, calling for Benny and Dude to help him keep Fiona from hurting herself when needed, and then trying to sleep when Fiona slept.

They’d actually had to put gloves on Fiona’s hands because she kept trying to scratch her skin. He knew it probably felt like her skin was crawling with bugs, but it was just the withdrawal making her think that way…okay, and the multitude of bug bites as well.

Cookie had seen a lot of hard things in his life, but nothing had prepared him for the heartbreaking cries and pleading that came out of this woman’s mouth. They were all the more horrifying because he knew if
she
knew she was doing it, she’d have been mortified. Fiona had done everything she could while they were in the jungle to downplay her own suffering, and there was no doubt she’d been suffering.

When Fiona was lucid enough, they all tried to get her to eat something. They knew she wasn’t dehydrated because the IVs were pumping lots of life saving fluids into her nonstop, but they were worried about her caloric intake.

They frequently got her up and she was able to use the toilet. Cookie was relieved because he knew Fiona
definitely
wouldn’t want them putting in a catheter. They were all amazed she was as mobile as she was. Cookie attributed that to her stubbornness and strong will. She still wasn’t lucid, but they all hoped she’d soon come out on the other side of the worst of this soon.

Three days after they arrived, Fiona opened her eyes and watched Cookie sitting next to her in a chair by the bed. She didn’t say anything, but waited for him to open his eyes. As if Cookie could feel her gaze on him, he stirred and his eyes came to hers as soon as he awakened.

“How do you feel today, Fiona?” Cookie asked warily, wondering what kind of mood she’d be in and how the withdrawal was affecting her today. He’d seen Fiona’s eyes open before, and she’d been completely out of it, not knowing what she was saying or doing. Cookie hoped today was the day she’d break through and come back to him.

Fiona cleared her throat before she spoke. “Better.”

Cookie nodded, and kept a watchful eye on her. She sounded awful, but he wasn’t surprised with all she’d been through. “Do you feel like getting up to use the bathroom?”

Fiona blushed and nodded.

Cookie was thrilled to see the blush bloom across Fiona’s face. In the past couple of days she’d acted like a zombie, and certainly hadn’t reacted with embarrassment to anything she’d done, or that the guys had done to her. Cookie helped Fiona stand up and arranged her IV pole and walked her to the bathroom. When he went to go in with her, Fiona stopped him.

“I can do it,” she told him sternly, not looking Cookie in the eyes.

Cookie was skeptical, but didn’t want to hurt Fiona’s feelings. “Okay, if you need my help, just say something, I’ll be right here,” and he gestured at the door. Fiona nodded and closed the door softly.

Cookie heard her engage the lock on the door and frowned. It wasn’t as if the lock would keep him or anyone else out, but it was more the fact she felt like she had to lock it at all that bothered him. He waited not-so-patiently for her to finish up so he could put her back to bed.

Fiona didn’t bother to look at herself in the mirror, she didn’t bother to use the toilet, she immediately went to the small window in the bathroom. She had to get out of here. Who knew what they were planning on doing with her. She knew sometimes they liked to be nice to her to try to get her to let her guard down, then do something horrible to crush her spirits. “Never again,” Fiona mumbled to herself. She wanted out. She had to get out.

Her hands were shaking, she felt horrible, but she reached for the window anyway, noticing for the first time as she did, the IV in her arm. Feeling repulsed, who knew what they were putting in her body now, Fiona tore it out, not trying to be gentle or to worry about doing it the “right way.” Blood slowly oozed down her arm and dripped on the floor, but she paid no attention to it. 

Fiona slowly raised the window and glanced outside. Luckily, it seemed to be night. She had lost all sense of what day it was and when it was. When she was first taken, she’d tried to keep track, but the days and nights soon all ran together. But now the darkness would help her get away. Fiona looked outside again. Unluckily, she wasn’t on the first floor…she looked to her right…a drain pipe ran the length of the wall right by the window. It wasn’t perfect, but it’d have to work.

Fiona paused momentarily, something was niggling at the back of her brain, something about being on the second floor rather than the first. She ignored it. Time was of the essence. She had to escape. At any time they could notice she was gone. Her only thought was to get out. Get out now. Fiona awkwardly climbed up on the toilet to get better access to the window and lifted one leg. Feeling weak and shaky, she forced her body to cooperate and eased herself out. She reached for the drainpipe and held on.

Benny was sleeping when he felt the silent alarm on his wrist vibrate. Tex had told them the house was completely wired. No one could get in or out undetected. No one had thought they’d really need it while Fiona recuperated, but it was second nature for all of them to be hyper-vigilant.

Surprised, Benny shot out of bed and threw open his bedroom door and tore down the hall into the make-shift control room. The main control-room was actually set up downstairs in a bunker-type compound under the den, but they’d been spending so much time upstairs with Fiona, they’d all agreed to move some aspects of it up here, so it’d be closer, just in case.

Benny took one look at the television monitor and swore. Fuck. Benny whirled and raced down the hall and down the stairs. Without bothering to contact either of his teammates or disable the alarm to the house, figuring it would wake Dude up, just as it did him, Benny ran around the side of the building not knowing exactly what to expect, even after seeing it on the monitors, and looked up. “Aw, hell,” he muttered.

Fiona tried to slip slowly down the drainpipe, but her hands were bloody from where she had pulled out the IV and she had no strength. She slid faster and faster toward the ground. All she could do was try to hang on. Benny grabbed Fiona just before she hit the ground. Just as he caught her, Dude came running around the corner of the building, gun drawn, ready for anything.

Fiona felt someone grab her just as she was about to escape. She’d been so close this time. She tried to throw herself out of the arms of the man who held her, but his hold was too tight.

“Let me go, let me
go
,” she croaked at him while trying to hit him and scratch his eyes out. Benny grunted and grasped her closer to his chest. Dude summed up the situation quickly, looked up at the window and boomed, “Cooookie.”

Cookie heard Dude yelling for him and knew something was very wrong. Yelling wasn’t their usual mode of communication, so if Dude was shouting from outside at the top of his lungs, something had seriously gone wrong. He had to get to Fiona and protect her.

With one strong push against the bathroom door with his shoulder, the door slammed open as if the lock had never been engaged. His heart hit the floor. He tried to process the empty room, IV pole standing upright, and the blood splatters covering the wall and the window…and, of course, the
open
window.

Cookie strode over and looked out. “Fucking hell.” He saw Benny struggling with Fiona, and Dude kneeling, trying to hold her legs. She was crying and struggling and trying to get out of their arms. A part of him saw the blood covering her arms but tried to block it out. Cookie didn’t say a word, but turned around and headed down the stairs to get to Fiona.

When he got outside, Cookie saw that Benny had sat on the ground and was holding Fiona in a wrestler’s hold she couldn’t escape from. He had one arm diagonally around her chest and the other was locked around her head, keeping her immobile, but allowing her plenty of room to breathe. Dude was kneeling next to them holding Fiona down with his hands on her legs above her knees. Fiona’s arms were trapped at her sides within Benny’s grasp. She looked up at Cookie with tears and fire in her eyes at the same time.

“Let me go, you fucking bastards. You can’t keep me here. Let me go, just let me go.”

Benny looked up at Cookie sadly. “Guess she’s still not out of the worst of it yet.”

Cookie nodded grimly at his teammate’s not-needed words, and squatted awkwardly down next to Benny, Dude, and Fiona.

“Fiona, it’s Hunter, you’re okay, you’re fine. You’re in Texas.” He had to try to get through to her.

“Shut
up
!” she yelled viciously while trying to wriggle out of the inescapable hold of Benny at the same time. “I don’t believe you, you’re an asshole and I’m gonna kill you, I’m gonna tear your fucking arms off and poke out your eyes, just see if I don’t.” Fiona tried to spit at him, but her spittle landed a couple inches away from her hip, instead of on Cookie.

“I won’t do it, I won’t do anything you tell me to do, you hear me? I
won’t
. You’re sick. You can’t
sell
people. We’re not
slaves
. Raping people and hurting and drugging them until they do what you want them to is a shitty thing to do.” She paused, her breath hitching in her throat, but she continued. “I’ll
never
be a ‘good little girl’ and let someone keep me as their sex slave.
Never
. You hear me? You might as well kill me now. Just do it already.
Fucking
do it
!”

Cookie stood up. Angrier than he could remember being in a long time. Not at Fiona, but at her kidnappers.
They
had done this to her. He knew she was reliving some of the hell they’d put her through. Knew Fiona thought they were them. Cookie wanted to get on a plane, head back to Mexico, and hunt them down. They’d hurt Fiona. They’d done all sorts of unspeakable things to her. To
his
Fiona. He wanted to kill them all. Cookie knew had to get control of himself. While he might want to kill them, he had to take care of Fiona first. She’d always come first now. Always. He had no idea what the future would hold for them, he only knew he wanted to be in it with her.

“You got her?” Cookie asked Benny through clenched teeth. He wanted to be the one holding Fiona, but he knew his strength wasn’t at a hundred percent yet, and he didn’t want to risk either dropping her or having her escape and hurt herself further.

Benny nodded. Dude helped Benny stand up since he couldn’t use his arms because they were holding Fiona. The four of them awkwardly made their way back into the house and up the stairs. Fiona hurled insults and threatened bodily harm to anyone and everyone the entire way.

None of the men said a word as they moved, as one, back up the stairs and toward her room. Not one man was disgusted, not one man pitied her. Every one of them knew Fiona’s story now, with the few words she’d spat at them outside, she’d revealed everything she’d been through. They could read between the lines. The curse words and insults she continued to scream at them as they headed upstairs were a result of the drugs and what had happened to her. They all knew it and understood it.

SEAL teams are notoriously close; they have to be as they put their lives in each other’s hands on every mission. It’s ground into them from the first day of BUD/S training. But this, this was something new. Benny, Dude, and Cookie had never felt as close as they did at this moment. No words were spoken while Fiona was carried back into her bed and restrained. This woman had been through hell, but wasn’t broken. Wasn’t beaten. She was fighting until her last breath. She was outnumbered and weak, but she still fought. It was humbling and amazing. The three men had seen bravery before. They’d seen Caroline take a beating that would’ve broken most men. They’d seen her get thrown into the ocean; ankles tied together, and still have the inner strength to stay calm. But somehow, this was something altogether different.