Adrian's Eagles: Book Four (Life After War) (42 page)

Luke snorted against her skin, making her jump. “No. That was…magical.” During the end, both of them had been oblivious to their surroundings. Anyone could have walked up on them and been ignored.

Luke felt pride rise up at the thick smells on her naked skin.
He’d put those there!
He snorted again, making Kendle laugh.

“Share.”

He propped himself up on one arm, their lower bodies still connected. “Just having a man moment.” He used a soft hand to brush the damp black spikes off her forehead so he could place a kiss there.

Kendle arched under him in surprise at the new, wet friction of their entwined bodies. Electric heat shot through her at the flash of how much she’d enjoyed his pleasure and then she was pulling his mouth back down to hers.

5

Jenna’s place had been ransacked.

There was no sight of the shopkeeper and Luke and Kendle stared in surprise at the damage. They’d made it here in two days, but it hadn’t been fast enough. Windows broken, goods scattered, it was clear bad things had happened very recently. The embers in the fire-can were still glowing.

“What should we do now?” Kendle asked lowly, searching the still greenness around them.

“Back to the hole-up, I guess,” he answered reluctantly. He was almost sure that Sheriff Cole knew where it was. They needed a place that no one would think to search.

“Can we go by the cabin first?” Kendle asked, mind suddenly on their first trip here. She’d seen something that day, hadn’t she? Something they needed.

“Why? You leave something behind?”

“Not exactly. I.. I think I know where there’s a clue.”

Luke studied her, hating the flashes of his awful past now slapping at him. She was his now. If he wanted to keep her, he would have to fix whatever the
Krafts
had done to their island. And she would have to help, because he had nowhere to stash her. Damn it!

“Tell me where. I’ll pick a different path in.”

Sensing his waiting protests, she answered quickly. “The big tree we ate lunch under.”

Luke’s mind flashed immediately to the sense of danger he’d felt going through the area right before that, but he pushed it away to leer at her. “Yeah, I could eat.”

Kendle watched his eyes go over her sore, sated body with a familiarity that made her blush. So that’s what the big deal was. She certainly understood the fuss now.

Half a day had gone by when they made it to the big tree.

“It looks like a name.”

Both aware that they wouldn’t make it back to the hole-up before dawn, Kendle used Luke’s big arm to pull herself up. “That’s what I thought, too, at first, but it’s more like an arrow, you know?”

Now that she’d pointed it out, he could see what she meant.

“There.”

Luke followed her finger to a similar marking on a nearby tree.

“It’s a map,” she exclaimed excitedly. “Can we follow it?”

He glanced up at the quickly lightening sky. “Tonight.”

Kendle’s reluctance was in her tone. “We camping around here?”

“No. We’ll crash in the cabin during the day, using the hatch.”

The hatch was an escape tunnel behind the cabin that he’d told her about last week, but hadn’t shown her yet.

“That’s perfect. We can track it down by night and hide out under their noses during the day. Sounds fun.”

Luke rolled his eyes. “Unlikely.” He stepped back, tugging gently on their connecting rope. “Come on, Ms. Roberts. We can follow it for an hour before we’ll have to go underground and inspect each other.”

Kendle’s happy giggle floated through the jungle, where it was heard by another admirer. This one listened to the sound with a blinding rage. The ship was coming soon, in the next week, and when the slaves were off the island, the movie star wouldn’t be laughing anymore. Screams would be the only sound Ethan allowed from her.

Chapter Thirteen

April 19
^th
, 2013

Near Arthur, Nebraska

1

Angela moved inside the tent with no signs her shoulder was throbbing from the quick workout she’d just put in. It had been 4 days since Dean’s attack and while the wound was healing, it was slow and painful.

“Good morning.”

The eighteen men mostly returned her greeting, but the nasty cut across her windpipe and then the bandage over her left shoulder had their attention. It was still bothering them to know that she’d been hurt. Angela tried not to be annoyed, but they needed to get over seeing her as a helpless female. She couldn’t take much more of it.

“We’ve covered sanitizing and wound reactions, plus a bit on infection signs. Today, we’ll start learning to care for the wound and then get to stitch removal.”

Feeling the tension rise, she got busy laying out the supplies. “Most wounds like this one should be wiped clean once a day, and then medicated and covered lightly. Wounds that leak or develop an infection require more care.”

She gestured at their kits. “Get your journals out and come take a look. Tell me something about the wound, and then keep taking notes. These journals should become a part of your emergency kit so that every injury you learn to handle will be at your fingertips during a mission or emergency.”

Under Marc’s dark glare, Angela slid out of her sweater and hung it over the chair. She carefully pulled the tape back on the scabbing wound and held out the stained gauze for them to see. “Observations?”

It was hard for the protective males to ignore the crusty stitch-line that was ugly black against angry red. They were used to seeing injuries on each other, but to see it on a female felt wrong.

“Nothing green yet.”

“There’s only a little yellow.”

“Which means?”

“There’s no sign of infection on the bandage.”

Jeremy’s answer was curt and Angela flashed a smile. “Good. You come up first.”

Jeremy moved only a little closer, studying the lightly leaking wound. “Seems brighter than yesterday.” he wrote it in his journal, trying to ignore her scent and the stares boring into his back. “It’s still bleeding.”

“Which means?”

“You need more stitches.”

“The stitches are loose?”

“It means you’re not taking it easy like you should be, so that it can close up.”

Angela motioned Marc forward, ignoring the accusing tone. “Very good. Observations.”

Marc gritted his teeth, still furious she would use herself this way. “It stinks.”

Impressed and stung, Angela grinned. “Which means?”

Marc wasn’t sure what she had told them. He’d been too angry to do more than show up that first day, but he didn’t need this class anyway and she knew it. “There might be an infection starting. You need antibiotics.”

“Excellent.” Angela waved Daniel forward before Brady could disrupt the flow.

“Observations?”

The amazingly good shooter was the quietest man on Neil’s team and his words were short. “You haven’t taken a pill today.”

Angela sharpened her tone, “Tell me how you know that and why it matters.”

The Level Five Eagle squared his shoulders automatically. “By your tension and the way you clenched your jaw when you took off the sweater. You’re in pain.”

Angela waited, not about to let them use her weaknesses.

Daniel’s voice hardened in recognition of her silent order. “It matters because you have to be careful about mixing medications.”

“Good. If the patient already has something in their system, you need to know, but they may not be willing or even able to tell you. Check for the signs.”

She chose
Jax
, one of the rookies on Marc’s team, next. “Observations?”

Angela went through them all, handling it like someone else’s medical problem to be tended, and they responded by paying attention and following her lead.

“Okay, so what do we know?”

“You might have an infection.”

“The top stitch is coming loose.
Again
.”

“There’s dirt you need to clean out.”

Angela moved to the stool and settled herself in it with only a slight tightening of her eyes. “We’ll start with cleaning and then we’ll retie that stitch or put in a new one.”

Knowing from the first class that none of them would volunteer, she gestured. “Alex will do the cleaning, and Neil, the stitch. Everyone else, come closer and take notes.”

Half an hour later, Angela couldn’t hide the pain as the Trooper tugged too hard, sending fire racing over her shoulder.

Neil paled even more. “Sorry.”

“Come on man, get it right!”

The other Eagles were getting upset that the cop couldn’t seem to make his big fingers do what he wanted them to. Angela tried to sound patient, shoulder throbbing. “You’re doing fine.”

Neil sent his hands back to the thin thread, trying to be gentle, but his large pads with almost no nails slipped again, this time hitting her directly.

Angela flinched back, smothering a curse.

“
Sorry
.”

“Don’t stop!” Her voice lashed out against his guilt. “If I were bleeding it would be a lot worse, but you have to keep moving. Get it done.”

Neil had flushed at her pain and the shouts from the Eagles behind them, but her words were exactly what he needed and he managed to get a hold of the stitch this time.

“Good. Now like a shoe lace without the bow.”

The top stitch had come completely untied and they’d all watched the Trooper cringe as he removed the loose thread. To see someone so admired, be reduced to butterfingers, was something of a surprise to his team. It had them all crowded around, smothering her with their hard male bodies.

Angela met Marc’s pissed glare over their shoulders.
“You’re next. Settle them down.”

It wasn’t an order or a request, it was more of a plea in his head and he gave a short nod, but didn’t say anything. He wasn’t sure he could, yet, without it causing a fight. The anger was too thick.

“Very good. Now we’ll have Brady come up and slap some medicine and a bandage on it. John will give me the antibiotics when he checks it tonight.”

Marc moved through the suddenly clear path with stiffly set shoulders under his gun-fighters coat and crisscrossed gun belts. Tension crackled.

“Use the Bacitracin ointment. Put a light layer over everything, including the stitches.”

Her skin was hot under his chilly fingers and he frowned as he lightly smeared the white cream over her injury. “You knew this would hurt. Why didn’t you take a pill first?”

Angela braced for more anger. “Because most of the victims they’ll treat won’t have taken anything either. If they can handle my pain, what’s a stranger’s to them?”

“And if we hate the sight of it and want to give a painkiller?” Daniel asked quietly, distracting before the Wolfman could start a fight. They were in his corner now, but that could change if he kept interfering.

“It’s up to the patient, not you. Their wants and needs come second only to their life.”

It sounded so much like Adrian that the two teams of men began relaxing. She had settled them down on her own. She and Marc realized it at the same time. Angela didn’t meet his eye.

“Next, we’ll put on a tight bandage. Who can tell me why it’s not a loose one to let in air?”

“Because
you’ll
get it dirty if it’s not tight enough,” Marc stated, voice pointed.

“Exactly. Always judge the person a bit when doctoring. It matters. Grab that box of gauze and roll of tape and we’ll…”

“Oh, gross…”

Everyone turned to see Becky standing inside the flap.

“You’ll never be able to hide that.”

Offended, - what was it with the redheaded females in this camp? - Angela put a hand on her hip and tilted her head as she fired back. “Like, why would I hide it, when I can disgust
sooo
many people?”

The men laughed at her mocking tones, even Brady cracking a grin, and the teenager snapped her mouth shut. Angela’s voice went back normal.

“John sent you?”

“Yeah, he said to try to help you for a while.”

“He couldn’t take any more,” one of the rookies muttered lowly, causing more laughs.

Angela sighed. “Have a seat. We’ll let you know if we need something.”

Becky pranced to the empty chair next to Neil, making every member of his team tense. Angela noticed it and made a mental note not to have the girl here again while this set of Eagles were. None of the Trooper’s backup liked her.

“Cut or tear a strip of gauze and try to keep it sterile. Place it over… a bit higher so the tape won’t touch a stitch. Good, now use one hand to hold it in place and the other to get the tape.”

Marc struggled to pull the sticky strips free without placing weight on the wound and was glad when it was done. This felt so bad!

“Once the injury has been seen to, then you can take care of the patient’s comfort. Medication, clean clothes, warm blankets, whatever you can do for them.” Her voice sharpened again, “
If
they want that sort of care. Some people honestly don’t need it. You wouldn’t rush to coddle a fellow Eagle, would you?”

Someone behind Neil snorted loudly. “Yeah, that’s what they should have given Chris when he got trimmed in Cheyenne. Warm blankets.”

Grunts and grins filled the tent and Angela chuckled. “You see what I mean. Some people just want to be left alone. Pain means very little to them.”

“Well I’d want meds,” Becky offered, waving at Angela’s shoulder. “Bet that would really hurt right now if you hadn’t had a pill before the lesson.”

There was silence, long enough for the teenager to realize her mistake, and then Jeremy spoke up before she could apologize.

“You mean like Samantha.” He went on as if Becky hadn’t interrupted, but his words were a warning to the flushing girl. “She took a hell of a recoil slip and didn’t even go get the stitches she needed.”

Alex, also the best-natured of the Trooper’s team (which was good considering his skill with a firearm), backed his XO up. “You see how great she was with that gun yesterday? Never thought Adrian’s extra piece would ride that well against a sweater!"

There was another round of laughter, but it was harder, meant to drive in the differences between the two females.
Like Neil couldn’t tell after the mud throwing
, Angela thought, but didn’t say anything to stop it. She agreed with their assessment too much. Life as Becky’s mate would be full of chaos and distraction until she grew up, something none of these men wanted for their team leader, but also something the camp could ill afford with Neil being so high in the chain of command.

Unless the girl suddenly switched her affections to someone else though, it seemed like she was set on having Neil, which was unfortunate for him, because she was clueless as a nurse and more than a little annoying with her bad timing and unthinking reactions. Doctoring definitely wasn’t her thing.

Angela gestured at the very real looking severed arm lying on the table. “John and I put twenty stitches in that prop last night. You’ll each remove one now. Let’s get started.”

All of the men did okay, especially Neil, who was determined to make up for his earlier clumsiness, and Angela motioned Becky over reluctantly. The girl had clay hands, but she’d sat quietly for nearly an hour and deserved a reward.

“You take out the last two.”

Becky did all right until she tried to pull the final stitch free. It was lightly stuck in the fake blood Angela had been sending down the gory wound while they worked, testing their nerves and reactions.

Becky pulled too hard, yanking the prop as Angela hit the button, and the girl picked it up to reset it on the tray.

Fake blood squirted wildly and Angela sighed in resignation as fresh crimson dotted her face and clean bandage.