Hold On (Delos Series Book 5) (42 page)

Hold Me

C
allie tried to
stuff her fears deep down inside herself. She stood with her fiancé, Beau Gardner, an Army sergeant in Delta Force, at the Butte, Montana airport. He was leaving on this cold January, the skies clear, typical of a Montana winter morning. His arm was curved around her shoulders. It felt comforting to her, but the terror that he was going back to complete his fifth tour over to Afghanistan, raged through her. He could be killed. Callie felt his fingers move soothingly up and down her upper arm as she leaned against his tall, hard body. Was he reading her mind? She tried to appear relaxed and calm, but there was a hellacious storm of anxiety inside her.

People were making their way home from the Christmas and New Year holidays. Beau was dressed in civilian clothes and Callie didn’t think anyone in the bustling airport would know he was a deadly operator. He had saved her life when her civilian charity van was attacked by Taliban on the way to a ‘safe’ Afghan village to render medical aid to its people. She had worked for Hope Charity, spent six months out of every year in Kabul, the capitol, where she worked with fifty orphaned Afghan children. She loved her work with them, even knowing that Kabul wasn’t truly safe, either.

She sighed, resting her brow against his Levi jacket, closing her eyes and squeezing him around his narrow waist. Instantly, Beau responded, dropping a light kiss on her hair and holding her a bit more tightly for a moment, as if to reassure her. He knew she was worried about him going back over there. His enlistment wasn’t up until June of this year and it was only January. Six months. Callie knew that in the winter, the Taliban attacks slowed down or stopped because of the heavy snowfall didn’t allow the enemy to travel around the country very easily. They all trooped back to Pakistan to wait until the spring thaw in April, to return and begin systematic attacks against anyone, Afghan, American or otherwise, who did not believe as they did.

“You doing okay?” Beau asked as he leaned down, his lips brush the curve of her ear.

“I’m doing okay,” she lied. The last thing Callie wanted was to have Beau’s attention and focus on her and not his job in black ops missions. She heard a rumble in his broad chest.

“You’re such a beautiful liar, Ms. McKinley, but I love you anyway.”

She absorbed his West Virginia drawl, loving the low, husky sound, feeling how much he loved her. Callie thought she knew what love was through a series of mistakes with other men. At twenty-seven years old, Beau had more or less crashed into her life when she was working at Hope Charity in Kabul. Rousing herself, she lifted her head, angling it so she could meet his amused looking gray eyes focused solely on her. Lips twisting, she whispered, “I’m not lying, Beau.”

“You’re a first class worry wart, sweetheart. I’ll be fine,” he promised, dropping another kiss on her wrinkled brow. “I’ll be home before you know it. I’ll be meeting you right here in this regional airport.” He lifted his head, angling his chin. “And Grandpa Graham will be here with you.”

Callie rallied a small smile. Her Grandpa Graham, once in the U.S. Marine Corps sniper and black ops when younger, was standing near the swinging doors, looking around like he always did. She supposed it was his top secret security background that made him more alert to the situations around him. “Yes, Grandpa will be here with me, for sure. But the whole McKinley family will probably be here to meet you, too. Everyone loves you. You know that.” And her Montana ranch family truly did love Beau. He fit in well to the ranching way of life. His own folks, Cletus and Amber Gardner, lived on Black Mountain in West Virginia. They were from a long line of Hill people who had lived over a hundred years on that mountain. Beau might not have come from a ranch life, but he was used to living close to nature, was rural in his soul, a hunter and fisherman, and helping his father who was a furniture maker.

“Yes, I love your family,” he agreed, rocking her in his arms, squeezing her once more to comfort her. “I can hardly wait for you to meet MY family. They’re dying to meet you.”

“Ugh, don’t use that word ‘dying,’ Beau,” and she wrinkled her nose.

“Oh . . . sorry . . . well, yes, they want to meet the woman I’m gonna marry after I get home in June. The good news is that they’re driving up here to be with us when we get married at the Eagle Feather Ranch. It’s going to be a great big shindig, for sure,” and he smiled down into her eyes.

Beau’s love drenched Callie and she saw it in his gaze, in the way he was holding her against him, rocking her just a little, as if he were rocking a scared child in order to calm it. And right now? Callie felt exactly like that scared child. No matter how much she tried to mentally tell herself Beau was going to be all right once he returned to Bagram and conducting winter missions, her heart screamed the opposite. Her emotions were on tap, anyway, because she’d gotten a good dose of PTSD from that ambush late last year, running and hiding and trying to get back to Bagram with Beau’s help and protection. “I can hardly wait,” she whispered, her voice off key.

Title:
Last Chance
(Prologue)

Publish Date: July 15, 2015

Learn more at:
delos.lindsaymckenna.com/last-chance

Title:
Nowhere to Hide

Publish Date: October 13, 2015

Learn more at:
delos.lindsaymckenna.com/nowhere-to-hide

Title:
Tangled Pursuit

Publish Date: November 11, 2015

Learn more at:
delos.lindsaymckenna.com/tangled-pursuit

Title:
Forged in Fire

Publish Date: December 3, 2015

Learn more at:
delos.lindsaymckenna.com/forged-in-fire

Title:
Broken Dreams

Publish Date: January 2, 2016

Learn more at:
delos.lindsaymckenna.com/broken-dreams

Title:
Blind Sided

Publish Date: June 5, 2016

Learn more at:
delos.lindsaymckenna.com/blind-sided

Title:
Secret Dream

Publish Date: July 25, 2016

Learn more at:
delos.lindsaymckenna.com/secret-dream

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Quote Books

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