Morgan's Mercenaries: Heart of Stone (27 page)

The men and women of the base surrounded her. They cheered and cried out her name. Some jumped up and down. Others hugged one another. Many cried. Maya grinned unevenly and raised her right hand to all of them. She understood her role as leader and squadron commander, but until just now she hadn’t realized on an emotional level just how much she as a person meant to those who worked under her command. Many reached out to touch her hand, to welcome her back. When she glanced over at Dane, he was smiling widely.

And when the ranks of the crowd parted and Cam came forward, her eyes awash with tears, her arm in a sling, Maya threw her arms around the other pilot and held her and sobbed.

Dane stood back and watched. A tremendous cheer went up, resonating throughout the cave as Maya embraced her pilot and friend. The expressions of joy, of relief, were everywhere. Selfconsciously, Dane wiped his own eyes. At the edge of the crowd he spotted Joe and Craig. To his surprise, there wasn’t a dry eye in
the house. Dane knew that a returning male pilot would never do what Maya was doing—or what her people were doing—crying, hugging and cheering for all they were worth. He was humbled by the strength and softness that women possessed.

As Maya released Cam, she whispered, “It’s all right, Cam. You did the right thing. You couldn’t have carried me into that jungle. You and I both know that.” She smiled through her tears and touched Cam’s sagging shoulder. “Don’t be hard on yourself. If only one of us could escape, that was better than both of us being caught.”

Nodding sadly, Cam whispered brokenly, “I feel so guilty, Maya…for leaving you there with them. So guilty…”

Giving her a gentle hug, Maya said, “We’ll talk more later, okay?”

Sniffing, Cam whispered, “Sure…you get to the dispensary. You’re looking pretty bad.”

Laughing, Maya lifted her head and met the damp, proud gazes of her squadron, who were surrounding her in what felt like an almost maternal gesture of respect. She saw Dane come up, his awareness that she was once again in her role as commander of the base, not just the woman he loved, evident in his eyes. Giving him a tender look, she stepped away from Cam into the crowd of women around her.

“I understand,” she said in a clear, strong voice that quieted everyone, “that you moved heaven and earth to find us. Thank you.” Maya met each person’s gaze. They were smiling and clapping their hands. “We scored a big victory today. Faro Valentino is dead. We’ve bagged four of his gunships.” Maya gave a whoop and plunged her fist skyward. “Thanks to all
of you! Now, let’s get back to work. In the coming week, we’re gonna do some heavy celebrating!”

The crowd cheered raucously, the sounds echoing and reechoing throughout the cave. Maya felt dizziness assail her and she automatically put out her hand in search of Dane’s steadying one. She wasn’t disappointed as he grasped it, then gripped her upper arm. She grinned up at him as the crowd continued to cheer and yell victoriously.

“Come on,” he urged, “I think Liz wants to check you over.”

Weariness stalked Maya. She knew she was still living on the last of her adrenaline charge. The crowd parted, allowing them to go to the rear of the complex, toward the dispensary. Angel opened the door to it and Maya walked in with Dane at her side. Elizabeth Cornell was waiting for her.

The silence was welcoming as Maya sat on the edge of the gurney. While Angel took her blood pressure and Elizabeth fussed over her, Dane stood back, his arms across his chest, just holding her gaze, that cockeyed grin on his handsome features. In the Blackhawk, she had lain on the gurney while Angel attended her. Dane had remained at her feet, and she’d told him everything that had happened. Wild Woman had flown the Apache home by herself.

Maya was still glad that Dane was nearby. Right now, she felt emotionally shredded by the last twelve hours.

Later, Elizabeth ordered her to her quarters—not headquarters—to rest. Maya agreed. The doctor had placed a dressing on her left temple over the laceration and told her she had a mild concussion. There were
some first and second degree burns on her neck and hands from the explosion of the Hind, but that was all.

Dane accompanied her to her quarters, a tiny room with a bunk, a locker and a makeshift cabinet, in the Quonset hut reserved for the officers near the dispensary. Plywood walls gave the pilots and other officers a little privacy in what was basically a dormitory. Right now, the place was deserted, and Maya was glad. She went straight to the shower at the end of the hall and washed the dirt, sweat, blood and fear off her. Dressing in a pair of jeans and a bright red tank top, she padded barefoot back to her room.

Dane was sitting on the edge of the bed, waiting for her. “You look like a drowned rat,” he teased, getting up and gesturing for her to come and sit down.

Touching her damp hair, Maya said, “I didn’t get it too dry.”

Dane picked up one of the folded towels on the dresser. “I’ll do it for you. Come and sit down,” he coaxed. There were dark shadows beneath her eyes. Maya was in shock and he knew it. When she sat down and turned her back to him, he eased the soft green towel across her damp, dark strands. Gently, he began to squeeze the towel against them. Just the small act of doing this helped her relax. He felt her shiver.

“Cold?”

“N-no…just coming down, Dane….”

He sat down and continued to gently dry her hair. “How are you feeling?”

“Right now, I’m scared,” she admitted hoarsely. “I keep reliving that flight down the canyon and wondering what possessed me to think I could survive it at all.” Maya shook her head. Clasping her hands in her lap, she absorbed his touch. How badly she needed
Dane’s closeness right now. Just hearing his deep voice soothed the raggedness she was feeling.

“That’s what makes the difference,” he told her quietly as he finished his work. “Warriors focus above and beyond the fray. If they didn’t have the confidence to think they could survive, they wouldn’t try.” He got up, retrieved the comb and brush from her dresser and sat back down. Picking up a lock of her hair, he eased the comb through it. “And you believed in yourself, your skills. You knew the canyon, and that was enough.”

His words fell like soothing rain on her inner turmoil. Maya’s scalp tingled pleasantly as Dane continued to comb her hair until it lay in dark waves around her head. “Right now, I feel like a scared little girl.”

Hearing the tremble in her voice, Dane put the comb and brush aside, turned her around and framed her beautiful face with his hands. Looking deep into her emotion-filled gaze, he saw tears in the depths of her eyes. Maya’s lower lip trembled. “I love you,” he rasped, his fingers tightening momentarily on her firm, warm flesh. “You’re so very, very brave. One in a million, Maya. I don’t know how you did it—how you escaped Faro like that. I’m just blown away. I’m sure I couldn’t have done it. He’d have knocked me out of the sky in a hurry.”

Dane gave her a slight smile. She tried to smile in return and slid her hands along his forearms. Her touch was warm and inviting. Dane knew it wasn’t time to love her fully, man to woman. It was a time to hold her. Maya needed to be held.

“Come here, sweetheart,” he whispered, and pulled her into his arms.

With a soft moan, Maya sank into his embrace. She
nuzzled her brow against the strong column of his neck and slid her hands around his torso. Having Dane’s arms around her, holding her against him, was exactly what she needed. A ragged sigh broke from her lips and she closed her eyes. In every way, she surrendered to Dane because right now he was strong and she was weak. Wasn’t that what love was about? When one partner was weak, the stronger one could stand and hold the other until he or she was able to stand on her own once again?
Yes.
She inhaled the male scent of him. The solid thud of his heart against hers provided stability when she felt so wildly out of control emotionally.

“I came so close to death out there,” Maya admitted in a whisper. Dane stroked her shoulder and back. “And the one thing I regretted, Dane, was that I hadn’t told you how I felt about you. I mean…really felt about you.” The words came out with her tears. “I sat in that Slick thinking I hadn’t told you I loved you. And I knew I was going to die. And that was the one regret I had—that you wouldn’t ever know. I felt so terrible about that. I was mad at myself, at my own cowardice in not telling you.”

Dane rocked her gently in his arms as she sobbed. Pressing his cheek against her damp hair, he rasped, “Well, I wasn’t any better about it than you. I’m equally guilty, Maya. I was on patrol when the call came in that you were down. My first thought was that I hadn’t told you I loved you. And I was so sorry…so sorry. I prayed for a chance to get to tell you that.”

Sniffing, Maya raised her hand and wiped the tears from her eyes. She eased out of his arms just enough to look up at him. Dane’s eyes were burning with tenderness for her.

“I didn’t tell you because I didn’t know how it could work,” she confessed rawly. “I’m not going to leave here, Dane. This is my life. My work.” She scowled and swallowed hard. “And I know how much the army means to you. You get your rank and retirement in twenty years. I had no right to ask you to give up those things, either.” She opened her hands, her voice cracking. “So, I didn’t tell you how I really felt. I didn’t see how it could work, so I kept it to myself.”

Dane nodded grimly and pulled Maya back into his arms. She sank against him. “I know,” he admitted. “But this last couple of hours has made me rethink a lot of things, Maya. I realized what was really important to me.” He looked down at her, at her face glistening with spent tears and the shadowy darkness in her half-closed eyes. Just the fact that she could be weak, could come to him and ask for his strength, his care, made him feel powerful and good. Maya was a strong, confident woman, but she also knew how to surrender to her emotions, and to trust him. More than anything, Dane was glad that she had given him her trust.

“I don’t know how it can work,” Maya said brokenly as she slid her hand up across his chest. “I—just don’t….”

“Listen, you’re really tired. Come on, I want you to curl up here on your bed and sleep. That’s what you really need now—to sleep off the shock.”

“I wish you could lie with me.”

Dane laughed gently. “Makes two of us, but I don’t think it would go down very well here at the base. Tongues would wag.”

Maya felt him squeeze her, and she clung to him for a moment before he eased her out of his arms. Dane
was right: she needed to sleep off the shock. As he got up and moved her feet to the bed, she lay down, watching him as he took the blanket, opened it and spread it across her. Then she reached out and touched his hand.

“You’re such a mother hen.”

Leaning down, he pressed a kiss to her damp cheek. “Yes, I am, with you,” he whispered. Stroking her drying hair, Dane whispered fiercely, “Now, get some sleep. That’s an order. Dallas is handling all your duties for now.”

Maya felt the exhaustion pulling her eyes closed. “And you? What are you going to be doing?” She knew that in less than two days, Dane was scheduled to leave. Her heart broke at that thought.

Chuckling, Dane straightened and looked around the tiny room, which was shrouded in gray light. “Oh, I’ve got a bunch of details to attend to. I’ll drop by later and see how you’re doing, okay?”

“You’d better.”

His smile increased. “Yes, ma’am.”

M
aya felt strong, warm fingers moving slowly across her shoulder and down her blanketed back. Moaning, she barely opened her eyes, clinging to sleep. Someone was sitting on the edge of her bunk. In the low light of the small lamp on the nearby dresser, she saw Dane leaning over, a worried look on his shadowed face.

“Uhhh…what time is it?”

Dane brushed several strands of dark hair away from Maya’s drowsy looking face. The white dressing where she’d sustained the cut during the crash was exposed, reminding him once more how close he’d come to losing her earlier today. “Hi, sleepyhead,” he murmured. Looking at his watch, he said, “It’s 2100 hours. Liz thought I should come in and wake you up. You’ve slept deep and hard since returning to base. She’s worried about your concussion and wanted to make sure you hadn’t gone into a coma.”

Groaning, Maya turned over onto her back, her hand
moving to her brow. “I feel like I’m coming out of a coma,” she muttered thickly. In the dimness, Dane’s face was sharply etched, accentuating his quiet strength. His eyes burned with that familiar tender flame that wrenched her heart every time he looked at her that way. He caressed her cheek, longing in his expression.

“You look so beautiful when you wake up,” Dane mused quietly. Normal noises of the base operation were muted at the moment, with many of the pilots and crews in their rooms for the evening hours. The sounds of doors opening and closing, the murmur of women’s voices, filtered through to Maya’s room. Nothing was completely private in such a setting.

Maya drowned in Dane’s hooded look and pressed her cheek against the open palm of his hand. Sleep was gradually releasing its hold on her. “Do you know how good it is to say I love you?”

Nodding, Dane watched the play of light and dark across her high cheekbones and smooth forehead. “I’m grateful we can say it to one another, face-to-face.” Maya was so brave. So incredibly courageous. Dane now understood why her troops were so loyal to her. She was truly a woman’s role model of mythic proportions.

Maya eased up into a sitting position with a protesting groan. She’d slept in her clothes, and her hair tumbled in an unruly mass across her shoulders. Rubbing her face, and trying to wipe the sleep from her eyes, she felt Dane get up and leave her side. Her heart cried out. All she wanted right now was his presence, his strength, his love. Dropping her hands, she watched as he moved to the dresser. He picked up a tray of food from the mess hall and brought it over to her.

“Liz said you should try and eat something,” he told her as he placed it across her lap. “The head cook made your favorite meal—lamb.”

The fragrant, herbed odors drifted toward her nostrils. Maya looked down at the aluminum tray, which was stacked with food. The sumptuous meal included small, tasty lamb chops, thick brown gravy, potatoes and carrots. Dane handed her the flatware.

“Where’d she get lamb? That’s not on the food requisition form.”

Chuckling, Dane sat down near the end of her bunk and simply watched her. Absorbing Maya’s presence was like absorbing sunlight into his starving heart. “Dallas asked Akiva to take the civilian helo down to Agua Caliente. They got some from Patrick, the chef at India Feliz Restaurant and brought it back for you. A kind of we’re-glad-you’re-alive dinner.”

Touched by her people’s thoughtfulness, Maya heard her stomach grumble. She hadn’t eaten since…since she’d had that meal with Faro Valentino. Giving Dane a wry look, she said, “They shouldn’t have….”

Dane watched her cut into the lamb chop with enthusiasm. “They love you. Why wouldn’t they go out of their way to do something to show that to you? To celebrate your return?” Maya had the most beautiful, well-shaped hands he’d ever seen. There was nothing not to love about her. His body tightened with need of her. Dane wanted to seal the bond of love between them, but this was not the time or place to do it.

Maya chewed thoughtfully on the fragrant lamb. “I don’t know about love, Dane. I know they respect me.”

His mouth curved in a smile. “You know, under ordinary circumstances, I’d say you were right, but
you’ve built something here that defies the usual laws of gravity in the army’s universe. Did you see the looks on those women’s faces after you landed and walked out of that Blackhawk under your own power? And the cheers? The smiles of relief that you were alive?” Shaking his head, Dane whispered, “No, Maya, they love you. Liz was telling me that while we were off searching for you this place was like a tomb. She said every woman here was depressed and anxious. They were really worried about you and Cam.”

He could see more life coming back to Maya’s dark green eyes as she ate with pleasure, her glazed look disappearing. She’d managed to sleep off the shock. Relief flowed through Dane.

“We’re a tight group here,” she agreed. Cutting into the potatoes and carrots, Maya felt her hunger being sated. “And it’s happened over time, because of the threat of death that hangs over us daily.”

“Combat troops are the tightest group in the world,” Dane agreed. He saw color flooding back to Maya’s cheeks. Her eyes were beginning to lose that exhausted look. She ate voraciously—like the jaguar she was. Smiling to himself, he said, “And no one but me saw your black jaguar. Do you know that? It led me to you. I thought I was seeing things at first until it pushed open the exit door at HQ. That’s when I knew it wasn’t my imagination.”

Maya lifted her head and grinned a little. “I wish I could have been here to see the look on your face.” She chuckled softly. Handing him the tray, she said, “I’m done. Thanks.”

Dane picked up the tray and sat it back on the dresser. Handing her a cup of coffee he’d also brought from the mess hall, he sat back down and watched her
sip it with relish. “So, how do you explain that I could see it and no one else could?”

Maya set the cup in her lap, her hands wrapped around it. Silence stretched gently between them. “When you love someone, Dane, it’s easy to send a spirit guide to ask for his help,” she finally answered.

“I see…I think.”

Clearing her throat, Maya said, “What are we going to do, Dane? I love you. I don’t know when it happened—or how—but it did.” She licked her bottom lip and frowned as she watched his shadowed face grow serious. “I don’t know how love grew out of our mutual dislike of one another. I can’t explain it.” Maya laughed a little, obviously embarrassed. “Another one of life’s mysteries, I suppose.” Then she looked directly at him. “What are we going to do? I never told you how I really felt because you were leaving, flying back north. I know how much your career means to you. And I know how much this place—” she looked around the room, her voice softening “—means to me. I can’t leave here. I don’t want to leave here. This is my life. My mission.” Mouth quirking with pain, Maya added in a low tone, “And I know you feel equally strong about your career. I would never ask you to leave it. So I don’t know what we’re going to do, now that our hands have been forced by this event.”

Dane picked at a small thread on the light blue coverlet. He heard the unsureness in Maya’s voice. And the yearning—for him. It sent a delicious sensation from his heart to his lower body. Even now he wanted her in every possible way. Could any man tame Maya? No, not ever. She was wild and primal. She was a woman of the next century, one who was confident in herself and her femininity in ways very few other
women were right now. Maya was truly a prototype for women of the future, who would one day follow in her footsteps. There always had to be a catalyst, one unique individual who cracked the collective reality so that everyone else could see new possibilities, with new eyes. New vision. The combination was dazzling to him, testing and challenging.

And yet Dane knew without a doubt that they were equals. She was someone he could be forever involved with, never bored with, always challenged by, to grow and become a better man than he had been in the past.

“Well…” he murmured. “I didn’t tell you I loved you, for the same reasons.” He slanted her a glance, his mouth pulled into a wry smile. “And no, I knew you would never leave this base, Maya. Your heart and soul are here.”

Reaching out, Maya slid her fingers over his, which rested on his thigh. “You understand that now.”

Nodding, Dane looked around the dimly lit room. “Yeah, I get it—now. I don’t pretend to understand the magic of you, of this place, or your Jaguar Clan relations. I only know that these things are a part of you and that they have become very real to me as a result. I can’t explain it, Maya. I probably never will, but that’s not going to stop me from loving you, or wanting you….” Dane squeezed her fingers gently.

Sipping the last of the coffee, Maya leaned down and placed the mug on the wooden floor next to the bunk. She saw the angst in Dane’s eyes, and the sadness and hope in them, too. Pushing the covers aside, she slid down and wrapped her arms around him, resting her head against his broad shoulder. “So, what are we going to do? How are we going to handle the love that we tried so hard to hide from one another?”

Dane absorbed the warmth and soft firmness of her body as she leaned against his side. Clasping her hands as she slid them around his waist, he smiled a little. “I’m leaving with my team tomorrow morning,” he told her in a low tone. “And I’ve got a few ideas, Maya, but I’ve got to present them to my commanding officer at Fort Rucker.” He squeezed her long, sculpted fingers, enjoying the way her cheek was pressed against his shoulder. Her breath was moist against the column of his neck.

“Ideas?”

“Yeah…but I don’t want to say what they are just yet….”

Puzzled, Maya lifted her head and looked at him. When Dane turned and met her gaze, she melted beneath his burning blue appraisal. “Dane, I’ll settle for anything we can have. If that means me flying north to see you when I can pull free of the base and the demands here, I will. Or vice versa. I’m not willing to let go of what we have.”

Her lips were bare inches from his. Dane eased away so that he could turn her around to face him. “I’m a lot more selfish than you,” he told her quietly as he framed her face with his hands. “I’m not willing to settle for seeing each other every three or four months for a few hours, or maybe a day in some hotel somewhere.” He searched her eyes, which were now glimmering with tears. “In the last three months I fell in love with you, sweet woman, and I’m damned if I’m going to lose you.” Leaning down, Dane captured her trembling lips with his. Maya was on the verge of crying and so was he. His heart was splintering at the thought of having to leave her tomorrow morning. Dane had come to rely on Maya’s presence, her
strength, her womanly wisdom and her magical, catalytic effect on his everyday life.

Maya choked back a sob. Dane was leaving. He wasn’t sure when he’d return. As his strong mouth grazed her lips, she moaned. Lifting her arms, she slid them around his capable shoulders and pressed herself wantonly against him. She wasn’t disappointed. His arms brought her close, squeezing the breath from her as he captured her lips and rocked them open. As his breath moved into her body, she drank him in hungrily and tried to absorb every sensation. Just the way his mouth molded to hers, gently and tenderly moved against her, made tears form and fall from her thick, black lashes. Maya felt their hot trails down her cheeks. As the tears dripped into the corners of her mouth and became part of the heated kiss, she tasted their saltiness. And so did he.

Gently, Dane broke their long, searching kiss. Both of them were breathing raggedly. He saw the burning desire in Maya’s half-closed eyes as she looked at him in the throbbing silence. His heart was pounding in his chest. Ranging his hands across her shoulders and arms, he managed a one-cornered smile. “I’ll be back,” he promised her huskily. “I’ll be back….”

Maya hadn’t known how much love could hurt. As she stood out on the lip near the refueling tanks and equipment, her arms across her breasts, she sighed raggedly. The noontime sun was beginning to burn away the clouds around the base. Crews were getting ready to send off the two D models for routine flight coverage of the area. Since Faro had died, the shipments of cocaine had ceased. There were no more Kamovs to watch for. There were no more games of hide-and-seek.

Moving restlessly around the area, Maya rubbed her chest above her heart. Dane had been gone for two weeks. Two of the longest, worst weeks of her life.

Dressed in her usual black uniform and boots, her hair loose about her shoulders, Maya scowled as she walked, hands behind her back, toward the cave entrance. It was then that she picked up the sound of an approaching helicopter coming toward the Eye. Frowning, she turned. Who could that be? All her helos were on the lip. She noticed that the crews preparing the D models for flight also stopped their duties to look.

Maya’s mind spun with options. Possibilities. The sound was definitely that of a D model Apache. What was going down? Nearly everyone in the cave complex was now watching the Eye with open curiosity. Within moments, in a swirl of clouds, the Apache D model came flying confidently through the opening. The rotor wash blasted Maya, because she was closest to it. Shielding her face, she watched as the helicopter came in for a landing. Who was flying it? She had no knowledge of plans for another gunship to fly into her base today. Frowning, she walked quickly toward it. In the cockpit, the two pilots began to unhitch their respective harnesses. The engines were shut down and the rotors began to move slower and slower.

Maya stayed out of reach of the blades, stationing herself on the side where the pilots would emerge. A shaft of sunlight slanted toward her, and she shaded her eyes to see who they were. Again she wondered why there was radio silence. Whoever they were, they should have contacted her to get permission to land here. As the blades stopped, the front cockpit door opened and the pilot turned in her direction, she
gasped. It was Dane! He had the biggest grin on his face as he lifted his hand and waved down at her.

Her heart sped up. Maya gaped. Dane was here! The second cockpit opened and Joe Calhoun stepped out. He, too, was grinning for all he was worth. As soon as the blades stopped turning, Maya ordered her crew to put the chocks beneath the wheels and to tether the blades. The flight crew moved with ballet precision to make the Apache safe for the pilots to disembark.