Protecting Caroline (SEAL of Protection Book 1) (14 page)

“I-I know. Will
you stay? Here? With me?” Caroline was a little embarrassed to even ask, but
she needed him. She needed his closeness; she needed the safety his embrace
promised.

“Of course,
sweetheart.” Without letting go, he moved them up further onto the bed and
turned them on their sides. Wolf tucked Caroline into his big frame. Her back
was to his front and they lay there in silence for a few minutes. Wolf had one
arm under her head and the other was wrapped around her tightly. His forearm
rested between her breasts and his hand rested on her shoulder. She was
cocooned in his arms, and it felt heavenly.

“What’s going on,
Matthew?” Caroline asked sleepily.

“Shhhhh. I’ll
tell you everything tomorrow,” he told her. “Just sleep now. I’ve got you.”

Caroline fell
asleep almost immediately. She felt safe for the first time in a long time.
Matthew was here, he wouldn’t let anything happen to her. Even while
unconscious, in the depths of sleep, her body knew she was safe. She didn’t
have one nightmare that night.

The next few
days went by without anything interesting happening. Matthew came by the cabin
each night, but left early each morning. He’d told her, he and his team were
here and they were keeping watch, but she hadn’t seen anyone but Matthew. She
would’ve liked to have talked to Christopher and Sam, but she was way out of
her element. She didn’t ask Matthew any questions, outside of the obvious ones.
She didn’t ask where his team was, she trusted him to make sure she was safe.

Matthew slept
with her each night. They’d shared more of those soul searching kisses, but he hadn’t
let anything more happen. On one hand it was driving her crazy, but at the same
time she understood he was “working”—they’d have to wait. For now, it was
enough to be able to fall asleep cuddled up in his arms, safe. She wasn’t
convinced Matthew could
really
want someone like her, but she held out
hope. He was convincing her one night at a time. She hoped the bounty on her
head would be taken care of soon and then they could figure out where they
stood.

Caroline thought
sometimes it was all just too ridiculous. She lived in Norfolk now and Matthew
lived in San Diego…when he was even in the country. She didn’t begrudge him his
job, but knew it was tough to be involved with any military man, but most
especially a SEAL. But at this point in their relationship, Caroline could
honestly say she wanted to give them a shot. Matthew was the best thing to
happen to her in a long time, she didn’t want to give it up yet.

It wasn’t just
because of the way he looked either. Caroline supposed that was a part of it,
but it was more the kind of man he was. He was loyal, smart, and attentive. Matthew
paid attention to her as if she was the most important thing in his life. She
knew if they stayed together, she’d come first in his life—before his friends
and even before the military…if at all possible. She’d be an idiot to let him
go. If Matthew wanted to see where their relationship could go after all the
crap with this was over, she was all for it.

Caroline wasn’t
sure what had woken her up, but when she went to roll over she felt Matthew’s
large hand cover her mouth. She stiffened. She knew it was Matthew behind her
because she could smell his unique scent, but he was as still as a statue and
was as tense as she’d ever felt him. She felt him lean down toward her head.

“Don’t make a
sound. Okay?” he whispered tonelessly, directly into her ear.

Caroline nodded
and he lifted his hand from her mouth. He rolled off the bed soundlessly, a
pistol materializing in his hand. Caroline didn’t know where the gun came from,
but was glad to see he was armed. She watched as he took the time to push his
feet into a pair of boots.

She was afraid
to move, but forced herself to sit up and scoot over to the edge of the bed. If
she had to move quickly, she wanted to be ready. She also leaned over and
slipped on her shoes sitting next to the bed. Caroline couldn’t hear anything at
all, but he’d obviously heard something out of the ordinary.

Wolf listened at
the bedroom door. He eased the bedroom door open and still didn’t hear or see
anything. He looked back at Caroline sitting on the bed. The last few days had
been hell, holding her, kissing her, but not making love to her. He wanted to bury
himself so far inside her she’d
know
she was his, but he held back. It
wasn’t the time or the place, but he hoped it would be soon. They were making
progress. Each day he and his team met and went over documents, and he felt
they were narrowing in on the double crosser.

Wolf held his
finger to his lips and motioned for Caroline to stay where she was. He saw her
nod once and eased out of the room. He was very proud of her. She hadn’t panicked
and didn’t ask any questions. She understood what was at stake and trusted him
to do his job. That trust made him feel ten feet tall. He wouldn’t let her
down.

Wolf pushed
thoughts of Caroline out of his head and concentrated on figuring out what was
wrong. He had a job to do and he knew he couldn’t do it if he was thinking
about her. The gut feeling that something wasn’t right was what had woken him
up. He thought he’d heard something, but wasn’t sure. He wasn’t willing to let
it go, not when it meant Caroline’s safety.

He eased his way
into the small outer room, trying to figure out what, if anything was wrong. He
looked right and left, then stopped suddenly. Shit. He smelled gas. Just as he
took a step back toward the bedroom door, the front of the cabin went up in
flames in one big
whoosh
.

Wolf was knocked
backwards by the wave of heat. He lay on the floor for just a moment getting
his bearings. Before he could get up again, the wall on the other side of the
cabin went up in flames. Matthew couldn’t catch his breath. The flames had
sucked all the oxygen out of the room in an instant. He tried to crawl back down
the hall toward Caroline. He had to get to her. Where the hell was his team? He
had no idea what had gone wrong, but it was obvious something bad had happened
to them. There was no way anyone could’ve slipped by them in order to torch the
cabin.

The terrorists
had done their job well, and cut off both exits from the cabin, they were
trapped. The last thought he had before he passed out from breathing the
super-heated toxic air, was of Caroline, and disgust with himself that he’d let
her down.

Caroline didn’t
move from her spot on the bed until she heard the first explosion. She leaped
from the bed and ran for the bedroom door. What the hell? The heat coming from
the main room almost drove her back. She got on her hands and knees and,
without thinking twice about what she was doing, crawled into the burning room.

She saw Matthew
on the floor and then the other wall burst into flames. Caroline ducked and
covered her head with her hands. Shit. Shit. Shit. She’d managed not to squeal
like a little girl, but a terrified croak escaped before she could call it back.

She looked up
and saw Matthew try to crawl toward her and then fall down unmoving. Caroline
didn’t stop to think. She fast-crawled over to him, grabbed him under the arms,
much like she’d done with the terrorist on the plane, and hauled him back to
the bedroom. It was a slow process because Matthew was heavy and the exertion
plus the smoke filling the room was making it tough to move quickly.

The cabin was
quickly filling with smoke. It wasn’t until she’d gotten Matthew back into the room
and shut the door she realized they were trapped in the house. She ran to the
attached bathroom grabbed a towel, quickly soaked it in water from the tap, and
stuffed it along the bottom of the door to the bedroom. It reduced the smoke
coming into the room a bit, but not all the way. The bedroom was going to fill
with smoke sooner rather than later, and it wouldn’t be long before the flames
were burning through the entire wall.

Caroline grabbed
two of her T-shirts from the drawer. She ran into the bathroom, well aware of
the time that was ticking by, and soaked them with water in the sink. She put
one around her nose and mouth and ran back to Matthew. He was still lying where
she’d left him on the floor. She tied the other T-shirt awkwardly around his
head. She had to protect him from the smoke making its way into the room. Caroline
was operating completely on auto-pilot now.

She ran to the
only window in the room. She cautiously drew back the curtain and looked out.

BAM

Caroline leaped
back and crouched down just as the window shattered. She couldn’t help but
scream out in fright this time and she covered her head as the glass from the
window rained down on her. Crap. She crawled over to where Matthew lay on the
ground motionless.

“This would be a
really good time to wake up Matthew,” she said shakily as she pried the pistol
out of his hand. She shook him once, hard. He didn’t respond and Caroline
allowed one desperate sob to escape before she beat it back. If she started crying
now, she wouldn’t be able to stop.

It looked like
the terrorists had found her. They’d set the front and side of the cabin on
fire to force her into this room, and the only escape was the window…only there
were obviously men out there waiting for her to leave that way. She was going
to die. She didn’t want to die and she definitely didn’t want Matthew to die either.
She wasn’t going to give up until it was too late. She wasn’t a SEAL, but was
there anything she could do?

She tried to
think like a soldier, what would Matthew do if he was conscious? As she eased
her way back to the window and couldn’t see any bad guys she deflated a bit.
How was she supposed to defend herself with the gun she now held in her hand,
if she couldn’t even see who she was supposed to shoot?

Caroline allowed
a few stray tears to leak out of her eyes. What was the best way to die? Burning
to death? Smoke inhalation? Getting shot? Shit. None of the choices were good
ones. She had to get herself together. Matthew wouldn’t just give up. If it was
her lying unconscious on the ground he’d do whatever he had to do to keep her
safe. She’d do the same.

She tried to
think. Caroline had to believe Matthew’s team would get to her. He’d said they
were patrolling around the cabin. They’d get here soon; she’d act as if they
were out there right now figuring out how to get both her and Matthew out. She
risked a glance out the window again. There! She finally saw someone, a man off
to the right. She stuck the pistol out the window and pulled the trigger. The
kickback of the gun was more than she was ready for and she fell backward with
the force of it. She heard yelling outside, then silence again. Had she hit
him? She doubted it. She risked another glance. Nope, they were still there.

The smoke in the
room was getting thicker. She went back to Matthew and drug him closer to the
window, trying to avoid the glass on the ground. She wasn’t sure how they were
going to get out of this, but she wasn’t leaving Matthew behind. Wasn’t there
some SEAL code on that? She tried to think back. Yeah, Christopher had said
something about it to her in the airport when they’d come to find her.

Well, she wasn’t
a SEAL, but she wasn’t leaving Matthew behind to die in this stupid cabin. The
only reason he was there was because of
her
. She wouldn’t be able to
live with herself if he was killed because of her. Shit. She had to stop
thinking about Matthew being dead.

Just as she was
gearing up to look out the window again she heard more shots. She hoped it was
a good sign. She reasoned that since there were no bullets coming through the
walls of her prison, it had to be. Hopefully it was the Calvary coming to their
rescue. After a short period of time she heard a voice calling urgently from
outside.

“Wolf? Ice?”

Caroline risked
peeking out the window again. It was Sam. He was standing outside the window.
She stood up and blurted, “Here!”

Mozart was never
as glad to see anyone as he was to see Ice. When the cabin had gone up in
flames he’d been surprised. Someone, or some people, had obviously made their
way past their recon around the perimeter of the cabin. He’d immediately set
out to find the culprits and get Wolf and his woman out of the cabin.

“Where’s Wolf?”
he demanded urgently.

“He’s here, but
he’s unconscious.” Caroline stopped to cough. She had no idea trying to breathe
when in a burning building would hurt so much. Again, stupid, but how was she
supposed to know?

“Let’s get you
out, then we’ll get him.” Mozart ordered. He’d holstered his pistol and reached
up for her. The window was on the first floor, but since the land sloped down
on this side of the cabin, it was about a five foot drop to the ground.
Caroline shook her head.

“No. Matthew
first.”

Mozart started
to disagree, but Caroline disappeared from the window. Damn. He didn’t have
time to argue with her. He wasn’t sure if there were any other terrorists
around, but he knew Ice and Wolf were running out of time. The roof was on fire
and the entire cabin was about to go up in flames. He saw Ice struggling with
Wolf’s inert body near the window. He grabbed the window sill to pull himself
in and help, but let go quickly. The metal around the window was red hot.

“Careful, Ice,”
Mozart said urgently. “It’s really hot.”

Caroline nodded.
She heard him, but didn’t take her eyes off Matthew. He’d groaned a few times,
she hoped he was coming out of it. She quickly dragged him as close as she
could to the window and untied the T-shirt from around her face and laid it
over the window sill. She heard it sizzling as the wet cloth met the red hot
metal of the sill. She pushed as hard as she could until Matthew was lying on
his stomach right under the window.

Caroline grabbed
Matthew again and hauled him up as close as she could get him to the open
window. She draped his arms outside and yelled at Sam to grab him. With Sam’s
help, she pushed, and Mozart pulled, and Matthew slid out of the house.
Caroline quickly looked out and saw that Sam had mostly caught him and was
easing him to the ground taking the T-shirt off his face as he laid him on the
ground.

“Okay, come on,
Ice. I’ve got you.” Mozart held up his arms to help her get out of the burning
cabin.