Protecting Caroline (SEAL of Protection Book 1) (7 page)

The military
plane wasn’t leaving until early afternoon so the SEAL team had a leisurely
breakfast—as leisurely as it could be with the shouts and lights from the media
outside the small hotel—and watched as two women from the plane and the men headed
out the door to go back to the airport to see if they could catch another
flight.

Abe heard them
talking before they left about how irritated they were that the airline and
Feds hadn’t given them their bags back yet. The men had their wallets in their
pants pockets, but the women’s purses were still on the plane. That got Abe thinking
about the woman who’d saved all their lives. He’d been thinking more about her
last night. Yesterday had been crazy, but he’d had time to think now, and he
was ashamed of himself and his fellow teammates.

“About the woman…”
he blurted out when they’d all sat down at breakfast.

Wolf and Mozart
looked at him with surprise.

“What about
her?” Wolf snapped, somehow knowing Abe was talking about Caroline and Wolf was
feeling possessive for no good reason he could think of. But he knew there was
no way he was letting Abe make a move on Caroline if that was what he was
getting at. He was way too slick with the ladies and hadn’t ever had a lasting
relationship. He didn’t want to think of Caroline being just another conquest
for Abe.

“SEALs don’t
leave SEALs behind. Ever.” It was their motto. The thing that every SEAL
learned throughout Hell Week and BUD/S training. “Why do I feel like we’ve left
a team member behind?” Abe asked quietly. Neither of the other men said anything.

“We all heard
the women this morning say they didn’t have their purses with them. They
weren’t able to get their stuff from the plane. We didn’t see Ice last night
and she’s not been down for breakfast this morning. Where did she stay?”

“Who?” asked
Mozart.

Abe smiled for
the first time that morning. “Ice. That’s her nickname.”

They all nodded,
understanding at once how she’d earned the moniker. Without Caroline smelling the
ice and knowing something was wrong, they’d all be dead.

Wolf still
hadn’t said anything, but stood up and gathered his stuff quietly. Mozart and
Abe didn’t even have to ask what he was doing. They’d been together long enough
to know when Wolf decided on a course of action he was all about getting it
done. After throwing some bills on the table to pay for the food they’d barely
touched, they followed his lead. They were going to find their teammate.

* * *

Caroline stood
leaning against the wall of the airport and watched the chaos around her. She’d
slept like crap the night before. Even though the airport was basically
deserted, the stupid recording about not parking in the white zone and the
possibility of being towed was replayed all night over and over. She had no
idea why they bothered to keep it going when there weren’t any passengers
around to hear it. The recording, along with her nightmares and the pain in her
side, kept her from getting a good night’s sleep.

When Caroline
had woken up that morning she’d felt light headed and weak and wasn’t thinking
straight. When she’d gone to the restroom and checked out her side, she was
dismayed to see that as soon as she took the paper towels away from her side,
she started bleeding again. It was red and obviously infected as well. Nice.
The
least the terrorist could’ve done was made sure his knife was clean
,
Caroline thought grimly, wincing as she poked the reddening wound on her side.

At least she had
some good news that morning—she’d finally gotten her purse back. Since she was
already at the airport she was first in line to reclaim her belongings. All of
the passenger’s bags were still sitting in the belly of the plane. The airline
couldn’t release them yet; they were still investigating how the terrorists had
smuggled their weapons on board, so everyone’s luggage was being searched. She’d
been reassured that the bags would eventually be flown to Norfolk once the
investigation was over and the airline employee handed her a business card with
a small apologetic smile.

Caroline bought
a bottle of water and a bagel as soon as the little coffee shop in the airport
opened, but when she’d started to eat, she felt nauseous. She hoped she’d be
hungry later, so instead of throwing the food away, she tucked it into her
purse.

Many of the
relatives of the passengers on the plane had been arriving in the little
airport all morning. A lot of the passengers had been released from the
hospital already. Caroline watched for a while as they ran the gauntlet to try
to get into the airport. If possible, it looked like there were even more media
trucks and people standing outside. Of course this was a huge media event. An
attempted airplane hijacking after the September 11 attack was a huge deal and
it was getting coverage from what looked like every country in the world.

 All of the passengers
who’d decided to brave flying again, and their relatives, were standing in line
to talk to someone from the airline. Everyone wanted to get to Virginia, or at
least get to
somewhere
, but of course the airline was putting them all
on standby. It seemed to Caroline that the least the airline could do was get
another plane here to take care of them all. But she didn’t really know
anything about how the industry worked, and mostly likely it was easier said
than done.

Caroline stood
against the wall eyeing the line at customer service, waiting for it to go
down. She should’ve gotten in line first thing this morning, that was one of
the reasons she’d stayed the night in the airport instead of the hotel, but
she’d been hungry and feeling sick, so she’d put it off. Now the line was too
long for her to be able to stand in it–not with how much her side hurt. If
she’d been thinking clearly she would’ve realized the line wasn’t going to get
shorter anytime soon because people were arriving at the airport steadily. So
as soon as one person would get seen, another would arrive and get in the back
of the line.

Caroline had to
get a seat on another plane east, but wasn’t sure when the next one would be leaving.
Hell, it wasn’t as if she’d be able to get on it anyway. Flying standby sucked.
She closed her eyes. She’d just rest here against the wall and wait for the
line to go down. Surely it couldn’t take too long.

Mozart, Abe, and
Wolf stalked into the airport not knowing if they’d find Ice there or not, but
they had to try. The reporters were crazy aggressive outside the small
building, but the friends waded through the people, refusing to stop and talk
to anyone. When they entered, they stopped and looked around the baggage claim
area. It was a zoo. Obviously the relatives of the passengers had started to
arrive.

“Let’s split up
and see if she’s down here,” Mozart said. “Meet back here in ten.”

They all set
out. Ten minutes later they were all back; there was no sign of Caroline. The
airport wasn’t that large and the baggage claim area only had three carousels.

The three men
headed upstairs to the ticketing area. At the top of the stairs they looked
around. There was a customer service desk that had a line that was at least an
hour long and two ticket counters, which also had long lines. There were also a
few small shops and the entrance to the gates where security screening was set
up. The area wasn’t large and they could see almost everyone in it. There was a
chance Caroline had already gotten past security and was waiting at a gate for
a plane, but they had no way of knowing or getting past security to look for
her.

Looking around
and not seeing any sign of Ice, Mozart said dejectedly, “I really thought she’d
still be here.”

“We should
probably go and catch our ride,” Abe added quietly as disappointed as Mozart
was at not finding the woman who’d saved their lives.

Wolf gave them
an incredulous look. “Are you guys blind? She’s right there,” and he turned his
back and headed for Caroline. She was standing by herself near a wall with her
eyes closed. She was obviously wearing the same clothes as the day before.
Guilt hit Wolf hard. Damn.

Even though she
looked exhausted and miserable, Caroline looked great to him. Wolf was so damn
relieved she was still here he felt his toes tingling. He couldn’t wait to talk
to her again. He was so gone.

Abe and Mozart
were close on Wolf’s heels as he headed toward her.

“Damn, I didn’t
even see her,” Abe apologized to Wolf quietly.

“Me neither, Abe,”
Mozart commiserated. “She doesn’t draw any attention to herself does she?”

Wolf reached
Caroline first. She hadn’t heard him walk up and he didn’t want to scare her.

“Caroline?” He whispered.

Caroline was in
her own world. Imaging she was sleeping in a big bed when she heard her name.
Her eyes flew open. Crap. How had someone snuck up on her? She was obviously
more tired than she’d thought.  

Her brain
realized it was Matthew before her body did, but she couldn’t stop herself from
lurching to the side and away from the perceived threat. Wolf was ready for her
reaction and grabbed her arm to keep her from falling. Caroline could feel his
hand brush against her wounded side as he held her arm gently. It took
everything in her to not flinch with pain. For some reason she didn’t want this
incredible man to know she’d been hurt. Caroline and Wolf just looked at each
other for a moment then Mozart and Abe were there.
            “Here you are! We’ve been looking for you, Ice,” Abe exclaimed.

“For me?” Was all
Caroline could get out she was so surprised. “Why?”

“SEALs don’t
leave SEALs behind. Ever.” He said with complete seriousness.

“And? I’m not a
SEAL,” Caroline said befuddled.

“Maybe not in
truth, but you saved our lives, that makes you one of us in our eyes,” Mozart
answered, completely serious.

Caroline looked
back and forth between the three men, confused. She cleared her throat and finally
commented, “I assume you guys are all okay?”

Wolf chuckled.
“Of course we are. Are
you
?”

“Uh, yeah, I’m
okay too,” she answered and just looked at them waiting for…something. She
still had no idea what they were doing there. She didn’t really understand the
whole “you’re a SEAL” thing. Duh, of course she wasn’t. Had they lost their
minds?

“What are you
doing over here? Do you already have another ticket to get to Norfolk?” Mozart
asked breaking the silence between them,

Caroline shook
her head to clear it. He’d asked her something. Oh yeah…

“I’m waiting for
the line to go down so I can see if I can get on another plane,” she explained.
“I have to fly standby, but I thought I’d wait a bit for the crowd to thin out.”

“Doesn’t look
like it’s going to thin out anytime soon, Ice,” Mozart said. “Why don’t you
come and sit with us for a while?”

Caroline knew
she couldn’t sit with them. She wasn’t used to attention from a man,
nonetheless three men. Nonetheless three men who looked like they should be on the
cover of
GQ
or
Soldiers of Fortune
. They were gorgeous and were
attracting attention by just standing there in the airport. Caroline could see
women do double takes as they walked by. She had no idea how they were able to
blend in when they were on a mission. There was no way these men could go
anywhere unnoticed.

She also knew she
didn’t feel good, and didn’t want them to know. Caroline was embarrassed that a
little scratch on her side was making her feel so terrible. She was obviously a
wuss. They were strong men, they thought she was one of them, she couldn’t show
any weakness. Then something Mozart said finally sunk in.

“Ice?”

All three men chuckled
again. Geez, having all three of them smiling at her like that made her feel
like she was only woman in the room, and that scared her to death.  

“Yeah, Abe named
you that for your super sniffing skills smelling that ice and knowing what was
up,” Mozart explained.

Caroline smiled
a bit at that. Funny. Then something else occurred to her. This was the first
time she’d heard the third SEAL’s name. “Abe?”

Abe came forward
and took the hand on the arm Wolf wasn’t holding, and brought it up to his
lips. “I’m Abe. It’s good to meet you sweetheart. Thanks for saving our lives.”

Caroline
nervously pulled her hand back and ignored his over the top flattery. Somehow
she knew he probably treated all women the same way. She wasn’t special. She
also knew if she wasn’t able to deal with it when she was one hundred percent,
she definitely couldn’t deal with it today.

She looked at
the three gorgeous men standing around her looking at her with concern. The
concern felt good, but she knew it wouldn’t last, it never did.

“I can’t call
you guys by your nicknames. Sorry. It’s just too weird. What are your real
names?”

Not letting them
answer, Wolf told her, “Abe is Christopher and Mozart is Sam.”