Protecting the Future (SEAL of Protection Book 8) (13 page)

P
enelope looked
around the cave with a critical eye. It wasn’t huge, but it was big enough for all seven of them to fit inside comfortably. Cookie and Mozart had been mostly carrying Abe by the time they’d come up on the hole in the side of the mountain. Wolf was the one who spotted the cave first.

It was about halfway up a steep, rocky incline and the opening was only partly visible from where they’d been hiking. Cookie, Mozart, and Wolf had headed up the uneven terrain to check it out. They’d returned thirty minutes later with the news that they thought it would work.

Penelope felt bad for Cookie and Mozart, as they ended up making
three
trips up the mountainside, helping their teammates hoof it to their new hidey-hole.

There were some scrub bushes growing alongside the opening, giving them a place to take care of personal business. There was no clear or easy way to continue up the side of the mountain if they needed to make a quick exit, but there were a lot more of the scrub bushes that could give some cover if they needed it.

Penelope didn’t want to ask, but she couldn’t help it. She was never one to hold back when she had questions, so she didn’t even try. “What now?”

“What now?” Mozart repeated.

“Yeah, what now? We’re sitting tight in this hole in a rock, but for how long? What’s the plan?”

“The plan is to wait,” Wolf answered calmly.

“Wait?” Penelope asked incredulously. “For what?”

“Tex.”

Penelope massaged her temples. “Who the fuck is Tex? That’s like the third time you’ve mentioned him. And you should all know, I’m not good at waiting.”

None of the men tensed up, none of them looked upset in any way. It was Cookie who answered, but not in the way Penelope would’ve thought. “About two and a half years or so ago, we were in Mexico on a rescue mission. We were sent in to rescue a young woman who’d been kidnapped. When we got there, we found another woman who had also been kidnapped, but no one was looking for her. We ended up all getting out of the country without any injuries.”

He paused, and that gave Penelope enough time to ask, “I don’t understand what—”

“Listen, Tiger,” Wolf scolded.

Penelope shut her mouth and nodded, holding back her frustration at the cryptic answer to her question.

“Fiona seemed to be all right on the outside. She was brave and stoic, much as you are, Penelope. She’d been drugged and fought the addiction and came through the other side. I didn’t follow my instincts and thought she was good. We left on a mission and Fee had a flashback. She thought she was back in Mexico and she ran. Ran from phantom kidnappers who only existed in her mind. I was out of the country and couldn’t get back home for at least a day and a half. In the meantime, she was out there, alone, freaked-out, and suffering.”

Cookie took a deep breath, then continued, “Tex found her. He tracked her down and kept her safe until I could get home. I trust Tex with my life, with my wife’s life, with my teammates’ lives and with their women’s lives. Tex will find us. I’d stake everything I own, including my life, on it.”

“You
are
staking your life on it,” Penelope murmured, still not one hundred percent sure they should put all their proverbial eggs into Tex’s basket.

“Tiger, each of us sitting here today owes everything to Tex. He’s been responsible in some way for helping each of us save the lives of our wives. I can guarantee that right this moment he’s doing everything he can to bring us home,” Benny said seriously.

Penelope looked at the SEAL who so far had been the quietest as he continued speaking.

“We don’t ask, he doesn’t tell, but we all know what he does isn’t quite legal, but none of us give a fuck. He knows people. He used to be a SEAL himself, but he works with the CIA, FBI, Delta Force, the Rangers, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t personally know some fucking terrorist over here in Iraq who owes him a favor. If he has to, Tex will mobilize every single one of them to get us the fuck out of here. You just have to have faith.”

“It’s not in me to trust,” Penelope said honestly, “but I trust
you
guys. You got me out of that hellhole I was being held in. If you say I should trust this Tex person, I will.”

“Good,” Benny nodded in satisfaction.

“But…”

All six men groaned and Penelope couldn’t help but smile. They were all such…guys, it wasn’t funny. “Do we have a plan for what we’re gonna do if the insurgents find us before Tex gets the cavalry here?”

“Yeah. Stay alive.”

Penelope growled in frustration at Abe’s response. She shook her head. “Never mind. Jesus.”

Wolf spoke up again. “We’ve all got ammo and weapons, Tiger. We’ll fight whoever dares show their face near this hole. We aren’t just gonna sit here and let someone kill us.”

“What if they use an RPG?” Penelope asked, voicing one of her greatest fears.

“They might.”

Penelope wasn’t reassured by Wolf’s comment, but he continued before she could say anything.

“But it’s a chance we’re going to have to take. We’ll hang low until we absolutely have to engage them in battle. If luck is with us, the worst they have is grenades.”

“Shit,” Penelope whispered, horrified, imagining one of the insidious little devices being lobbed into the cave and blowing up, killing them all.

“Fuck,” Dude said under his breath. “Way to freak her out, Wolf.”

“Look,” Wolf cautioned, “There’s no guarantee we’ll come out of this alive, but if you follow our lead, we’ll get you out, we
have
had experience in this shit.”

Penelope thought about it and decided to let it go. Wolf was right. She was grilling them over something they couldn’t possibly predict. They were trained SEALs. When put into a dangerous situation, they acted, just as she did when she was thrust into a situation inside a burning building. If they were civilians inside a burning building, would she want them asking as many questions as she had been of these men? No. It would just piss her off. She’d tell them to trust her and follow her lead.

She took a deep breath and said, “You’re right. I’ll do whatever you tell me to do if the shit hits the fan. Promise.”

Wolf nodded in relief. “Good.”

An uneasy silence fell over the group as they all waited for something…anything…to happen.

T
ex concentrated
on the computer screen in front of him. He’d worked with Keane “Ghost” Bryson on a mission in the past. The Delta Force soldier was damn good at his job and had actually saved Tex’s life. They hadn’t talked in person after that mission, but they had kept in touch periodically over the years electronically.

Commander Hurt already had intel that the helicopter had crashed, but hadn’t known where. Tex passed along the coordinates and knew the SEAL team that was already in the country was being mobilized, but Tex had a gut feeling his friends were going to need additional backup.

It seemed obvious that Wolf and his team had left four trackers with four people who were either injured or dead, and had kept the last one for themselves. There was no way they’d split up otherwise. Tex watched as the single red dot made its way north, away from the others. The question was, who was with each of the trackers.

If Wolf needed additional backup, that’s exactly what he was going to do his best to send to them. The SEALs couldn’t have crashed in a worse place. They’d landed smack-dab in the middle of Insurgent Central. It was as if they’d been plunked down on top of a hornets’ nest…and slowly but surely the hornets were swarming out of that nest looking for what had disturbed them.

But that’s where Ghost and his Delta Force team came in. Tex contacted Ghost as soon as he hung up with the commander. He’d listened to Tex’s concerns and immediately got in touch with
his
commander. The government typically didn’t work that quickly, but Ghost and his Delta Force team obviously had a lot of pull and within a few hours, the Deltas were on their way to the Middle East.

Tex kept his eyes on the screen. On the left side there were four motionless blinking red dots and one lone red dot getting further and further away from the others. On the right side of the screen was a satellite picture. A surprisingly crisp and clear picture. Tex had hacked into the government’s top-secret satellites and was looking at a live feed over the mountains of Turkey. He looked on, helpless, as shadowy figures moved closer and closer to the four unmoving dots hidden on the hillside.

He held his breath in frustration, knowing all he could do was watch.

I
t’s been
two days since reports of a helicopter crashing in the mountains between Turkey and Iraq. There hasn’t been any confirmation of who was onboard that helicopter or of any casualties as a result of the crash. The President has been close-lipped about the incident and, unusually, there have been no leaked reports of any kind.

No terrorist group has claimed responsibility for the crash yet, and even ISIS has been silent.

You might remember that Sergeant Penelope Turner was kidnapped by ISIS terrorists and has been seen fairly regularly in propaganda videos. News of Sergeant Turner’s fate is still unknown as of now, but there’s speculation of a connection between the helicopter crash and Sergeant Turner.

Stay tuned for our report at ten, where we delve deeper into the life of a Navy SEAL and what goes into preparing for a rescue attempt. We will be interviewing a retired member of SEAL Team Six, which, as you know, was one of the main forces behind the mission that finally killed Osama Bin Laden in 2011.

C
heyenne looked
up at one of her best friends as she held her new baby in her arms and said, “I dreamed I was lying in bed and I looked up at Faulkner, told him I loved him and to make sure our baby knew how much I loved her. Then I closed my eyes and died.”

Jessyka sat next to Cheyenne’s bed and squeezed her free hand tightly. “But you’re here now.”

Cheyenne nodded, but didn’t say anything for a long while. She simply looked down at her daughter lovingly.

Jess finally broke the silence. “So…are you going to put us out of our misery and tell us what you named your beautiful daughter?”

Jess was horrified to see tears rise in Cheyenne’s eyes and roll down her face.

“Oh my God, what is it? What’d I say?” Jess asked frantically, concerned she’d said something to upset her friend.

Cheyenne looked up at Jess again. “It’s s-stupid. I just…I just thought I’d be sitting here with Faulkner. That we’d greet our baby together, we’d fill out her birth certificate together.”

Jess leaned over and held Cheyenne as best she could with the baby between them. She whispered in her ear as she held her friend, “Seriously, I
know
. But he’ll be home soon and you’ll have a ton of other memories to make together. It sucks that he’s not here, but think about how you now get to hand her to him when he
does
get home and introduce him to his daughter for the first time. It’s not the same, but it’ll be special in its own way.”

Jess felt Cheyenne nod against her and sniff once. She pulled back and reached over for a tissue. She wiped Cheyenne’s tears from her face and then handed it over so she could blow her nose. Once her friend had gotten control over her emotions, Jess asked again, “So…you gonna tell me her name, or keep it a secret forever and make me call your daughter ‘girl’ for the rest of her life?”

Cheyenne smiled, as she knew Jess had planned for her to. “Taylor Caroline Cooper.”

Jess looked startled for a moment, then beamed. “Holy crap. Davisa told me that’s what you were going to call her, but I didn’t believe her. Have you told Caroline yet?”

“That kid is smart, and no, I haven’t told Caroline yet.”

“Promise I can be there when you do.”

Cheyenne laughed softly. “Promise.”

Jess hugged her friend one more time, then stood up. “Okay, I have to get back to my monsters now, but we’ll all be back this afternoon to take both of you to Caroline’s house.”

“Oh, but I thought—”

“Nope,” Jess interrupted. “I know you thought you were going home, but you aren’t. The doctor said you needed to take it easy and we all know if we let you go home, you won’t. And until Faulkner is back, we’re going to make sure you follow the doc’s instructions to a tee.”

“I won’t—”

Jess interrupted again, “Yes, you would. But now you won’t.”

Cheyenne sighed in mock agitation and huffed, “Fine.”

“Fine.” Jess smiled. “So as I was saying, we’ll be back this afternoon to bring you home to Caroline’s. Be good and I’ll see you in a bit. I’ve called the nurse and she’s gonna come and get Taylor. You need some rest before we spring you from here.”

“Okay. Thanks, Jess.”

“No thanks necessary. You scared the hell out of us. We’re just glad you’re all right, and we’re planning on making sure you stay that way.”

“You’re acting as bossy as Faulkner.”

“Ha, as if,” Jess snorted. “That man has cornered the market on bossy…and you love it.”

“I do. Any word?”

Jess knew what Cheyenne meant. “No. Nothing.”

“Did you ask Melody?”

Jess shook her head. “No. I don’t really want to pressure her about it. I don’t want her to feel like she’s a middle-man between us and what Tex knows.”

Cheyenne nodded. “Yeah, it’s not fair of us to ask, is it?”

“Not really, but I’m sure she’d tell us if she knew anything.”

“Hummmm.” Cheyenne didn’t agree or disagree with Jess. She’d only seen Melody once since she’d woken up in the hospital, but the worried lines around her mouth and the smile that didn’t seem to be as honest as usual made her think Melody knew more than she was saying. But she let it go. “Thanks for everything. I’ll see you later.”

Jess nodded and left, smiling at the nurse who was arriving to take little Taylor back to the nursery.

M
elody sat
in the room Caroline and Wolf had set up like a little apartment in the basement of their house with her back against the wall and her knees bent up with her arms around them. There was a perfectly good bed and chair she could’ve sat on, but for some reason she felt more comfortable curled up where she was. Melody held the phone up to her ear, fingers white against the plastic.

“You haven’t heard from them?” she asked Tex, voice wobbling.

“No.”

Melody knew Tex was deliberately being vague, but his vagueness wasn’t reassuring her at all. “Do you think they’re alive?”

“Yes.”

“How do you know if you haven’t heard from them?”

“Mel,” Tex’s voice was quiet and reassuring, “they might be your friends’ husbands, and you might know them as those kids’ fathers who go ga-ga over every little move they make, but I know them as lethal, bad-ass Navy SEALs.”

Melody could read between Tex’s words. “Right.”

“I love you, baby. Don’t worry about this. Well, as much as possible. I honestly don’t know what’s going on, but rest assured I’m doing everything in my power to get them home. Okay?”

“Okay, Tex.”

“Now, how’s my girl?”

Melody smiled, loving how much Tex loved Akilah. “She’s good. I’ve been helping her with her prosthetic every night, even though she really doesn’t need my help much anymore. She’s been great with Jess’s kids and little Sara has really taken to her.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

Tex was silent a moment, then said, “I’ve been thinking about it. We talked about it before Akilah came into our lives, but we haven’t had a chance since then. But I want a baby with you, Melody. I want a daughter with your blonde hair, your beautiful eyes and features running around. I’d love to give Akilah a little sister of her own.”

When Melody didn’t say anything, Tex asked worriedly, “Mel?” Then he heard a sniff. Oh shit. “Mel? I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you cry.”

“Did you mean it?”

“Every last word.”

“I want that too,” Melody breathed, wiping away the tears from her face.

“Thank fuck,” Tex said under his breath. “When are you coming home?”

“Cheyenne comes home from the hospital today. We were going to go and stay with Jess to help her with John and Sara. I didn’t really have a date in mind, but now I want to come home tomorrow.”

Tex chuckled. “There’s no rush, Mel. You need to go off the pill, and it could take a while for you to get pregnant anyway.”

“I know, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t want to enjoy the process.”

“Jesus, Mel. Seriously…you can’t do this to me.”

Melody giggled. “Okay, sorry. How about this. I’ll stay for another week. That’ll give you time to hopefully get the guys home, we’ll be able to help Jess and spend time with the rest of the girls.”

“Sounds good.”

“Okay, but Tex…”

“Yeah, baby?”

“Think Amy will look after Akilah for a weekend when we get home? I’d like to give the baby-making thing my best shot, and that’s easier if our daughter isn’t in the next room.”

“I’ll call her as soon as we hang up, but consider it done. Amy’s your best friend, she’d do anything for you. Fuck, I love you, Mel.”

Melody smiled and hugged her knees harder. “And I love you too. Kiss Baby for me.”

“I will. She’s been whining at the front door every night. She obviously misses you.” Tex’s voice turned serious. “Stay strong, Mel. Those men are coming home sooner rather than later if I have anything to say about it.”

“I know. You’re Super Tex. You’ll do your thing.”

“Text me to let me know what you’re up to.”

“I will. Love you, Tex.”

“Love you to Vegas and back. Stay safe.”

“Bye.”

“Bye.”

Melody clicked off the phone and put her head on her knees. So many emotions were coursing through her brain, she didn’t know which to process first. Worry for her friends, satisfaction that Akilah was settling in, happiness that Cheyenne was going to be okay and had a healthy new baby, love for her husband,
lust
for her husband, and a deep-seated contentment that Tex wanted a baby with her.

She sighed and finally stood up. It was time to go get Cheyenne and her newborn and get them settled.