SEALs Honor (16 page)

"Doing
better. He's in rehab now. The worst of the surgeries are over, and he's on his
way to mending."

"That's
good." Pulling his towel from his shoulder, he stretched the damp terry
cloth between his fists, anything to keep from reaching out and pulling her
into his arms again. "How was your flight back?"

Her
mouth twisted into a wry grin. "Long and tedious."

Every
instinct urged him to grab this woman and kiss her until they were both
breathless. He'd really missed her. More than he'd ever missed any woman. But
she was taken.

"Well,
I'm glad you made it back safely and that Cory is doing better." He turned
to walk away before he did something stupid. A SEAL didn’t lust after his
buddy’s fiancé.

"Tuck?" 
A soft touch on his arm stopped him, a crackle of electricity shooting through
his veins. He froze, fighting the urge to throw her over his shoulder and find
a quiet, shadowed space where he could make mad, crazy love to her in this camp
full of soldiers.

He
stared down at her hand, willing her to remove it.

She
didn’t, the fingers tightening. "I missed you," she said softly.

"You’re
with Cory now." His voice came out harsh, unyielding.

She
looked away. "The injury’s been hard on him. For a man so used to doing
everything himself, he’s had to rely on others."

His
heart ached for his friend. If he could have, he’d have gone with them to the States
and done everything in his power to help Cory through the worst of it. In a
softer tone, he said, "I’m glad you were there with him."

She
looked up, her eyes glassy with unshed tears. "I had to be. But I wanted
to be here. With you." Her chin dipped, and a single tear slipped down her
cheek.

That
tear was Tuck’s undoing. He pulled her into his arms and crushed her to him. "Jesus,
Del. I never knew how much I’d miss you until you were gone. Four weeks felt
like four years."

"I’m
here now." Her hand curled around the back of his neck.

He
bent to take her lips, stopping just short. Then he gripped her face between
his palms, his jaw hardening. "You know we can’t do this."

She
stared into his eyes, her own, limpid pools. "Why does facing a hundred
enemy soldiers seem easy compared to this?" She laughed and brushed a tear
from the corner of her eyes.

"I
can’t do this."

She
nodded. "I know."

"Our
relationship has to be strictly business from now on."

Again,
she nodded, swallowing hard, more tears streaming down her face.

"Goodnight,
Captain O’Connell." Against his better judgment, he pressed a kiss to her
forehead. The gesture wasn’t enough to make up for what he really wanted from
her. But Cory was a long way from recovery and would never get back his arm.
Tuck hadn’t saved him from losing it in the first place, he sure as hell wasn’t
going to be responsible for Cory losing Delaney.

He
turned and walked away from the only woman he’d felt he could have loved enough
to spend the rest of his life with.

For
several minutes, Delaney stood where he’d left her, unable to move for the
tears blinding her. She’d never cried over a man…until Tuck. Damn him!

She
scrubbed the tears from her cheeks, but more followed. If she didn’t get a grip
on her emotions, one of her squad members would see her. Then word would get
back the female Night Stalker was going all hormonal and losing her touch. She
refused to let her personal life interfere with her professional duties.
Squaring her shoulders, though her heart hurt enough to make her sick to her
stomach, she completed her shower and headed back to the tent she shared with Lindsay.

"You
don’t look much better for the shower," the nurse commented when she
entered the tent.

"I’m
not here to win a beauty contest," Delaney mumbled, turning away so that Lindsay
couldn’t see her puffy eyes and guess that she’d been crying.

"So,
did you run into tall, dark and gorgeous?"

Delaney’s
lips twitched. "If you’re referring to Tuck, yes. I saw him briefly."

"Is
he disappointed you are engaged to another man?"

"Apparently
not."

"Did
he try to kiss you?"

"Not
even once. He’d never poach on a buddy’s territory."

Lindsay
sighed. "Must be nice to have two handsome SEALs in love with you at once."

"No,
it’s not." Delaney fell onto her cot and buried her face in her pillow.
She’d been so happy to see Tuck. For him to keep her at a distance was killing
her.

"Captain
O’Connell?" a voice spoke from outside her tent.

She
sat up, scrubbed her hands over her face to wash away all traces of tears then
said, "Enter."

A
young PFC stepped through the doorway. "Your presence is required in the
Ops tent in fifteen minutes."

Delaney
thanked the PFC and waited until he left before groaning.

"Holy
smokes, you’ve barely been here half a day and they’re sending you out?"

Delaney
didn’t care. Anywhere was better than staying in the same camp as Tuck. Vowing
to be tough, she suited up, grabbed her flight bag, and marched to the Ops tent.

The
next couple days passed in a blur of flying sorties and getting back up to
speed on the ongoing effort to suppress the Taliban insurgents wreaking havoc
on nearby villages.

She
didn’t see Tuck, nor have anything to do with SEAL operations during that time
frame. Two weeks passed, and she still hadn’t run into Tuck. She figured he was
avoiding her. Accepting the fact he didn’t want anything to do with her, she
went about her business, flying sorties of troops and supplies to the
hard-to-reach or dangerous locations in the enemy-infested hills.

During
the second week she was back, she got orders to conduct a night mission heading
north into cave-pocked hills. The operations hut had been sweltering hot and
tempers had been short. She and her crew were supposed to deliver a small squad
of highly trained troops to a building. Then she was to hover nearby until she
got word from the soldiers to extract them. She’d done this type of maneuver so
many times, she could almost fly it blind, although that wasn't advisable.

That
evening, she showed up at the chopper, performed all her flight checks, and
settled into the pilot’s seat.

The
crew climbed on board, checked their weapons, and gave her the verbal "thumbs
up". A group of men showed up dressed all in black, including their black
Kevlar vests and helmets. Each face was smeared in black camouflage,
unrecognizable, but by their sizes and shapes, she recognized the members of
the SEAL Unit, assigned to Camp Leatherneck.

Delaney's
heart thumped against her chest. She wondered if Tuck was one of the SEALs
dressed in black. Would he speak to her, if he was? Perhaps not knowing and not
talking to him was better. He was just another troop who needed a skilled pilot
to insert and extract him from the designated locations.

Keeping
her focus forward, she checked her gauges and waited for her cue from the
gunners in back.

"Take
her up!" Mac called out.

Easing
back on the control, she lifted off the ground and sent the helicopter toward
their destination.

The
flight went smoothly with little radio chatter, and soon Delaney hovered low
over the drop zone.

SEALs
fast-roped to the ground and ran toward what appeared to be dark holes in the
sides of the hills.

Before
they'd gone twenty yards, the bright flare of tracer rounds lit the insides of
one of the black entrances to the mountainside.

Delaney
had been briefed to take off immediately and retreat to a safe location away from
the firefight. Yet, she hesitated, afraid the bullets being fired would hit one
of the SEALs rushing toward the caves.

She
started to pull up when the door gunner let loose a round of fifty-caliber
bullets. "Man down!" he shouted into his mic. "Man down!"

Delaney
lifted off the ground and swooped in, aiming at the opening where the tracer
rounds blinked in the dark.

"What
are you doing?" her co-pilot asked.

"Rescuing
an American," she said, her fingers tight on the controls, her insides
quaking. The man down could be Tuck.

"They
have to take out the gunner before we can pick them up. We're one giant target
out here, captain."

"We
can't leave a man down."

"No,
but we can't help if we're shot down."

Hovering
a moment longer, she forced her hand to move. The helicopter pulled up and
back, flying away from the action.

Delaney
goosed the fuel, sending the chopper leaping upward.

"Incoming!"
Mac cried.

An
explosion rocked the entire craft and it pitched to the starboard, heading
straight into a rocky hillside.

Delaney
fought for control, righting the blades at the last minute, but not soon enough
to miss the bullets strafing the fuselage.

"Shit!
I'm hit," Jones called out.

Not
only was Jones hit, the helicopter shuddered, the engine shut down, and they
plummeted toward earth.

"Brace
yourselves for an emergency landing!" Delaney said into mic. With the
power off, the blades slowed and gravity did the rest.

Tuck
was halfway up the hill to the cave where the RPG had launched a grenade and
the machine gun was hammering his men. He refused to look back, his goal was to
stop the bleeding and neutralize the threat.

Positioning
himself close enough to make the enemy think twice, and also close enough to be
shot at, Tuck laid down suppressive fire while Big Bird aimed his grenade
launcher at the cave entrance and lobbed a high-explosive grenade into the
gaping maw.

Tuck
took cover.

The
explosion spewed debris in a thirty-foot radius outside the cave entrance,
raining down gravel. With a shake, Tuck picked himself up off the ground and
rushed the entrance, slipping in the side.

The
machine gunner lay in the rubble, the gun nothing but parts and scattered
unexpended rounds. Movement at the back of the cave and a moan sent Tuck
deeper.

"I'm
behind you," Big Bird's voice whispered through the headset affixed to the
inside of Tuck's helmet.

With
his teammate at his back, Tuck adjusted his NVGs and eased toward the back
where tunnels branched off the main entrance. Great, which way? His goggles
picked up green dots of  a warm trail on the ground. Fresh blood, leading to
the right.

Tuck
waited for Big Bird to catch up, then he followed the trail deeper into the
mountain.

A
flash of green ahead kicked up his pulse. He ducked lower, aimed his weapon and
charged forward to catch up.

Sounds
alerted him to more than one enemy ahead. He slowed, dropped to his belly and
low crawled, using his elbows, around the corner. Six rifles pointed where his
chest would have been.

He
fired at their knees, expending all thirty rounds in his clip.

Big
Bird lay down beside him and fired.

Tuck
jettisoned the clip and slammed another in its place. Before he pulled the
trigger to continue his assault, he focused on the six men lying on the ground
in front of him. Two still moved; the others lay still.

Bringing
his knees up beneath him, Tuck hurried forward, ready to dive to the left or
right should one raise a weapon.

The
two still alive thrashed and moaned.

A
grenade rolled out at Tuck's feet. "Get back!" he yelled.

Big
Bird, still holding the corner, scooted back around the rock wall.

Tuck
sprinted and dove into the tunnel, then rolled around the corner as the
explosion erupted around them. The ground beneath him bucked and rocks from the
ceiling pummeled his back. Dust filled the air and choked his lungs.

Tuck's
ears rang and he could barely stand without staggering.

Big
Bird was around here somewhere amongst the rubble.

His
NVGs lost in the stones and dust, Tuck felt in his pockets for the mini
flashlight he carried, praying it still worked, or he'd have a helluva time
finding his way back out of the tunnel. A click sounded near him, and light
caught the flying dust particles, making a strange glow.

"Tuck?"
Big Bird's voice sounded like it came through the thick glass bottom of a soda
bottle. He shone the light in Tuck's eyes, his M4 aimed at Tuck's chest.

"Yeah,
I'm okay, but I can't hear worth a crap. Don't get trigger happy." Tuck
pushed away the nose of his weapon and clicked on his own flashlight. "Come
on. We need to find the rest of the men."

They
retraced their steps back to the cave entrance.