What I Fight For: A Bad Boy Military Romance (Easy Team Book 1) (18 page)

Chapter
Twenty
Cooper

              “You can’t meet him at the camp,” Bear said. “He won’t bring Dr. Lyon if we meet him there.”

              “Plus, then you’d really be on the hook of trying to get him out of the country,” Dozer added.

              “Which is impossible,” I finished grimly.

              The men of Easy Team nodded, their faces equally grim at the reality of the situation.

              “What’s our store look like?” I asked.

              “We’ve got a serviceable sniper rifle and several rounds. We also managed some explosives but we’re going to have to be very strategic in how we use them. It’s not a lot,” Tweety reported.

              We were huddled in our barracks, all of us grouped together. My body hummed with energy like a crackling live wire. I wanted to run into the desert, beat Randall to a bloody pulp, then rescue Emilia and never let her out of my sight again.

              I pressed my lips considering. “Well with how high value of a target he is, I think it would make sense if I said he couldn’t come through such a heavily populated part of the border. There’s a town and a refugee camp here crawling with UN workers and some Qunari soldiers.”

              Bear nodded, getting where I was going.

              “You tell him that you’ll come to him,” he finished.

              “Wherever he is, it’s clearly safe enough for him to be hiding there. We can tell him that’d be the best starting point in getting him out safely,” I said.

              Tennessee tilted his head, considering. “If he goes for that, which considering how desperate he is, he probably will, then that won’t give us any chance to recon the site,” he said.

              I nodded, breathing out in one grunt. “No time to recon and no time to scout for the best sniper position. We’d have to do it all on the fly and quickly so that no one would catch on to us.”

              Bear gave a slap on Tennessee’s arm. “We’ve got one of the best snipers around,” he said with a smile. “If anyone can swing a killshot, it’s Tenny.”

              Tennessee grinned in response and I felt a little heartened to be around the team. But I had to be fair.

              “This is strictly off the books,” I admitted. “Commander Wolffe will probably find out about this but you know what they say—better to ask for forgiveness than beg for permission. This way we won’t be going against direct orders in case he ordered us to stand down. But I completely understand if any one of you does not feel comfortable doing this. We are going behind our commander’s back after all. So if you want to step out, this is the time to do it. And no judgment for it.”

              The men all remained seated. Bear looked up at me with a look of familiar and exasperated friendship.

              “Did you honestly think you’d do this on your own?” he demanded. He gave me a look of disapproval. “You’re not
that
good, you know.”

              I shook my head, smiling. That was the code of Easy Team. We were brothers in blood and sweat. We would be there for each other no matter the cost. And that was something Randall never understood.

              Thinking of Randall, a vision of Emilia and her pained cries flashed across my mind.

              Immediately, my body tightened in preparation for action.

              “Okay, then I’m going to make the call,” I said. “Bear, you organize the truck. Ten, you’ll probably have to drop back a few clicks from the site, wherever it may be. It’d be best for you to break away and find a spot than for you to get to the site and find a reason to break away then.”

              Tennessee nodded.

              I looked at the rest of the guys. “Alright. Get prepped. We leave tonight.”

***

              “What the fuck kind of trick is this?” Randall demanded.

              I gripped the phone, willing myself not to let my frustration overrun my good sense. I had to get him to see my story if I was to get close enough to him and Emilia.

              “Did you forget where the fuck we are?” I said calmly. “We’re smack in between a sizable refugee camp and a city. After the earthquake, both places are now crawling with UN workers and Qunari soldiers. This is the
last
place to make an inconspicuous getaway.”

              Randall made a grunt of frustration but through his heavy breathing I could tell he was getting the picture.

              “Then what the hell are you planning to do?” he demanded. “Hm? You were the closest to the borders. Now what!”

              “Wherever you are, clearly it is safe and isolated enough that you are comfortable hiding there,” I said slowly. I had to roll this out carefully. If he disagreed with me or tried to change the location, there was no way to guarantee Emilia would be brought out. And I refused to let that happen.

              “The first thing we need is cover. If a peacekeeping team can hear chatter about you, that means you are a high value target—”

              “No shit!” Randall spat. I could hear the stress in his voice. Clearly the cells out to get him had been breathing down his neck for awhile and now he was down to the wire in terms of escaping.

              “Without cover, we have nothing. It doesn’t matter if we’re clicks away from a border if those clicks are populated by soldiers and UN workers,” I said. “With cover, we can take a better route out of the country. We could work our way to an airstrip, even.”

              I let that last nugget drop quietly.

              That was huge. An airstrip.

              “Airstrip?” Randall jumped on that like I had hoped. “Where? Which one? You have a plane?”

              “There’s an airstrip that some rescue organizations have been using to ship in their volunteers. We could dress you as a rescue volunteer on his way back home. I’m assuming you have the right falsified papers.”

              Randall made a dismissive noise as if that was obvious. I could almost hear the wheels in his head thinking, turning over my offer. He was right on the precipice. Right on the edge of my plans.

              “But without decent cover, there’ll be no way to get to the airstrip. Not with this much heat falling on you.”

              My last push.

              There was a long moment of silence when finally it was broken by a heavy sigh.

              “Fine,” he said and I nearly crushed the phone in my hand in relief. “We’re fifteen miles southeast of a town called Upriu. There’s an old city hall building there. That’s where we’ll be waiting.”

              “We’re heading there right now,” I said, stepping out of the tent and making motions to Bear, letting him know we needed to move.

              “Glad to see you’re still willing to help out old friends,” Randall said with mock gratitude.

              “This is in trade of Emilia,” I said tersely. “That’s all this is for.”

              Randall chuckled. “Hawk, you’re getting sloppy in your old age,” he said ruefully. “It’s never good to show your weaknesses like that. Don’t you know?”

              But before I could respond, the line went dead.

              My jaw tightened and I stared out into the dark desert. I wasn’t sure what he meant by that but I had a damn good idea. But I was going to do everything in my power to make sure that idea didn’t become a reality.

***

              “Is Emilia really kidnapped then?” Doc Jones asked, grabbing my arm.

              I was just about to jump into the truck when the older man had grabbed my arm. I turned around and saw Margie and Tammy standing by him, looking up at me in frantic worry.

              I could tell Margie had been crying, her eyes were swollen and red.

              I sighed. “Yes,” I said. “Yes, it’s true.”

              Margie wailed and began crying again. “It’s all my fault!” she sobbed. “I should’ve stayed with her!”

              Tammy gathered the older woman into her arms. “There’s no guarantee that you could’ve prevented it,” she soothed. “If anything, you might’ve gotten kidnapped yourself. Or injured.”

              “She’s right,” I added firmly. “Don’t blame yourself. This has nothing to do with you.”

              Doc Jones eyed me sharply.

              “Does it have something to do with you?” he asked quietly.

              I looked at the man who clearly cared for Emilia like a daughter.

              “Yes,” I said after awhile. “But I plan on fixing it. I’m bringing her back, hell or high water. I promise you that.”

              Doc Jones stared at me wordlessly before grabbing my arm again and squeezing.

              “Hell or high water,” he repeated. “Bring her back.”

              I squeezed Doc’s arm in reassurance.

              I thought of El Salvador. I thought of those lost little girls at camp. I thought of all the lives Randall had ruined and destroyed over the years. It all ended tonight. I would end all of it tonight.

              “I will,” I said. “I swear it.”

Chapter
Twenty One
Emilia

             
I gasped as the door swung open.

              I jerked around as best I could. My wrists were starting to ache from being tied so long. And my right hand was feeling more swollen than ever. I was glad the wrappings had been changed before I had gone into the refugee camp.

              “It looks like we’re going to have a visitor soon,” Randall said, his tall body outlined in the doorway.

              My heart leaped.

              As terrified as I was of putting Cooper in danger, the idea of seeing him again made my whole body sigh in relief. There was no place on Earth I felt safer and happier than in Cooper’s arms.

              I heard Randall’s- footsteps fall heavily in the room as he approached me. I felt my skin crawl as he neared and winced but then winced again as I felt my face spasm in pain from my bruised and swollen cheek.

              “Guess Prince Charming is going to come after all,” Randall said, standing in front of me. He leaned down over me with his arms crossed. “I guess he isn’t too high and mighty on his moral horse to smuggle a criminal out of town.”

              He actually looked smug, as if pleased with himself for finding a fault in Cooper.

              I just looked up at him, wordless. My eye was already starting to swell shut on one side.

              “Happy?” Randall asked, practically smirking at me.

              “Are you?” I shot back, my voice a little husky. I don’t know how long he had left me in the room for. An hour? Maybe more. All I know is I had been lightly dozing in and out of exhaustion from an adrenaline spike.

              Randall’s lips twitched. “I will be,” he said. “Once I’m out of this fucking shithole. This place is desperation built on fuck-all. No wonder it’s all crumbling.”

              “It’s crumbling,” I said, fighting for each word through my pained jaw, “because people like you take advantage of the downtrodden, making things harder for those trying to survive.”

              Randall eyed me with a critical gaze, his brows arched sharply at me. After a moment of intense scrutiny, he shrugged and shook his head, chuckling.

              “Either you really don’t have an instinct for self-preservation,” he said, “or you are one ballsy bitch.”

              “Let’s say neither, if those are my only choices,” I muttered.

              That only made him laugh harder. He looked down at me with a renewed interest. I saw his eyes glimmer in the dim room with a light that looked something very akin to respect.

              He squatted onto his haunches, leaning his weight back on the heels of his feet, so he could match my eye line. He stretched an arm out, resting his hand on the back of my chair.

              “You’ve got guts, I’ll give you that,” he said. I tried to look away, to not meet his gaze but I hardly had enough room to move too far away. “You’re wasted in a hospital.”

              If half my face wasn’t so sore, I would’ve rolled my eyes.

              “If you were to go back to the States now, all you’d have in front of you is a life of flus and stitches and an occasional exotic diagnosis or two,” he said, his voice taking on a more serious tone. “But you should have more than that. You should experience what else is on the other side of life.”

              “If by the other side, you mean sex trafficking and drug dealing, then no thank you,” I bit out.

              Randall shook his head, not even paying attention to my barbed tone. “The other side is the other side of proper. Don’t look at the small details. Look at the big picture. Always toeing the line and crossing your T’s and dotting your I’s. None of that will lead you to anything worthwhile.”

              I quickly thought of Edward. He had been what had happened when I had followed all the right steps in life. And I couldn’t have been more hurt or broken afterwards.

              But when I had followed instinct and let the chaos of life fall into my lap, Cooper had come with it. And with him, my heart had been swept up into something more adventurous and daring and wonderful than I could’ve ever dreamed.

              “And
you
think you could give me something worthwhile,” I said slowly.

              Randall never broke his gaze. For the first time since I met him, his face wore the expression of honesty. His dark eyes bore into mine with pure openness.

              “I know I can,” he said with complete confidence.

              Despite all the fear and panic and exhaustion, now it was my turn to smirk. “Then you don’t know me at all,” I said.

              Randall quirked an eyebrow. “Oh?” he challenged

              “Oh,” I confirmed. “You think a doctor, sworn to save lives whenever and wherever we can, would find peace in a life with a person who kills and destroys human lives with absolutely no regard? You think just because you were so easily swayed by money and adventure, anyone would be. But that’s not the case with me and that’s not the case with Coop—”

              Before I could finish, he gripped my cheeks fiercely, making me cry out in pain. His lips descended on mine, taking my literal breath away as his tongue violated my mouth.

              “Don’t think you’re better than me,” he bit out against my lips, his hot breath stirring my hair. “Don’t think you or Hawk are better than me! There’s nothing he has that I don’t.” He kissed me savagely again, biting my lip, letting me taste the irony tang of blood. “Drown your life with his if you want but drown knowing damn well that you’re no better than me!”

              He wrenched away from me, leaving me gasping for air. I could smell and taste him all over me, leaving me shaking and quivering for a moment away from him. To have a chance to feel my own breath without his poisoning it.

              Randall ran a hand down his face.

              “Maybe you’re not as smart as I thought,” he said after a moment. With a rough jerk, he pulled me up to my feet. I stumbled, my legs weak and his hand tight around my arm.

              “A smart girl would’ve known better how to speak to the man who held her life in his hands,” he said, nearly dragging me towards the door.

              “Wh-Where are we going?” I asked, my heart beginning to race. I knew I had been pushing what little luck I had. I should’ve just kept my mouth shut. But my swollen face, his knowing leer, his unwanted touches, they had made it impossible for me to stay silent.

              “We’re going to get you dressed,” he said with a dark smile. “After all, we have company coming.”