Protecting the Future (SEAL of Protection Book 8), page 16
There’s still no news of kidnapped U.S. Army Sergeant Penelope Turner. She was kidnapped almost four months ago by ISIS and it’s been a while since any video of her has surfaced. We continue to follow this story.
In other news, a new reality show premieres tonight featuring men competing to become the ultimate Alaskan. Stay tuned for an interview with one of the contestants.
* * *
Caroline turned off the television in disgust. How anyone could watch that reality show drivel was beyond her. It wasn’t as if it was actually real. The only reality show she’d ever been remotely interested in was some sort of dating show set in Australia…at least the man had seemed down-to-earth. She didn’t remember how it turned out, but she thought she remembered some sort of scandal, but in the end the man found an actual real love.
Her thoughts were interrupted by the ringing of her cell phone. She headed over to the kitchen counter where she’d left it and picked it up. She recognized the prefix of the Naval base, but not the number itself.
“Hello?”
“Hello, is this Caroline Steel?”
“Yes, who is this?”
“This is Commander Hurt.”
“Oh, sorry, Patrick. I didn’t recognize your voice.” Caroline stiffened suddenly. Oh shit. Why was Wolf’s commander calling her? “Is everything all right? Is Julie okay? The guys?”
Ignoring her question, Hurt said solemnly, “I wanted you to hear it from me, rather than the Casualty Assistance Officers who will be showing up at your door within the hour.”
Caroline felt her knees give out and she slid to the floor with her back against the kitchen cabinets. She couldn’t get any words out.
“Wolf and his team are considered Missing in Action.”
Caroline’s breath came out in a whoosh. “What?” she whispered.
“MIA. We haven’t heard from them since the other SEAL team they were working with reported that they’d completed their mission. They should’ve been home by now, but we haven’t heard anything from them.” Patrick knew he was misleading Caroline a bit, but didn’t want to tell her everything he knew…not yet. Tex had given him coordinates of where he thought they were, but until their location had been verified by the Delta Force team, the government was declaring them MIA. The trackers weren’t common knowledge and Patrick wasn’t going to let that detail slip to Command.
Caroline took in a deep breath. “They’re not dead?”
The commander’s voice lowered. “We don’t know. As of now, they’re missing.”
Caroline nodded to herself. Okay, this she could deal with. “Then they’re just out of pocket. They’re not dead. They’ll figure it out and get in touch when they can.”
“Caroline—”
The commander’s tone was sympathetic and a bit pitying, but Caroline didn’t let it deter her. “With all due respect, Patrick,” she interrupted the senior military official she’d known for a long time, “I appreciate you giving me a head’s up. I do. But I’d hope that, as long as you’ve known Matthew and his team, you’d know that they’re tough as hell. Until I see and touch Matthew’s cold body for myself, I’ll never, ever believe he’s dead. Call me naïve, call me idiotic, but I know deep in my heart that they’re good at what they do. If there’s any way possible they’ll be able to make it back home, they will. Even if the odds are a hundred to one. Or a thousand to one. There’s still a chance. So if you’ll excuse me, I need to start Operation Girl Time and get my posse together. I’m assuming the others will have visitors as well?”
“Yes.” The commander’s voice held so much respect in that one word, it made Caroline want to weep.
“Okay, then I need to deal with the Navy Officers about to descend on my door, then make some calls to my girls.” Her voice softened, sounding uncertain. “You’ll keep me informed?”
“Yes ma’am. I’ll be sure to call you personally the second I hear anything.”
“Thank you. I’ll make sure you get an invite to the huge party we’re gonna have when our men are home. Deal?”
“Deal. Let me know if you need anything. And I mean anything, Caroline. It’s the least I can do.”
“Just tell me the truth. And keep me informed. That’s all I need.”
“You got it. Caroline?”
“Yeah?”
“Julie asked if you thought it’d be okay if she came over too. I said I’d talk to you about it. She doesn’t want to overstep, but she’s worried about all of you.”
Caroline swallowed hard. She and the rest of the women hadn’t been very nice to Julie when they’d first figured out who she was. Knowing she was the woman who Fiona had spent time with down in Mexico, and who’d been so horrible to her, was a surprising blow to them all. But slowly, Julie had proven that she had changed, and they’d all decided if Fiona could forgive her, so could they.
Besides that, she was now married to Commander Hurt. They saw her all the time and were genuinely thrilled with how happy their husbands’ commander was with her. “Yeah, I think we’d like that.”
“Thanks. I’ll let her know and send her over in a bit.”
“Sounds good. I’ll talk to you later then? You’ll let me know the second you hear something?”
“Of course I will. Bye, Caroline.”
Caroline clicked off the phone and laid her head on her knees briefly before stiffening her spine. She had shit to do, there was no time to cry. Hell, there was no reason to cry. Every word she’d told the commander came from her gut. Matthew was alive. Everyone was. She had to believe it.
* * *
Later that night, Caroline once again sat in her living room with a full house. She’d been able to catch all of her friends on the phone before they’d had their visits with the officers from the base, except for Fiona. She’d been out running errands, and had missed both her call and the visit from the base…thankfully.
Alabama had finally gotten ahold of Fiona and told her to drop what she was doing and get her butt over to Caroline’s house. She was the last to arrive. Even Julie had made it there before Fiona, and had been just as shocked and upset as the others, but now they sat around talking about what might be happening with their men.
“Caroline, what do you really think is going on?”
Caroline thought hard about Fiona’s question, trying to decide what to tell them. She caught Melody’s eyes from across the room and her slight nod. She took a deep breath.
“We’ve never been the type of Navy SEAL wives to question our men, or even to speculate about where they might be when they’ve been sent on a mission. I don’t feel comfortable doing it now, but with what’s going on, I feel like I need to.”
She looked around at her friends and knew she had their utmost attention. Most of the kids were sleeping. Sara and John were downstairs in the basement, April and Taylor were snoring in their mother’s arms, and Akilah was upstairs with Brinique and Davisa, entertaining them as they played with their dolls. It was just the eight of them. Six women who were worried and stressed about the loves of their lives, and Melody and Julie, who were just as worried that their friends’ men wouldn’t come home again.
“I’m pretty sure they went over to the Middle East to try to rescue that kidnapped American soldier.” Caroline ignored their gasps and continued on quickly, “Matthew didn’t tell me, but I kinda guessed, and asked enough leading questions that he actually answered to figure out I was right.”
“The helicopter crash?” Summer surmised quietly.
Caroline nodded. “Yeah, I think so.”
“But the news reports say there were only four men aboard, and that they were brought to Germany,” Cheyenne said.
“Yeah, it doesn’t make sense. The only thing I can think of is that chopper was on the way to get them out when it crashed. And Patrick said they were missing, not dead. So I think maybe they’ve found the woman, and they’re just not able to communicate with anyone for some reason. Maybe they’re just hunkered down waiting for the right time to come out.” Caroline tried to reason what was going on out loud.
“How can they be missing if they have their trackers on? Couldn’t Tex just tell the commander where they are?” Jessyka asked the group.
Everyone looked at Melody and Julie. They both looked uncertain.
“Let’s leave Melody and Julie out of this,” Caroline told everyone as she pulled out her phone. “It’s not fair to put them in the middle. I should’ve thought of it before, but I’ll call Tex and we’ll see what, if anything, he can tell us.”
Julie piped up before Caroline could get ahold of Tex. “I don’t know.”
“What?” Summer asked.
“I don’t know anything about your husbands. Patrick and I don’t talk about his work. I know what he does is extremely sensitive and he could get in big trouble if he told me anything, so I never ask him about it and he never tells me. I would tell you if I knew even the smallest detail. I swear.”
“Thanks for that,” Alabama said softly. “We appreciate it.”
Caroline nodded at Julie and dialed her cell and put it on the coffee table. All eight women hunkered down around it and waited for Tex to answer.
Finally on the fifth ring, he did. “What’s up, Caroline?”
“Where are the guys?”
Tex was silent for a moment before he asked, “Why do you ask?”
“Cut the shit, Tex,” Fiona said more harshly than she’d ever spoken to Tex before. “I’m sure you already know we were all visited by the base Casualty Assistance Officers today. They’ve declared Hunter and the others MIA. But we want to know how they can be missing if they have their trackers on?”
Tex cleared his throat. “You know I can’t talk about this, Fee. Even though I’m not active duty anymore, I’ve still got my government clearance since I work for them, but it’s not cool that you’re putting me in this position.”
“And you know I wouldn’t do it if I wasn’t completely freaked-out that I’m gonna lose the best man I’ve ever known, the love of my life, and the lives of the bravest fucking men I’ve ever met. We’re at our wits end here, Tex. God, please. Can’t you tell us anything?” Fiona’s voice started out hard and unrelenting, but at the end of her impassioned plea, she was near tears.
“Fuck,” Tex said. He sighed deeply, obviously effected by Fiona’s tone of voice, then said, “Only five of them brought their trackers with them. I can only assume someone forgot it. I doubt whoever it was would deliberately not bring it with him.”
“Do you know who forgot it?” Jess asked.
“Yes, but I’m not going to tell you, it doesn’t matter,” Tex told her.
“So they really are missing then?” Cheyenne’s voice was low and strained.
“Sort of.”
“Sort of?” Caroline snapped. “Jesus, Tex. You’re killing us here. Just spit it out…and in regular English, not any of that coded crap you’re so good at.”
Tex ignored the snark in Caroline’s words, knowing she was stressed-out beyond what most women would be able to handle. She, and all of the women, were actually accepting this very well, all things considered. “They’re missing, but I believe I know their general whereabouts. I’m hoping there will be information soon.”
There was a lot Tex wanted to tell the women. That there was still a tracker working and he was pretty sure it was with the group. That he’d been in communication with the Delta Force commander and knew they rescued the helicopter crew and were on the trail of Wolf and his men. He hoped the women would trust him to do what was best for their men.
Silence filled the room for a moment before Summer spoke up. “Thank you, Tex. Seriously. I know you told us way more than you should’ve, but it means everything to us.”
“Yeah…Mel?”
Melody spoke up for the first time. “I’m here.”
“You still coming home tomorrow?”
Everyone in the room could practically feel the longing in Tex’s voice. Sometimes they forgot he was more than just the person who looked over them and kept them safe. He was a father, a husband, and a man who very obviously was feeling the pain of his friends being missing and wanted his wife by his side.
“Yeah. We leave around noon and land around eight your time.”
“I’ll be at the airport waiting.”
“Okay, Tex.”
“You ladies need anything else?” Tex asked, obviously asking the other women in the room.
“No, we’re as good as we can be at the moment,” Alabama told him honestly.
“Okay. For what it’s worth, I have a feeling we’ll be hearing good news soon,” Tex said in a cautiously optimistic tone.
“From your lips to God’s ears,” Caroline said fervently.
“I’ll talk to you guys later.” His voice dropped. “See you tomorrow, Mel.”
Everyone said their goodbyes and Caroline clicked off the phone. The women stared at each other for a moment before Caroline announced, “Sleepover time. Nobody’s going anywhere until our men are found. You too, Julie. You’re here, so you’re staying. We need all the support we can get.”
No one disagreed. They found comfort in being with each other. No one cared that they’d be cramped and things would be crazy with all the bodies in the house. It was better than going home to their empty, lonely homes that would remind them of their missing husbands.
Julie didn’t complain, thankful that she’d finally broken through the “acquaintance barrier” that had seemed to stand between her and the other women. Over the couple of years she’d been with Patrick, she’d heard story after story about all of these women and how amazing they were. The fact that Caroline had asked her to stay meant the world. She’d stay with them and support them until their men came home…or through the horror if they never came home at all.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Penelope held her breath and didn’t move a muscle. If she could’ve moved, she still would’ve stayed right where she was. It wasn’t fun looking down the barrel of a gun, even if she knew it wasn’t aimed at her. Her attention stayed on the man standing behind her, holding her immobile in his grasp.
“I said, let her the fuck go. Right now.” Mozart’s voice communicated he was about five seconds away from losing his shit, or blowing someone’s head off.
“How about you drop your gun, and stop pointing it at my teammate instead?”
Penelope held her breath. Oh jeez. This was quickly turning into a major clusterfuck. There was another man dressed in desert camouflage now holding a gun at Mozart’s head. She didn’t think he was an insurgent, not only because she’d only seen them in whatever raggedy clothes they happened to have, not a uniform, but also because the man had spoken perfect English with only a slight southern twang. But the bottom line was that she had no idea who he was. It would’ve been humorous if she’d been watching it on television back home, safe in her apartment in San Antonio. But being in the middle of it herself was absolutely not funny at all. She couldn’t hold back her snarky words, but unfortunately, or fortunately, they came out all garbled because the man behind her still had his hand over her mouth.
Her meaning must’ve come through, if not her words, because the second man who’d appeared out of nowhere said, “Captain Keane Bryson, Delta Force.”
Mozart lowered his pistol immediately and turned to the man. “About fucking time.”
They grinned at each other in a weird manly way, as if they hadn’t just been about to kill each other two seconds earlier.
Penelope squirmed in the hold of the man behind her again and he finally dropped his arms. She turned to glare at him, shoving against his chest with both arms, annoyed because he didn’t even have to step back a foot at her push, before turning back to Mozart and the man who called himself Keane Bryson and saying in a snarky voice, “I don’t know how you found us, or what the hell your plan is, but can we please get on with it and get the fuck out of here? If you didn’t notice, we’re not exactly at the Officer’s Club on base.”
The new guy ignored her and turned to Mozart. “She’s got a mouth on her, didn’t expect that.”
Mozart shrugged and agreed, “She does, but she’s one hell of a soldier.”
Penelope was ready to throw up her hands in exasperation at the conversation, but at Mozart’s words, she could only stare at him dumbfounded. He, a Navy SEAL, thought she was a hell of a soldier? Well, okay then.
Mozart held out his hand to the man. “Mozart. Glad you’re here. We could use the help. We’ve got a man down, and the rest of us aren’t at a hundred percent.”
“Sit rep,” the captain requested, now all business.
Before Mozart could respond, Wolf appeared out of the brush. He had his finger on the trigger of his pistol and looked ready to use it before seeing Mozart’s signal for friend. Following up behind Wolf was the rest of his team. Penelope was glad to see Abe was still conscious…barely. She went over to Cookie and took some of Abe’s weight on herself. She was so much shorter than them she couldn’t do much, but she figured every little bit would help.
They all watched as five more men materialized out of the desert landscape. Penelope thought it almost looked like a showdown at the O.K. Corral. Six men lined up on one side, seven on the other.
Wolf gestured toward each of the men on his team. “I’m Wolf, this is Mozart, Benny, and Dude. Abe is the one who looks like he’s about to pass out and Cookie is holding him up. You’ve apparently met Tiger, otherwise known as Sergeant Penelope Turner, formerly a guest of ISIS.”
The Army Delta Force men each nodded at the SEALs and their captain introduced them. “I’m Ghost, and this is Fletch, Coach, Hollywood, Beatle, Blade, and Truck.”
The testosterone was thick enough on the ridge to choke a horse, but Penelope didn’t care. All she cared about was that the odds of them getting out of Turkey, or Iraq, or wherever the hell they were, were just raised about a thousand percent. She would’ve kissed the Special Forces men if she thought it would’ve been appropriate at that moment.
