Page 2 of Trapped with the Covert Ops Soldier

His grin faded slowly into a fog of fear. He swallowed, then nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”

Abby turned her head and threw up into the bag. The plane landed sometime between heaves and she barely noticed when they docked at the terminal. Everyone else got off, including the soldier next to her, but she waited until the rush was over before standing up and looking for her stuff in the overhead bin.

She ignored the big man who’d stopped to wait for her.

“Nice flight?” he asked.

She glanced at Smitty. “No. Jerk. Did you tell that dude I was a badass or something? He had no idea what you set him up for.”

Smitty’s grin was wide. “That’s why I did it.”

“What did he do to piss you off?”

“We’ve had words.”

“Huh uh.” She started up the aisle shouldering her backpack. “Next time you want to scare someone, don’t pick me to do it.”

“Why not? No one expects you to be scary. The best part is the moment they realize you’d be perfectly happy gutting them.”

She stopped walking and Smitty bumped into her.

She turned and glared at him. “Don’t.” She sucked in a breath and held on to her temper with the very edges of her chipped fingernails. “Do it again.”

He grinned at her. “Yes ma’am.”

“Asshole.”

“Yep, that’d be me.”

“You’re damn lucky I let you get away with all your shit.”

“I love you too, doc.”

Surprise froze her for a moment before she burst out laughing. Only Smitty could make her mad enough to boil water with a look then indulge in a belly laugh the next moment.

They exited the plane and walked up the ramp into the terminal. The baggage claim area was packed with military uniforms and only a few suits and jeans dotting the room.

“It’s good to be home,” Smitty said looking around.

“Is it?” It looked like the same old airport with not enough space to hold everyone. The fatigues were all too familiar. “Heh, you’re right, it’ll be nice to see people in real people clothes.”

He frowned at her. “That’s not what I meant, doc.” He tilted his head to one side and asked, “Aren’t you happy to be home? See your friends and family? Take some time to relax, sleep in, and drink a few beers? Maybe have some wild monkey sex with your best buddy.” He waggled his eyebrows and winked.

She snorted. “Some of that sounds...” Not too bad, but she wasn’t going to say it out loud. The idiot had a big enough ego as it was. “The beers sound good.”

Someone behind them laughed and she glanced over her shoulder. A group of soldiers were looking at her and Smitty with shit-eating grins on their faces as one of them mimed a monkey.

Great, just great.

She gave Smitty a glare. “You just got demoted from best buddy to baby brother status.”

He laughed and shrugged.

The baggage carousel started up and duffle bags began their journey around. Several soldiers in front of Abby and Smitty jostled each other in an attempt to get theirs. Someone got shoved hard enough that he stumbled into Abby, knocking her on her ass.

“What the – ” she began, but before anything else could make it out of her mouth the shoving morphed into punching. Within seconds most of the crowd was swinging at each other. Someone stepped on her foot and she realized she’d better get out of the way or risk getting trampled.

She tried to stand, but got an elbow in the nose for her trouble and ended up on her butt again. A duffel bag landed with a heavy concussive thunk next to her as a body tumbled over her legs and landed face down. She wiped her hand over her face and it came away covered in blood. The sight of it, and the sounds of the fighting, speared through her, penetrating reason and suddenly she wasn’t in an airport anymore. She was in the wrecked truck, the body of a dead man on top of her, the smell of smoke and fuel and blood filling her nose until breathing was impossible.

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