Page 28 of D-Day

So, she plodded onward while Taer moaned in pain until Greg insisted that he be given some more morphine. They stopped briefly for the injection and Taer fell unconscious. She thought about Greg’s words and the kind of pain Taer was in, and her heart squeezed in sympathy. The tightrope they walked just got tighter with each step away from any form of help or rescue. How would D-Day even find her in this steaming greenery stretching for miles and miles?

She swiped her brow and the back of her neck as she walked. No breeze and the sun barely skipped the jungle floor. She threw her leg over a fallen log, and Greg extended his hand to help herover. It was excruciatingly hot, at least over one hundred steamy degrees, the air rich with the smells of loam and foliage. The heat surrounded her, clung to her skin, her mouth as dry as a bone.

Between the heat and the fear, she didn’t know what was making her sweat more—but she was betting on fear.

“Water,” Taer murmured, and Lando stopped then, went to his brother and gave him a drink from his canteen.

She took a moment to rest on that fallen trunk, and Greg sat down next to her. “We’re in serious trouble, Helen,” he whispered, his expression as grim as the situation.

“Why?” She swallowed hard, adrenaline slipping into her bloodstream. Her heart started to pound, a flush of helplessness and anger coursing through her.

Greg shot a quick glance toward Lando and lowered his voice even more. “Taer is going to die. There’s nothing I can do for him except keep him comfortable. Looks like Lando has plenty of morphine in his med kit. But even if we were at a modern hospital, surgery isn’t an option. His wound is mortal and it’s just a matter of time.”

She almost couldn’t wrap her brain around it. “You heard what Lando said. He’ll kill both of us.”

“I heard him.” His gaze flicked to Lando, then back to her. “But Taer’s got, maybe, if he’s lucky, two days. We’ll have to find a way to escape before he dies. It’s our only play. Be ready.”

Oh crap, she thought and tried not to panic. Her life was measured down to forty-eight hours. She had no intention of dying anytime soon. Whatever it took, she wanted to see her family again. She wanted to work out all the problems she had keeping her from being with D-Day. She wanted him again in many more ways than just his body.

It dawned on her that she had experienced so much pain and suffering of other people, had she used it to mask her own, to keep her from finding a genuine relationship, to keep her fromhaving to face uncertainty, her own pain, her own suffering. Had she cut herself off from all of that to remain neutral? But she now wondered if D-Day felt so dangerous because he was the catalyst that had knocked her out of this cycle. He was the first man ever to make her question what she was doing and why. It was clear to her now that she’d chosen this job as a distraction because she’d had a difficult time facing pain and suffering in her own life.

She nodded, deciding to do what it took to survive, upset that she wasn’t going to get much time to get the information she needed for Bailee. She wasn’t even certain she could get Taer to give her that kind of intel, but all she could do was try.

“I’m a crack shot, Greg, but we need to be very careful. If he finds out that Taer has no hope…”

“Agreed.”

“I need to tell you that there are Navy SEALs here. Don’t ask me how I know, but they will come for us.”

“Fuck, will they? That’s great news.”

“Of course they will.” She needed D-Day so much right now, and there was no doubt in her mind. “That’s what they do, and they are masters at getting people out of trouble. But since this is such a fluid situation and we have no idea how long Taer will really last, we have to be constantly aware.”

He nodded. “I’m scared as hell, but Taer deserves our help. He’s in for a very painful death.”

“He isn’t as bad as I thought he was.” She looked over and watched the brothers interact. It was clear they were close, and she could only think about her relationship with Buck. Once he found out she had been taken, he would move heaven and earth to get to her. Then there was D-Day. She felt sorry for anyone who stood in his way. Nothing would stop him from getting to her. She was sure of it. No obstacle too difficult, no jungle too deep. A chill went down her spine at the thought of that man letloose in his state of mind with his kind of skills. She held onto those thoughts as Lando gave them water, then they moved on.

The sound of gunfire drew closer, and Lando signaled for them all to crouch down. A runner left the group, presumably to discover what was going on.

Gunfire was so close she could hear the sound of bullets smacking into the leaves with a whizzing sound. It seemed to be coming from all over. Greg moved close to her. “The sun is going down, and that will give us an advantage in the dark,” he whispered. “We’ve got to make a break for it while Lando is distracted.”

Startled into stillness, Helen stared at him, the urgency of his words registering. She closed her eyes, and a violent shiver coursed through her, then she forced herself to pull it together.

Concentrating on what he told her, she met his gaze, indicating with a small movement of her head that she understood. Greg stared at her, his eyes dark, then he gave her a gentle little shake. “Okay?” he asked, his voice tense.

She managed a weak smile and nodded again. “Okay.”

A burst of gunfire made everyone duck down even further, but Greg and Helen were off and running for their lives.

Then Greg made a strange noise, and she turned in horror to find him on the ground. In the dim light she crouched down to him. His voice was weak, the air wheezing in and out of his lungs. Oh, God. He’d been shot.

Someone grabbed her arm and jerked her away, and she looked into Lando’s angry face. The air was practically frosting between them. He seemed ready to choke her.

Without looking at Greg, he yanked her into a hard run. The jungle swallowed her up, and tears streamed down her face as they left Greg behind without even a thought.

She was alone with killers, alone with a dying man that she couldn’t help even if she had the medical knowledge. If she gotany information out of Taer, she wasn’t sure she was going to get out of this jungle alive to deliver it.

Moving at double their speed,Zorro just behind them watching their sixes, they were silent and very deadly. They covered the half mile or so in under two minutes. Bailee’s voice came through their comms.

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