Page 5 of Bewitched

CHAPTER THREE

Blake lay on the ground as his lungs filled with the scent of tar and burning wood. Bastards must’ve used C4 in their explosive device. Shaking his head, he barked into his mic, “Sitrep, check in.”

After he heard Frisco and Will check in, he waited for Bryce. It was hard to tell where he and the woman landed after the explosion. Thirty seconds passed, which seemed like thirty minutes as he waited to hear from the kid.

“Secure, sir. Diplomat has sustained injuries,” Bryce replied.

“Roger that,” he mumbled as he lifted himself off Paige and checked her pulse. It was there, faint but steady. As he rolled over, he realized that he had dislocated his shoulder when they were thrown into the air. Must’ve happened when he grabbed her and rolled on top to save her from the blast. Rolling to his knees, he cringed. Damn shoulder, hurt like hell.

Glancing over his shoulder, he saw that the building was decimated along with the Tangos. The area was in flames as the dry trees and brush burned. “Nice day for a campfire,” Blake muttered. “Frisco, meet me at Bravo white, a half click north. Diplomat is unconscious and I have to shove my shoulder back in place.”

“Roger that. Ninety seconds.”

Blake ran his hand over Paige again and tried to ascertain what sort of injuries she’d sustained in the blast. He didn’t detect any broken bones but would have Will give her an examination when they cleared the area.

A large tree caught fire and the sky lit up as the wall of flames grew larger. Looking down, he saw that Paige was a lot prettier than in her State Department photo. The fact that he noticed it in the middle of a mission meant his shoulder wasn’t the only thing out of whack.

Frisco came running around a group of trees, and Blake waved. “Shove my shoulder back in.” The tingling sensation was starting to run down his arm and the next thing was numbness. No time for that when they still had to clear to their rendezvous point.

“Ready?” Frisco asked as he helped Blake up.

“Yeah.” Closing his eyes, he waited.

“How many times have I done this for you, man?”

“Too many,” Blake answered. “Why is the bad shoulder always taking the abuse?”

Frisco didn’t answer. Instead, he braced his hand on Blake’s back and lifted his shoulder into position. “Relax and breathe.” Raising Blake’s arm in one motion he swiveled it up and back into the socket. “There you go, good as new.”

“Thanks, man.” Blake started to kneel in preparation to pick up Paige when he felt Frisco’s hand on his shoulder. “What?”

“Let me. Give that shoulder a break.”

Frisco stepped in front of Blake and lifted Paige into his arms. “Ready when you are.”

Blake nodded and instructed the team to meet at the rendezvous point in twenty minutes. From there they could confirm their extraction. Blake adjusted his pack, checked his kit, and slid his weapon out. “Let’s hope they don’t have backup coming in hot.”

“Affirmative,” Frisco responded.

Blake took one last look at Paige and wondered why seeing her in Frisco’s arms knotted his stomach. Didn’t make any sense. Seeing a woman he didn’t know in another man’s arms had never pissed him off before. But right now…he wanted to punch Frisco in the face. Crazy!

Turning, he started along the trail that would take them down the mountain. The sound of sirens filled the evening air as they trudged through the trees and bushes that covered the hill they were traversing. “Hope the locals can contain the fire,” Blake said quietly. “Would be a shame to have half the valley burn.”

“How come women always smell good?” Frisco asked as he followed Blake. “Hold them in captivity, put them through a blast, and add some fire to it and they still smell freaking amazing. You and I smell like an old goat, but this one smells like a garden.”

Blake didn’t respond because his gut did that knife-twisting thing again. The idea of Frisco going after Paige bothered the shit out of him because the man was a dog and went through women faster than he went through bullets. Not that anything was going to happen. They would deliver the two women to the hospital and put them in the care of the embassy and then never see them again. Just like every other op he’d been on; it wasn’t a damn cocktail party where they could all get to know one another.

“Another question…” Frisco muttered. “This one doesn’t weigh much, but she has some nice, soft curves. How do they do that?”

“No idea,” Blake said. Why Frisco decided this was the moment for a chat about women was beyond him. The last thing he wanted to be discussing was how freaking great Paige smelled and felt. Tightening his grip on his weapon, he decided that he was going to be the one to carry her to the extraction point after they got done with their sitrep meeting. Damn Frisco didn’t need to have his hands anywhere near Paige.

***

Their group assembled two clicks away from where the women had been held. Bryce set up his drone and then sent it out into the dark night sky to see if any hostiles were on the way. “Ten minutes and I should have some intel,” he said as the drone cleared the trees.

Will began examining Amy. “You did okay, kid, considering you just survived your first explosion.”

Amy pushed her hair out of her face and grinned. “Actually, I’ve survived three bombings. One in Tangiers, another in Darfur, and now this one.”

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