Page 32 of Defended By the SEAL
The men of HERO Force gathered around a rough-hewn table in the dimly lit room at a small coastal airport, a set of hastily printed maps and weather reports spread out before them.
Austin, Champion, Booger, and Deke had tracked the storm's progress for hours, their faces tense as they assessed the best way to reach the island where Cowboy, Charlotte, and her family were stranded.
Austin—the de facto leader for this operation—leaned forward, his brow furrowed. “We’ve got maybe a one-hour break in the storm window, if we’re lucky. The chopper’s fueled up and ready, but we’re still looking at limited visibility and high winds over open water. I give us a thirty percent chance of enough clearing to get us out to that island. We’ll have to call it when we get there.”
Champion tapped a laptop, grimacing at the shifting Doppler radar on the screen. “No kidding. This thing’s huge. Even with a break in the weather, the chop on the water is going to be dangerous as fuck. I’m not confident the bird’sour best option.” He shook his head. “Too much wind shear.”
Booger leaned over the maps and stabbed a finger at a section of coastline close to the island. “I’ve got a contact at the Coast Guard station here. They’ve got to have icebreakers, and they’re used to doing runs in bad weather. We could put the chopper on a boat and ask them to take us as close as possible. If we can get them to meet us here, we’ll be on the water by the time the storm lets up.”
Deke crossed his arms, nodding. “Yeah, but the Coast Guard moves on their own timeline, and there’s no guarantee they’d get us there faster. Even if we can convince them to help, we could already be on the island another way. Shit, an inflatable across the closed bridges ought to do it.”
Austin rubbed the back of his neck, deep in thought. “Roads are closed. They may not have been plowed in hours, and are completely impassable. But if we take the chopper and the storm closes back in, there’s a good chance we’d be stuck up there—or worse. I’d rather have a fallback plan than risk losing the entire team to a snow squall over the Atlantic.”
Champion glanced up from the laptop. “What if we use a tandem approach? Split up, two of us take the HERO Force chopper from here, the other two head out on the Coast Guard boat and use their chopper once you get close.”
Austin furrowed his brow. “And why, exactly, would the Coast Guard do all this for some private citizens in the middle of a blizzard?”
“Because Booger here’s been buggering the captain.” Champion grinned at his play on words until Booger bonked him in the back of the head.
Like a parent in a minivan full of preschoolers, Austinseemed not to notice any of it. He eyed Booger skeptically. “Would she do that for us?”
“She might,” Booger said with a shrug. “I haven’t talked to her since she transferred to Boothbay from Staten Island. Only one way to find out.”
Austin nodded decisively. “Given our lack of decent options, go ahead and call her. I’ll get Jax on the horn to see if he can grease any wheels at the Coast Guard to help make it happen.” He looked back at the map of the island, then the weather forecast on Champion’s screen, mentally superimposing the two.
Getting backup to Cowboy in these conditions was a cluster fuck of epic proportions, and each man in that room knew what none of them would say aloud. Both ideas were terrible, with little chance of success and a high probability of complications or injury.
He only hoped at least some of their team could make it onto that island to cover Cowboy’s six, without endangering themselves—or anyone else—along the way.
17
Booger stood below deck on the Coast Guard icebreaker as it plowed through towering waves, Deke several steps away and cursing the effect the rough ride was having on his gastrointestinal system. “How the fuck did you survive in the Navy?” asked Booger.
“Dramamine and adaptation training.”
“Looks like you need a refresher course.”
Deke glared at him and opened his mouth, no doubt to return a biting retort. But as the hull crested a wave and dropped abruptly, his eyes closed tightly and his jaw snapped shut.
Booger almost felt bad for the guy, but his sympathy faded just as quickly. “Suck it up, sailor.”
Deke visibly struggled to regain some semblance of composure. “Think Austin and Champion are gonna make it in the chopper?”
“They’ll make it. Champion’s too stubborn to turn back. But we’d better be ready to move fast once we hit theisland. This storm is closing in around us like a bear trap.” He headed for the steps. “I’m going on deck to see how close we are. You going to be able to stay in the game?”
Deke nodded, determined. “Hell yeah.”
“Good.” Booger made his way upstairs, the shapely legs of Victoria Barnswallow coming into view as she worked the controls at the helm. He’d known better than to admit to his teammates that he had indeed kept in touch with his Coast Guard friend post-transfer. He didn’t need the men of HERO Force on her scent.
The first mate had his back to Booger, working some controls, so Booger took advantage of the moment to slip his hands around Victoria’s middle and bent his head to the crook of her neck, the scent of her heated skin dousing his nerve endings with fire. “Oh, Captain, my Captain,” he murmured huskily.
She elbowed him in the solar plexus. “Not here.”
He straightened, the surge of blood that had headed for his groin the instant he touched her taking more than a mere moment to reverse course. She felt good in his arms, better than he’d allowed himself to remember, and more than he wanted to admit. Victoria was a friend, albeit one with benefits, and damned if he wasn’t enjoying those privileges more and more each time he’d been granted that honor.
The nose of the boat pitched upward. “You should visit me in New York sometime,” he said, noting the quick flash of her green eyes in the general direction of her crewmate before they landed back on him.
“Maybe.”
