Chapter Thirteen
Josh
“I’m so glad you’re home!” Ember ran from our kitchen and jumped into my arms. She was all sugar and sunlight, her curves filling my hands perfectly.
“Where else would I be?” I asked, and then kissed her.
“I hate when you’re gone,” she said softly.
“Me, too. God, I’ve missed you, December.” I lifted her by the backs of her thighs, and she wrapped her legs around my waist.
“You don’t have to miss me anymore.”
“I just want to stay here,” I said, a feeling of panic coming over me.
“Then stay,” she whispered against my mouth, and then kissed me sweetly, gently sucking on my lower lip.
I deepened the kiss, wishing I could dive inside her and stay forever.
“Walker!” I heard the voice from a distance and looked up, scanning our kitchen.
“Josh!” Ember cradled my face, turning my head with her hands. “Josh, come back to me. Come home.”
“I’m home, babe. I’m not leaving you again.” I brushed my fingers over her cheekbones, loving the smattering of freckles that summer always brought to her skin.
“Walker!” The voice was closer.
“Come home to me!” she cried, breaking into tears. I wiped them away.
“Stop, December. Stop crying. I’m here.” No matter how many tears I cleared, more flowed.
She sobbed, and her tears ran red.
With blood.
“Walker!” she screamed, grabbing my face. “Walker! Wake up!”
Light blazed through my vision, and my thigh buzzed, then burned. Ember vanished, and I jerked my head to the side.
“Thank you, God,” the voice said, and its owner dropped his hands from my eyelids.
Pain shot through every inch of my body, and my head rang with a high-pitched buzzing. “Can you hear me?” he asked. “Walker?”
“Carter,” I said, recognizing the voice. “I hear you, Will.”
“Are you okay? Where are you hurt?”
I blinked steadily until the world came into focus around me. Will lay next to me—wait—above me, shining a light on my face. I tried to block it from my eyes, but my right arm wouldn’t cooperate. I swatted it with the left, instead. “I’m fine. My right arm isn’t responding, and my left leg is bleeding…or I pissed my pants.”
Will snorted and shone the light down. “Damn. I wish it was the latter.”
I swallowed, my mouth full of copper. “Rizzo?”
“I’m here, Lieutenant. Pretty sure I broke a few fingers on my left hand, my neck hurts, and my head is ringing like a bell, but I’m okay.”
Thank God. “You, Carter?”
“I’m okay. It hurts like a bitch to breathe. I think I popped a couple ribs, but I’m okay.”
I couldn’t see past Will, but I knew Captain Trivette was still there, strapped in. “She’s dead.” Somehow I kept my voice level.
Carter nodded slowly. “Yeah. Look, we’ve been down about ten minutes, and you know we’re not going to be alone for long. We have to get out of here.”
I nodded and gritted my teeth as Carter ran his hand under my left thigh. “Good news or bad news?”
“Bad then good.”
“Well, you have a rather large chunk of metal sticking out of your thigh.” He shone the light again, but I couldn’t get a look with the angle we were at. “It’s pretty substantial.”
“Is that seriously the good news?”
“No, the good news is that it didn’t go all the way through. You’re not pinned to the seat.”
“Great. Let’s get the hell out of here. How close are we to Jagger’s site?”
“About a hundred yards,” Rizzo answered from outside the bird.
Will unbuckled me, and my weight dropped to my right arm. I couldn’t stop the yell that burst free. “Fuck, that hurts!”
“Sorry,” Carter mumbled. Then he grabbed ahold of my vest and pulled. I pushed with my right leg in an awkward scramble out of the cockpit.
“We can’t leave her.”
“I know.” Once we were in the back, I made it out with Rizzo’s help. He lowered me to the ground, and then they got Captain Trivette out.
She deserved so much better than this, being laid on the rocky ground of some valley in Afghanistan. Jesus, she had kids. A husband. A life that was now over.
Because I wanted to save Jagger.
Not now. Shove it away.
“Where’s the Apache?” I asked, cradling my useless right arm and collapsing against a boulder. Fuck, it had gone dark in the last half hour.
“They’ve been circling, but they’ve got to be low on fuel,” Will answered, drawing his weapon and setting a perimeter, then grabbing his CSEL to radio out. “Gunman one-two, this is Dustoff one-two. Over?”
“Dustoff, this is Gunman. Glad you made it out. We have backup coming your way, ETA seventeen minutes. What is your status?”
“Three Deltas and one KIA.” Will looked away from my stare.
“Roger that. You have company coming your way fast. They’re armed and don’t look friendly. We’ll cover you while we can.”
I stumbled to my feet and took his CSEL. “Is there movement from the other crash site?”
“Not that we’ve seen on thermal.”
“Fuck.” I thrust the radio back at Will and reached for one of the M4s they’d pulled from the bird.
“Sir, I need you to sit down,” Rizzo ordered.
“We have to get to the other crash.”
“Not until I look at you. As soon as I do, we’ll go, so you’re just delaying us.” He motioned to a boulder.
“Fast.”
He did a quick exam while Will got details on our incoming from the Apache pilots. “Get on the ground. Your shoulder is dislocated.”
I dropped to the ground without complaint. He braced himself with his feet, gripped my upper arm, and counted to three. Then white-hot pain seared my vision, and lessened as soon as it came. “All better?” I asked with a gasp, blinking through the residual pain that had dulled to a throb.
“Hardly. My guess is your radius and ulna are broken. Can you rotate your forearm?”
Shit. Pain shot up my arm when I tried to do as he showed. “No.”
“Can you move your fingers?”
I wiggled my digits. “Yep, so I can fire a weapon. Now let’s go.”
Rizzo sighed. “Sir, I think you’ve forgotten that you have a six-inch-long piece of metal imbedded in your thigh.”
Holy shit, he was right. As if voicing the injury had given it permission to hurt, it began to scream—pulsing, hot, and insistent. “Damn. Is it near an artery? How did I not feel that?”
“Adrenaline,” he answered and ripped a hole in my pants to examine me. “Looks like it’s straight into muscle. Painful, but I’m not worried about you bleeding out. To be safe, we’ll leave you here with Captain Trivette and check out the other site.”
Fuck that. I sat up, grabbed the shard of the slippery, bloody metal, and yanked it out with a guttural yell.
“Damn it, Walker!” Rizzo dressed my oozing leg while he cursed me out. It only took a minute or two, but felt like years.
“Seriously?” Carter asked, glancing at my leg.
“You would do the same to get to him.”
He nodded once, and then helped me to my feet. I tested my weight on my leg. It hurt like a bitch, but it would do until we could get to Jagger. With my left hand I took one of the M4s Rizzo had gathered, and checked the clip. My right was weak, and I still couldn’t rotate my wrist, but it’d do. “Go figure. I become a pilot, and I’m still on the fucking ground with an M4.”
Always keep one bullet. Never let them take you alive. How fast being infantry came back to me.
“Let’s go,” Will said, with Captain Trivette already over his shoulder.
“Your ribs okay?” I asked as he flinched.
“I’ll survive.”
I ditched my helmet and ignored every bite of pain and dizziness as we crossed the rocky terrain by flashlight, knowing we were sitting ducks at the bottom of the valley. The Apache flew lower and fired just beyond the crash site. Thank God they were here.
We made it to the site, and I swallowed the paralyzing fear that had made its home in my throat. Carter laid Captain Trivette on the ground carefully and then climbed the fuselage.
“Gunman one-two, we have arrived at the second site,” I called over the radio, leaning on a large boulder to keep the pressure off my leg. Mentally, I walled off the pain, willing myself to focus on something else besides the throbbing that kept time with my heartbeat. A quick flashlight shine revealed that I’d already bled through the bandage. Fuck it. I climbed the rocks anyway, coming around the wreckage until I got to the cockpit glass, which was almost level with the hillside.
“Roger that. We have a few more minutes of fuel, and then you’ll be on your own for about five minutes,” the Apache pilot radioed. “We will stay with you as long as possible. ETA of backup is about seven minutes, but these hills are crawling.”
Five minutes. It had taken less time to crash. “Roger.”
“What can you see?” I asked Will, who’d busted through the cockpit glass. Just be alive. I cannot take your body home. Just be alive.
“He’s alive!” Will shouted.
Thank you, God.
“What about the copilot?” Rizzo asked, pushing ahead of me to get to Jagger.
Will used a knife to loosen the seal on the glass toward the front of the cockpit and then kicked through it. He leaned in for a few seconds. “Front seater is KIA.”
Fuck. The Apache left us to refuel, and I started my stopwatch. Five minutes.
Rizzo cut Jagger loose and dragged him out of his seat. I took the brunt of his weight, gritting my teeth against the pain radiating through my arm. Rizzo jumped down and then helped me lower Jagger to the ground.
His face was a bloody mess, and the rest of him wasn’t much better. I put my fingers against his neck and felt his pulse, faint and thready, but there. I leaned over him and lifted his eyelids. His pupils weren’t blown. “Jagger, it’s Josh. Time to wake the fuck up, man. You have a wife at home, and a baby who needs you.”
“Jesus Christ, he’s a mess,” Rizzo muttered, swinging his bag down from his back.
“He’s also my best friend. College through flight school.” I bit out each word as I gave him room to work.
Rizzo’s eyes flew to mine, understanding dawning. Keep him alive. He gave me a curt nod and went back to taking Jagger’s vitals, and I helped Will remove the mangled body of the copilot. We got him to the ground, and I checked my watch. Two minutes. The numbers swirled in my vision, and I blinked, trying to focus.
Gunshots popped, then wizzed past us. It was a sound that I thought I’d only hear again in my nightmares. We hit the ground, Rizzo covering Jagger.
A new volley of shots tore up the ground to my left.
“They’re up the hill!” Will called out.
“I can’t fucking see!” I answered.
We low-crawled to the nearest rocks, hauling Jagger behind us. God only knew the extent of his injuries, but he’d be safer here.
Will and I locked eyes, weapons ready, and with a nod, both rose over the rocks. Holy shit. They were coming straight for us, so many that I couldn’t count. I fired until my clip ran dry, and then threw my only extra magazine in after Will did.
A gunshot hit the boulder next to me, and I turned to see four more coming around the fuselage. We were surrounded. A battering ram punched into my chest, sending me into the rock behind me. Rizzo fired, crouched next to Jagger.
No blood. Round didn’t go through. Now get up or you’re dead. You’ll never see her again.
I sucked air into my lungs and pushed off the rock, meeting Will to stand back-to-back over Jagger. They kept coming. I dropped the M4 when I expended my ammo and reached for my nine mil off my vest.
“Dustoff one-two, this is Gunman one-four. Two minutes out with Dustoff one-one. Pop illum,” the radio called.
I set the device to signal the Apache while Rizzo covered me, then tossed it on top of the fuselage and reached for my radio. “Gunman, we’re taking fire. LZ is red hot.”
I was firing again before the radio hit the ground. One bullet. Save one bullet. Never let them take you alive.
My last magazine loaded, I counted every shot until I reached thirteen. Two more.
I will do whatever it takes to come home to you. The last promise I’d made to Ember shot through my mind, and I shouted as I fired the last two shots from my magazine. “I’m out!”
Everything happened at once. The Apaches arrived, their guns splitting the night, but one guy rounded the back of the fuselage and raised his weapon to me.
December, I’m so sorry.
“Josh!” Will spun, shoving me to the ground and firing a round to take out the last of them.
He stood over me, illuminated by the moonlight, and looked down with a relieved sigh and a nod. The Apaches were here, and the radio announced the arrival of the ground troops and medevac.
I glanced at Rizzo, who threw a thumbs-up as he checked Jagger’s vitals. Maybe we’ve made it. Maybe we’ll be okay.
Will looked at us then offered me a hand to pull me to my feet. As I reached for it, three shots rang out from over the rock.
Will’s eyes flew wide, his stunned gaze locked onto mine.
“No!” My scream was so raw that I barely recognized it as my own. “God, no!”
My vision swam in red and pain raced through my body like an electric shock.
We’d been so close.