Rose could barely keep her eyes open, but going to sleep wasn’t an option. Whatever intel Welsh had gotten from his mic had sent him into a vicious spiral. He’d taken one hard look at her, asked her if Lacey was essential to her triage, and raced off to find her EMT. By the time he got back with a shell-shocked but otherwise unharmed Lacey, he wasn’t even speaking. His complete focus was getting into the driver seat, moving them out of the crossfire, and finding his men. Lacey and Rose held on as best they could as Welsh whipped the ambulance into a tight turn and headed out of the compound.
“Where were you?” Rose asked Lacey. She needed some sort of distraction.
“I tried to find you. When I saw the destruction to the dormitory, I started looking for anyone I could help get out of sight. Welsh found me near the showering area and brought me here.”
“How did the rebels find our location?” Rose wondered aloud.
“It doesn’t make any sense. They don’t typically come in this far where military presence is evident.”
Lacey was right, and it was what worried Rose, too. Not to mention, the SEAL team Welsh was with had also been assigned to their protection. She’d worked with special forces teams in different countries, but it seemed too convenient after the bombing of an agreed-upon peaceful evacuation.
“Maybe the attack was planned,” Rose mused.
“All those people,” Lacey said.
Rose rubbed her arms, terrified. She knew she and Lacey were lucky to be alive, and they rested that success right at the feet of Welsh. If he hadn’t gotten to them when he did, Rose didn’t want to think about what would happen.
“You’re bleeding,” Lacey said.
“Glass from a blast. Help me clean and wrap them up. I have a feeling we’re going to be working soon.”
It took a few minutes, but they had the wounds as clear as they could get them for now, covered in medicine and wrapped. Just in time, too, as the vehicle screeched to a halt.
“Snake, I’m coming!” Welsh roared before jumping out of the ambulance.
Rose could do nothing but listen as gunfire pinged off the armored walls of the vehicle and shuffling feet sent her mind into overdrive. When the doors to the ambulance opened, a bloodied Snake was pushed in by Welsh.
“All ambushed. Do what you can,” he ordered, then closed the door behind him.
Lacey and Rose jumped to work. Snake had sustained a topical gunshot graze to his lower right forearm and scrap metal stuck out in places. Rose worked as quickly as she could to get him cleaned up and bandaged. He wasn’t as bad as she thought he’d be.
“Thank you,” he said when they finished.
“What happened?” she asked.
“Rebel attack was well coordinated, but we led them out of the main compound fast enough. The casualty rate shouldn’t be high.” He sighed. “But it won’t be low, either.”
“Any idea why they would attack us?”
“Did you speak to Welsh?” Snake asked.
“No. He’s been bent on getting you all to safety.” The ambulance swerved again, and Snake hissed as he banged into the side of the gurney.
But Snake’s non-answer didn’t make Rose feel better at all. At each stop, they had another SEAL to fix up. Cry Baby had knife slices requiring stiches across his chest and abdomen. Glitz had a blow to the head that was most likely a concussion, but he wouldn’t relax until they got the rest of team to safety. He rode next to Welsh, keeping an eye out for the others. They got to Heim, and he was the worst with a broken left arm and fingers. He cursed a blue streak as they worked on him, refusing medication which might compromise his eyes. By the time they got to Big Boss, who had remained unharmed in his sniper perch, Rose was exhausted.
But none of them would answer her previous question.
When Welsh pulled them over in an abandoned town and the SEALs got out to talk, Rose stomped her way over to the group.
“You know something, and you aren’t answering me. Lacey isn’t the only subordinate under me, and when we get back, if we can go back, there are others who will have to follow my direction. If something isn’t safe, I deserve to know.”
The SEALs turned their attention to her but still said nothing. Welsh paced back and forth, anger radiating from him in waves. There was something going on, and she didn’t get the details. It hurt, in a way she didn’t expect, that he wouldn’t speak to her. She may not have the clearances they had, but it still would have been nice to be trusted. She’d jumped through a window with the man, for fuck’s sake.
“The attack was coordinated,” Welsh confirmed. But there was something in his tone Rose didn’t like. He looked her straight in the eyes, and she got the sense his anger was not at her but for her. She didn’t know how she could tell, but it made her heart thunder in her chest.
“Just tell me,” she implored.
“The patient from the Fuah blast was a plant,” Welsh said.
She stared at him, not completely comprehending what he was telling her. How did a boy fighting for his life have anything to do with an attack on a MSF compound? No one knew about the SOST attached to them in order to provide aid. It was a closely-guarded secret only a select few outside the compound were aware of. But the way Welsh stared at her didn’t brook any sort of argument.
“What does my patient have to do with this?” she finally asked.
“He belonged to the rebellion. He was put on the bus, away from the blast, so he would be transported to the MSF facility. A tracker was on his body. There was an attack here and at the hospital where he was transported.”
*
When Rose stumbled back to the ambulance, a trembling hand covering her mouth, Welsh wanted to find the nearest rebel and work out every bit of frustration coursing through his veins. Lacey took Rose in her arms and pulled her into the ambulance, giving the SEAL team the freedom they needed to talk, but Welsh wanted nothing more than to soothe her pain. She’d worked her heart out to save that boy, and it turned out he was nothing more than a way to get her colleagues killed. There was no doubt she blamed herself for what had occurred.
“So how did they know to put a plant in the bombing?” Glitz asked.
That was the question. Whoever had done this knew exactly what they were about. And the taste of betrayal was getting too much for Welsh. Keep your head on, Welsh. Dying is not an option. He released a pent-up breath at the thought of Hawk’s, words—no, he wouldn’t do that shit to himself. Hawk wasn’t gone. Just on Medical Leave pending review. Welsh snorted. He knew what that really meant, they all did. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder was nothing to play with, and the Navy couldn’t ignore the way Hawk struggled with sleep. Not after it had been recorded and put on fucking display, thanks to their Blue Falcon of a commander. If they had never put their trust in that man, things would be so different. Of course, none of them were prepared for the investigation following their commander’s arrest. The network of child pornography and sick bastards who had been arrested along with him had broken them. The nasty divorce proceedings followed, leaving the commander in jail without access to his children or grandchildren. Not that Welsh felt a lick sorry for him, but the whole thing left a bad taste in his mouth.
Welsh took a deep breath, but his anger didn’t dissipate.
Yeah, they’d saved the fucking day. Hakeem bin Mohammed Tahlib—the face of the Qatar ISIS cell targeting the intelligence community—was dead, thanks to a well-placed shot from Snake to save his wife, Goddess. A bullet Heim would have gladly shot himself since Tahlib had kidnapped his now wife, Katya, two years before. The real mastermind behind everything, Abd Al Alim bin Abdul, was sitting in GITMO, Guantanamo Bay, completely cut off from outside control after his wife was captured by Vixen, Cry Baby’s fiancée. They’d survived, pulled through, and some of them had even found love while they were doing it. And the SEALs escaping from GITMO and living to tell the tale? Priceless. But the danger wasn’t over, and maybe Abd still wasn’t done with them.
Anger frothed through Welsh’s veins, but he kept his cool only by chewing on the inside of his cheek until he tasted blood. Where would their anger go? The rage and helplessness they felt because they hadn’t seen it? They’d all missed the signs from their commander, and now they were left to pay the price. And now Rose was a casualty just for being in the same place as the SEALs. Rage boiled higher, pressing along Welsh’s insides. He wanted to scream, but he swallowed it down. Keeping his military bearings, he tried to focus on what he’d been asked, but it was all a blur.
“Welsh!” Heim hollered, and by his thunderous expression, Welsh figured he’d been calling for a while.
“Yeah?”
“Get it together. We need to know what’s going on. We got the traitor, Abd is in lockup up, and his wife was detained. How is he still making moves if he couldn’t have planned for us coming here?”
“I may have an idea,” Tex interrupted, coming across their mics.
The tech savvy former SEAL from Texas constantly helped their team through it all, and as far as they were concerned, he was a member of their team.
“Finally got our comm connected again,” Heim said.
“Once you were outside of a certain distance, the disturbance disappeared. I was able to repatch your link and listen in. This way I can stay on mission with you and provide logistical support,” Tex explained.
“Hooyah. What you got for us?” Heim asked.
“You cut off Abd’s connection to the outside world when his wife was detained. She stopped getting insider intel after the commander was arrested and tried as a war criminal. But the Qatar cell for ISIS is still well-connected internationally. Remember the Balkans?”
Yeah, Welsh did. That’s where they’d met Vixen while on mission and the ball had started to unravel. The Balkans consisted of Eastern-Southeastern Europe, and Syria was included.
“Sonofabitch,” Welsh forced out through gritted teeth.
“I think the leak is on the civilian side, and your team was already known out there after that last episode. Someone still wants you dead, or revenge on Abd. His followers were devout, and we’re back in their turf.”
“Fuck!” Welsh roared.
“Walk it off, sailor,” Heim ordered.
Walking it off wasn’t going to solve everything. Rose was stuck in the middle of this shit with them now, and he didn’t know when he’d be able to get her to safety. Hell, he didn’t even know when they’d be able to head back to the compound, but they’d have to soon. This would only be a temporary camp until they got their plans in order.
“Can’t do anything yet, and we need to make sure you’ve got supplies and backup. I’ll send both. Stay at your coordinates. You’ve got medical supplies, a medical professional, and gear to hash it out for now. Recon as you can, but stay safe,” Tex said.
Even better. They were stuck in an abandoned town, without direct support, with two civilians to look after. Leave just turned into a full-blown op, and none of them were prepared.