Chapter Twenty-Eight
“Colonel.” A soldier stepping up to his side pulled Cam’s attention away from the screen where he’d been watching the ongoing action at the Pontifex’s compound. The soldier held out a comm. “Sir, I have Lieutenant Sebastian Rayne. He needs to speak with you.”
He thanked the soldier as he took the device and then stepped outside the tent, away from most of the noise.
“Go ahead, Seb.”
“Cam, I need your help.” Seb’s voice sounded strained, putting him on edge.
“Anything. You name it.”
“Bren’s jet just went down, about ten clicks east of your position. Send some medics—”
The rest of Seb’s words got lost in a rushing roar of white sound through his head. He braced a hand on a nearby tree trunk to steady himself.
Christ. What the hell would he do if something had happened to her?
Belatedly, he realized Seb had finished talking and was waiting for an answer.
“I’ll take care of it,” he got out, voice raw. He disconnected the comm before Seb could do something totally unhelpful like ask him if he was okay.
Bren was probably fine. The fighter jets had all kinds of safety features to protect pilots. Plus, she was experienced and would have known when to eject. He refused to entertain the notion that anything bad had happened to her. Not after surviving everything they had in the last few days. Not after a damned building had come down on top of them, and they’d walked out of it.
Holding on to those thoughts like they were his only lifeline stopping him from completely losing it, he hurried down the small incline to where the large medic tent had been set up.
Inside was a hive of activity. All the medics—doctors, sub-doctors, and nurses—from both the base and Valiant Knox had converged here in the last few hours, triaging and treating the injured as they trickled in from the fight.
Cam rushed over to a nearby wheeled metal stand of tall shelves and started searching for a med-kit.
“Something I can help you with, Colonel?”
He glanced over to see one of the Valiant Knox sub-doctors Archie Moore, standing at his elbow, grabbing a few things out of the shelves.
“I need an emergency med-kit. And a medic, actually.”
Moore pointed to the right. “Which kind?”
“Actually, I have no idea.” He dragged a hand over his hair, exhaustion making his thoughts murky. “Seb commed me to say Lieutenant Brenner’s fighter jet went down about ten clicks from here—”
“Why didn’t you say so in the first place?” Moore spun around and grabbed a passing male nurse. “Garcia, take these over to bed twelve. Doctor Dalton is waiting for them.”
Moore bundled the supplies into the nurse’s arms, not even bothering to wait for a reply before he hurried around to the other side of the shelves and came up holding a large red backpack with a white cross on it.
“Lead the way, Colonel.”
“Call me Cam.” He held out a hand to shake briefly with Moore.
“Mostly everyone calls me Ace,” he replied as they headed out of the tent.
They jogged through the tent city that’d popped up in less than an hour after the troops had arrived. On the outskirts, there was a line of all-terrain vehicles parked. Cam jumped behind the wheel as Ace chucked the med-kit in the back and then climbed into the passenger seat next to him. The GSW in his arm throbbed as he steered the ATV free of the other stationary vehicles. The doctor that’d bandaged it hadn’t offered any pain meds. Smart woman had obviously realized he would have refused them anyway.
They headed out of the camp, Cam picking out a road that’d take them east. Seb organized for his comm to be connected to the beacon on Bren’s jet. He handed it over to Ace, leaving the directions to the sub-doctor while he navigated the uneven landscape, especially once they left the rough road and started driving across fields and through light forest.
In the distance, a plume of black smoke spiraled into the sky—one of several. He was trying not to let the thought that it was Bren’s jet lodge itself into his mind. Except as they followed the beacon, they seemed to be heading right for it.
“Dammit,” Ace muttered as they cleared the forest into an open field.
“What’s wrong?” He pressed his foot down harder, increasing the speed now that he didn’t have trees to navigate.
“The beacon. It dropped out. But I’ve got an approximate location.”
Cam didn’t reply. Couldn’t say anything with the way his throat had tightened as the dark plume of smoke loomed closer.
If the beacon had gone out, did that mean the jet wreckage was burning, destroying everything inside it?
Seb hadn’t said whether Bren had ejected or not. What if she was trapped? What if they were too late?
They reached the other side of the field and plunged back into forest, sending frustration thrumming through him at needing to slow down again or risk crashing. They had to get to the wreckage. He had to find Bren. She had to be okay. There was no other option.
They were maybe two miles from the last beacon signal when Ace tapped him on the shoulder and pointed.
Bren was a few hundred yards off, walking through the sparse trees. Relief shot through him like a dose of adrenaline straight to the heart, almost making him lightheaded. He turned the ATV in her direction, weaving through a few trees to reach her.
When they got closer, he could see she was holding herself stiff, one of her arms cradled against her chest. There was a decent-sized gash on her forehead, leaving blood trickling down her face.
She stumbled to a halt, like she hadn’t noticed the ATV until they stopped right in front of her.
Shoving the ATV into park, he jumped out and hurried over to her, Ace a step behind with the med-kit.
“About time you got here,” she mumbled, before pitching forward.
He caught her shoulders, trying to take her weight gently, but she cried out in pain. He adjusted his grip, heart bumping over the fact he’d hurt her without meaning to. Lowering her, lowering them both to the ground, he sat with her against his chest. She seemed to be a little out of it. He cast a glance over her as Ace ripped into the med-kit.
“Hell, she’s dislocated her shoulder.”
“And I’m guessing that head-lac caused a pretty decent concussion,” Ace replied. He set a few bandages on the open side of the med-kit. “First things first. Let’s get that dislocation taken care of.”
Ace instructed him to hold her up, and as the sub-doctor gently took her arm, Cam’s heart took up residence in his throat. He’d never dislocated a shoulder before, but he’d heard they hurt like a bitch, and he didn’t relish the idea of putting Bren through any more pain.
Holding her tight against him, when Ace counted down, he held his breath as the sub-doctor worked the joint back into place.
Bren jerked against him, but her jaw was clenched against making any noise. A sweat had broken out on her brow, but when the shoulder ended up back where it was meant to be, she blew out a long breath and sagged against him.
“Remind me never to do that again,” she muttered, more lucid as Ace turned his attention to her head.
“Which part? Crashing your jet or dislocating your shoulder?” Ace asked with a note of humor in his tone.
“All of the above.”
As Ace started wiping blood from her face and sealing the wound with a special gel, Bren pulled herself upright and cast him a wary glance.
“Didn’t think I’d be seeing you again so soon.” She winced as Ace stuck a temporary bandage over the laceration.
“Seb commed me when your jet went down. He asked me to send a medic, but I didn’t have anything better to do, so I thought I’d come along.”
“You didn’t have anything better to do?” she repeated. “Not anything like oversee the UEF forces currently trying to take key enemy targets?”
He shrugged. “They mostly run themselves. Besides, we’re about to claim victory, and I think I was cramping Commander Emmanuel’s style.”
She stared at him after he said that, like she didn’t know what to do with him. Sure, making jokes hadn’t exactly been his thing while they’d been in enemy territory. And last time they’d really spoken, in the CSS camp, he’d pretty much told her—
Yeah, he didn’t want to go there again.
“I owe you an apology,” he forced himself to say before he could let his stupid, stubborn pride talk him out of it like earlier when she’d flown off with Alpha.
“How about I give you two a moment?” Ace hastily chucked stuff into the med-kit, flipped the lid closed, and practically ran back to the ATV like he wanted to be as far away from this awkward conversation as possible.
Bren got to her feet, wincing, but shaking her head at him when he tried to reach out and help her. “I appreciate you saying so.”
She started to step around him, but he got into her path. “I am sorry. About all of it. And I mean all. The entire past ten years. I should never have assumed you were anything like your brother.”
She warily met his gaze. “And I shouldn’t have assumed what happened with Jordie was all your fault. I guess we would have saved ourselves a lot of trouble.”
“No doubt.” He smiled at her, but it felt forced.
They’d moved beyond the ghost of her brother, but what did that mean for them? He wanted to get to know Bren, wanted to spend time with her. Hell, there was a large part of him that desperately wanted to keep her for good. But the Valiant Knox would be redeployed, possibly within the week. And he’d be reassigned as well. There’d be opportunities in other systems or the possibility of staying to help rebuild Ilari and stamp out pockets of CSS forces. It depended on what kind of action he wanted to see.
Talk about bad timing. He couldn’t ask her to stay when he didn’t even know what he was going to do himself. And even if he did know, he couldn’t have asked her anyway. Not any more than she could have asked him to go with her if she did have feelings for him. Which he wasn’t sure about. Maybe this was all one-sided. She wasn’t exactly an open book; she kept herself locked down pretty tight.
He probably should have found that ironic, since it was usually people saying that about him.
“Well, I’m glad you’re okay.” The words came out lamely. “I was worried when Seb said your jet had gone down.”
“I would have been fine, except I landed in a tree. My arm got caught in the parachute, and when I cut myself free, I fell.” She gestured to her arm and head with her good hand. “That’s how this happened.”
“We should get you back to the Knox and patched up properly, then.”
He stepped aside, indicating she should go ahead of him. She stared at him for a long moment, like she wanted to say something else or wanted him to say something. Sure, there were words bubbling in his chest, but it seemed pointless letting them out.
She let out a small sigh and then walked over to the ATV where Ace was waiting. Cam scrubbed a hand over his face before following and climbing into the driver’s seat.
He’d apologized. They’d put the thing with Jordie behind them. So why did he still feel like a complete ass?