Chapter 5
Caitlyn sank slowly to the bench on the side where she could still see. The first day back here at the smaller outpost, at the edge of the action again, had been on the rough side. She had a mess to clean up here at the clinic. Plus, she needed to find water. Not just for her but for the patients too. She sent one of the men to grab a medical case and told him to bring food as well. She had four men she was keeping overnight. The doctor was currently talking to two of them.
Dr. Robertson walked back over and said, “Good thing we brought plenty of medical supplies with us.”
“Yes,” she added. “I thought it had been calm lately, but obviously I was wrong, given the lack of supplies.”
“Some of the medical supplies were stolen,” Dr. Robertson said. “It’s happened a couple times. Some young boys were caught.”
“That explains it.”
It sucked, but she felt almost sympathetic to anybody who needed medicine. She wished to God there was a way to call a peace treaty. But it never seemed to make any difference what she wanted. The fighting continued regardless.
She was still confused after seeing Ryder. She didn’t have the time or the energy to argue with him, but that didn’t stop her from constantly turning to see if he was entering her clinic. The problem was, she expected to see him. Twenty years of friendship was hard to give up. Even though they had missed out on the last two years, he was here now. She needed to do what she could to get them back on their natural footing.
That she wanted so much more was another story.
One of the men returned with crates of water. She grabbed a bottle, opened it and took a long drink.
Dr. Robertson turned and said, “You haven’t even had a chance to drop your things on a bed. Take an hour and get settled in. Come back for your shift at eight p.m.”
With that order, Caitlyn grabbed another bottle of water and headed out to make sure she had a place to lay her head tonight.
After dropping her bags on the floor beside a bed, she carried on to the mess tent for food. The meals would be a lot simpler here, but it would still be plentiful. She walked inside, headed for the coffee first, and then some hot food. With a tray full and an appetite to go with it for once, she sat down.
Within seconds, four shadows surrounded her. She glanced up, startled to see Ryder and his unit. She smiled at Corey. She’d been good friends with all of Ryder’s unit in the day. But life changed for her and also for her relationships to them. Still, she was delighted to see him.
He gave her a guarded look in exchange.
Ryder put down his tray, swore and headed back to the food. She presumed he’d forgotten something.
Taking the opportunity she said, “I missed you guys.”
Corey sat down, but his gaze never left her.
“I never meant to hurt Ryder.”
Corey lifted an eyebrow. “For somebody who didn’t mean to, you sure did.”
She winced. “Yeah, well, I’m trying to fix it, but it’s a little hard, given the circumstances.” She glanced at Easton and Devlin. Both gave her half smiles, willing to be friendly, but she understood the code. She’d hurt one SEAL so she’d hurt them all. She upped the wattage of her smile. “And I hear you two have ladies.”
Devlin grinned. “Absolutely.”
Easton nodded.
Caitlyn said, “Rumor has it they’re both remarkable.”
Devlin chuckled. “Well, I’d agree with that. Mine is Bristol, a busy lady, inventing drones and all kinds of weaponry for the military.”
“Wow, that’s impressive.” She turned to Easton. “Is your lady mechanically minded or computer minded?”
The three men chuckled.
“No. Summer is the exact opposite,” Easton said with a shy grin. “She’s creative. She’s a photographer.”
“That’s nice too,” Caitlyn said with a laugh. “Sounds like you men have found exactly what you need.” She glanced at Corey. “And you?”
Corey snorted. “Hell no. After what happened to Ryder, no way.”
Her stomach sank. “More than just me or just me?”
“Just you.”
She stared at her tray full of food, and her appetite fled. “I guess I have a little bit more to make up for than I thought,” she said quietly.
“Maybe,” Devlin said, “you could start by explaining to him exactly what happened.”
Keeping her gaze down, she nodded. That was the hardest part. Especially as it had taken her months to understand it herself. But Devlin was right. It was time.
Just then Ryder returned. He sat down across from her without a word, digging into his food. He had enough meat on his plate to feed four men. But then he’d always been a huge eater. He expended tons of energy, and he was heavily muscled, so she knew his system could handle it just fine. She was a little bit jealous of how much he could consume.
Silence fell at Ryder’s arrival. He glanced up, shifting his gaze from one to the other. “Don’t stop the interesting conversation because of me.”
Heat flushed her cheeks. Caitlyn murmured, “We weren’t talking about anything specific.”
A snort came from Corey, but, outside of shooting him a glance, Ryder stayed quiet. For that she was glad. As much as she had wanted to see these men, she really wanted to heal her relationship with Ryder. She didn’t want to explain unless she and Ryder had privacy. It was all about the right moment to make this happen. So far she hadn’t seen it.
*
He hadn’t wanted to sit at the same table with her, but it seemed he was unable to stop himself. Like a moth to a flame he kept coming back to the light and got burned again and again. It made him angry, frustrated, and, at the same time, he couldn’t stop himself from seeing how she was. “How’s the injury?” he asked abruptly.
She glanced up from her plate of food and shrugged. “It’s fine.”
“You still have stitches.”
She nodded. “They’re coming out in another few days. Stitches themselves aren’t enough to stop anybody from working, as you well know,” she said with spirit.
He had to acknowledge that. They’d all been in situations where they had worked with minor injuries. But this wasn’t the same. “In your case you could’ve waited in relative safety until the stitches were out.”
“I could’ve.” She picked up her coffee and took a long sip, closing her eyes, enjoying the moment. “I don’t know if it’s just that it’s been a really long day, but this cup of coffee tastes wonderful.”
Devlin nodded. “I think they brought in a shipment of the specialty coffees by accident.”
“Lovely for us,” she said with a smile. “Every once in a while, these accidents turn out for the best.”
Easton chuckled. “More often than not we end up with dishwater. This isn’t bad.” He took a healthy sip, then stood. “Speaking of which, I could use a second.”
She watched as he walked around the many tables to the coffee. “He looks happy,” she commented.
Nobody at the table said a word.
She shrugged and finished her meal. She’d spent so much time wishing she could be with Ryder again, yet now that she was … She moved her tray off to the side and sat with both hands holding her coffee cup. She was really looking forward to getting some sleep tonight, but she had to be at the clinic at eight p.m., so sleep was a long way off.
Easton returned with a cup of coffee. In a low voice, he leaned down and said something to Ryder and Corey. The look on their faces changed, became hard. They bounded to their feet and took off.
“Is something going on?” Caitlyn asked.
“Talk of a potential attack. You need to go to your room and stay there.”
She shook her head, standing up. “I’ll head to the clinic.” She glanced at her watch. “I’m almost on shift anyway.” Without giving the men a chance to argue, she bolted.
Ryder watched her leave. He’d been ready to race out of the tent at Easton’s words, only to stop and look back at Caitlyn. She shouldn’t be alone.
While she went one way, Ryder took off the other. He’d swing around to check on her later. If she was on shift tonight, that was shitty news. But at least he’d know where to find her.
As he walked in to the meeting, the rest of his team lined up at his side. They all listened, realizing the attack looked to be an attempt to free the rebel prisoners held in the outpost’s medic facility.
“How many are injured and being held in medical?” Ryder asked.
The commander glanced down at his notes and said, “Twelve.”
Ryder gave a hard nod. “Okay, how many guards holding the men?”
The commander studied him for a long moment. “Six.”
His frown was instinctive. A two-to-one ratio was not bad as long as everybody understood what was coming.
The commander looked at him. “You don’t like those odds?”
Ryder gave a quick shake of his head. “No. I don’t.”
Devlin spoke up. “Do we know the status of the twelve injured? Are any of them their leader?”
One of the other men spoke up. “One leader is here. He took a bullet in the hip.”
“Surgery?” Easton asked.
“Bullet went right through. The doctor stitched him up, but he shouldn’t be moved.”
Ryder considered the odds. “I’d like to be assigned to medical,” he said calmly. “We need a strong presence.”
“No,” the commander said. “You and your team are to find out where the attack is coming from, how many rebels are involved. We need intel to understand what we have coming.”
Ryder wanted to argue, but he knew there was no point. Besides, that was where his skills would be best used. He had to trust the others would keep Caitlyn safe.
Within minutes the men were geared up and already sliding through the night. They were expecting an attack from the north, so the enemy couldn’t be too far out. With the comms on Silent, the four of them with another team of four on their flank raced through the darkened terrain.
Two miles out, he knew something was wrong. His comm confirmed as everyone came to the same conclusion. The attackers had either changed their approach, their timeframe or had somehow avoided them. Given the full moon and the lack of tracks, Ryder figured it was the first scenario.
The men split up and came back to the camp from east to west. Ryder didn’t like this one bit. It was all too possible a large force was coming, but, if the enemy had chosen a couple silent and stealthy invaders, hoping to free the prisoners and then take over medical, that was something else. It made sense as they had a dozen men there, mostly mobile. Once free the rebels had an army already in place.
In virtual darkness, silence hung heavy on the grounds, and Ryder’s gaze caught a movement to his right. He watched as one man separated from the hillside and slipped to the outpost, heading to medical. Ryder tapped his comm hard twice and pointed.
The others acknowledged what he’d seen, and Devlin sent a coded message to the outpost. One man was easy enough to take out. But how many others were out there? They waited another ten minutes. There was no sign of gunfire or disturbance of any kind. Which meant the intruder had been taken out.
Soon two more shadows separated from the trees in different directions, heading for different parts of the camp. From their profiles, it was easy to see they were heavily armed. As they reached the bottom of the hill in the distance, Ryder watched six more men separate from the far side.
His gaze turned feral.
Now he could do something. His team moved in.