Chapter 7
They stopped two hours later at a rest stop. Sasha welcomed the chance to stretch and breathe the daily morning fresh air. The sun had crested over the horizon, but her eyes watched as the leader, Mason, walked toward them.
“As we have to pass close by, we’re willing to swing into the refugee camp and give you time to collect your belongings and transfer cases off to other doctors. You can thank Dr. Munroe for that. He’s very persuasive.”
At David’s “Whoop,” he added. “We’re talking an hour, two at the most.”
Another of the SEALs stepped forward. “We’re expected at base in two hours. We made good time so far and can extend that slightly, but that’s all. Are we clear?”
Sasha nodded. “Thank you,” she said. “My passport and personal belongings are still there – at least I hope they are.”
“Mine too,” Theresa said. “Plus I have some keepsakes I’d like to not lose.”
“You will have two escorts each. Remember, we don’t know how you were selected or why, but you were kidnapped from the camp. There is an ongoing investigation, but it hasn’t gotten very far. Some people will know you went missing and others won’t. No talking about it. No details. Stick to the plan, and we’ll get through this fast and without any trouble.”
But his tone of voice made it clear they were going to follow his rules. He studied each of the three of them in turn. “Be alert. If anyone acts suspicious tell us.”
She had no problem with an escort. In fact, she preferred it. The last thing she wanted to do was find herself thrown in the back of a truck for a second time.
They reached the gates a half hour later. The security was tight but finally they parked off to the side of the medical clinic. She hopped out and took a look around.
She’d been gone less than a day but it seemed like weeks.
Yet in many ways it was as if she’d never left.
The small audience they’d garnered, even though it was really early, had the same look of hopelessness on their faces as always. Intermixed with anger and relief the cracks and crevasses said much about this stage of their lives.
And how they were handling it.
She smiled at them and turned toward the door of the clinic. With Cooper and one of his team she walked through the entrance, her mind already consumed with what she needed to do. She’d check the clinic first then grab up her few belongings. Home, such a magical word. Right back to California.
The place was dim, but in the back she could see lights. And hear crying.
Voices she recognized.
She raced to the commotion and found Yalta in the middle of a contraction. A nurse stood at her side. When the woman looked up, there was such a wealth of relief on her face, Sasha knew the situation was dire.
“Update,” she ordered as she quickly washed up.
“She’s been asking for you for hours,” the nurse murmured. “The baby isn’t moving. We’ve requested an ambulance to the hospital for her, but so far there’s no sight of it. It’s been two hours. The hospital is overwhelmed as well.”
“Of course it is, isn’t it always? That doesn’t mean they can ignore our needs. We bother them the least we can but…”
“I know.”
“Go check on the ambulance. I’ll give the hospital a call in a minute.” Sasha walked over to the weeping woman. “Easy, Yalta, take it easy.”
The woman broke into tears and words poured forth. Words Sasha couldn’t understand.
A male voice answered Yalta from somewhere behind Sasha. She twisted to see the man with Cooper answering the woman. She thought his name was Markus.
“What is she saying?” she snapped.
“She’s been calling for you. Where were you? She is all alone.” Markus gave her a crooked grin. “And more of the same.”
“Right. I had moved her to the clinic and that’s when I was snatched,” she murmured.
“From this point?” Cooper asked, his voice hard.
She nodded. “From the small room on the side where we store our medical supplies. It has a door directly to the outside, and I was taken out that way.”
“Did you see the person who kidnapped you? Was it one of the men that held you captive?”
She frowned, but her attention was on the irregular heartbeats from Yalta’s belly. “No, not really. I was hit from behind.”
“So you didn’t catch a glimpse of anyone.”
Her frown deepened. “A soldier called my name and he motioned toward the supply room, which is where I’d been heading anyway. There was supposed to be someone inside.”
Cooper cut in. “Anything you can remember will help. We’ll check out the supply room ourselves.”
She heard him, but she wasn’t listening as she checked her patient over. She straightened. “We need that ambulance. If it doesn’t get here fast we’ll have to try and save the baby, but I’m not set up for it,” she muttered, turning to look around the small room. As clinics went the place was decent. As a surgical delivery room, hell no.
She turned to Cooper. “I need one of the other doctors here – now.”
The two men turned to look at her then at each other.
“It’s not a request,” she snapped. “This is an order.”
And she turned back to her patient.
The nurse came running back in at that moment. “The ambulance hasn’t even left yet,” she cried. “There’s been a big accident, and they are shorthanded themselves.”
“That means we’re on our own.”
She spun to make sure one of the men had left, and sure enough Cooper was gone. Good, the one left behind spoke the language. “Markus,” she asked. “Can you tell her that we’re going to have to do a cesarean to save the baby?”
“Can you do that here?”
She shrugged. “Sure I can. Is this ideal? No. She might survive the wait to the hospital, but her baby won’t.”
He walked closer to the young woman and spoke to her in a low calm voice that Sasha loved. He had a great bedside manner. And there was something about his voice that oozed caring.
The woman started weeping but she clutched his hand tight.
When his voice fell quiet she glanced over to see him gently stroking her hand before speaking to her again in that same low tone.
Whatever he was saying to her was helping. She was curious though. “What are you telling her?”
“I’m telling her that she’s lucky to be here and that you’re the best. If you can save her baby then you will.”
“How do you know?” Sasha stared at him in shock. “I haven’t worked on you before. I’d have remembered.”
“No,” he said with a gentle smile. “But you saved Cooper. I heard about the doctor you saved at the same time, too.”
She shook her head. “That’s not fair. I was just doing what needed to be done.”
“And did both jobs well.” He grinned. “I know many a man who says they owe you big time.”
Discomfited, she returned to her patient.
A moment later she asked, “Can you ask her about her family? Does she have anyone she’d like here with her?”
The musical sounds erupted again as the two spoke. “Her mother is ill and the rest are men.”
“Husband? Does he want to be here?”
“Custom won’t let him,” Markus said. “And that’s something you and I aren’t going to be able to buck today.”
“No, I guess not.” She walked to the small cupboards and pulled out a tray. They didn’t have an incubator for the baby either. She could hope they didn’t need one. As she set up a bassinet for the baby, David came rushing in.
“What have we got?”
“Cesarean,” she said quietly. “No progress for several hours. Baby is in fetal distress.” She showed him the woman’s chart. “No ambulance for at least an hour, then the return trip, and we’ll lose the baby in that time.”
“Crap.”
“Right.” They smiled at each other. They’d been required to pull a few miracles out of their respective hats these last months. “Let’s have at it.”
With David handling the drugs, Sasha sorted the tools while the nurse prepped Yalta. She glanced over to find Markus staring at her, his gaze wide, his lips pinched. It was probably the first time anyone had asked him to do what she was about to ask him to do, but heck, he was a SEAL, he could handle anything. “Can you stay for her?”
He glanced at the scalpel in her hand, his eyebrows raised. Then gave a grim nod. She nodded at him once, waiting until he turned his attention to the poor woman. It wasn’t going to be fun, but she’d make damn sure it was fast.
And it was. She was holding an unhappy newborn male in her hands in minutes.
She laughed as his angry cries filled the room.
With Yalta’s happy tears and cries of joy she handed the squalling boy off to the nurse and turned her attention back to the patient.
“We’re almost done,” she said, more for Markus’s benefit than anyone else’s. Yalta wasn’t feeling anything other than the overwhelming emotions that overtook every woman at this moment in her life.
Sasha had helped deliver any number of babies but wasn’t sure she’d ever done a cesarean under these circumstance. The reality was it didn’t matter. The joy was the same for everyone, no matter where in the world it happened.
What she wanted to know was would it ever happen to her? She’d had no doubt a year ago. She’d been happily married and completely in love with her life and knew the time for her own family would be soon. After that dream had blown up in her face, she’d avoided facing that question. It was too painful.
“Done?” David asked at her side. He looked at her over the mask in question.
She realized she’d been standing there staring at the woman. She shook off the reverie and nodded. “I am. She’s in great shape.”
“And you’re a great doctor,” he said seriously. “Love that you’re so calm and controlled.”
“Always,” she said with a smile at Yalta. “It’s all about the patient.”
She hopped off the stool and walked over to the water to wash up. The nurse was taking care of Yalta while David studied the little boy now swaddled in towels. “He’s beautiful,” he announced to the new mother.
Markus quickly translated. The mother beamed and held out her arms.
They shifted her in bed so she could meet her new son.
The nurse came over to Sasha and gave her a big hug. “Thank God, you got back in time,” she cried. “I wasn’t sure what I was going to do.”
“I did, so it’s all good, and you did wonderfully,” she said warmly. The thought of not having made it back made her nauseous. “David, anyone else in dire need at the moment?”
“No, Theresa has done what she needs to do as well. We can leave.”
Sasha was undecided. Her patient needed to be watched carefully, and she hated to leave her like this. Just then she heard the sirens. A big grin broke across her face. “That’s music to my ears.”
“Isn’t that too little too late?” Markus asked.
“In this case, it’s perfect. Yalta shouldn’t be alone.”
“How long will this take?” Cooper asked from the doorway.
She spun in surprise. She’d forgotten he was there. “About twenty minutes for the paperwork and to get her transferred, then I’m free to go.”
Markus nodded. “We’re going to hold you to that.”
“I promise,” she said. “You can see why I needed to be here.”
“I do.” Cooper nodded. “Markus?”
Markus took off. With Cooper at her side, she walked to her quarters to pack up her few belongings. Only as she stood in the doorway to the tiny room, she realized her room wasn’t as she’d left it.
*
“What’s the matter?” Cooper asked, studying the bare bones closet of a room. There shouldn’t be much wrong as there was nothing here to go wrong.
“My stuff has been rifled through,” she said shortly.
He gave her a side long glance. “You can tell?”
She reared back slightly and looked at the room again. Then laughed and relaxed slightly. “Absolutely but then when I do surgery I want my tools in a specific order and at a specific distance from my fingers. In other words everything is placed exactly where I want it. These…” she waved her arm at the shelf of folded clothes, “Are not the way I left them.”
“Anything missing?”
She stepped inside and did a quick search. “Not that I can see.” She pulled a bag out from under the single bed and opened the zipper. “I don’t keep any valuables here. They are in the office safe.”
He frowned. “In a place like this, that’s hardly safe.”
“They aren’t criminals here. They are families looking to start again.”
“And many families in that position will do anything to make it happen.”
She stood up and gathered the closest stack of clothing. He noticed that meant several pairs of jeans and a couple pairs of shorts. He’d love to see her in shorts. Then she’d be gorgeous in anything. While he watched, she quickly finished packing. Within minutes she straightened and looked around. “Do you see if I missed anything?”
“Looks cleaned out.” But he dropped to the floor and looked under the bed. He almost laughed at the militant style the bed had been made up in. “I think you’re good to go.”
“Then to the office for my purse and passport. Not to mention the contract for being here.”
She led the way with Cooper on her heels. They passed the room with mother and baby and Markus back standing watch. The ambulance could be heard outside. In the office she quickly opened the safe and withdrew a brown envelope and a small purse. Then closed and locked it again. They raced back to the patient where he watched as she efficiently managed the transfer.
She gave the young woman a hug before releasing her to the paramedics. Cooper immediately ushered her toward the SUV.
“We’re here, Mason,” he said to the silvery eyed man she’d assumed to be the leader of the group.
“There’s one more thing…” she said to Mason. “And it’s something Markus can help with. Plus, we’ll all be together.”
Mason narrowed his gaze at her and waited.
“The mother and son are safe, but no one has informed the family or the father that he has a healthy son or that his wife is going to be fine.”
Cooper caught his breath behind her. She turned and glanced at him and Markus at his side. “I’m sure you can understand.”
“A driver took you there, can you find the location on your own?” Mason asked.
She nodded. “That I can do.”
“Even though this place is a maze?” Mason asked, one eyebrow raised.
She laughed and handed over a map and a piece of paper. “That’s where they live and this is a map of the camp. I might not be able to figure it out, but you big bad SEALs will be able to.”
She grinned as he rolled his eyes at her, but he took the sheet nonetheless. Cooper looked down at her in bemusement. Keeping his voice low he whispered, “I didn’t know angels came in pint size.”
She froze in shock then laughed. “I should punch you for that.”
He snickered. “Go for it. I have a fly swatter around here somewhere.”
Mason shook his head. “Let’s go you two. We will travel together.”
“Fun.” She hopped into the back of the big black SUV. Cooper sat beside her. Markus took the passenger seat. With Mason driving the lead vehicle they slowly wound their way through the camp that was just waking up. Several people dashed inside their small shelters in fear. Many others came running out. Sasha waved at them.
“Smile, Markus. They are scared of you.”
Markus shot her a look of surprise. “Me?” he protested. “Why me?”
“It’s the look. So dour and dark. Smile a little and make their day instead.”
He snorted in disgust, but he plastered a smile on his face anyway.
Cooper chuckled.
When Markus shot the bird at Cooper, he whooped. Lord, this was good to see. Sasha was such a breath of fresh air. She was bringing even Markus out of his shell. Evan was on the far side of her being uncharacteristically quiet. When Copper twisted enough that he could see Evan’s face it was to realize he was studying Sasha’s profile as if fascinated.
He glared at him but Evan didn’t lift his head. Cooper reached along the back seat and flicked his arm.
Evan raised his gaze in surprise, and Cooper deepened his scowl. Evan narrowed his gaze as he studied his friend and then glanced from Sasha to Cooper and back again – and his face lit with unholy mirth.
Cooper knew he was going to be bugged forever.
He subsided in his seat and glared out the window. Only to see Markus’s smirk in the rearview mirror.
“Shit,” he said under his breath. They’d never leave him alone now.
Just as they reached the correct sector of the camp, a large group of young men stepped out in front to stop the vehicles.
And Sasha gasped in recognition. “Oh my God,” she whispered. “That’s my driver. The one we thought was shot dead.”