Six Minutes to Midnight

by Elle James

  Until T-Mac entered her life.

  She hadn’t known what she was missing.

  Now she did. And he would ship out, leaving a giant hole in her heart and soul.

  She lay on the seat, her head resting on her bent arm. A single tear slipped from the corner of her eye and splashed onto the seat.

  Crying accomplished nothing. So she limited it to the one tear. When T-Mac was gone, she might have to shed a few more. Until then, she wouldn’t think that far ahead.

  Chapter Twelve

  T-Mac didn’t wake Kinsley after an hour and a half. Nor did he wake her at two hours. Not a single vehicle had gone by on the road. He couldn’t be certain one hadn’t passed while he was making love to Kinsley, but he doubted it.

  Which meant the Al-Shabaab faction hadn’t made it out of the camp at a decent hour, unless they’d slipped by him while he’d been otherwise occupied.

  He cursed himself for losing his concentration and focus. Their lives depended on him staying aware and on top of the situation. Sex in a truck wasn’t going to keep them alive.

  But oh, it had felt amazing. Having Kinsley in his arms hadn’t gotten her out of his system. If anything, holding her made him want her even more.

  The woman was tough as nails on the outside and all soft and vulnerable on the inside. And she’d fit perfectly against him, their bodies seemingly made for each other.

  He found himself trying to figure out how a navy SEAL and an army dog handler could make a long-distance relationship work. Throughout the night, he worked it over in his mind and came to one conclusion. As long as they were both on active duty, a relationship between them was doomed before it started.

  Who was he kidding? They would never be on the same base, and probably not in the same state or even the same continent. Why go through the heartache of separation, as often as he was on call and deployed?

  Why was he even thinking that way? He was a navy SEAL. He didn’t have any right to expect a woman to give up all she knew and loved to follow him around the country or world, only to be stuck somewhere, waiting for him to come home.

  He’d been an idiot to make love to her. Satisfying his base needs could only hurt her in the long run. And make it harder to let go when he left.

  A couple times during the night, he’d almost nodded off. Each time, he’d imagine Kinsley wearing a dress, standing in the doorway of a cute little cottage with a white picket fence, sending him off or welcoming him home.

  But that image clashed with the reality of what and who she was. She’d trained to be a dog handler. Surely, she would never be content to stay behind and keep the home fires burning.

  He admired his teammates’ ability to find love and the ways they’d worked out the difficulties of maintaining a relationship even when they were separated. If they could do it, why not him?

  Because Kinsley belonged to the army. She had a commitment to serve. She couldn’t move around from navy base to navy base and still do what she did. The army didn’t care if she was married to a navy guy. They’d send her wherever they needed her.

  T-Mac wished Big Jake or Harm were there. He could sure use some advice, or just a sounding board. He had a lot on his mind and he couldn’t seem to push any of it aside.

  The first gray light of dawn pushed over the tops of the hills, creating long shadows and warming the air.

  They needed to get on the road to Djibouti. The sooner the better. He’d made up his mind that they would take the route through Ethiopia, hopefully avoiding Al-Shabaab all together.

  As much as he hated doing it, he got up, brushed off the dust and walked back to the truck to wake Kinsley.

  When he looked inside, the truck was empty. His heart leaped into his throat and he shot a glance around the truck, the cliff and the giant boulder. Kinsley was nowhere to be seen.

  With his heart pounding and a sweat breaking out on his forehead, T-Mac spun in a circle.

  “I’m over here,” Kinsley called out, emerging from around another, smaller boulder. “I had to relieve myself.”

  T-Mac didn’t answer, taking a moment to drag air back into his lungs and calm his racing pulse. “You scared me.”

  She smiled. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think about letting you know.”

  “It’s imperative that you let me know where you are at all times. Al-Shabaab isn’t above kidnapping women, drugging them and abusing them. They will give you even less slack because you are dressed as a soldier.”

  Kinsley squared her shoulders. “Bring it on.”

  T-Mac frowned. “You can’t take on all of the Al-Shabaab faction. They have weapons, and they aren’t afraid to use them. They don’t follow any government. They aren’t governed by the Geneva convention and they don’t have a code of honor like ours.”

  Kinsley crossed her arms over her chest. “I can take care of myself, navy guy.”

  He cupped her chin. “You might think you can. But if these men gang up on you, you have to be ready for the worst.”

  She pushed her shoulders back and lifted her chin. “Yes, sir.” Then she leaned her face into his open palm. “I’ll play it safe.”

  “Good.” He bent to kiss her, unable to resist her lips, swollen from his kisses. “What am I going to do with you?”

  “I asked myself the same question all night long,” she admitted.

  He stared down into her eyes.

  Kinsley met his gaze, unblinking. “How do two people from two totally separate military branches even dare to get together? You have to be all kinds of stupid to allow it to happen.”

  He chuckled. “Call me stupid.”

  “And me.” She turned her face and pressed a kiss into his palm. “But we can’t get hung up on what’s going on here.”

  “You’re right,” he agreed. “We have to get back to Camp Lemonnier and report what we found in that Al-Shabaab camp.”

  “Right.” She cupped the back of his hand. “And what happened here, last night, will stay here.” Her lips twisted into a tight frown. “It can’t go any further.”

  T-Mac wanted to disagree. He opened his mouth to do just that, but closed it nearly as fast. Kinsley was right. They couldn’t go there. Anything between them was doomed. “You’re right. We have a job to do. We need to focus on getting it done.”

  Though he knew it would only prolong the pain, he pulled her into his arms and kissed her hard.

  At first she stood stiffly. Then her hands slid up the back of his neck and cupped his head, pulling him closer. She opened to him, allowing him to sweep in and caress her tongue with his. He accepted her offering, greedily tasting her, holding her and giving back all she gave him.

  Agar brought them back to their senses. He pressed a warm, wet nose between them.

  Kinsley leaned back and laughed shakily. “Hey, boy. Are you not getting the attention you deserve?” She lowered her hand to his head and scratched him behind the ears.

  T-Mac dropped his hands lower, cupping the small of her back. He leaned forward and kissed her forehead, then swept his mouth lightly across her lips. Then he stepped away. “We have to get going. The sooner we get back, or find a phone to call for a lift, the better.”

  Kinsley pressed a hand to her lips and nodded. “I’m ready.”

  Agar jumped up into the cab of the truck and sat in the middle between Kinsley and T-Mac.

  T-Mac would have preferred Kinsley sitting beside him, but having the dog between them was perhaps the only way he’d keep his hands off the woman.

  He needed to concentrate on the road ahead, not on the woman. The men from the Al-Shabaab site would be out for revenge and wouldn’t stop short of killing the people responsible for setting off the explosions in their camp and offing three of their men.

  T-Mac turned the key in the ignition. The engine didn’t make a sound. He did it again with the same result.
Damn.

  Kinsley held up a hand. “Pop the hood.”

  “I’ll look,” he insisted.

  “No, you need to turn the key. I had some training in the motor pool. Let me try the usual quick fixes.” She hopped out of the truck and ran around to the front.

  T-Mac released the hood. Kinsley pushed it up and climbed on the bumper to lean over the engine.

  T-Mac tried to see what she was doing, but the hood blocked his vision.

  “Try it now,” she called out.

  He turned the key, and the engine started right away.

  Kinsley closed the hood and climbed up into the passenger seat with a grin.

  “What was wrong?” he asked as he shifted into Drive and pulled around the big boulder.

  “Corrosion on the battery terminals. All I did was wiggle them and break loose some of the crud. If we stop again soon, we need to do a more thorough job of cleaning the posts and connectors.”

  T-Mac admired the female for her ingenuity. He knew too many who wouldn’t have had a clue about engines. “You are an amazing woman, Kinsley.”

  She shook her head. “Not at all. I just use the brain I have.”

  T-Mac’s chest tightened. The more he knew about her, the more he loved. When the time came to part, he’d have a tough time saying goodbye.

  * * *

  KINSLEY SAT IN the passenger seat with her hand on Agar’s back. The dog usually had a way of calming her when she was upset. All she had to do was rest her hand on his fur and the world would right itself.

  Not this time. Since losing Jason to an IED explosion, she hadn’t thought she’d fall for another military guy. Too much could go wrong and her heart couldn’t take another loss like that.

  She’d dated Jason for two years and thought she was in love with him, but what she felt for T-Mac seemed much stronger and harder to push aside.

  Who would have thought she’d find a man who could rival Jason? Or that she would fall so fast and so hard? She was insane to even consider another relationship with a guy so entrenched in his military career.

  No. Just no.

  She stared at the road ahead as they angled west toward the border between Somalia and Ethiopia without actually seeing any of the terrain. Her thoughts remained pinned to the man in the driver’s seat. In her peripheral vision, she could see him over Agar’s head.

  T-Mac’s lips pressed tightly together, and his hands gripped the steering wheel as he kept the truck on the dirt road, his gaze sweeping the road ahead, the hills to each side and the rearview mirror.

  He had a strong jaw and high cheekbones to go with his auburn hair and the dark auburn shadow of his beard.

  If they somehow managed to get together, they’d have beautiful redheaded children. She could imagine a little girl with bright hair and T-Mac’s startling blue eyes. And a little boy with auburn hair and her green eyes.

  Kinsley looked straight ahead. Why was she daydreaming the impossible?

  As soon as the SEAL team left, T-Mac would forget she ever existed.

  She wouldn’t forget him. Not for a long time. But she’d get on with her life, complete her commitment to the army and decide what she wanted to do next. She loved training dogs. Maybe she’d start her own training and boarding facility. And when Agar was retired from duty, she’d apply to adopt him. He deserved a happy forever home. A place with a big yard and lots of room to run and explore.

  The truck leaped forward, jerking Kinsley out of her reverie.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked.

  T-Mac’s lips thinned and he glanced in the side mirror. “We’ve got trouble behind us.”

  Kinsley turned in her seat and stared through the back window, over the boxes and crates. Emerging from the dust cloud behind them were a truck and two motorcycles. The men riding the motorcycles wore the black garb of the Al-Shabaab fighters.

  Her pulse banging against her veins, Kinsley fumbled on the floorboard for her rifle.

  The truck bounced on the rough dirt road.

  T-Mac pushed the accelerator all the way to the floor, but the truck and the motorcycles behind them were catching up.

  “Stay down!” he shouted over the roar of the road noise. “They have guns.”

  No sooner had the word guns left his mouth than a bullet hit the back window and exited through the front, leaving a perfect round hole in each.

  “Get down!” T-Mac ordered.

  “The hell I will.” Kinsley crawled over the back seat.

  “What are you doing? You’re going to get killed.”

  “No, but I’m going to put the hurt on them.” She hit the bullet hole in the window with the butt of her weapon. The glass shattered, but didn’t fall. She hit it again. This time shards spilled outside and onto the seat beside her.

  Bashing the jagged shards again and again, she cleared the rear window, pointed the rifle through the open space and aimed at the vehicles following them.

  One of the motorcycles raced up to the back of the truck.

  Though she was being jostled by the bumps in the road, Kinsley steadied her arm as much as possible and stared down the sights at the man on the motorcycle, who was getting close enough that he could eventually hop into the truck.

  She took a breath, held it and caressed the trigger.

  Her aim was true. The man on the motorcycle jerked sideways, lying over the bike, skidding along the dirt road for a long way before coming to a stop.

  “One down!” T-Mac called. “Good shot.”

  Kinsley didn’t respond, her attention on the other motorcycle and truck.

  The motorcycle had slowed to run alongside the truck, both of which were speeding toward them.

  Kinsley aimed for the driver’s window.

  Just as she pulled the trigger, their truck hit a rut, throwing her aim off. The bullet went wide.

  Undisturbed, she aimed again and pulled the trigger before they hit another bump.

  The bullet must have hit close to the driver. He swerved, sending the truck off the side of the road for a moment before straightening and pulling back into the middle.

  The motorcycle stayed on the road, gained ground and headed for the driver’s side of T-Mac’s truck.

  Kinsley took aim, sighted down the barrel and pulled the trigger.

  The weapon jammed.

  “Damn!”

  “What?” T-Mac asked.

  “Jam.” She slapped the magazine from the bottom and pulled the trigger again. Still jammed.

  The motorcycle rider pulled alongside the truck. “Watch out!” she called. “Motorcycle coming up on your side.” Kinsley pulled back the bolt and found a bullet lodged at a bad angle. She dug in her pocket for the knife she kept handy. She dug out the bullet, slammed the bolt home and rolled down the window in the back seat as the motorcycle rider pulled up beside the truck, holding a handgun.

  Kinsley aimed through the window and pulled the trigger.

  The weapon jammed again.

  Her heart hammering, Kinsley turned the weapon around, leaned out the window and, holding the barrel, used the rifle like a baseball bat and swung as hard as she could, knocking the handgun from the rider’s hands and the rider from his seat. He crashed to the ground, the motorcycle slipping sideways under the truck’s wheels.

  The resulting bump nearly threw Kinsley out of the truck. She was so concerned about keeping hold of her rifle, she forgot to hold on to something to keep from being thrown from the truck. Thankfully, she had her heel hooked beneath the back seat and was able to pull herself and her rifle back inside.

  Just in time for the truck behind them to ram into the rear of their vehicle.

  Kinsley slammed into the back of T-Mac’s seat.

  “Are you okay?” he asked.

  She pulled herself off the floorboard and up onto the s
eat, shaken but not injured. “I’m okay.”

  Then she cleared her weapon, braced it on the rim of the back window, aimed at the driver’s windshield and prayed her rifle wouldn’t jam.

  The trailing vehicle raced forward, full speed.

  Kinsley focused down the sights and pulled the trigger.

  The bullet flew through the window and into the truck, directly into the driver’s-side windshield.

  For a moment, the vehicle stayed its course, heading straight for the back of T-Mac’s truck.

  Kinsley braced for impact, closed her eyes and held on.

  A moment passed. Then two. Nothing happened. The truck behind them didn’t hit theirs.

  Frowning, Kinsley opened her eyes.

  The Al-Shabaab vehicle was going so fast that when it spun sideways, it rolled over and over, coming to a halt on its side. Steam rose from the engine, but no one crawled out.

  Drawing in a deep breath, Kinsley stared out the back window until the toppled truck became a speck in the distance. She crawled over the seat and settled in the front, her weapon across her lap.

  Agar nudged her hand.

  She laughed and patted his head, glad she was still alive to do it.

  “You weren’t kidding when you said you were a good shot,” T-Mac said.

  “I’m just lucky you were able to keep your cool and drive on.”

  “We make a good team,” T-Mac said.

  “Yes,” Kinsley agreed. Too bad the military wouldn’t keep them together to see how far they’d go on synergy.

  Hell, too bad they wouldn’t be together for the long haul. But Kinsley couldn’t be too sad. Not after what had just happened. At least they were still alive.

  Without a tail following them, they drove into Ethiopia, hoping to find a town of sufficient size and infrastructure where they might find a working telephone.

  After two hours on the dirt road, they finally entered such a town. And none too soon. The gas gauge had dipped low. Fortunately, there was a place to purchase fuel, and that station had a telephone.

  After going through several operators, he got one who understood how to connect him to an operator at Camp Lemonnier, and he was able to talk with his commander.