Walking away from BB was one of the hardest things he’d ever had to do, but he made himself move his legs. By sheer strength of will he forced himself away from her and walked to the truck. But when he looked into his rearview mirror as he drove away and saw her last wave, tears actually filled his eyes.
* * *
Frankie’s head was cocked and she let out a little whine, like she couldn’t believe Link had just walked away from them. “I know, sweetie,” BB murmured, kneeling down to hold her. Tears were rolling down her cheeks as well, and her heart was legit breaking. The thought of him walking or running into danger terrified her. How had Mary survived twenty years of this?
BB went back into the house and began to wander through the rooms. Then she headed back into his bedroom and crawled back into bed. There was no way she was going to sleep, but maybe if she closed her eyes she could imagine that the warmth in the bed was Lincoln behind her.
When she didn’t hear from him for eight hours, she assumed he was gone. Flying somewhere dangerous. She hadn’t been able to sleep last night worrying about what he was doing.
Then she’d turned on the TV. That had been the exact wrong thing to do.
There was a hostage situation in Afghanistan. Normally, that was an everyday occurrence, but this time the Taliban had carried out a synchronized assault, kidnapping almost seventy-five officials, their families and military leaders all across the country. Ten had already been murdered and left in the streets. BB had thought that they were involved in peace talks with the Afghanistan government and US forces, but obviously something had seriously broken down.
As she looked at the footage on the news, the reality of what Lincoln did hit her hard. It was so far out of her normal, day to day life that it was hard to swallow that there was this kind of danger so close to someone she cared about.
That was her biggest regret. Not telling Lincoln how much she cared about him. The man was a true hero, never asking anyone for anything, but constantly putting his life on the line for people he didn’t know and who didn’t care about him. She should have told him she loved him.
Or would that have made everything just awkward? They’d had such a nice couple of days. Would those words have ruined what they’d shared? Because she had no idea what he felt. Maybe he was glad to have been deployed. Now he didn’t have to extricate himself and do the awkward goodbye at the end of the contract.
Hell, she didn’t know.
When Mary called her that next morning, asking her if as he was okay, tears started in her eyes again. Mary was an amazing woman and now that BB had felt the pain of Lincoln leaving, she had so much more respect for her.
“Yes. I’m fine. Just packing up my stuff. How’s Justin taking the team’s deployment?”
“I’m about to sedate his ass,” Mary said, danger on her voice. “He’s being a total bear.”
“I’m sorry I asked.”
“Not your fault, sweetie. He’ll calm down eventually. Are you ok? I know I asked once, but I thought you might need a comforting ear.”
BB breathed through her pain. “I guess I didn’t realize how hard it is to watch them walk away. I mean, what Link and I had can’t compare to your marriage, but I felt like we had a real connection. It’s hard to cut that short.”
Mary sighed on the other end. “I thought you had a beautiful connection, and I hope you’ll think about coming down again.”
“I will,” she promised. “Take care of your family, Mary. I’ll drop Lincoln’s key by your house before I leave.”
“Don’t worry about it. Keep it. You know, just in case.”
BB didn’t think she would need it, but after she’d cleaned everything she could and she was walking out the door, after everything was locked she dropped the key into her purse.
Just in case.
* * *
The hostage situation in Afghanistan dragged on for days, then a week.
BB returned to her life and got back into her work rhythm, but she made time to watch the news every day, something she never used to do. There was too much political negativity on the airwaves anymore. She preferred her goofy Sonya world.
But it was like an addiction. She watched the assaults that were made on the Taliban kidnappers and the failed attempts at peace talks. And she kept a tally of the Americans killed. None of them appeared to be Navy SEALs, but she wasn’t even sure if they would announce that if they were.
If anything happened to Link she would hope that Mary would let her know. Assuming she was told.
Carolina called her a couple of weeks after she’d returned home. BB didn’t really want to talk to her, but she’d already avoided one of her calls. She answered.
“Hey, Carolina.”
“Finally!” Her sister said. “Where the heck have you been?”
BB grimaced, hating being scolded. “I’ve been here, working. Why?”
“Because I wanted to check on you. When I called you after you got back from Coronado, you said you were fine, but you’ve basically disappeared. No one has talked to you or seen you since you’ve been back. Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” she said, feeling guilty. “I’m just… I got a little connected to the guy, is all. He’s in Afghanistan right now.”
“No way,” Carolina breathed. “He was a SEAL, right? Is he on that hostage thing?”
“Yes,” BB said, voice low. “At least I think so. He had to leave suddenly.”
“I’m so sorry, honey. I had no idea. Now I feel like a schmuck, sending you down there.”
“No, don’t feel bad. I really did enjoy my time and he did as well.”
There was rustling on the other end of the line and tapping keys. “Well, I want you to know that the woman that hired our company left you a glowing review.”
BB smiled sadly. “Yes, I saw it. Mary is a sweetheart.”
“Why don’t you come down for dinner one of these days? We could get the family together. We haven’t done that for a while.”
Though it held little appeal for her right now, BB agreed. Maybe it would be good to see her sisters. “Call me next week or text me a time and I’ll be there.”
“Okay. Love you, sis.”
“Love you too, Carolina.”
Frankie seemed to sense her mood because she got to her feet and came over to lean against BB’s leg. She leaned down to pet her dog. “Thanks, girl. I appreciate you walking all the way across the room to comfort me. That shows real canine loyalty.”
She smiled slightly, rubbing Frankie’s ears. The dog leaned into her touch happily.
BB looked around. The house was a mess. She needed to clean. Slipping off her chair, she arched her back, bones popping. Man, how long had she been sitting?
Since she’d left Coronado, she’d kind of gone into auto-pilot. Yes, she was getting her work done and still managing to find irony and humor in her life, but it had kind of lost its shine. Even going over to see George and Harry hadn’t lifted her spirits like it normally did, though she did get some good Sonya material. For some reason poop and fart jokes rolled out of the little boys like water, thrilling them endlessly, and frustrating their uptight parents. BB jotted a few notes on her phone, laughing, and headed home.
Mary texted her the next day asking her how she was doing. BB told her fine, but she thought they both knew that was wrong. Mary texted her back a big heart.
Yeah, that was about right. BB never considered herself especially emotional, but in the time since Link had been gone, her emotions had been in a whirl. Nothing satisfied her, and the strangest things made her teary eyed. There was an Old Spice commercial that absolutely gutted her because the main character reminded her of Link, tall and strong on the beach. Her bed suddenly seemed especially cold and she had to buy a heated blanket, which was ridiculous because it was summer. She also bought a body pillow to curl up with.
None of those things made her miss him any less though. If anything, they highlighted what was missing. Link. She’d fall
en for him.
Was it possible to fall in love in two days? She never would have thought so, but all indicators were there saying otherwise. Maybe it wasn’t the quantity of time you spent with a person, but the quality.
Once she realized she was in love with him, things became a little easier to deal with. She went through her sketchbook and redid a few of the funny panels. She’d left the one Link had wanted on his kitchen table, as well as the one with baby Ethan, but she had other portraits of him that he hadn’t seen. She worked on those and it made her feel close to him.
Did he feel the same way, though? He hadn’t said anything about love or permanence or anything before he’d left. Then an errant thought struck her. Maybe he couldn’t.
BB had been hired to come in and welcome him home for three days. The three days hadn’t quite been up before he’d left. Maybe he thought she was only there because of obligation.
That made her heart hurt. She should have told him how much she enjoyed him, and their time together. If he felt like he was an obligation there was a chance he would never say anything to her.
Before she could think better of it, she grabbed her phone. Let me know when they’re coming back, please. I want to be there for Lincoln.
Will do, Mary promised.
Chapter 9
Link sighed as their assault was aborted again. They’d readied themselves six times now for this final assault, and every time something fell through; oh, there was a sandstorm moving in, or their CI didn’t show up, or some other bullshit excuse. The Teams were chomping at the bit to get this done.
They’d been deployed to half a dozen villages and cities. Every place where the Taliban had decided to show their asses and kidnap innocent people, their teams had shown up. Three of the groups had been rescued already, but there were three more that were more heavily fortified than the first three. Two SEALs had been wounded in the initial assault, so that was a bit of a downer on morale, but they were ready. It was just getting command to commit.
Normally they were more than happy to throw them into the line of fire, but this op had been different. They were trying to solve it peacefully, because before long American forces were going to have to pull out of Afghanistan and the Afghan people were going to have to deal with the Taliban directly. If the Americans could leave on good terms it would be the best option.
There was only so much you could reason with terrorists, though.
As his platoon headed back through the city to their base, they stayed on the lookout for anything out of the ordinary. For the most part the city was deserted. The civilians knew that everything could go to shit if the peace talks didn’t work and they’d gotten out of the area to protect themselves. Well, most had. There were a few stragglers that had nowhere to go. They had no food or money and they were living off what they could find in the streets.
There was nothing funny here to sketch.
As always, his thoughts returned to BB. It had been weeks since he’d been deployed. Had she taken another contract? He should have asked her more about that. How many contracts had she taken to help her sister out? Would she even remember him if he returned and sent her a text? Surely she would. Right?
It was useless trying to guess at all that. Yes, he thought they’d connected perfectly, but they’d had so little time together. Two days was not enough to know if you could spend the rest of your life with that person.
No, he wasn’t sure he agreed with that thought. BB had been perfect for him. Her humor had made him laugh and he hadn’t gotten tired of talking to her, or listening to her. And the sex, well, he’d been dreaming of it ever since he got here. Not sex in general. Sex with her in particular.
Fuck, thinking back he realized it had been her hug that had done it for him. Strong and sure she hadn’t hesitated to wrap her arms around him and hold on, even as dirty and travel-swampy as he’d been. It had been one of the most magical, surreal moments in his life.
Just thinking about the comfort he got from her was enough to drown out all the discomfort he was experiencing. There was a fold in his sock or something that was rubbing a sore spot on his right arch. As he’d fallen-in this morning with the rest of the platoon he’d gashed his upper arm on a piece of metal sticking out of a bombed-out building. The current LT had asked him if he needed a medic but Link had waved it away. Now he was thinking he should have gotten it checked out because it was really bothering him. If he closed his eyes, though, just for a second, he could imagine the feel of BB’s arms pulling him to her, and it was the sweetest feeling. Made him forget everything else.
Damn, he missed her.
They got back to camp and he tried to join in with the talk. His regular team had been re-deployed, just without Ryan and Black. Two new guys had taken their place and they seemed to be melding fine. He’d gone through BUD/s with Earnestine but Favore was a couple of classes older, more experienced. He’d taken over Black’s position, though Link had been notified that he was next up in the promotion rotation. That should have excited him, but he was just kind of ‘meh’. Maybe it would make it easier on Black to retire if he knew Link was taking over.
When they hit camp he headed to the medic tent. The young man looked at him reproachfully. “You should have cleaned this out before you left. Now it’s got infection in it and it’s too old for stitches.” He pointed at the deeper end of the cut. “I’m going to give you a tetanus shot and you should take antibiotics for a few days, just to make sure nothing nasty starts growing there. We may be too late already.”
Link craned his arm, looking down the length of the cut, but he couldn’t see where it ended on the back side of his arm. The medic held a small mirror for him and Link could finally see the cut. Damn, it was a good bit deeper on that back side. If he’d known it was that bad he would have come here immediately. There were a lot of nasty bugs floating around the area.
The medic bandaged his arm and gave him a packet of pills. “You need to take these until they’re gone. No pain pills. I have a feeling you wouldn’t take them anyway. But seriously, you need to finish these to make sure you kick the infection.
“Yes, sir.”
Link headed back to his rack, feeling like he needed to sleep. Without even taking off his boots he stretched out on the cot that had been assigned to him. Just a few hours…
The clang of the alarm was loud in the night, but it took his brain a precious few seconds to kick into gear. His bones ached from sleeping in one position for so long, and his arm positively throbbed. The medic had wrapped a bandage around the cut before he left and Link could now tell that his arm was swollen, and hot to the touch. What the fuck?
One of the guys stopped to yell something in his face and Link realized it took a minute for him to hear. His head felt like it was stuffed with cotton. He winced as he pushed to his feet and swayed. His knees felt rubbery and he looked around.
Night had fallen, and it was now illuminated by fighting. He tried to remember when he’d crashed. It had been hours ago. They’d gone out in the early morning, returning a couple of hours later. It had been before noon when he’d gone to the medic. He glanced at the watch on his wrist. 1822. Had he seriously slept almost six hours? Grabbing his rifle and head gear he left the tent they were staying in and found his team, struggling through the loginess. It felt like he’d been given sleeping pills or something, but he knew it had to be infection. And though it had to be ninety degrees out here, chills wracked his body.
“You good, Link?” Swamp Man stopped in front of him and gripped his vest, giving him solid eye contact.
“Yeah, I’m good,” he lied.
Link pushed the illness aside and focused on what was going on around them. There was gunfire to the south, the direction of the Taliban. “Sounds like it all went to hell.”
Swamp Man laughed. “Totally. We’re rolling out in five minutes. Are you good to go?”
Link nodded. “Hell, yeah.”
Whether he was or not he would be goi
ng in to back up his team. Period.
The fight ended up being one of the most crazy of his military career. Taliban had pulled in support somehow and were trying to fight their way out of the city— with the prisoners in tow. His platoon and two others encircled the building where they’d been entrenched, forcing them back inside. Snipers were picking off the terrorists as quickly as they could and Link saw a few civilians go down as well, unfortunately. The platoon they were backing up headed to the west to cut off some of the escapees, but Link heard an explosion, then people were yelling over the radio. Their K9 team had hit an IED.
Fuck.
Then a group broke away from the building and headed to the east— directly toward his team.
There was so much radio traffic he couldn’t get a word in edgewise, but he waved at Favore and caught his attention. The LT nodded and motioned for Link to head off to meet the group head on.
Link took off running, weapon to his shoulder as he engaged the enemy. Toro was directly behind him and to the right, firing constantly. Two of the terrorists went down in the initial assault and three hostages ran toward the platoon, but one got shot in the back. Link took great pleasure in taking that terrorist shooter out.
The other two hostages reached their position and Link started moving them back, using cover as much as possible. He thought he’d gotten them clear until another terrorist revealed himself. The dark-skinned man reared back his arm to throw something toward them, and Link thought it was a little strange for a Taliban insurgent to have grenades. He shot the man center mass, but not before he released the grenade. Link knew it was going to be bad. He had a split second to see the grenade flying through the air on a direct path toward their position. He lunged toward the prisoners, hoping that he could protect them at least a little before he died.
The feel of BB’s hug slammed through his mind, and he imagined landing in her arms. He should have told her how much he appreciated what she’d done for him.
Healing Home Page 10
