Hot SEAL, Independence Day

by Elle James

  By then a truck rumbled up the road and stopped. Swede jumped out and ran toward her. He took the rifle from her hands and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “Give me a minute with the medical personnel.”

  “I’m going with you,” she said.

  He nodded, and they walked together to the helicopter where the technicians were loading their equipment on the helicopter, along with Jack.

  One of the EMTs met them. “We’ll take him to the hospital in Bozeman.”

  “I’m going with him,” Anne said.

  The medical technician shook his head. “We don’t have room for passengers.”

  “We’ll meet you there,” Swede said.

  “I won’t take up much room,” Anne said.

  “I’m sorry, there just isn’t enough space, and we’ll max out our weight limit. Don’t worry, we’ll get him there safely.” He left them standing there, climbed into the helicopter and the aircraft lifted off the ground.

  “Come on,” Swede said. “If you want to get there as soon as possible, we need to get moving.”

  “Let me grab his wallet,” she said. “They might need his information.” She ran back inside the cabin and fished Jack’s wallet out from under his pillow. She’d already told them his name, but admissions at the hospital would want more. This time when she left, she pulled the door closed, her heart heavy in her chest. They’d spent three idyllic days together, getting to know each other, fishing and laughing. Anne gulped…and kissing. She had no doubt in her mind that Jack was a good man. She prayed that he would be all right. She climbed into the truck with Swede, and they took off bouncing down the rutted road. “How long will it take to get there?” she asked.

  “Two hours tops,” Swede said. “Once we hit the highway, I’ll speed up.”

  Two hours seemed like forever. Anne leaned over several times to check the speedometer. Swede pushed past the limits, climbing up to eighty, ninety and one hundred miles an hour on the straight stretches.

  “I’ll drop you off at the entrance, and then go park,” he said as they pulled into Bozeman and found the ER entrance to the hospital.

  She didn’t wait for him to come to a complete stop before she threw open the door and jumped out. When she ran inside, she stopped at the desk and asked for Jack Marsten.

  The clerk behind the counter tapped the keyboard in front of her and glanced at the monitor. “He’s in surgery.” She gave directions to where Anne could wait in the lobby outside the surgery ward.

  Anne hurried up to the waiting room and paced.

  Minutes later, Swede joined her. “I would’ve been here a few minutes earlier, but I ran by the cafeteria and grabbed these.” He handed her a packet of crackers and shrugged. “When I called Hank to tell him what was going on, Sadie recommended I bring you some saltine crackers. What’s that all about?” Swede asked, his forehead wrinkling.

  “I have a sensitive stomach, and she knows it.” She took the crackers thankfully, tore them open and nibbled. It had been hours since she’d had anything on her stomach and she’d lost most of it beside the river, which had started this fiasco. If she hadn’t been outside losing her dinner, Jack wouldn’t be in surgery at that moment.

  An hour later, closing in on one o’clock in the morning, a doctor stepped into the waiting room and peeled the cap off his head. “Are you the family of Jack Marsten?”

  “Yes,” Anne said before Swede could answer.

  “He’s in recovery right now, doing well. We set the bone in his forearm and stitched up all the lacerations before we brought him out of the anesthesia. He’d still groggy, and he’ll probably sleep through the rest of the night.”

  “Can we see him?” Anne asked.

  “Should be all right. Keep it one at a time back in recovery. In the next thirty minutes, we’ll move him to a room. One of you can stay the night with him, but anyone else will have to be limited to regular visiting hours.”

  “I’ll stay,” Anne said.

  “Then, if you don’t mind, I’ll go see him first,” Swede said.

  Anne nodded her brow puckering.

  Swede smiled. “Don’t worry. I won’t take long.” True to his word, Swede was back within five minutes. When he returned, he nodded. “The doc was right. He’s still out from the effects of the anesthesia.”

  Anne laid her hand on Swede’s arm. “Did he talk? Did he say anything?”

  “No, he was sound asleep, but his vital signs looked good.” He tipped his head toward the door. “Go.”

  Anne gave him a quick smile and bolted for the door. She half-walked, half-ran down the hallway. A nurse let her into the recovery area and directed her to a room where Jack lay hooked up to monitors and an IV. Anne went immediately to his bedside and smoothed her hand over his brow. “Hey, big guy,” she said, “you’re going to be okay.”.

  He lay there without responding. No fluttering of his eyelashes, hand movement or anything else.

  Anne checked the monitor. His blood pressure and heart rate looked good. The steady blip of the EKG proved that his heart was beating strong, as usual. He had a bright white cast on his left arm, stitches on his upper arm and shoulder, and stitches on various other places across his body. The bear had done a number on him, but he’d survived. That’s what counted.

  Not long after she had entered the room, a nurse came in and unplugged the monitor, unhooked the IV bag from the stand, laid it across Jack’s chest and she smiled. “We’re taking him to a room of his own where we’ll monitor him overnight. He should be able to go home tomorrow.”

  Anne swallowed the laugh that was more of a sob.

  Home? That would be back with his unit in Coronado.

  To her, it was the cabin by the river. That had been the only place she’d felt at home since her parents had died. Jack had been responsible for that feeling of belonging. She hated that it was her fault that he was in the hospital. If she hadn’t run out of the cabin to throw up, the bear would’ve gone about its own business in the night. They never would have crossed paths.

  “If you’ll follow me, I’ll take you there.” The nurse pushed the wheeled hospital bed through the door and down the hallway to an elevator.

  Anne entered the elevator with Jack and the nurse. A moment later they exited the elevator onto a floor lined with wide doors to private rooms. The nurse pushed the bed all the way to the end of the hallway and into a room at the end. She hooked the IV bag onto a stand, elevated the head of Jack’s bed just a little, fussed with the pillow and, finally, left the room.

  Anne pulled the chair up beside the bed and rested her hand over Jack’s good hand, the one with the IV in it. She curled her fingers around his and squeezed gently. “I know you’re a Navy SEAL and all,” she said, “but even Navy SEALs shouldn’t wrestle with bears.” She chuckled lightly, a sob rising up her throat. “Didn’t your mama…teach you…better?” A tear slid down her cheek. “You could have gotten yourself…killed.” She sucked in a breath and swallowed hard to keep from crying out loud. “I know how much your family would miss you if you were to die. I know how much I miss my family. And the truth is, I would’ve missed you. You kind of have a way of growing on a person. I really think that if I didn’t have all the hang-ups and the distrust I have because of my really bad ex-boyfriend, I could have fallen in love with you.” More tears flowed and she whispered. “And I might already have.”

  The hand she held turned over and squeezed lightly. She looked up and blinked back tears.

  Jack’s eyes were open. “Hey,” he whispered.

  Anne smiled. “Hey, yourself.”

  “Are you okay?” he asked.

  She laughed out loud. “I’m not the one lying in a hospital bed, if that’s what you mean.”

  He gave a slight lift of his shoulder. “Do I still have all my fingers and toes?”

  Anne nodded. “You do.”

  “Then I’m good.” He lifted the arm with the cast and frowned. “What’s this?”

  “A little pr
esent from the hospital staff. The doctor said it should heal up fine.”

  “But you were sick,” he said.

  “And I should’ve just thrown up in the sink. I’m so sorry.”

  He squeezed her hand. “Not your fault,” he said.

  “If I hadn’t…”

  He squeezed her hand again. “Not your fault.” His eyes blinked closed.

  “You should go to sleep,” she said.

  “You need sleep, too,” he responded, his eyes still closed.

  “I’ll be all right as long as you’re all right.”

  His lips quirked up on the corners. “I’m fine, just tired.” Jack drifted back to sleep.

  The weight of worry slipped from Anne’s shoulders.

  Jack seemed to be okay, despite his injuries. The stress of the evening pulled at her and she laid her head on the bed beside his hand only meaning to close her eyes for a few minutes.

  She must have fallen asleep. Movement woke her. Jack must have jerked in his sleep, but it was enough to wake her up. She went into the bathroom to relieve herself and partially closed the door. At three o’clock in the morning, everything was quiet. She left a gap in the door so she could listen for Jack if he should call out. She heard a sound and assumed it might be a nurse coming in to check his vital signs. She quietly pushed the door open to find a man dressed in hospital scrubs pressing a pillow over Jack’s face and holding his arms down at the same time.

  “What the hell!” she yelled.

  The man with the scrubs and the surgical hat pulled down over his head turned to look at her.

  Anne’s heart sank to the pit of her belly when she recognized the face.

  Derek.

  “Sweet Jesus. Leave him alone!” she cried and ran toward him.

  He removed the pillow long enough to swing it at her hard. It caught her in the side of the face and knocked her over.

  Derek swung back around and shoved the pillow over Jack’s face again.

  Still suffering the effects of his anesthesia and whatever sleep medication they’d given him, Jack struggled to fight back.

  Anne lurched to her feet and grabbed the nearest thing she could, the metal stand holding the IV bag. She lifted it up, flipped it over and hit Derek in the back of the head with the wheels.

  He yelped, dropped the pillow, grabbed hold of the IV line, wrapped it around her neck, and pulled so tightly she couldn’t breathe.

  Anne clawed at the plastic line trying to break free, but Derek pulled even tighter. She couldn’t breathe, her vision blurred and her world faded into black.

  Chapter 15

  Jack had been in a dead, groggy sleep and had barely come to when he felt pressure on his face. At first, he thought he couldn’t get enough air because of the medications he’d been given, but when he tried to turn his head right and left, he couldn’t. Whatever was on his face was being held down.

  He felt lethargic, unable to fight off whatever was causing him the distress. When the pressure suddenly came off, he blinked his eyes open and could see he was still in a hospital room. A man in surgical clothes wielded a pillow and swung it at Anne like a baseball bat.

  “No!” Jack called out, his voice hoarse.

  Then the pillow landed back on Jack’s face. Jack fought again, regaining a little of his strength, though not enough to free himself from beneath the pillow. He heard a loud bang. The pillow slipped away.

  The man who’d held it over him ripped the IV line from Jack’s arm and wrapped it around Anne’s neck.

  No, Jack thought, his mind clearing. Immediately, he knew who the man was.

  How had Derek found them? He struggled to sit up. Pain shot though the arm he jostled and the stitches that strained against his movement. He had to hurry. Anne couldn’t breathe. Derek was strangling her. He had to stop him.

  Jack shifted his legs over the side of the bed, and they fell to the ground. He stumbled to his feet, his knees buckling. He grabbed the side of the bed and searched for something to use as a weapon.

  He didn’t have time to think; he had to act.

  There was only one thing he knew that would be hard enough to get the attention of the man who was trying to kill the woman Jack had fallen in love with. He pulled his left arm back and swung it as hard as he could. His cast slammed into the side of Derek’s face. Derek staggered backward and fell, hitting his head on the side of the computer monitor that had logged Jack’s vital statistics. The man crumpled to the ground and lay still.

  Jack dropped to his knees beside Anne on the floor. She yanked the IV away from her neck, dragged in deep gulps of breath and flung herself against his chest. Though his arm ached, and the stitches were pulling, he held her close, refusing to let go of her. He reached beside him and punched the call button for a nurse.

  “Can I help you Mr. Marsten?” said a quiet voice.

  “Send security ASAP.”

  Footsteps pounded down the hallway. A nurse entered the room, followed immediately by Swede.

  “What the hell, Jack?” Swede exclaimed. “Did you fall out of the bed?”

  Jack shook his head and motioned toward the man laid out of the floor.

  The nurse hurried toward Derek, bent and felt for a pulse. She shook her head, stood and raced to the door. “Code blue, get a crash cart down here ASAP.”

  Swede helped Jack out into the hallway, flung an arm over his shoulder and found an empty bed up against the wall. He sat Jack on the edge.

  Anne stood beside him and slipped her arm around his back. “You should lay down.”

  He shook his head. “Not until I know that man’s not going to cause you anymore trouble.”

  A couple of nurses pushed a cart past them and into the room. The doctor followed soon after. Several minutes, later he emerged with Derek on the bed that Jack had been in. The medical team rushed Derek down the hall to the elevator. A nurse held a mask over his face squeezing a bag, pumping air into the man’s lungs. They disappeared into the elevator.

  Another nurse and an intern appeared beside Jack. “Sir, let’s get you into another room,” the intern said. The nurse pushed a wheelchair up to Jack.

  Swede helped Jack get into the wheelchair.

  Jack motioned toward Anne. “She needs to be checked out. That man nearly strangled her.”

  Anne pressed a hand to her throat. Bright red marks proved what Jack had said.

  He still burned with anger that Derek had tried to kill her.

  When he died, Jack might go to hell, but he sure wished that Derek wouldn’t make it to tomorrow. The man did not deserve to live.

  “I’m okay,” Anne said.

  “I don’t care if you say you’re okay. I want a doctor to say you’re okay.” Jack held out his good hand, and she took it. “Please, do this for me.”

  She nodded. “Only as long as Swede stays with you.”

  Jack shook his head. “No, he needs to go with you.” He looked to Swede. “And don’t let her out of your sight.”

  “Derek isn’t going anywhere,” Anne said.

  Jack frowned. “I don’t care. The man has a way of showing up when you least expect it.”

  “I’ll stay with Mr. Marsten, miss,” the intern said.

  Anne’s gaze shifted from the intern back to Jack. Finally, she said, “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

  Another nurse brought a wheelchair for her and wheeled her to the elevator and down to the emergency room. Thirty minutes later, after the doctor examined her, the doctor told her to take it easy. She almost laughed. That’s what they had been doing until the bear attack and Derek’s attempted murder. She didn’t argue with him. Swede escorted her back up to the room where they had moved Jack. As promised, the intern was still with him.

  “If you’re done here,” Swede said, “we’ve got it.”

  The intern smiled. “Thanks, I’d better get back to work. We gave him a mild sedative, even though he said he didn’t need it, plus a round of pain medication. I cleaned up the bleeders
that occurred when his stitches were disturbed. He should be okay now.”

  “Thank you,” Anne said.

  The intern left.

  Jack lifted his chin. “Hey, come here.” Both Anne and Swede moved forward. “Not you,” Jack said to Swede. “Her. In fact, I appreciate all you’ve done for me, but you can get lost.”

  Swede grinned. “Not feeling the love here,” he said, “but, I think she is.” Swede left the room, clicking the door shut behind him.

  Anne moved closer.

  Using the arm with the IV, Jack patted the bed beside him.

  Anne rested her arm on the bed.

  Jack shook his head. “No. Up here.”

  “I don’t want to hurt you,” she said.

  “I’m feeling the need to have someone close, and I need it now before I drift asleep with all the damned drugs they gave me.”

  She lowered the siderail and scooted up to sit beside him.

  “I can’t talk to you if you’re way up there,” he said.

  She scooted over and lay down beside him, resting her head on the pillow. “What is it you wanted to say?”

  “More than I’ll be awake to say before the meds kick in. For now, I just wanted to ask you…”

  “Ask me what?” Anne asked.

  “Was I hearing angels speak or was that you?”

  She laughed. “What did the angels say?”

  His gaze met hers. “I think I’m falling in love with you.”

  Anne’s cheeks turned pink, and she looked away with a little shrug.

  He took her hand with his. “Did you mean it?”

  She stared into his eyes, her brow wrinkling. “I don’t know. My mother and father also told me the true test of love is to ask yourself, if that person was no longer in your life, how would you feel? To just feel sad, that’s not deep enough. If it’s true love, you should feel heartbroken.” She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth and chewed for a moment before she added, “That two-hour drive between the cabin and Bozeman, I thought I might have lost you.”