Her Faithful Protector: A Navy SEAL Romance (Night Storm Book 6)

by Caitlyn O'Leary

  Then she saw Travis whispering to Roxanne. She had no idea what he was saying, but even in this dim light, she could see Roxanne’s expression begin to shift, and soon tears were tracking down her grimy face. Travis turned back to Camilla. “She’ll be quiet now,” he said in the quietest voice imaginable.

  Camilla felt like she could breathe again.

  Watching her, Travis’ eyes went wide with shock. An instant later a huge hand covered her mouth.

  “I’m here to help,” an American man’s voice whispered into her ear as Camilla felt her right arm cut loose. “Nod if you can stay standing.”

  Camilla nodded.

  He let her go.

  Damn. Without the steadying influence of the rope, Camilla lurched to the side. A solid arm reached around her waist. “I’ve got you.”

  He helped her sit down and Camilla felt the flash of pain go through her right arm now that it was lowered to her side. She longed to shake it, to dissipate the sensation of pins and needles, but she didn’t want to bring any more attention to this area than they had to.

  “Stay here and don’t make a sound, got it?” he whispered directly into her ear.

  Camilla nodded.

  She watched the man as he moved to Travis. Since Travis had been watching the whole procedure, the rescuer didn’t cover his mouth. Camilla didn’t know what he said to Travis, but when he cut the young man loose, Travis let down his arms with a look of agony on his face, though he remained standing.

  Then Travis moved over to his right and got close to Roxanne’s ear as their rescuer cut her bindings. Travis grabbed both of her arms in his hands and started to massage them. Thank God for him. This just might work.

  On and on down the line the man with the goggles on his helmet and the rifle strapped to his chest continued to cut down the students. When he got to Jan, who was only supported by one arm, Paul was waiting for her. He grabbed her awkwardly with his numb arms. Paul gently lowered Jan’s battered body to the ground.

  Finally, the rescuer got to Lisa. She was another one hanging by just one arm; God only knew how bad the cut on her arm was now. He pulled at the rope above her head and placed his knife against it to cut it.

  Then all hell broke loose.

  She started to kick and swing wildly. She probably would have screamed like a banshee, but she still had the gag in her mouth.

  “Travis, help me up,” Camilla whispered as she tried to pull her blouse closed.

  He gave her a confused look.

  The rescuer had cut the rope and had his arms around Lisa and was trying to lower her to the ground. Even from where she was, Camilla could see he was trying to be gentle with her, but her struggles became wilder and out of control.

  Camilla held up her right hand to Travis and he grabbed it, then helped her to her feet. They walked over to Lisa and the rescuer. Camilla kept her shoulders hunched, hoping her torn blouse would hide her breasts.

  Shit, the whole rescue was going to be blown if Lisa didn’t get herself under control.

  “Let me talk to her,” Camilla whispered as she got close. The man shook his head.

  “Get everybody into the church. Now. I’ll take her.”

  Lisa was still struggling, but it didn’t matter, the man’s hold was implacable. Camilla turned to Travis. “Have everyone pair up who needs help, and get them into the church as fast as you can.”

  She would’ve loved to have gone down the line and coordinated the effort herself, but it was going to take all she had just to get up the four stairs to the door of the small little parish. She had to trust that Travis could take care of things.

  She made it halfway to the church steps when the first shot rang out. The man carrying Lisa was already opening the church door and going in.

  I can do this. Just a few more steps to the steps. Hey, I made a funny.

  Camilla tried to grin at her pun, but she just didn’t have it in her. Instead, she just concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other, trying to ignore the sway of her bare breasts.

  Another step.

  Another step.

  “Ahhhh” her cry was soft. Thank God. How had she not even seen this man? But here she was whisked up into his arms and already at the top of the church steps and he was opening the door. He set her down on one of the back pews before she had taken one proper breath, then he was gone.

  13

  “How’s it going, Asher?” Max bit out his question over the comm.

  “Half are in the church. Give me two more minutes and they’ll all be there. Keep the fire away from them,” he said roughly.

  Nic heard the answer but processed it with only half his brain; the other half concentrated on getting himself positioned so that he could take out the two men in the truck with the tarp on it. Well, maybe there were more, but he’d seen two rifle stocks sticking out, so at least two for sure.

  The problem was, if he moved from behind this Jeep there was no more cover. He opened the passenger side door and let himself in then slowly crept over the front seat until his rifle was propped over the window. His hand itched to just throw in a grenade, but he couldn’t be sure that they hadn’t dragged one of the village women into the truck with them, the bastards.

  “I need a distraction, Ezio,” Nic whispered into his mic. “Do you have eyes on me?”

  “I do. You going to get whoever is in that truck, right?” Ezio asked. “Because I don’t have the shot,” Ezio groused.

  “Yeah, I’m in position, but I need them to peek their heads out. I’m just not sure that they haven’t got one of the village women in there with them, so no grenade.”

  “Gotcha. One distraction coming up. Maybe even three or four.”

  What?

  Nic heard the distinctive sound of a sniper rifle popping two times, followed by cackles of chickens and squeals of pigs. Ezio must have blown out the locks on the pigpen and the chicken coop. Nic kept his sights on the back of the truck, gratified to see both men pop their heads out to see what the noise was all about.

  Nic carefully aimed. Two bullets, two headshots.

  “One down,” Cullen said.

  “I’ve got one,” Raiden said.

  “I’ve got two,” Nic announced.

  “That brings the total to eleven,” Max’s voice rumbled. “Asher, what’s your status?”

  “Everyone’s in the church.”

  “Raiden, get your ass in there. If you need a medic back-up, let us know and we’ll send in Kane,” Max commanded.

  “It’ll take me a little more than a minute, lieutenant,” Raiden said. It was obvious that he was occupied setting up a kill, otherwise, he’d be there faster.

  “Okay, as soon as you can,” Max agreed.

  Nic backed out of the Jeep. “Ezio, what’s next?” he asked.

  “Two gunning at us—”

  An explosion rocked Nic back on his heels. He whipped his head around to look, then cursed as he was blinded.

  “Fuck, fuck, fuck.” He yanked the night vision goggles off his head then pushed his thumb and forefinger into his eyes, trying to clear them.

  “A Jeep just exploded,” Raiden reported. “West end of the village. Any casualties?”

  Everyone reported in.

  “They’re trying to divert us from the villagers’ homes. That’s got to be it,” Cullen said. “The sick fucks have been hiding out in there. I don’t want any of them to get away.”

  Nic could see now. He didn’t need the goggles since it was damn near dawn. He heard the blast of automatic fire, and then more.

  “Who’s on that?” Max demanded to know.

  Everywhere Nic looked, there were pigs and chickens. Three doors burst open and the shooting started at a mad pace. One of the men had a woman by the neck, using her as a human shield.

  The man on the right was shot down in a hail of bullets. Nic cursed; he didn’t have the shot to help the woman in the middle and he knew that Ezio didn’t either. He shifted his rifle to get the third man
, but he’d already ducked back into the house. Someone was going to have to go in after him.

  The middle man continued forward, firing short bursts as he made his way to the truck with the two men Nic had shot.

  “Come to Papa,” Nic murmured to himself as he crept back into the Jeep where he’d made his successful shots. The woman wasn’t struggling in the least; she was worn down and defeated. Who could blame her? Nic kept his rifle trained on the man as he backed up toward the truck, continuing to shoot at nobody, trying not to trip over pigs and chickens.

  Nic needed a clear shot; he couldn’t have anything that would pass through the man’s body into the woman. He waited.

  It was the pig that saved the day. The animal shot between the man’s feet, and he stumbled. Nic made another headshot. The woman dropped to the ground and then he shot the kidnapper through the heart as well for extra insurance.

  “I saw that, Hale. We’re down to nine.”

  “Ah fuck, Max, I’ve got another hostage here. I’ve got to leave the church. Raiden, get here fast.”

  Another hostage? What was Asher talking about?

  “You mean a villager?” Max asked.

  “A kid. One of the guys is using a kid to get to the satellite truck.”

  “You’re down to eight,” Raiden reported. “Going to the church now.”

  Camilla was kneeling down on the floor, the elbow of her left arm propped up on the pew, her right hand cradling that arm. Travis had found a piece of blue cloth to wrap around her shoulders that she was eternally grateful for. She no longer felt like she was being stretched out on a medieval rack. She listened as the students cried and moaned at the sounds of shots being fired, but what she really wished was that she could get over near Lisa. The woman looked catatonic. She just stared off into space; nothing was touching her.

  “Lisa?” Travis called the tour guide’s name. He slowly walked up to the woman who was leaning up against the side of one of the pews, her legs stretched out into the aisle.

  “Lisa?” he said again. She didn’t respond.

  He touched her shoulder. In a shot, Lisa’s arm moved with lightning speed. Her hand grabbed Travis’ forearm and twisted. She looked up at him with rage. God bless Travis, he didn’t make a move, didn’t try to get away. “Lisa, it’s me, Travis. Are you okay? We found some water, would you like a bottle?”

  It was like she was looking right through him.

  “Lisa,” Camilla called out in her gentlest voice possible. “Can you hear me?”

  Lisa cocked her head.

  “Lisa, say my name. It’s Camilla. Can you talk to me?”

  Slowly Lisa turned her head to look at Camilla. Her eyes filled with tears. Then she looked up and saw that she was holding Travis’ arm. She released it. He crouched down. “Would you like a bottle of water?”

  She shrank back from him, but still managed to nod her head. “Yes, thank you.” Her voice was soft and husky. This was not the confident woman from yesterday.

  Still, she did manage to twist the football captain’s arm…

  Travis handed her the bottle, then moved to hand a bottle to the person seated in the pew next to her.

  Lisa looked at Camilla. “Are you all right?” she asked as she saw how Camilla was holding her shoulder.

  “I think that’s my line,” Camilla responded with a gentle smile.

  Lisa bit her lip. “Can we focus on you?” she asked tremulously. “Or better yet, what do you think is happening out there?”

  “I think our saviors are out there kicking ass and will soon be able to get us the hell out of here, that’s what I think.”

  “Really?” Roxanne asked from the pew across the aisle. “How many of them are there? Who are they? That man sounded like an American. How did they get here?”

  Lisa winced. She slowly pushed up off the floor and walked down the aisle close to the front entrance of the church. Well wasn’t that the smartest way to handle Roxanne? Too bad she had finally found a semi-comfortable way to hold her shoulder and couldn’t walk away.

  “Doctor Ross?”

  “I’m too tired to think, Roxanne.”

  “But—”

  “Roxanne, shove a sock in it,” Travis said as he walked by to deliver another bottle of water.

  “But Travis, I really want—”

  “I’m serious as a damned heart attack. I’ll find something to gag you with if you don’t shut the hell up,” the young man growled.

  Roxanne’s eyes welled up with tears. Camilla remembered how she had said she talked more when she was scared, but she really didn’t have the capacity to care at the moment. Every time she heard another gunshot outside the church, Camilla got scared so the young woman was just going to have to learn to cope.

  Suddenly Travis was crouched down in front of her. “Here, I got you another bottle of water.”

  “It’s okay, I haven’t finished mine,” Camilla held up the half-full bottle. She flinched as she heard another spurt of gunfire and then pulled the cloth closer around herself.

  “Okay, I’ll go check on the others and see who needs some,” Travis said. She couldn’t turn her head to watch him go up the aisle. Instead, her gaze remained on the back of the church as she tried to drown out the sounds from outside and push away her physical pain. She started her breathing exercises: take a deep breath of pure pain-free air in through the mouth and hold it. Then blow out the pain-filled air through the mouth.

  Again.

  Again.

  She gasped in a deep breath, spoiling her rhythm as she saw the church door open. The firefight was still going on. Who was coming inside? As soon as she saw the arm with the black t-shirt, she knew. She knew.

  El Jefe. He swung his rifle so that it encompassed everyone in the church.

  Lisa was resting against the holy water font at the front of the church. She jerked up and the man immediately spotted her. He grinned as he grabbed her by the hair.

  “Hello, beautiful,” he purred in Spanish. Another man came in behind them.

  “El Jefe, this isn’t a safe place to hide.” His voice was panicked.

  “We’re not hiding, Raoul. We are now going to be negotiating.” He raised the fist holding Lisa’s hair higher and higher so that she was soon standing on her tiptoes. She whimpered in pain.

  “Everyone stand up,” he yelled out in English. “If you don’t, I’ll gut the girl, then I’ll start randomly shooting you. I just need one hostage to get out of here alive, so I don’t care who the hell I kill. You better play nice.”

  Even with this kind of threat, Camilla still didn’t have the capability to turn her head and look behind her, so she just stood up and prayed that the others would as well. She saw the door open just a little, and when Maria slid in, her blood turned to ice. The woman gave a broad smile.

  “Leon,” she purred as she sidled up to El Jefe and put her arm around his waist. “Hiding has never looked like so much fun.”

  “The church doors won’t open,” Nic heard Raiden say over his receiver. “Asher, did you tell the kids to bar the door?”

  “I didn’t tell them shit. I should have.”

  “If I start banging on it, then that draws attention to the church and it becomes a target. How many kidnappers are we down to?”

  “Five,” Max answered.

  “Raiden, I don’t see you from my viewpoint,” Zed chimed in. “But I do see a side door on the north side of the building.”

  “I’ll move there,” Raiden said.

  “I’m with you. I’ll be there soon,” Asher chimed in. “If it’s locked, I’ll blow it.”

  Nic figured that could work, there hadn’t been much activity going on in the north side of the village for the last ten minutes, so there was a good chance no kidnappers were there. Asher was their demolitions expert; it was amazing what he could accomplish with the tiniest amount of C-4.

  “Why not blow the front door?” Ezio asked. He was clearly impatient. Nothing new there.

&n
bsp; “Absolutely not. I left some of the students close to the front of the church. God knows where they are now,” Asher exclaimed.

  “Side door it is,” Max stated, shutting down the conversation.

  Goddammit, it was shitty luck that nobody had had eyes on the front of the church. How many assholes had gotten in there? What were they doing?

  “I’ve got my eyes on three houses. One of the doors is shut. I’m thinking some of the kidnappers could be inside,” Nic said.

  “That’s my take too,” Cullen agreed. “Which houses are you looking at, Nic?”

  “I’m looking at the west.”

  “I’ve got five closed doors to the east,” Cullen explained. “No real windows, they’re all shuttered shut.”

  “Mine too.”

  “Each house is going to require two men as we search,” Max said.

  “Asher and Raiden, you continue with the church. Zed, stay in position in the tree, I want eyes on the church situation; it’s fluid.”

  “Leo, you and Nic pair up and take the west doors,” Max commanded. “Ezio, come on down and pair up with Kane. You two take the first three east doors.”

  “Gotcha,” Ezio responded.

  “Cullen, you’re with me on the final two east doors. Let me know when everybody is in position, then we’ll all go in at the same time. Get there fast.”

  Nic shut down all thoughts of the church and concentrated on his current assignment. He was sick to his stomach as to what he might find behind those closed doors after what those animals had done to the men in the village.

  He ran over to the three close small homes. The first one’s door was off the hinges. He had to wait for Leo—just because there wasn’t a door, didn’t mean that one of the damned kidnappers couldn’t be in there hiding. Nic stood with his back flush up against the wall next to the door, waiting. The sun wasn’t quite yet up, and he would need to be looking into small dark spaces so he engaged his night-vision goggles again.

  Nic heard a subtle noise, then Leo appeared on the other side of the door. Nic made a motion to indicate that he should go in high. Leo nodded and Nic crouched down, ready to go in low. He put up three fingers, started counting down, then…in!