He ignored the jolt of cold when his body hit the water. It may have been several years since he was a SEAL, but the training was so ingrained, it was like the time had never passed. His only priority was getting to Lydia, knowing that she was much weaker and would not be able to survive the cold.
His head broke the surface, the water illuminated by the headlights of Rank’s SUV. He saw movement to his left and dove under, his strokes powerful despite the temperatures, quickly sending him in that direction.
His hands struck something soft, and he immediately grasped the material. With his free hand, he pushed up through the water, his head breaking the surface once more. Feeling Lydia limp in his arm, he easily lifted her head above the water as well.
“Lydia,” he cried out, squeezing her with his arm banded about her chest.
Her body shook violently as she sputtered, sucking in a gasp of air before she began to cough. He powered toward the bank, observing Rank striding into the water to aid him. Together, they hauled her easily to shore, where Bart met them and pulled her from their arms.
He scrambled up and dropped to his knees beside her, grateful to see Chris already wrapping her in blankets. The rain had thankfully ended, but the night air was chilly, and the wind was still blowing.
He bent and picked her blanketed body up and stalked over to the SUV, where the heater was runnning. Placing her in the backseat, he climbed up next to her, and Rank jumped in the driver seat, cranking the heat up to high.
Chris jumped into the passenger seat, and said, “Bart and Logan are with her kidnapper. We’ve identified him as Ji-Ho. You were right, boss…he’s not who he purported to be. I’ve called ahead to the hospital in Olympia, and they’re expecting us. It should only take us twenty minutes to get there. I figured you guys can drive faster than waiting on an ambulance.”
He barely heard Chris’s voice, his attention focused solely on Lydia. Reaching over the back seat, he unzipped one of the duffle bags and grabbed a towel and a thick, woolen knit cap. Turning back to her, he rubbed her head briskly, before pulling the cap over her hair.
Her lips were blue, and her eyes shut. “Fuck. Chris, help.”
Chris leaned between the front seats and helped hold her body, while he unwrapped her top half from the blanket and, with scissors grabbed from the medical kit, cut her scrubs away from her. Chris jerked the wet material, slinging it to the floorboard, while Eric shoved her arms into a thick, dry sweatshirt. Grabbing a dry blanket, he wrapped that around her top half.
“You going to try to get the bottom half as well?” Chris asked. “Our ETA should be fifteen minutes.”
“Yeah, I want to get as much wet clothing off her as I can.” Shifting in the seat, he laid her down and breathed a sigh of relief as her eyes fluttered open. Immediately, her teeth began to chatter. “Lydia, baby can you hear me? It’s Eric. I’ve got you and you’re safe.”
Her eyes jerked about wildly in the dark interior of the vehicle, and her arms began to flail. As an overhead light came on, she stilled and blinked rapidly.
Nodding his thanks toward Chris, who was holding a strong flashlight, he said, “Lydia. Look at me. Baby focus on me.”
“C…c…c…cold,” she stuttered, her body bucking violently with another shiver.
With Chris holding the light, Eric tugged off her shoes and socks and cut her scrub pants away as well. Her legs felt like ice as he pulled a pair of thick, cotton, sweatpants up them. Leaning over the back seat again, he found woolen socks. Keeping a running monologue going, hoping to maintain her focus, he said, “Okay, Lydia. You’ve got sweatpants on, and now we’ve got your feet covered in warm socks. Gonna get you all dry and warm, baby. You’re safe, now. You’re safe with me.”
He encircled her in another warm blanket and assisted her to sit as he pulled her onto his lap, wrapping his arms around her. Glancing outside, he saw that they were entering civilization, and knew the hospital would be prepared for them.
“Eh…Eh…Eric?”
Her voice was weak, but her eyes were strongly focused on his face. He brought his lips directly to hers, infusing her icy skin with his warm mouth. He kissed her lightly, knowing it was still hard for her to breathe. “I’m here, baby. Hang with me, and we’ll get you to the hospital.”
“But…” Her voice faded as she tried to speak. Barely whispering, she managed to ask, “How?”
“Don’t worry about that now, Lydia. I promise, you’re safe, and I’ll explain everything later.” He watched as her eyes closed once again, her body wracked with shivers. Looking toward the front, he said, “Chris. Come here.”
Chris scrambled his tall body between the two front seats, almost kicking Rank in the head. His eyes held questions, but instead of answering Eric motioned for him to get on the other side of Lydia. They sandwiched her body between theirs, each holding on to her cold, but now dry, body, infusing as much warmth into her as they possibly could.
Rank screeched to a halt a few minutes later in front of the ER, the inside of the SUV like an oven with the heat blasting. As the hospital personnel pulled Lydia from his arms and placed her on a stretcher, he could only pray that it had been enough.
Lydia had been conscious when she entered the hospital, but as her body warmed, she found herself drifting in and out of sleep. An older nurse named Pearl, with a sweet face and a kind manner, explained what they were doing each time she awoke.
Finally, the cold that seemed to fill her veins, freezing her from the inside out, was no longer present.
“How do you feel, Lydia?” Pearl asked.
“I’m not shivering anymore, so I figure that’s a good thing.”
Pearl laughed. “You’re right, that’s a good thing. The doctor will be in in a little bit to go over everything with you, but I can say we were able to treat the hypothermia with warm intravenous fluids, heated blankets, and the humidified oxygen that you are breathing in. Your body temperature is back to normal, and it appears that there’s no skin damage or internal organ damage.”
“Is it bad that I just want to stay underneath these heated blankets?” she joked, her voice still weak. “Right now, I feel like I could sleep like a hibernating bear.”
Pearl laughed again and, after checking the IV, patted her blanket-buried leg, and said, “I’m gonna let your man come back now. He’s been in and out checking on you with some of those other handsome men he’s with. It’s my understanding he’s the one that rescued you when you went underwater. Mmm mmm, you’re a lucky woman.”
Pearl winked and walked out before Lydia could think of anything to say.
The curtain-covered doorway swished back, and Eric walked through. He immediately walked to the side of her bed and bent to place a gentle kiss on her lips.
“Thank God,” he muttered, his lips still next to hers. “The last time I kissed you, your mouth was freezing, and your lips were blue.”
As he leaned back, she whispered, “Eric, I don’t understand any of this.” Wincing as she swallowed, her throat sore, she continued, “You. I don’t understand you.”
He leaned back over and placed his hand on top of the blankets. “I’m reaching for your hand, but I have no idea what I’m actually touching,” he grinned.
“I’m kind of mummified, aren’t I?” she laughed, then glanced down. “You’re near my hand. Here, let me wiggle my fingers if I can.”
He must have felt the movement, because he gave her hand a squeeze over all the blankets. The smile slowly left her face, as she stared back up into his. “I feel like I’ve awakened from a very long dream. Some of it more like a nightmare…parts of it very foggy…some of it really nice, at least, the part about you. The problem is, Eric, I don’t have a clue what’s real and what’s not right now.”
“I promise I’ll tell you everything, Lydia,” he said, one hand still holding hers over the blanket and his other hand cupping her cheek, his thumb rubbing over her now-warm skin. “Just know, everything that was between us is real.”
<
br /> Her voice a whisper, she asked, “You’re not a journalist, are you?” Seeing the hesitation on his face, she begged, “Please, tell me.”
Shaking his head, he said, “No, baby, I’m not a journalist. I was on an assignment to see if I could find who was trying to breach the NBAF’s security. You were never part of that mission. You were a gift I could not believe I’d been given.”
She considered his words but found fatigue muddling everything in her head. Closing her eyes once more, she succumbed to sleep. Still, she heard him whisper, “Sleep for now, babe. I’ll be here when you wake up.”
28
“I can walk, you know,” Lydia grumbled, but Pearl appeared to ignore her, continuing to roll her in a wheelchair out of the hospital toward a large SUV.
Eric walked along beside her and, reaching the SUV, assisted her into the backseat. The driver twisted around, and she spied a handsome man, his hair brushing his shoulders and a movie star smile beaming toward her.
“Good to see you, Lydia. I’m John Rankin. Rank, to all my friends.”
Eric had already explained that some of his friends had been with him and had helped to rescue her. She smiled warmly. “It’s so nice to meet you. I can’t thank you enough for everything you did for me.”
Rank beamed. “It was my pleasure. I would’ve done anything for my former SEAL commander anyway, but the chance to help him rescue you was icing on the cake.”
He winked toward Eric, then turned around and began to drive. She looked over at Eric sitting next to her and lifted her eyebrow questioningly.
“We’re heading to the airport, sweetheart. Rank agreed to drive us, and we’ll meet up with the others there.”
She was quiet for most of the drive, her mind still turbulent as she turned over the events in her head. Before she knew it, they had reached the airport, but Rank did not stop at the front. Instead, he drove around through a side gate and over to a separate hanger.
She saw a small group of men standing inside and wondered if they were Eric’s friends. She did not have to wait long for the answer, as he alighted from the SUV and turned back to her, his hand extended. As he assisted her down and tucked her into his side, the other men walked over.
Rank joined them, and she blinked at the wall of masculinity presented to her. One man, very alike in looks to Rank, was introduced as Bart. A dark-haired, rather quiet man, but just as gorgeous, took her hand in his, as Eric introduced Logan.
A tall, red-haired man, grinning widely, grabbed her hand and pumped it up and down. “I’m Chris, and it’s sure good to see you up and about. I was trying to follow you based on Robert’s cell phone and, I gotta tell you, when we got into that bastard’s room and saw him—”
“Chris,” Eric growled, his voice carrying a warning.
She watched in fascination as Chris’ face grew red, from his neck all the way up to his hairline. “Oh…sorry…uh…well, I’m glad you’re okay.”
She could not help but laugh, and say, “There’s a lot I don’t remember, and some I remember that I’d like to forget. But you’re right…he was a bastard.”
Chris appeared pleased at her assessment and nodded once more before stepping back.
Eric gave her a squeeze, then dropped his arm from her shoulders as he stepped over to Rank. Clasping his hand, he pulled him in for a hug, saying, “I can’t thank you enough.”
The idea of not eavesdropping passed through her mind, but curiosity won out as she listened to Rank’s reply.
“Anytime, anywhere. I still haven’t forgotten how you helped with my Helena. Don’t be a stranger…after all, Maine’s not that far away from you.”
With a smile, Eric clapped him on the shoulder before moving to Bart. “I still gotta make it down to Virginia to visit you and your family.”
As Bart hugged him in return, he said, “Just like Rank said, if you need me, anytime anywhere, you know how to get hold of me.”
In awe of the camaraderie she was witnessing, she was curious about Logan, but was surprised when Eric moved to him, and said, “Make sure you thank Vivian for me. Not only for letting you come to help me, but for giving me the information earlier on this case. You two make a good team.”
Overcome with emotion from having been rescued by these men who had obviously put their lives on hold, she moved to each of them, offering hugs. Carefully stepping back after being enveloped by them, she leaned her weight into Eric, and he wrapped his arms around her once again.
Logan waved his goodbye, and she watched as he walked out of the hangar and climbed into his helicopter. After he had taken flight, Rank and Bart offered their farewells too, climbing into the back of another private plane.
Twisting her head around to look up at Eric, he explained, “They’re both heading back to the East coast and decided to fly most of the way together.”
“You all are obviously very close,” she said.
He smiled at her, lifting his hand to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear. “Is that your way of asking me how I know them?”
Her lips curved, and she replied, “Okay, how about I be more direct. How do you know them?”
He sighed, and said, “I was once a Lieutenant Commander of a SEAL team. At one time, those three men served under me. I can’t say that we’ve stayed close, but we have stayed in contact. Two of them work for security firms and another one does contracting on his own. It just so happened that they were available when I needed help.”
Her brow furrowed as she pondered his words. “So, they just dropped whatever they were doing, to come to help you?”
Nodding slowly, he said, “Yeah. Once a brother, always a brother.”
She nodded, unsure what else to say. Seeing Chris still standing over to the side, she asked, “How will I get back to Kansas?”
Eric nodded toward another small, private plane. “I’ve got a pilot to take us back there.”
She blinked in surprise, and asked, “We’re all going back? You’re going back to Kansas, as well?”
He turned his body so they were facing each other, keeping his arms around her, enveloping her in his embrace. Holding her gaze, he said, “Lydia, I know we have a lot to talk about. First, and foremost, I want to get you back to your home in Kansas. We both need to debrief with the NBAF, and I know you’ve got friends and coworkers who want to see you, to be assured of your safety.”
She nodded, understanding what he was saying but too afraid to ask him about their relationship. Before she had a chance to gather her courage, Chris called out, “The pilot says he’s ready.” Sucking in a deep breath, she let it out, and said, “Yesterday, the last thing I wanted to do was be back in another plane. But if this one is taking me home, I’ll do it gladly.”
Eric gave her another squeeze, then led her over to the plane. “I’ll take you anywhere you want to go.”
Two Days Later
* * *
Lydia awoke from her nightmare with a jolt, her breathing ragged. Sitting up in bed, she looked around, recognizing her own bedroom, illuminated softly with a nightlight shining from the bathroom. Climbing from the bed, she padded into the bathroom and stared into the mirror. Dark circles were still underneath her eyes, and her complexion was pale. Splashing cold water on her face, she worked to steady her breathing.
Grabbing her robe from the hook on the back of the door, she wrapped herself in the thick chenille, tying it at her waist. No longer interested in sleep, she quietly walked out of her bedroom and into the kitchen.
“Can’t sleep?”
She jumped, hating to show such fear in front of her daughter. Caroline moved forward, encircling her arms around her. They stood in the kitchen, hugging for a moment, she gaining strength from Caroline.
“I was sleeping,” she said honestly. “I just think it’s going to take me a while to not close my eyes and find myself back in…in…well, just back.”
Caroline leaned away, and she stared into the face that was so similar to her own. Long dark hair. C
hocolate eyes that were a little bit lighter than her own. They were almost the same height, but her daughter held the youthful appearance of someone on the blush of adulthood.
Letting her go, she fixed a pot of coffee and they sat down at the kitchen table. They chatted about college, Caroline’s roommate, boys she had gone out with, her classes. She noticed that her daughter kept the conversation away from her own workplace, for which she was glad.
As the sun rose, sending the glow of sunshine through the kitchen window, she leaned back in her seat and let out a long breath. Holding Caroline’s gaze, she said, “You know I appreciate you coming here, and you know I love you more than life itself. But you need to get back to college. Your life is there right now.”
“Mom, you’ve always been there for me. Now, I want to be here for you.”
She smiled and leaned forward, stretching her arm out to rest her hand on Caroline’s. They linked fingers, the way they had ever since Caroline was very tiny and smiled at each other.
“I love having you here with me,” she said. “But I’ve got some things that I need to get a handle on. I’ve got some decisions I need to make and, as much as I love having you with me, these are decisions that I’ll have to make on my own.”
“Are you going to work today?”
Nodding, she replied, “Yes. I’m going to go in, and we’ll see what happens. Paul is supposed to meet with me, and I’m to have a debriefing on what all was happening and why. Eric explained a lot of things on the plane ride back from Portland, and I now know that Paul was involved in their mission…investigation…whatever it was.”
“And Eric?”
Letting out a soft breath, she caught her gaze. “I don’t really know what to say about him.”
“Mom,” Caroline said, giving her fingers a squeeze, “I saw you with him. I saw the way he was with you. That is not a man who was just doing his job. I have no doubt he would be right here with you, right now, if I wasn’t here.”
SEAL Together Page 19
