by Gennita Low
“Please stop, Zainab, just for a minute. We need to talk about this,” she told the woman.
“We have no time,” Zainab said, obstinately.
“We need a plan. We can’t just go back and get shot at, miss.”
Liam’s voice rumbled against her ear. She suddenly realized she was tucked under his chin and glancing down, she discovered she was practically on top of his lap. In the tight space, crammed between the other men, she was very aware of all of Liam’s male parts touching hers intimately. Shit. That meant he would be aware of it too.
She looked up and met amused light brown eyes. Forgetting he had his arms around her, she struggled to get up again, only to find herself bouncing back down, one sensitive part grinding on his...equally sensitive one. The bad condition of the road kept her bouncing...up, down, up, down. She softly muttered a descriptive curse that didn’t help the situation. His brows lifted slightly and his gaze turned very male. He didn’t loosen his hold of her.
She glared at him.
Bounce, bounce, grind, bounce.
“Come on, Zainab,” Liam continued, even as he kept his dark gaze on Ella, “we need a few minutes to strategize. Rescue is all about planning. Your friends back there would be expecting this from you.”
That seemed to get Zainab’s attention and to Ella’s relief, the M-ATV came to a slow halt. Thank God the bouncing stopped as well.
“Let’s not park right out in the open,” Mozart muttered from up front. “The clump of trees over there. Park there.”
A minute later, Zainab pulled in between two trees. There was immediate relief from the desert heat under the branches.
“Let’s get out for a minute. Assess damage and see what we have for weapons,” Wolf ordered.
Ella saw him pass a warning look at his team, conveying the message across not to say anything about Zainab’s driving. As they all moved to get out of the crammed space, Liam’s arms were still around her. She ignored his slight smile.
“Didn’t you hear the order?” she asked.
“I’m assessing damage,” he told her. “It was a rough ride. I could be injured.”
“If you don’t let go immediately, you’ll definitely be injured,” she said, sweetly. “All that blood pooling in a certain area will be very embarrassing.”
“Ouch.” He released her. “All the shooting back there has made you bloodthirsty.”
Ella choked a little at the obvious teasing. Was he flirting with her? Of course he was.
She untangled her legs from under some fallen bags and scooted off Liam’s lap. She kept her eyes off his pants. Nope. Not looking.
“Clear out here, everyone,” one of the SEALs out of the vehicle told them.
While the vehicle cleared, Ella was able to retrieve the first aid kit under the seats. She wasn’t afraid of bloody wounds but hope there wasn’t any real serious injuries. Liam was closer to the door than she was, so he got out first before turning to offer her a hand down. She jumped off without his assistance, still refusing to look at him.
“Zainab?” She peered back to see her friend climbing out of the driver’s seat. “Come join me over here. I have the first-aid kit.”
The man in charge was obviously the SEAL named Wolf. She went to him first, pointing at his bloody sleeve.
“The bullet grazed me,” he said. “Probably shrapnel. The bleeding has slowed down. Take care of Cookie first.”
“I can’t take care of him, Ella. You do it,” Zainab said. “He...he’s shot back there.”
Ella nodded, hearing the unspoken request. Zainab was Muslim and although she was trained as a fighter, she’d prefer not to see or touch a man’s bare ass. She grinned at the SEAL leaning against the door.
“Guess I’ll have to suffer your indignity, SEAL boy. It’d be nice to have a name before we get so familiar, though. I’m Ella.”
“Cookie,” he said, “and you don’t have to do anything. Mozart here will take care of it.”
“The hell I would. I’m busy doing guard duty, see? Guarding your fine ass.”
Ella rolled her eyes. “You’re telling me you’re shy? Come on, I promise not to tell anyone you wear Batman underwear.”
She heard Liam coughed beside her. She finally looked up. Damn it. The man had the sexiest smile. He came a little closer.
“SEALs don’t wear underwear, sweetheart,” he murmured.
“Oh.”
Ella sighed. Normally, it would be no hardship to look at a cute guy’s naked butt but she was in the middle of the desert with a Muslim woman who would be thoroughly scandalized.
“No worries,” Cookie said, reassuringly. “One of the guys will patch me up.”
“I’ll take care of it.” Another man came forward. “I’m Abe, by the way.”
Relieved, Ella handed him the kit. “Thanks.” She turned to Liam. She couldn’t resist a little taunt. “You didn’t offer. Squeamish about blood? Still injured from the ride?”
It was a ridiculous taunt, of course. Anyone Sean sent would be capable of taking care of wounds and such. She’d seen him out there defending the injured SEAL like he’d done it many times before. It was just that...she wanted to see that smile of his again. Like now. It was 100 degrees out here and her shirt was damp from perspiration. Yet, that raffish grin made her shiver inside.
“Want to check out my injury?”
She snorted. “What, then you’re going to say you’re a SEAL too?”
“Only one way to find out.”
She couldn’t help it. His quip made her look.
CHAPTER TWO
“You’re lucky I like assholes.”
Liam watched her stalk off. It wasn’t just adrenaline making him horny. That was half an hour ago, forty minutes tops. It wasn’t all that bouncing either, although he did like having her up close and personal. Legs had sass. And a lot of spirit too. He liked a woman with some bite to her.
She gave the kit to Abe and then went off to join Zainab, who had gone behind the bushes. Mozart continued to keep watch, making sure all was safe. He went over to give Abe a hand.
“Looks like she really hates you, dude,” Wolf said, as he joined their small group.
“Shakespeare said, ‘Women speak in two languages—one of which is verbal,’” Liam quoted, as he rolled up his sleeves.
“Hawk did tell me not to pay attention to your penchant for quoting Shakespeare. He said they called you Player when you were with the teams because you knew all the plays by heart. Is that right?”
Liam nodded. “Yeah, but it’s been a while since I’ve been called that.” Not since he left his SEAL team, in fact. “But hey, at least I wasn’t called Catnip, like he sometimes is.”
He missed being with the SEALs. They had a special camaraderie that wasn’t easily duplicated.
“I bet yours confused the ladies,” Abe chimed in. “They were probably expecting a different kind of player.”
“Hey, women get into those love poems, dude,” Mozart said.
“Sonnets,” Liam corrected.
“Whatever,” Cookie cut in, his voice muffled because he was lying face-down. “Will you guys quit dicking around and just patch me up?”
Liam grinned. “I can recite a sonnet about your beautiful moon while Mozart looks at it.”
Cookie groaned. “I’ll never hear the end of this.”
“I’m hurrying, dude,” Mozart said. “You do have a cute ass for an ugly face. Now it’s going to be all scarred up.”
“From the looks of it, you’ll need a thorough check up when we get to a hospital,” Liam said. “You’re fortunate you didn’t get shot higher or lower. As it is, we’re going to have to figure out a way for you to move around during the rescue operation.”
“It does look very raw,” Wolf remarked. “Maybe he should just stay still in the vehicle.”
Cookie squeezed his eyes shut. “I’ll make it. Just hurry and patch me up, will you, Abe? I can’t take much more of the four of you standing around admiri
ng my ass.”
“What’s the game plan?” Liam asked. “Do we have the ammo to mount an attack?”
“Our advantage is they think we’re heading to get help, so they won’t be expecting us,” Wolf said. “The bad thing is, our gear is in our own vehicle, so other than the mic coms, we can’t radio for help or quick reinforcement.”
“We’re SEALs, man. We don’t need any outside help,” Mozart said, his amusement turning into anger. “If we have to save the Peshmerga fighters and retrieve the dead on our own, so be it.”
Everyone was silent for a few moments. Liam knew they were thinking about the Canadians. It was small consolation that their deaths had been quick. The enemy militants had a history of torturing their prisoners before slowly killing them.
“I have a satellite phone on me,” he told them, quietly. “I could call Hawk to see if there are any nearby teams to help out. Time is of the essence, though. We can’t wait for long or those bastards will disappear into the desert with the female Peshmerga. We’ll never get them back, then.”
He had a small list of numbers, none of whom could mount a team quickly enough to join them. His cousin’s SEAL team was the only option. They were black ops, their work very hush-hush, and he wasn’t even sure if they were nearby, but Hawk had connections, and perhaps there were some special ops teams close enough to give some fire power help.
Wolf nodded. “The rest of my team isn’t close enough or I’d have tried to communicate with HQ and call them to join up. Are you decent enough to get the women over here, Cookie?”
“Yeah.”
Liam turned, “Yo, Fitz!” He hollered. Ella’s head popped out from behind a shrub. “You and Zainab can come join us for our pow-wow now.”
She gave him a thumbs-up.
“What are you going to do with her?” Abe asked. “I know you thought you were escorting a male journalist out of the area.”
“The task is still the same,” Liam replied, “but she also said they were after her, looking for her by name. I wonder why.”
“Didn’t the journalist who hired you tell you she’s in danger?”
Liam shook his head. “No, just that Fitz had spent time in the training camp and would need an escort out of the area to a safe zone. I’ve escorted plenty of embedded reporters, including Sean, so didn’t ask more than the usual questions.”
Being a contractor meant having a different attitude when it came to jobs. There was less at stake because he was usually working alone, taking charge of the mission. After what happened to his friends, he liked it this way.
The women came over. Zainab appeared restless, her need to get moving obvious. He was sure Ella had been comforting her friend, perhaps telling her to be patient. He wondered if she’d really been deeply in training at the Peshmerga camp. That would really be a new thing for a journalist. The way she’d been handling the situation had been damn impressive.
“We’re going in,” Liam said to them, “but you must tell us what happened in there. How many hostiles are there? Where were you imprisoned?”
“Yes, tell us what happened and how you got out,” Wolf said.
“Also, we can account for our weapons. We need to know what’s in the M-ATV,” Abe continued.
“And, why were they asking for you, Fitz?” Liam added. “Bringing you back there means a danger to your life. I can’t allow that, since you’re under my care.”
He liked the way she snorted at his statement.
“Pul-lease don’t play that card,” she said, “or I’ll kick your ass from here back to the checkpoint.”
Liam grinned. He really, really liked this woman.
* * *
Ella glared at Liam. There was a reason she went by Fitz. She had found being a female journalist with a name like Ella Fitzgerald had sometimes been an obstacle in her chosen profession, especially when it came to lone assignments in dangerous areas of the world. Not that her bosses or male co-workers were deliberately being sexist, but she could feel the underlying concern, the need to protect her because of her sex. She understood, but didn’t like it. She had a minor in psychology and had decided to put it to good use. So she became Fitz.
Sean had thought that was funny when he interviewed her. Like everyone, he’d expected Fitz to be a man. Nonetheless, the meeting went well and it’d gotten her the job as his traveling companion to a war zone and, in the last two years, her work had given him enough different perspectives on certain topics that he was now immersed in a news project about the role of women in war zones. Hence her embedment in the Peshmerga training group.
Now she had to show this man Sean had hired she didn’t need that kind of treatment from him. Under his care? Not in that way. But she wasn’t going to give these men the usual arguments either. She had no time to debate.
“I saved your asses back there. You guys owe me.” She crossed her arms. “Give me a plan and we women might let you in on ours if we approve. We aren’t the injured, limping troopers here.”
“Ouch,” Cookie said. “She got you there, Liam.”
“I was hired to protect her,” Liam retorted, even though a corner of his mouth quirked when she challenged him. “Sean left out certain...details. While I appreciate your having saved my ass, a two-month stint embedded in a training camp doesn’t make you a soldier.”
Before Ella could reply, Zainab interrupted. “She’s good. She’s one of the best shots in our group. Also, she showed us how to climb the ropes quickly during training. Even I did it.”
The last bit was said with pride, as if that was a hard task she’d accomplished. Liam could imagine the difficulty for some of the women because upper body strength was needed for rope climbing. He lifted an enquiring eyebrow at Ella. She shrugged.
“Hey, lots of trees where I grew up. My brother and I were very competitive. He’s also in the army now and we run together when he’s home, so I know about basic training. I’m in good shape.” She couldn’t help herself. She had to bait the guy. “I was also doing an article on pole dancing last year. Spent a whole month using my upper body in ways you guys could only imagine trying to do.”
The men chuckled. Liam gave her a look that made her shiver a little. He leaned a shoulder against the vehicle.
“Guys, I suppose that makes her combat ready,” he announced, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
“Okay, then. Tell us what went down at the checkpoint,” Wolf said.
Ella knew the other SEAL was playing peacemaker because Liam and she were about to argue again. She liked the commander and followed his lead.
“Like I said, there was this new recruit last week. He didn’t seem to know the place was just a checkpoint and we were there temporarily. He asked questions and wanted to speak to the Peshmerga leaders, which I’d thought very strange. Our trainers apparently did too because they told him he didn’t need to see any leaders until he’d been properly trained. During a break, I overheard him asking some of the women for the names of the female leaders.” Ella exhaled. The next memory was tough. “At first, I didn’t think much about it. We were just there for a quick training session, to learn how a checkpoint function as a border defense. One of the women told the guy to go talk to Medhi, our leader. The next night, while going off to look for a quiet spot to write, I overheard voices. It was dark and at first, I wasn’t paying attention until I heard the punches and the groans. I peered through the window blinds and saw four men beating up on Medhi. They kept asking him the same questions. Where are the Big Four sleeping? Where is the American named Fitz?”
She paused. The feeling of guilt of not being able to help Medhi sat on her mind a lot. The men surrounding her didn’t say anything, letting her take her time. When she resumed, she found herself hurrying through the action.
“I must have made a sound when I heard them say my name. One of the men looked up in my direction and ordered another to go check the windows. I backed away and fled back to the sleeping quarters, telling the women to get up, that
the new recruit was a traitor. There wasn’t time. I knew those men were coming for us. The girls insisted I hide because, with my twang, I was very obviously American and they volunteered Zainab to go with me.”
She paused again. The memory of Medhi’s face and broken body as the men dragged him into the quarters threatened to overwhelm.
“We hid,” Zainab continued for her, stoned-face. “While they beat up on Medhi some more we both remained unseen. They wanted to frighten the women but we were trainees. We knew nothing. So they killed Medhi in front of us. They then led all the women away, except Ella and me. We’re their only hope. We can’t leave them in the enemy’s hands.”
“Who’s the Big Four?” Liam asked. He had gone very still
“They’re the four women leading the PKK Peshmerga branches. I interviewed two of them before getting permission to be embedded,” Ella told him.
“Is that why they’re after you?”
Ella shrugged. “Not sure. That’s the only connection I could think of at the moment. The trainees don’t know that I’m called Fitz. Only Zainab, because I told her.”
Wolf nodded thoughtfully. “I wonder why they didn’t give chase with the other vehicles if they were so desperate to get hostages.”
That made her grin. “Well, that would be tough,” she drawled, “since I have all the vehicle keys in the M-ATV right now.”
* * *
That sort of broke the tension in the air. The men chuckled. Liam had to give the woman points for quick thinking. There was that sass again too.
“I like her,” Cookie said. “I think she’s proven she can hold her own.”
“Agreed,” Abe said. “Let’s just lay out a plan ASAP. Liam, you need to contact Hawk and see if we have any help nearby. At least, there will be word out of something going down at the checkpoint.”
“Couldn’t we just call the other checkpoint?” Zainab asked. “Aren’t there other soldiers in that area besides this Hawk?”
“Hawk has more contacts than most of us boots on the ground,” Liam explained. “He has direct access to Mad Dog.”
“Mad who?” Ella asked, confused.
