SEALs of Summer 2: A Military Romance Superbundle

by S. M. Butler

  “Marisol? Please, say something,” Ysabeau had been calling the woman for several minutes. She hadn’t heard any sounds in a long time. Her heart sank.

  Had Marisol passed out? Worse?

  She took one pill with a tiny sip of water and laid her head down to rest.

  When the pain started to ease back, Ysabeau fumbled in her purse again and found the granola bar. She was really hungry and knew it was important to keep her strength up. With shaking fingers, she tore open the wrapping and took her first bite.

  Mmmm.

  It had to be the best thing she’d ever eaten. She savored each bite, making it last. Having no idea if it was night or day, she called this breakfast. Of course it would be a million times better dipped in cocoa and accompanied with two fried eggs. Her mouth watered.

  What she wouldn’t give for a piece of chicken right now. Bless Deolina for trying to shove half a chicken in my purse. I should have let her.

  Her mind was fluid and misty. The Vicodin.

  Suddenly, she thought of the breakfast Luke made for her. So sweet of him to cook for her and Gran, even if he did burn the eggs. Smiling, she let her mind linger on his image. The way his blond hair stuck up on one side in the morning. How his deep blue eyes crinkled at the corners when he smiled. The intensity in those eyes when he gazed at her. The heat of his lips.

  She shivered again, only this time it was deeper as if he’d kissed her soul.

  Luke was a beautiful man who let her rest on his shoulder when sleep wouldn’t come and fought endlessly to save his daughter. He laughed hard and loved deeply. He even stood up to Gran! A perfect, perfect man. He had lied to her, yes, but she understood his reasons and should have forgiven him on the spot. Now it was too late.

  Her throat tightened.

  All of her life she had longed for a man with a good heart and a passionate soul. She’d been lonely forever, searching for love, never finding it. It was impossible that Luke had come into her life less than two weeks ago. It felt like she’d dreamed him, but she knew God made him for her. And now…

  She pressed her trembling lips together.

  Where was he? Did he have food and water? Was he safe? Please God, make him be okay.

  “Oh, Luke,” she cried.

  A woman’s voice faintly came through the cave’s wall. “Ysabeau?”

  “Marisol! Thank God,” her voice was slurred. The Vicodin was taking over.

  “You do not sound good.”

  “I’m…okay. Please talk to me. About…anything.”

  “All right. You live here in Port-au-Prince, no?”

  “Born and raised. Used to think I’d never live anywhere else.” Her mind drifted to the day Luke had asked her to come to California with him. She didn’t think she could leave her homeland, her people, but now…now it sounded like heaven.

  “Something has changed?”

  Luke. He’d changed her. “I’m…open…now.”

  “Where would you live if not Port-au-Prince?”

  “San Francisco,” she whispered. She’d do the best for her patients first, then she’d go. If Luke would still have her.

  She heard Marisol gasp. Was she okay? Was she trying to be brave, keeping her pain a secret as Ysabeau was trying to do?

  “It is beautiful. San Francisco,” Marisol said quietly.

  Ysabeau’s eyes were heavy. It was a struggle to keep them open. Fight this. Stay awake, she ordered herself. “You’ve been?”

  “I lived there with my husband and child for many years before…” her voice trailed off.

  Ysabeau closed her eyes unable to fight the pull to sleep anymore. She was tired. Very tired. She couldn’t…

  “Fall is the best time to be in the Bay Area.” Marisol’s voice opened Ysabeau’s eyes. “The fog goes away and the water sparkles sapphires and diamonds. You must go, Ysabeau, and stay through fall. You must! Promise me you’ll go.”

  “I…want…to.”

  “Bueno. Everything will be all right. San Francisco is a romantic city.” Marisol sighed. “You will fall in love.”

  “I already…am.” Ysabeau drifted into sleep and dreamed of Luke Carter.

  *

  Luke felt the weight of two hundred lives on his shoulders as he pounded that sledgehammer into the concrete. His arms were burning with fatigue, his legs and back stiff, as he swung that sucker with all his might. He longed for some real equipment, like a crane to pull this crap off his girl. There were no cranes, or bulldozers in sight. No one had come to help him.

  Every few minutes, he’d stop and call her name. Then he’d listen for a while and start the process over again. Even if he couldn’t hear her voice, he hoped she could hear the sound of his sledgehammer and know that he was coming for her.

  He’d never stop.

  *

  “Ysabeau! Do you hear that?” Marisol’s voice crept into her sleepy brain.

  “Whaa—?” Ysabeau mumbled.

  “Someone’s out there!”

  Ysabeau forced her brain to focus. What sound? What sound? And then she heard it. Tapping from above. Marisol was right.

  “Help! Help us!” Marisol screamed.

  “Hey, hey! Help us!” an American man yelled.

  “We’re down here!” another cried.

  “We hear you! Keep tapping!” a third said.

  “Did you hear that? They tapped back! They can hear us!”

  “Help!” everyone yelled at once.

  Suddenly, Ysabeau could hear many voices calling for help under the hotel. She wasn’t alone. They would all be rescued. Any minute now.

  “Luke! Luke!” she added her voice to the trumpeting cheers.

  *

  “Shit! Shit!”

  Luke stared at the broken sledgehammer in his hands. On that last blow, the handle had snapped in half. It was useless. He’d gotten so excited when he heard voices inside the wreckage that he swung with superhuman strength. Now it was busted in two. But he wasn’t. He was energized and hopefully for the first time since that damned earthquake hit.

  People were alive inside the Hotel Montana! Ysabeau could be one of them. He ran to tell the young cop and to get more tools.

  *

  Ysabeau cupped her ears and listened with every ounce of strength she had. The tapping was gone.

  “Marisol? Do you hear anything?”

  “No, my friend. I do not.”

  “What about the American men? Can you hear what they are saying?”

  “They are disappointed.”

  She wished she could hear them. “What do they say?”

  “They wonder why they don’t hear anything else. They worry it has been too long and the rescuers didn’t hear us after all.”

  “Uh.” She couldn’t keep the disappointment out of the word.

  “Do not fear. They will find you.”

  Ysabeau frowned. “Us. They will find us.”

  Marisol was silent.

  Ysabeau’s heart sunk. Why was Marisol so sure she wasn’t going to survive this? “You must keep your spirits high, Marisol. We will get out of here, just a little while longer. Have faith.”

  “Who is Luke?” Marisol asked quietly.

  “What did you say?”

  “When the others were all calling for help, you called for Luke.”

  “Did I?”

  “Yes. Who is he to you?”

  “To me…” Tears welled in her eyes. “He is everything.”

  She heard Marisol let out a deep breath. “That is good. You need one another. Keep your thoughts on him.”

  “Yes.” Ysabeau wiped her eyes. “I love him.”

  “Then you will get out of here. Have faith. Love is the strongest bond of all. It will keep you alive.”

  “Yes. I believe that too. You must have faith as well. We will get out together.” She sensed that Marisol was holding back her pain, keeping it a secret from her. Being strong for her. Ysabeau cleared her throat. “Do you have anything to drink? To eat?”

&nbs
p; “No, nothing.”

  Ysabeau grimaced. She still had two water bottles, a banana, an apple and the last granola bar in her purse. She wished with all her heart she could share what she had with Marisol. The water alone could mean life or death. This was horrible. All her life she had worked to save lives and now…now she couldn’t even hand Marisol a water bottle.

  “Even if I did have water, how would I share it with you?” Marisol asked. “It is impossible, no? I cannot reach you and you cannot reach me.”

  Ysabeau didn’t trust herself to answer.

  “If you had water, I’d expect you to drink it,” Marisol said firmly. “You must stay strong, Ysabeau. I would not want it any other way. Do you understand?”

  “I do,” Ysabeau said and sipped her water as quietly as a mouse.

  *

  Luke ran up the stone stairway that led to the pool, skipping steps as he went, jumping over the large chunks of debris. He’d heard voices under the rubble! He needed help to get those survivors out. Fast!

  He saw a cop standing on the terrace where the poolside bar once stood. Luke didn’t need to be a vibe-reader like Gochi to sense that the cop had a huge chip on his shoulder. The man’s hands were on his hips and he was doing his best to give off an air of intimidation.

  “Hey!” Luke yelled to the cop. “I found people! They’re alive!”

  The cop turned his flashlight on Luke. The sudden brightness stopped Luke in his tracks.

  Blinking in the glare, he continued forward. “They’re alive! I heard people inside the wreckage!”

  The cop growled a word that sounded aggressive. If Luke had to guess, he’d say the word was, “Freeze!”

  Luke didn’t stop. “We can save them. I’ll show you. We need tools and more help, but they’re alive!” Luke yelled.

  The same word pierced the night, only louder this time.

  What in the hell is the matter with this guy? Luke came closer. “Stop yelling at me! You’re wasting time. The lady I love is in there. Help me!”

  The cop made a move for his gun. His voice was a deep guttural threat.

  Luke realized the guy mistook him for a jacked-up mental-case. “You don’t get it! I’m not… I’m saving lives. See?” Luke brought the sledgehammer up.

  The cop aimed his gun at Luke’s chest. Suddenly, Luke saw everything in a different light. He grasped that he’d been waving a broken sledgehammer and yelling foreign words at a cop. No wonder the guy felt threatened.

  Luke dropped his “weapon” and lifted his hands. “Okay, calm down. I’m cooperating. Put the gun away…”

  The cop barked a command to someone who had crept up from behind. He never saw who it was. Before he could comprehend his predicament, he was clubbed over the head.

  He recognized that ringing sound a split-second after it had begun. Luke Carter had gotten his bell rung. Again. Falling through the darkness, he was out before his crumpled body hit what was the former pool deck of the Hotel Montana.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  ‡

  Luke woke up to find his nose pressed into a disgustingly dirty vinyl seat. He tried to sit up. His hands were cuffed behind his back. He’d been thrown into the back of a squad car.

  “Smells like wino barf in here,” he mumbled. At least they’d left the window open.

  Using his core muscles, he lifted himself up and looked around. The police car was parked next to the giant mahogany tree outside the Hotel Montana. He rolled his neck and scrunched his eyes. His pounding head reminded him that this was no nightmare. It had all been excruciatingly real.

  “Ysabeau.”

  He kicked the door as hard as he could. “Help! Somebody! Get me out of here! Help!”

  Just as he’d hoped, someone came running. A flashlight blinded him again. While squinting through the glare, he made out the shape of a uniformed cop. He hoped it wasn’t the one who clubbed him returning to finish the job.

  “What is it with you cops? Let me go!” he said and kicked the door again.

  “Stop it!” The guy climbed inside the front seat and left the door open ajar. The dome light flooded the dark car. “Quit with the noise. You are making things worse for yourself.”

  “It’s you!” Luke said to the young cop who had asked for help in finding his bartending friend. “Did you hit me? Scratch that, I don’t care if you did. Get me out of here.”

  “You told me you were a rescue guy. Why’d you try to loot the hotel?” The kid’s voice sounded disappointed, hurt.

  “For all the—! I wasn’t looting. That cop had a stick up his ass. Get me out of here. I found survivors. Time’s wasting.”

  The cop’s jaw dropped. “You found people? You are not saying this just so that I will let you out?”

  “Survivors. I heard them and they heard me. Hurry. We need tools and—”

  “Can’t. My Captain, the one you threatened with the sledgehammer, told me to go home. I’ve been…” He looked down, his face awash with shame. “…excused.”

  “He’s a jerk wad. Let’s rescue some people and you will be the hero of the night. I promise.”

  The young cop shook his head sadly. “You go in there and they will shoot you. Dead.”

  Luke was incredulous. “Who? The cops?”

  “Yes. We’ve been given the order to shoot looters on the spot.”

  If Luke had a free hand, he’d slap his forehead. “I’m not a looter! How many times do I have to say it?”

  “You could say it a million times. It wouldn’t matter. They will shoot you first and check your pockets for stolen goods later.”

  Could this get any worse? Luke tipped his head back and exhaled toward the torn headliner on the squad car. “I don’t care if they shoot at me. I’ll take my chances. Take the cuffs off, please. Let me go. The woman I love is in there.”

  “Ah. That is very bad. But I am not letting you out of here. Not yet.”

  “Why?”

  The kid’s face crumpled as if he was going to burst into tears. “I do not want to see another person dead tonight. I can’t take it.”

  Luke saw that the young cop was shaking. It had been a rough night for all of them. “How about this? You tell them not to shoot me and we save those people together.”

  “No. They might shoot us both. I shouldn’t have given you the sledgehammer to attack people with. My Captain told me that if I do one more stupid thing he’ll throw me off the force. It’s a good job. I can’t lose it.”

  Luke cursed softly.

  “But!” The kid snapped his fingers. “If we wait a while it might be okay. The Search and Rescue teams will arrive in a few hours. If I let you go then, you can blend in with the other foreigners. The Captain wouldn’t dare shoot you in front of the rescue teams.”

  “Wait a few hours? Every minute is too long. I need to get in there now.”

  “I’m sorry. It is the best I can do. Are you hungry?”

  “No, I’m not hungry!” His stomach growled loudly.

  The kid’s teeth were exceptionally bright in the dome light. “I will get you some food and water. Be back in a moment.”

  “No. Wait, forget the food. Open this door—!”

  It was too late. The kid was gone.

  Suddenly, it felt like twenty gorillas were jumping on the car. Aftershock.

  “Ysabeau!” Luke screamed. The longer she stayed under the rubble, the more chance of it all crushing her in an aftershock. “Get. Me. Out of here!”

  No one came running.

  *

  Ysabeau was in agony. Her leg hurt so badly she couldn’t take deep breaths anymore. The movement of her chest expanding with each inhale was too much to bear. How much longer could she take this? She didn’t have strength to reach into her bag for more Vicodin. Her will was gone.

  “I can’t,” she whimpered.

  Another aftershock hit. Ysabeau could hear the men near her screaming. This time, she didn’t make a sound. She tucked her head under her arms and prayed for it to
be over. All of it. She waited for the final crushing blow, grateful for the end to her torment.

  It didn’t come.

  “Ysabeau! Picture Luke’s face,” a voice said.

  “What?” Ysabeau had the sense the she was dreaming. Am I unconscious?

  “His face. Do it now!”

  Gran? Was she calling to her from outside? Am I dying? She could hardly keep her thoughts straight. The pain.

  “Ysabeau! Do not give up! Luke’s face. His dimples. The laughing blues eyes. You can do this.” It was Marisol.

  Doing as she was told, she focused on her American. Her Guardian. He would never give up and she couldn’t either. What if he was trapped inside the hotel fighting to stay alive? She had to rescue him. She had to live.

  “Thank you,” her voice croaked softly. She doubted if anyone heard.

  Her throat was so terribly dry. So was her skin. Even though it was extremely hot inside her cave, her skin had stopped perspiring, which along with the pounding headache, was a sign that she was dehydrated. She had to drink more water and get some rest.

  Gritting her teeth to the pain, she inhaled deeply and reached for the Vicodin and a water bottle.

  Several minutes later, she let go and was no longer crushed under a hotel. With closed eyes, she tipped her cheeks up to the blue sky. The sun was warm and the breeze had a fresh bite to it. Letting her mouth fall open, she breathed in the salty air mixed with a touch of green cut grass. She was at a park overlooking the Bay. A flock of seagulls flew overhead, singing as they went. She didn’t need anyone to tell her where she was. San Francisco in the fall.

  She wasn’t alone.

  Sunny and Luke were sitting on a hand-knit blanket. A bucket of fried chicken and a bowl of fruit salad sat tantalizingly in the middle of the blanket. The smell of the food made her mouth water. A picnic?

  “Ysabeau, close your mouth! Eating bird poop is nasty,” Sunny said.

  “Since when have you eaten bird poop, young lady? Come here, angel, I want to show you the view.” Luke stood up and grabbed her in his arms.