Ryder

by Dale Mayer

  He opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling. “They were full. Damn. We’re in trouble.”

  “We’ll manage.”

  “As soon as I can sit up, I’ll do an emergency requisition.”

  It took another fifteen minutes to get him stable and on his feet. With her help, he walked to the supply area where they did a full count of what they would need.

  She held up the requisition sheet. “I’m walking this over to the supply clerk right now. You should have the military police in here any moment to interview you.”

  He waved at her. “Go on. I can tell them what’s happened and let them know where you are.”

  She nodded and, with a smile to the guard, walked out the front of the clinic. At the supply station, she walked in and handed over the requisition. “This is what we could assess we need immediately. We have literally nothing right now. Do you have any inventory here that’s not been distributed?”

  “I’ll see what I can do, but I don’t have very much in stock.”

  “Understood. But we literally don’t even have a Band-Aid.”

  “I’ll put in a special order for supplies. Should be able to do something for you by morning.”

  She nodded. “If somebody comes in injured beforehand,” she warned, “I’ll be back here sooner.”

  “Fair enough.”

  Outside she headed to the clinic and found the military police arriving to talk to her and Dr. Carter. They asked her a few questions, and she shared as much as she knew. “I’m sorry I don’t have more. I literally just landed back at camp again.”

  “And yet, you were kidnapped earlier and held hostage in one of the rebel camps?”

  She frowned but readily nodded. “Yes. The soldiers who kidnapped us were looking for medical supplies and a medical team to help several of their own injured people. But that was miles away from here. And the outpost didn’t have the same men or security as this camp does. Still, if they decided to imitate what their other group did and had wounded but no medical team, then I can see the same issue repeating itself all over the country.”

  She was asked several more questions and then finally released. It was a relief to rush back inside to Dr. Carter. He sat in the same place she’d left him, but now he sipped water and had a cup of coffee in front of him.

  “Where did you get the coffee?”

  He pointed to a fresh pot he’d made, sitting off to the side.

  “That’s new.” She smiled. “Nice.”

  He grinned. “Working is one thing. Working without coffee, well, that’s a whole other story.”

  She spent the rest of the day keeping an eye on Dr. Carter, who kept pushing her away, insisting he was fine. Of course there was still no sign of Dr. Bruce or the two missing nurses, Wendy and Colleen. Thankfully she found out Dr. Robertson had taken a few days off himself, like she had. So he was safe.

  It was hard for her to understand how three staff members could’ve been snatched away. But she had no doubt it did happen as it was exactly what had happened to her and Dr. Robertson. She knew teams were out looking for them, but, as she’d been saved by Ryder, it was hard to imagine anybody else being quite so good.

  She winced. Just where was Ryder? Was he searching for the missing medical team? She hoped so. He was one of the best. And, if he wasn’t out there hunting, he should be.

  As darkness settled in, she sat in the clinic with Dr. Carter for another few hours as a familiar figure walked inside. She looked up at him and gasped. “Ryder?”

  He gave her a grim smile.

  She raced toward him. At the last minute he opened his arms, and she threw herself into them. “Oh, my God. What are you doing here?”

  “I’m heading out after the missing medical team. What do you know about it?”

  She quickly filled him in on what she knew. “There are no signs of them.”

  “There will be,” he said gently. “We’ll get to the bottom of this.”

  She nodded but knew so much time had gone by that her colleagues could be a long way away.

  “Stay here and stay safe,” he said in a stern voice.

  She beamed a smile up at him. “I’m fine. Dr. Carter and I appear to have missed out on this kidnapping. And Dr. Robertson isn’t here.”

  “It does not mean they won’t come back for you. Depending on how long this goes on, they also know you will be restocking the supplies, and that means they could return for more.”

  “They took everything we have.”

  “How did they get into the cabinets?”

  She shrugged. “I can’t say for sure, but I imagine they got the keys off one of the staff.”

  Ryder nodded.

  Corey walked in and asked, “You okay, Caitlyn?”

  She stepped back slightly from Ryder’s arms and nodded. “I am. I just got in a few hours ago. Dr. Carter sustained a head injury but will be fine. I hope you find our missing people quickly.”

  “We’re on it.”

  At that they both gave her hard smiles, turned and left.

  *

  Ryder couldn’t believe it when he heard the medical team had been kidnapped. It was one thing to try something like that at the tent outpost where the enemy had taken Caitlyn and Dr. Robertson, but this was a military camp. It shouldn’t have happened here. Thankfully it wasn’t Caitlyn this time. That the enemy had also taken supplies made a lot of sense. But it wasn’t something they could continue to allow.

  What they really needed right now was intel. Hence his trip here. By morning they’d have a rescue in place. If they got a chance to retrieve the medical team tonight, they’d take it. But they had to find them first.

  Suited up, they were already on their way out of the camp, and he was breathing more dust than he cared to admit. There’d been no rain in weeks. Every step they took raised a cloud. Not good and not easy to keep the enemy in the dark as to their whereabouts.

  As he read the tracks the enemy had left behind, Ryder could see the women hadn’t done much fighting back, but Dr. Bruce had. Ryder’s team caught up with the other mobile military units within an hour. With the updated information, his team split off from the rest and circled around to one of the suspected rebel militia’s camps. There were three known locations. The question was, which one held the US medical team?

  With his unit high on the hill looking down below, Ryder could see a white man sitting outside, leaning against the building. He had a bottle of water in his hand, but he didn’t look too good. On closer examination he could see the man’s legs were tied. That confirmed he was one of the prisoners.

  Ryder tried to see his face but it was hard from this distance. In his heart he knew it was Dr. Bruce. But the women? White women alone out here? That was not good.

  He heard a scream from one of the tents. Dr. Bruce jumped to his feet and hobbled a few steps before one of the armed rebels forced him back down again. And Ryder realized their window had just closed.

  This rescue had to go down, and it had to go down now.

  Chapter 16

  Caitlyn woke up on one of the cots in the clinic.

  She sat up slowly and looked around. Dr. Carter slept beside her on the next cot, his breathing, although low, was even and deep. So why had she awakened?

  In the distance she could hear sounds of troops returning. She bounded to her feet and raced to the front entrance. There she stopped to listen. It looked like a group of men, maybe a dozen, and they were coming toward the camp on the far side. She heard the wup-wup-wup of the helicopter blades racing toward her. She was about to get busy.

  Thankfully an emergency supply run had come in, and the clinic was partially restocked.

  Dr. Carter sat up and asked, “What’s going on?”

  Caitlyn turned and glanced at him. “We’ve got injured coming in.”

  He nodded, straightening slowly. She watched his progress with a critical eye. But he appeared to stand strong once on his feet, and his gaze was clear. “How are you feeling?”


  “Like I’d rather be in Hawaii. But considering we have injured men and women coming, this is where we need to be.”

  As soon as she heard the pop-pop of the helicopters, she checked for the wounded every few minutes. Afraid Ryder might be one of them.

  She knew he’d scoff at her worries and say they were the best men for the job. And that might be true. But she’d also seen more than her fair share of men with good, solid, healthy egos come up against bullets, IEDs and a million other weapons that would rip them apart.

  She stopped and assessed the trauma center, making sure she had enough compression bandages and IVs ready and the rest of the supplies were within easy grasp. Were her coworkers returning? Had they been found? She and Dr. Carter stood ready when the first gurney flew through the center. The patient had stepped on an IED. There was a bloody stump where his right leg used to be. Shit.

  She knew what that meant. All of a sudden they didn’t have enough hands. The two of them worked fast, in a musical coordination they’d reenacted so many times before. “Is the helicopter ready to take off again?”

  “Yes. They are fueling up now.”

  The second man who came through was breathing steady and his pulse was slightly more stable. But his bleeding was just as bad. He’d taken a bullet to the side and a second one to the elbow. There wasn’t much left of the joint. Short on hands, they enlisted the soldiers to keep pressure on his wounds as they worked on both men. They needed transport to Baghdad now.

  She shook her head. “Both of these men need surgery.”

  Together they slowed the bleeding, set up IVs and started pumping fluids. The second man needed blood, and she had none.

  It seemed like hours but was only minutes before the emergency vehicles raced the now slightly more stable men out to the helicopters. As she turned around to clean up the blood, she saw a second vehicle coming in. Even from where she stood, she could see the head bandage on the man in the front. She called to Dr. Carter, “More coming.”

  And that’s how it went. The second helicopter went out less than an hour and a half later with two more heading to Baghdad. She had three in beds under watch right now with a steady stream coming through her doors.

  “What the hell happened out there?” she asked one of the soldiers.

  “The unit hunting down the kidnapped medical crew were caught by surprise. The rescue went okay, but they were ambushed on retreat.”

  “And the medical crew?” She hoped they were safe.

  “One’s injured, but she’ll be fine. A couple soldiers were taken out.”

  “Dead?”

  He nodded and gave her a hard look. “Two of them.”

  After that she stayed quiet. Her frayed nerves threatened to overtake her, but she didn’t dare let them paralyze her. She worked steadily, doing what she could and staving off her fear deep inside. She cleaned and bandaged wounds, set up IVs and opened airways for many who came through her door. Dr. Carter worked madly at her side. She didn’t have enough hands to do what needed to be done, but they had no one else to call in.

  They were shipping out men who needed further care almost as fast as they were coming in. She didn’t know what time it was when she straightened from covering up a patient. Hearing a sound, she turned around to see Corey step through the entrance. Her eyes lit up at the sight of him. And then slowly fell away as he stared at her steadily.

  “Ryder?” she asked, her voice soft, gentle, so afraid to hope. Her stomach clenched, holding back a pain so deep, so intense, she couldn’t move.

  “He’s coming in. He’s alive, cranky and injured.”

  Her gaze lit up. “If he’s cranky that’s a good sign.”

  Corey snorted. “As long as you’re the one looking after him.”

  Sure enough Ryder came through the door on his own feet and swearing a blue streak. A point of pride she knew because he sure as hell wasn’t holding himself up. Easton and Devlin had him on either side, helping him to a bed. The only bed she had left. She was at his side immediately, her hands and eyes checking him over, looking for the trauma. He had all four limbs, and his head was bleeding, and his arm had a bad gash. She shook her head. “What the hell happened to you?”

  “Nothing.” He glared at her.

  She smirked. “You better become my best patient, or I’ll ship you to Baghdad right now.”

  “Like hell,” he roared, trying to pull himself off the bed.

  She smacked him down hard. “Listen up. You stay in bed until I’m done, you hear me?”

  He glared at her even harder but subsided.

  She caught the short gasps of the men at his side. She gave Easton and Devlin a hard look. “He can be a hard-ass all he wants,” she told them, “but this is my domain. If there’s anybody harder and tougher than me, it’s Dr. Carter.”

  Easton smiled. “I gather not too many men give you grief in here.”

  “No time, no energy, no patience.” While she talked, she checked Ryder’s vitals. His blood pressure wasn’t anything to be unduly alarmed about. He was angry; adrenaline still ran through his injured body. She hooked up an IV, completely ignoring his protests. With the heat his body was already dehydrated.

  Then she turned her attention to his head wound.

  “I’m fine.” Ryder glared at her again, not willing to give an inch.

  Fine, she could be that way too. She glanced at Corey. “What happened?”

  “I don’t know,” he said. “It’s likely he doesn’t either. The first I heard was him swearing.”

  She cleaned the wound. “He needs stitches.” She tilted his head to the side, studying how deep the wound was. “It’s not too deep. Although it’s bleeding badly. Typical of head wounds.”

  Dr. Carter walked over. He took a look and said, “We can put in a couple stitches. It will speed up the healing. How’s the arm?”

  Together they assessed the arm and realized Ryder had a dislocated shoulder she hadn’t noticed at first glance. The gash was ugly in length but not deep.

  “You’re lucky. We can stitch this and reset the shoulder. But that arm needs complete rest or it’ll become a much bigger issue.”

  His smile fell away. “Damn it. That means I’m off work.”

  “You’re off work anyway for a few days,” Devlin said. “Don’t be such a hard-ass. Let her fix you up properly.”

  Ryder relented, closing his eyes and groaning in frustration.

  “Did you even say thank-you to the men who brought you home safely?” she chided.

  “Don’t need to say it. They know how I feel.”

  “That doesn’t mean it’s not the polite thing to say.” She turned to the men. “Thank you for bringing him home alive.”

  The men grinned at her. “He was screaming at us pretty good to make sure we didn’t bring him here.”

  She narrowed her gaze, hating the instant hurt she felt inside. “Why’s that?”

  “Something about not wanting to come back less than perfect,” Easton said with a snort.

  “Of course he’d think that.” She glanced down at him to see him glaring at his men. “You’re an idiot, Ryder. You know you’re welcome in my world no matter what shape you’re in.” She motioned to the door. “You guys can go. Get some food and a shower. We’ll need him for the next few hours. After we get his shoulder popped in and his wounds stitched, then you can see him.”

  The men nodded. Corey patted Ryder on his good shoulder and said, “Take it easy.”

  Ryder nodded and then winced at the movement.

  She exchanged glances with the doctor. “Maybe we should start with the stitches on his head.”

  “No. Shoulder, then stitches.”

  Several hours later she took a bowl of hot soapy water to Ryder who was now sitting up bare chested, his arm in a sling and bandages around his head and forearm. “You can’t have a shower. This is the best I can offer you.”

  He glanced at the bowl, surprise lighting his face. “Thank you. That
actually would feel great.”

  She dipped her hand in the water and pulled up a large washcloth and wrung it out.

  When she went to wipe his face, he said, “Whoa. I’ll do it.”

  She handed it to him with a smile. “Stubborn. When you’re done with your face and chest, I’ll do your back.”

  That was as far as she would let him off the hook.

  *

  The warm water felt good as Ryder washed his face and neck. He healed fast and generally went through any injuries with just a bounce to slow him down. The problem was, this time he’d been brought back before the mission was done, and that pissed him off.

  Stepping around in front of him, Caitlyn removed the bowl and returned a few minutes later with another one. She picked up the washcloth and gently cleaned his face a little better than he had. Then she worked on the fingers of the hand he couldn’t access easily because of the sling and the bandages. When she was done with that, she walked behind him and wiped down his back. He had to admit it felt damn good. He hadn’t realized just how dirty and sweaty he’d become.

  When she was done, she picked up the bowl and dumped it outside. It was so intimate having her bathe him. Naturally his mind moved in a different direction. When she returned, he watched as she checked several other patients, making sure they were all okay.

  He motioned with his hand. “Any reason I can’t go back to my own bed?”

  “Except for the fact I’ll miss you?” She smiled, then shook her head. “No, you’re good to go as long as you aren’t dizzy and you promise to go to bed and rest. I’ll see you back here in the morning to get the stitches checked and to make sure the swelling in your arm is okay. Don’t forget to take your antibiotics.”

  He slid off the hospital bed and then paused. He reached out with his good arm, wrapped it around her shoulders and tugged her close. And he held her, just held her. In a low voice he said, “For a moment there I thought I wouldn’t see you again.”

  She tilted her head back and smiled. “I’m glad you did.”

  He stroked her chin with his thumb, then leaned down and kissed her. Just a gentle, light hey, I missed you kind of kiss. When he lifted his head, he almost kissed her again when he saw her eyes half lowered and slumbering. “If you keep looking at me like that, I’ll have to kiss you again. I’m sorry I had to leave you in Baghdad.” He watched her lips quirk.