Mayhem's Warrior: Operation Mayhem

by Lindsay Cross

  A tear traced down her cheek, dropping into a dark stain in the dirt below. “I thought—I thought—

  “Hush, it doesn’t matter. All that matters is I’m here with you and I’ll protect you until I die.”

  A cough racked her body and she grimaced,

  “Open your eyes for me. Let me see those baby blues.”

  She hesitated a moment and then he was lost in the depths of her gaze.

  “I’m so sorry, I know I can never make it up to you, God, I’m sorry.”

  Reaper bowed his head low, and waited on her to curse him, to tell him she never wanted to see him again. The thought of living his life without her left him desperate and hopeless, but at least she would be alive.

  A shudder racked his body. “I thought I lost you for good.”

  Caroline cupped his cheek, and her finger traced beneath his eye. Gazing down at the moisture, Reaper realized he was crying. He never cried. Not when his first foster parent had kicked him out on the streets. Not when he found out his mentor had betrayed him. Not even when he lost his best friend in Afghanistan.

  Caroline had a hold on his soul. He would never be the same. He knew it, knew it just like he knew the sun would set.

  “You can never lose me. Not even if you try,” she said gazing up at him with so much emotion that his heart nearly stopped beating in his chest.

  “How could you say that after what I did?”

  “Because ever since I first laid eyes on you I knew the truth.”

  “And what’s that?” He said softly.

  “That you were my saving angel and that I would never be the same again.”

  His throat closed off and before he did something completely stupid, like cry like a baby, Reaper took her lips in a fierce, yet gentle kiss. For that brief moment, everything around them ceased to exist. She made him complete.

  A long, loud groan penetrated the haze of pleasure cocooned around them and Reaper lifted his head to scan their surroundings. It was then he spotted Melissa, half her torso covered in huge rocks.

  Caroline saw her too and pushed against Reaper’s shoulder. “You’ve got to help her. She’s good, I feel it.”

  Although Reaper had begun to suspect the same thing when they’d been trapped in the stairwell he asked, “And how do you know that?”

  “Because I felt the goodness in you, too.”

  It took all of Reaper’s willpower not to take her mouth in a fierce kiss of possession. No one had ever said he was good. Not even his best friend.

  “Help her. I’m fine. Just a headache, no broken bones.”

  Not willing to abandon Caroline just yet, Reaper carefully got to a standing position, balancing on his left foot and pulled her to her feet. Dragging Caroline along behind him, he hopped over to Melissa and then dropped back to his knees.

  “Reaper! Your foot!”

  “Just a sprained ankle. Come on, you can help.” He knew from experience that distraction was better than arguing; and giving a nurturer like Caroline something to do, especially in aid of someone she obviously had come to care about, would keep her busy.

  Caroline began pulling the smaller rocks from Melissa as Reaper balanced on his knees and lifted the heavy ones.

  Blood and bruises covered her body, but she was coming awake.

  Her eyes snapped open in an instant, but her startlingly quick jerk back to consciousness wasn’t what held her attention. Melissa’s arm lay at an angle far too unnatural to be anything but broken.

  And from the way she was panting and staring straight up at the sky overhead, she was in a lot of pain too. “Your arm is broken. I need to check you over to make sure that is the extent of your injuries.”

  Melissa bit her lip and nodded, tight white lines forming around her mouth.

  Caroline scooped up her good hand and clutched it to her chest. “I’ve got you. It’s okay.”

  Reaper checked Melissa from head to toe. When he brushed over her rib cage on the same side as her broken arm, she gasped and tears welled in her eyes, but she didn’t cry.

  The girl had grit.

  “I need to lift your shirt, to make sure you haven’t punctured a lung.”

  Again, she nodded, abstaining from a verbal response. When he lifted her shirt and saw the huge dark bruise on her side, he knew why the scientist hadn’t spoken. It hurt too much.

  He’d fractured his ribs once in a training exercise going into the 75th Ranger Regiment, it had been all he could do to breathe, let alone refrain from passing out.

  But from what he could tell, she more than likely just fractured them, no bones protruded or dug into her side.

  Melissa turned her head in his direction, her dark brown eyes bright. “How bad is it?”

  Every word she spoke was aghast.

  Reaper shrugged, “You’ve got a little bruising, doesn’t look like much more than that.”

  It was a hell of a lot more than that, but someone with the steely determination like her didn’t need sympathy. “Your arm’s definitely broken, and it’s gonna hurt like a son-of-a-bitch; we’ve got to get the hell out of here before they send more troops.”

  “Reaper, no. She can’t move like this,” Caroline said.

  “She doesn’t have a choice, baby. I can’t carry her out of here, and neither can you. As much as I want to help her, I’m not willing to jeopardize your life for hers.”

  Although he felt like a complete asshole for saying it out loud, it was the truth. Caroline meant more to him than any other human being on this planet, including himself.

  “I’m not leaving her here. We have to figure out another way.

  Melissa pulled Caroline down closer to her face. “Soldier’s. Field kit. Morphine.”

  Caroline’s blonde brows dropped in confusion but Reaper understood Melissa’s code. Each and every man, or what was left of them anyway, would have a field survival kit on their person.

  Reaper hopped over to the closest complete body, rifled through the man’s pockets, and extracted a standard issue military field kit. By the time he’d returned to Melissa and knelt beside her, he’d pulled out the syringe of morphine. “One, two.”

  Before he said the number three, Reaper jabbed the short needle into her body and injected the morphine. Melissa shot him a scathing glance and hissed but held silent. Worse than that, Caroline was looking at him all accusatory. “What?”

  Anticipation of pain was always worse than the actual event itself. Everyone knew that.

  Reaper waited until Melissa’s body relaxed and he crawled around to her good side, the burning in his foot making itself known more and more with each passing minute. “Caroline, I want you to get behind Melissa and make sure she doesn’t fall backwards when I help her to her feet. She’s going to be unsteady.”

  Caroline glanced down at Reaper’s injured foot. “And you are supposed to be her rock?”

  “I’m made of granite, Princess.”

  Caroline snorted but did as he instructed, coming to stand behind both of them as he pried Melissa from the ground.

  “I think you’re just a big teddy bear.”

  Reaper’s eyes were incredulous. “Did you just compare me to a stuffed animal?”

  He got Melissa to her feet, the brunette swaying drunkenly.

  “A really big, scary looking teddy bear,” Caroline clarified.

  Melissa dipped to the left, and with his injured foot, he nearly went crashing down on top of her. Caroline grabbed the back of both their shirts and kept them standing upright. “I can help her walk. We’re basically the same size. Besides, don’t you need to get a gun just in case?”

  Reaper frowned at her over his shoulder. “Look, that’s not the way this is going to work. If you and I are going to be together, you need to realize right here and now that I give the orders.”

  She crossed her arms and tapped her foot, the right side of her mouth curling up into a half-smile that clearly bespoke her doubt, but he could just as easily see the twinkle returning
to her eyes.

  “You might order your men around, but I don’t take orders from anyone. You better remember that.”

  Reaper grabbed her shoulder and helped keep Melissa standing as Caroline slipped into the position he’d just vacated.

  “And the only reason I’m doing what you said just now is because it’s exactly what I was fixing to say.”

  “Whatever you need to tell yourself.”

  In the process of going in search for a weapon, Reaper paused and turned back to Caroline. Without saying a word, he grabbed her chin and took her mouth with all the fierce heat building inside him. “As long as you love me, you can order me around all you want.”

  Caroline beamed at him, her smile so brilliant it seared into his memory forever. “I do love you. Forever.”

  They managed to limp through the jungle to his helicopter. Caroline, then Reaper, harnessed Melissa into the passenger seat and Caroline squeezed herself in between. Reaper lifted himself into the pilot side, fired up the bird, and had them in the air within minutes. Their escape had been too easy, way too easy, but he had no spare time to waste examining the situation further. His men had hours left to live. And Caroline needed to get to safety.

  Caroline placed her hand on his side and Reaper gave her a reassuring nod before unhooking the radio from its dock and speaking into it. “Alpha, Zulu, Charlie.”

  He let go of the button and static filled the tiny cab of the copter as it roared over the treetops.

  Reaper tried again, “Alpha, Zulu, Charlie.”

  Once more static met his call. His hand tightened on the radio. Was he too late? He’d told his team to wait at their hidden bunker outside of Sudan. Had he miscalculated the time? Were they already dead?

  He shoved the button down with this thumb and repeated, “Alpha, Zulu, Charlie. This is Trojan horse, over.”

  “Trojan horse, this is Troy. Go ahead.”

  Relief hit him so hard he stopped breathing for a second. “Troy, we have the hot sauce, I’ll need a carryout as soon as we get there.”

  There was static and then Hawk’s strong reassuring voice, “Roger that. Got some hungry folks here, we’ll be ready and waiting.”

  Reaper docked the radio, his hand trembling. With his foot lower than the rest of his body, not elevated, his blood pounded in agonizing waves down to that broken extremity. Melissa had already blacked out, which was for the best. When he lifted her into the helicopter, she quickly lost consciousness.

  “Care to interpret all that military speak?” Caroline said.

  “My men are waiting, they need the serum soon, or they all die. I got the last pack stashed in the cargo hold.”

  Caroline’s nails dug into his body. “And what about the next time? What about when they need another dose?”

  He threaded his fingers through hers, lifted her hand to his lips, and kissed it. “We’ll figure something out. But not by using you.”

  “How then? You and that asshole Ranier both said I was the only source.” Caroline trembled in his grip and he tightened his hand around hers reassuringly as he steered the helicopter to the east.

  “I’ll find a way, but I’ll never, ever take anything unwillingly from you again.” His chest weighed heavy like someone had poured a dump truck full of concrete on it. He meant every word he said, but it still tortured him to think of his men suffering.

  But even so, he knew they would suffer willingly if it meant saving even one innocent life.

  Caroline’s broken whisper filled the cab, “doesn’t that mean your men will die? And you?”

  Unable to speak, he simply nodded and stared at the pink and gold horizon stretching out in front of them.

  The thought of locking Caroline up again and taking her blood twisted his insides like a rusted corkscrew. He would much rather be dead than live with that kind of guilt, knowing he purposefully destroyed the only person he ever loved.

  “So, you swear on your team that you will never take anything from me that I am unwilling to give?”

  Reaper couldn’t help but grip the steering stick harder in his free hand. What did she want from him? A signed contract? Didn’t she trust him at his word?

  Of course, she didn’t, how could she after what he did to her back in the hut?

  “I swear it on my team’s life.”

  Caroline’s soft breath fanned down his neck as she leaned in closer; light as a gentle breeze she pressed a soft kiss just beneath his ear. “And what about willingly?”

  Tingles were racing across his flesh where she touched his hand; despite his crushed foot, he was hard and ready. He’d never wanted anyone this much.

  Wait—had she said willingly? “Caroline?”

  “You never asked me if I would willingly donate my blood to help your team.” She continued just softly kissing and nipping her way down his shoulder as she spoke.

  Reaper fought the shudder of desire threatening to take hold of his body and concentrated on her words. A light sparked inside him, tiny but there. Would she really subjugate herself after the nightmare she’d suffered these past months?

  No. He wouldn’t let her. She’d be forced to revisit her trauma every time a needle pierced her flesh and he wouldn’t allow any kind of suffering to touch her precious body ever again. “No, Caroline. I won’t ask you. You don’t realize what you’re saying, you’d be reliving the nightmare over and over, and believe me that kind of mental anguish is enough to drive anyone insane.”

  He felt more than saw her glare at him, but she could glare all she wanted. No one was hurting his baby, not even herself.

  “Reaper, remember what I said about you giving me orders?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Well, seems like you’ve already forgotten. I can help out your team as much as I want to, and there’s nothing you can do to stop me.” If they hadn’t been talking about such a serious matter, he would have grinned at her audacity. Instead, all he felt was a sense of fatigue. He’d fought so long and so hard to save his men’s lives, only to realize how wrong he’d been in the end. And now he had this petite, beautiful pixie arguing with him?

  “I’ll hunt down every IV, every needle, every vile and destroy them all before I let you put yourself through that again.”

  The stubborn woman could argue all she wanted but she wouldn’t win this time. Seeing her like he had in the lab … so broken … would haunt him for the rest of his short life. “I could not live with myself knowing you suffered, willingly or not. I love you. I intend for the rest of my life to see that you never suffer again.”

  She tried to release his hand, but he didn’t let her. He’d much rather her be pissed off than in pain. There was nothing she could say or do that would change his mind.

  “Reaper, if you don’t get your dose, does that mean you’ll die too?”

  She held silent. Yes, he would, but his life was nothing compared to hers. At least he’d go to hell knowing he’d done one good thing in the end. Caroline would have the chance to be free, happy, and have a long, fulfilling life.

  Besides, after the things he’d done there was no doubt in his mind that she would be better off without him.

  “Don’t you understand that if you die, I don’t want to go on living? My father is dead, if I lose you too what’s the point?”

  “The point is your life. That’s all that matters.” He said, gravel in his voice from the emotion choking off his airways.

  “No. I refuse. If you go through with this, willingly killing your men and yourself when I’m able to help, I’ll take my own life. And since you’re dead, there won’t be anything you can do to stop me.”

  31

  He tried to hide his anguish behind that fierce mask of determination, but there was no disguising the longing hidden in his soul. Whether he would admit it or not, he wanted to live and Caroline could see it. Feel it. They were connected and there was no way on this earth she’d allow him to sacrifice himself or anyone else just to save her from experiencing a bad mem
ory.

  She’d been completely honest with him; she would rather die than live without him in her life. She had no one; she didn’t have a reason to go on without him. He could play the tortured hero all he wanted, but she wouldn’t let him follow through on his plans.

  Reaper’s hand squeezed hers so tightly; it was almost painful, the muscles on his neck and shoulders bunched up. He looked out to the horizon, refusing to meet her gaze. “You have something to look for.”

  His abrupt tone startled her. “Not without you I don’t.”

  “You have a sister. She was taken at birth, not killed. She’s alive and back at your home waiting to meet you.”

  Of all the things he could have said, this was the least expected. She opened her mouth to respond but nothing came out. The thought that her twin sister, long thought kidnapped and dead right after she was born, was inconceivable. “You’re lying, trying to sway me to your side.”

  “I will never lie to you again,” he said with such utter finality it stilled the argument she’d begun building.

  Her hands and arms went cold, then numb. She had a sister? A real-life sister?

  Her whole life she’d wondered what it would’ve been like to grow up with her twin at her side, laughing and sharing secrets. She would’ve shared a bedroom when they were young, with a look-alike? Did she act like Caroline?

  Where had she been all these years? Why hadn’t her father found her?

  An endless roller coaster of questions swirled around her mind, all of them without answers.

  Reaper continued in a deadened voice, “She looks just like you. She’s married to one of the men who’d previously been sent to rescue you.”

  “Did my father get to see her before—before…” she couldn’t finish the sentence; his death was still too painful.

  “He did. I was there.”

  A sense of foreboding settled around her. “Reaper?”

  “Your father gave his life to protect her. He made her vow to find you and that’s exactly what she’s been trying to do ever since he died.”

  Caroline reeled back on her heels, no longer seeing the sunset or hearing the roar of the helicopter blades swirling overhead.