Running Fire

by Lindsay McKenna

  Kell grew quiet. “We were raised a certain way. My ma drilled it into us boys to treat women right. Respect them. That they were our equals, never beneath us.”

  “Your mother is terrific. And Cody is so sweet. He insisted on cleaning up the kitchen after I made him a meal. Told me to go sit down and get my beauty sleep.” She smiled fondly.

  “We had my pa as our role model,” Kell told her, leading her down another trail that sloped out into a meadow combed with yellowed grass. There was a spring-fed pond about an acre in size and a couple of red wooden benches sitting near the bank. “Pa and Ma adore each other. We grew up watching him love her in so many small but important ways. He works hard as a dairy farmer, but when she’d come home some nights after a long day at the hospital, he’d cook everyone dinner and let her get a bit of rest. He was always bringing her flowers. Sometimes he’d pull them from the pasture, or from along the roadside, for her. And when they had a little money left over, which wasn’t often, he’d buy her some flowers from the florist in town.”

  “You brought me flowers,” she reminded him, gazing up in his face, the shadows emphasizing his large, warm gray eyes. “The second day you were home, you brought me flowers and chocolates.”

  “I couldn’t let Cody outdo me,” Kell provided, grinning.

  Lean smiled and shook her head. “You guys are so competitive with one another. It’s got to be your black ops background?”

  Kell chuckled. “No, we were born that way. Probably why we went into black ops.”

  Laugher bubbled up through her throat and she nodded. “You three must have been a handful growing up.”

  “Ma says we gave her all the gray hair she’s sporting now,” Kell said, a smile lurking across his mouth. He eased his arm off her shoulders and picked up Leah’s mittened hand. The sun had set in the west and there was a dark blue sky above and a gold strip along the horizon as he guided her to one of the wooden benches. He sat down with her. “The three of us boys always came here to fish. Pa didn’t make a lot of money, so we grew up living off the land. The three of us learned to shoot and bring down game from the time we were twelve years old. And if we weren’t eating venison, we were eating duck or the fish we caught out of here.” He gestured toward the pond.

  “You were poor but happy.”

  “We never knew we were poor,” Kell murmured, pulling out a small box from his pocket. “Raising three boys, providing them with the things they needed, left our parents with no savings. That’s why now the three of us send them money for their retirement years savings account.”

  “That’s so wonderful of you,” Leah said, looking at the small dark blue box he had in his hand.

  Kell turned to her and pulled her mitten off and laid it across his thigh. “I wanted to come here, Leah, because this has always been a favorite place of mine.” He lifted his chin, holding her gaze. “I want to marry you. I want to see you laugh again, know love, and watch you blossom.” He placed the small box in her palm. “Open it,” he rasped, his large hand cupping hers.

  Shaken, Leah pulled off her other mitten. Prying the box open, she whispered, “Oh, Kell…” There in white satin was a green diamond engagement ring set in gold. Next to it was a simple gold wedding band.

  Kell gently pulled the engagement ring free and set the box aside. He held her left hand out and said, “Now, let’s see if I guessed the size right.” He grinned sheepishly and eased the ring onto Leah’s finger. It fit perfectly.

  “It’s so beautiful,” Leah breathed, holding it up to the fading light.

  “Like you, Sugar. It’s a green diamond,” Kell told her. “I wanted something to remind me of your beautiful eyes.” He slid his hand along her jaw, drawing her forward, their mouths meeting and melting against one another. She was warm, tasted of chocolate chip cookies and coffee, plus her own sweetness. Warm tears met and flowed between their lips. Kell realized these were tears of happiness, not of pain.

  Sliding his fingers through her hair, he held her glistening gaze. “Marry me, Leah?”

  Never in his life had Kell wanted anything more than her. Her lower lip trembled, those soft corners of her wide mouth drew upward, and he saw the gold flecks dancing deep in her green eyes.

  “You know I will…” Leah slid her arms around his shoulders and felt him drag her as close as he could to himself. Closing her eyes, she nestled her face against his jaw and neck, her pulse pounding in joy, a flood of happiness moving through her. Kell held her tight. Held her safe. Held her with a promise of a rich, happy life with him.

  *

  KELL LAY QUIETLY with Leah in his arms. Her breath was moist against his naked shoulder, her fingers languidly skimming his chest in the aftermath of their loving one another. They were in his old room on the third floor. He’d claimed the attic as his bedroom as soon as Cody was born and his parents had turned it into a haven for him. The house was quiet, and it was nearly 1:00 a.m. in the morning. His bed faced the only window, and outside he could see the stars glimmering in the black ink of the sky.

  “Happy?” he asked, turning and kissing her lips. Inhaling her scent was like inhaling life. Kell felt Leah stir against him, a satisfied sound vibrating in her slender throat. He smiled and gazed into her drowsy eyes. “I love you,” he whispered, lifting strands away from her brow.

  Leah nuzzled against Kell’s hard jawline, closing her eyes, her body satiated, her heart light with joy. “I never thought I’d ever fall in love,” she admitted huskily, her fingers curving around his shoulder.

  “Makes two of us.” Kell laughed quietly. He got serious and lifted her chin, holding her gaze. “I know you’re going to resign your commission when we get back to Coronado. I wanted to talk to you about my new career.”

  His grave manner made Leah more alert. His eyes glinted in the darkness, like warm, black coals of smoldering heat and desire for her. When her gaze dropped to his mouth, she realized this was a serious discussion.

  “A new career, Kell?” There were a lot of feelings in his eyes and Leah sensed his concern over a decision he had made, but hadn’t shared with her yet.

  Trailing his finger along the slope of her cheek, Kell murmured, “I’ve been in the SEALs since I was eighteen. I’m thirty now and considered an old man in the ranks.” One corner of his mouth lifted over that admission. “Until you dropped into my life, I was going to re-up, but things have changed. I have you.” He looked deeply into her eyes. “I don’t want to be away for weeks or months at a time from you, Leah. When you see the life my parents have, I want one similar to theirs. And I know from seeing your face, watching you with my family, that you want the same thing. Am I wrong?”

  Leah swallowed hard and shook her head. “I wish I could clone what’s here, Kell. I know I can’t, but I crave this…this sense of family, of belonging…being loved and caring for one another.”

  Kell understood because Leah had never had it in her family. “There’s a lot I haven’t told you yet, mainly because time wasn’t on our side in Afghanistan. I started back to college when I was twenty. An old senior chief told me to get a degree. Even if I didn’t use it to go on and become a Navy officer, I would have a skill when I left the SEALs. And he was right. He was my sea daddy, the man who molded me into becoming a damn good operator. And he pushed me into going to college. It was a patchwork affair, Leah. I didn’t graduate with a degree until I was twenty-five because of the rotation and deployment cycles.”

  “You have a degree?” Leah blinked. Why wouldn’t he? Kell was intelligent.

  He gave her a half smile. “I’m a physician’s assistant. That’s one rung below being an MD. I’m a combat corpsman and I’ve always liked helping people who were sick or wounded. I talked to my counselor at the university in San Diego and she said that with my background, I could get hired anywhere in the US.”

  He frowned. “There’s a shortage of doctors here in our area. As a PA, I can work under a doctor, but be free to diagnose, treat and write prescriptions for
my patients. It’s something I want to do, Leah. I like helping people, and maybe Ma being a registered nurse was a defining influence on me. I was talking to her before dinner tonight and she was telling me our local hospital is desperate to hire a PA. And,” Kell added, hope in his voice, “she said they’re expanding their services to add a medical helicopter. They’re looking to hire two pilots. Maybe you might consider applying for it?”

  A good kind of shock rolled through Leah. She eased out of his arms and turned around, their hips meeting as she looked down at his peaceful features. “Move back here?”

  He shrugged. “Would it bother you to do that?”

  Her mind whirled with so many questions, so many emotions. Leah knew how important family was to Kell. And how important it was to her. “When is your enlistment up?”

  “A month from now.”

  Leah wrapped her arms around her legs, drawing them up against her chest as she considered his ideas. “Would the hospital wait a month until you got out?”

  “Ma told me to call the administrator on Monday morning and go in and meet with her. She feels they would hold the position open for me if they knew I’d accepted their job offer.”

  “Wow,” Leah murmured, shaking her head, drowning in his dark, thoughtful expression.

  “Do you want to fly when you get out?”

  “I’d wanted to, yes, but hadn’t given it much thought.” Until now. “I have to earn money. I can’t sit at home and expect you to carry the load, Kell.”

  He reached out, trailing his fingers down across her back. “If you want to stay at home, Sugar, you can. I’ll be making very good money. Enough to support the two of us very easily. We aren’t going to be in financial stress at all.”

  Leah bit her lower lip. “What if…what if I told you I wanted a baby, Kell? I’m twenty-nine years old and I’m not getting younger. I sat in your parents’ kitchen today thinking how wonderful it would be to have a baby. That baby would get so much love and attention from your parents, from you and me…”

  Kell sat up, leaning against the headboard, drawing Leah into his arms. When her head came to rest on his shoulder, he whispered, “You will make an incredible mother,” and he kissed her lips tenderly, with all the love he had in his heart for her. Leah might have been cheated of love growing up, but Kell knew in his soul she’d shower any children they had with all that love she held in her huge, giving heart. “I’m very open to making a baby with you,” he whispered against her lips.

  “Really?” Leah stared into his eyes, her heart bounding with hope.

  “Really.”

  Leah drew in a serrated breath and kissed Kell with everything she held in her heart for this man. She could feel him smiling, felt the tender way he grazed her temple and cheek with his fingers. Kell would make a wonderful healer. Who knew that better than her? He’d helped her heal from festering wounds she’d carried around all her life. His love had opened them up, allowed them to drain and then sutured them closed, making her realize she was worthy. Drawing away from his strong mouth, she whispered, “Let’s do it. I want to stay home, Kell. I want to make us a home. I love to cook, and Mary can teach me what I don’t know.”

  “Then you’re ready to hang up your wings, Sugar?”

  Leah slid her hand across his sandpapery cheek. “I’m ready to fly in another way, Kell. Only this time around, you’ll be my wingman.”

  “That sounds like a doable plan,” Kell murmured, easing her down on the bed, sliding against her warm, soft body. There was such peace in Leah’s shadowed eyes now. Kell saw joy in them, the way the corners of her mouth drew upward, the hope burning in them. Never had he wanted to give her anything more than what he saw reflected in her wide, lustrous eyes. Leah was so brave and yet didn’t see it, but he did. “Then,” he murmured, placing small kisses along her hairline, “we should use the time we have here to start looking for a house to buy.”

  “I like that. A big house, Kell. With a huge kitchen like Mary’s.”

  “You can have anything your want, darlin’. I want you happy.”

  She moved her hand up his hard, muscled arm. “Will you miss the SEALs?”

  “I’ll miss my friends. I’ve given my service to my country. Now, I want to give it to you. To our growing family.” Kell splayed his large hand out across her belly. “And I want to be there for any children we have, not gone most of the time.”

  His hand was warm, strong, and Leah could feel Kell’s support in his eyes, his voice and his touch. “I want you near. I want you home every night.”

  “I’ll be there,” Kell promised, sliding his arms around her, holding her close. Holding her forever.

  *

  Don’t miss Lindsay McKenna’s next HQN, NIGHTHAWK, available soon!

  Keep reading for an excerpt from TAKING FIRE by Lindsay McKenna.

  “A treasure of a book…highly recommended reading that everyone will enjoy and learn from.”

  —Chief Michael Jaco, US Navy SEAL, retired, on Breaking Point

  If you loved Running Fire don’t miss the rest of Lindsay McKenna’s thrilling Shadow Warriors series:

  Taking Fire

  Never Surrender

  Breaking Point

  Degree of Risk

  Risk Taker

  Down Range

  Danger Close

  Available wherever ebooks are sold.

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  CHAPTER ONE

  THE SEAL TEAM BELOW, where Marine Corps Sergeant Khatereh Shinwari hid in her sniper hide, was in danger. The June sun was almost setting in the Hindu Kush mountains of Afghanistan. Khat made a slow, sweeping turn to the right with her .300 Win Mag rifle along the rocky scree slope. She spotted fifteen Taliban waiting behind boulders to jump the four-man SEAL team climbing up the nine-thousand-foot slope.

  Lips thinning, Khat watched the inevitable. She knew the team was looking for Sattar Khogani, the Hill tribe chieftain who was wreaking hell on earth to the Shinwari tribe. Her tribe. Her blood.

  Pulling the satellite phone toward her, she punched in some numbers, waiting for her SEAL handler, Commander Jim Hutton, from J-bad, Jalalabad, to answer.

  “Dover Actual.”

  “Archangel Actual.” Khat spoke quietly, apprising Hutton of the escalating situation. She shot the GPS, giving the coordinates of where the SEALs were located and where the Taliban waited to ambush them. She asked if Apache helos were available.

  No.

  An A-10 Warthog slumming in the area?

  No.

  A C-130 ghost ship?

  No.

  A damned B-52 on racetrack?

  No. All flight assets were tied up with a major engagement to the east, near J-bad.

  “What the hell can you give me, Dover?”

  Khat was only a Marine Corps staff sergeant, and her handler, a navy commander, but she didn’t give a damn at this point. Four good men were going to die on that scree slope really soon.

  “No joy,” Hutton ground back.

  “You’re going to lose four SEALs,” she snapped back in a whisper, watching through her Nightforce scope. “Do you want another Operation Redwings?”

  She knew that would sting him. Four brave SEALs had walked into a Taliban trap of two hundred. They were completely outmatched and without any type of support because their radio failed, and they couldn’t call for backup help.

  It had been one of the major reasons she’d gotten into her black ops activity and become involved. Khat didn’t want any more fine men murdered because a drone wasn’t available, or a satellite, or a friggin’ Apache
combat helicopter.

  More men had died that night when a hastily assembled QRF, Quick Reaction Force, was finally strung together out of J-bad. The MH-47 Chinook had taken an RPG, rocket-propelled grenade, into it, and it had crashed, killing all sixteen on board. More lives were wasted. She had cried for days after it happened, unable to imagine the tragedy inflicted upon the families involved. None of their husbands, brothers or fathers were coming home.

  It can’t happen again. She wouldn’t allow it. Khat knew without a sat phone, radio calls into this area were DOA, dead on arrival. The radio call would never be heard. She wasn’t sure the leader of the patrol had one on him.

  “There are no assets available.”

  “You said this team is out of Camp Bravo?”

  “Affirmative. I’m initiating a QRF from Bagram. But it will take an hour for them to arrive on scene.”

  “What about a QRF from Camp Bravo?” Khat wanted to scream at this guy to get off his ass and get involved. Sometimes she wondered why they’d given her Hutton. He was a very conservative black ops handler. She wished she still had Commander Timothy Skelling, but he’d just rotated Stateside. Hutton reminded her of a slug; as if he didn’t know what to do quickly, when pressed.

  “I’m calling them, too. They can be on scene, providing they aren’t already engaged elsewhere, in thirty minutes.”

  “Roger,” she said, her voice hardening. “Get a call patched through to that platoon and warn them.” Like fucking yesterday. She felt her rage rising. It always did in situations like this. She didn’t want to lose Americans.

  “I’ve sent a call over to Chief Mac McCutcheon of Delta Platoon.”

  “I’m waiting five minutes,” Khat growled. “If I don’t see that team stop and hunker down for an incoming call from Bravo, I’m engaging. The least I can do is warn off the SEALs, and they’ll take appropriate action.”

  Shifting her scope, she saw more of Khogani’s men sneaking up on the other side of the ridge. There had to be twenty of the enemy in all. Smaller boys with the Taliban group held the reins of the horses far below the slope. Sweat ran down her temples, the heat at this time of day unbearable.