by Cindy Dees
The man behind her snarled something back, his spit spraying her ear. Faint from terror and lack of oxygen, she felt her limbs going slack. She clawed at the arm around her neck, feeling rolls of torn skin underneath her fingernails. The man's arm grew slippery with blood and her fingers slid uselessly over the flesh that was inexorably killing her.
And then Tex lunged. The knife flashed past her face. A squishing sound and the arm around her neck abruptly fell away.
The rebel staggered back, screaming.
As she fell to the floor and rolled out of the way of the two men's feet, Kimberly stared up in dazed horror at the knife protruding from the man's left eye.
Tex yanked it out and slashed hard to the right across the man's throat. A fountain of blood sprayed her, warm and black.
And then she passed out.
* * *
Tex leapt to Kimberly's slumped form. There was blood all over her. He couldn't tell if it was hers or the rebel's. Frantically he passed his hands over her, searching for wounds.
"Come on, honey," he urged. "Wake up. Talk to me, Princess."
She lay there, limp and lifeless.
For the first time in his career his life flashed before him. He thought about the heartache of losing his mother. About Emily, his first lost love. He thought about the lonely nights at home, training because there was nothing else to do. He thought of the years of volunteering for missions, one right after another, because there was nobody for him to go home to, nobody who loved him. And he thought about the past few days with Kimberly. The laughter and loving. How alive she made him feel. She couldn't die!
"Kimberly, wake up!" he called urgently.
Her eyes fluttered open. Thank God.
"Are you hurt? Did that bastard cut you?"
"Uh, no. I don't think so," she mumbled.
He sagged beside her, too relieved to lift a finger. If he'd lost her…Hell, he couldn't even think about it.
"What's that smell?" she murmured groggily.
He took a sniff.
And leapt to the window.
Dammit.
While he'd been fighting off Kimberly's attacker, the rebels had sent another wave of soldiers toward the building. One of them was just disappearing around the corner with a large, metal container. Kimberly had smelled gasoline fumes.
The rebels were going to burn them out.
Not good. His brain went into overdrive. This building would go up like a box of matches.
He looked at his watch. Twenty more minutes until Charlie Squad got here.
Grimly he picked up the nearest rifle and fired at the two guys who were leaning down with a lighter toward the ground. He dropped them both, but the guy with the gas can had gotten away. It was only a matter of time now.
With their success in getting near the building, the rebels became bolder. They came at him in waves and he had trouble holding them off with the single-shot sniper rifles. Everyone he shot at went down, but there were just too many of them.
He didn't know which was going to be worse. Getting shot by these bastards and bleeding to death, or burning to death when the building went up in flames.
And then another rifle fired beside him. Kimberly had crawled over to the window and picked up the second rifle.
"Take your time," he instructed. "Aim carefully, hold your breath, and then fire. Every bullet's got to count now."
She nodded grimly and did as he said. With the two of them firing together, they were able to back off the next couple waves of soldiers.
And then a wisp of smoke wafted up toward them from below.
"Tex, where's that smoke coming from?" Kimberly asked in confusion.
"The building's on fire. While I was taking care of that bastard who jumped you, a couple guys got to the building with a gas can."
She stared at him, stark terror in her eyes. "This place will go up in flames in no time," she breathed. "We're not going to make it, are we?"
"Yes, we are! We are going to make it, and that's all there is to it!" he declared fiercely.
She smiled at him bravely.
The smoke grew thicker and a gust of it came through the window. He coughed and fired at the next wave of soldiers that came at them. He and Kimberly repulsed the attack. And the next.
But with every passing moment, the smoke was growing thicker. The air grew noticeably warmer around them. He checked his watch for the thousandth time. Twelve minutes to go.
And then Kimberly called out urgently. "Tex! There's smoke coming under the door!"
"Watch outside," he ordered tersely. "Let me know if another wave comes at us." He jumped away from the window and stripped a shirt off one of the unconscious rebels on the floor. He stuffed it into the crack under the flimsy door and soaked it with all the water in the guy's canteen. He laid his hand on the door. It was almost too hot to touch.
"Here they come," Kimberly called.
He jumped back to the window and took up his position again. In the next lull he heard it. An insidious crackling noise. Fire feeding voraciously on wood. The floor was getting hot and smoke was pouring around the entire doorframe behind them now. Any second, the flames were going to burn through the flimsy door. The backdraft would incinerate them both.
They had to get out of here. But where? The entire jungle before them was full of armed rebels. "Come on, honey. We need to get up on the roof."
Kimberly frowned at him. "Why?"
"Charlie Squad will come in by helicopter. It'll be easier for them to lift us off the roof than for them to land and let us run out to them."
She nodded trustingly at him. It was a hell of a choice. Burn to cinders or face the bullets of an entire army. "I'll go first," he said. "You lay down suppression fire while I climb up on the roof. Then, I'll lay down a line of fire. As soon as I do that, I'll reach down for you and pull you up. We gotta do this fast. Okay?"
She nodded, clearly understanding their vulnerability while they climbed onto the roof.
It went off without a hitch. And then they were stretched out side-by-side on the roof. Smoke swirled all around them and a hail of bullets rained around them.
"Don't hold back on your fire," he shouted to her over the roar of the flames below them. "We'll run out of time before we run out of bullets!"
Doubt that they weren't going to make it flickered in her gaze, but she nodded resolutely. Pride surged through him. She was a fighter. She wasn't going to give up if he didn't.
He checked his watch. Ten minutes.
They fired down on the rebels for a couple of minutes. And then a tremendous crash sounded behind them. A wave of intense heat rolled over them. He glanced over his shoulder. A wall of flame leapt into the sky, lighting up the night.
"The fire's broken through the roof," Kimberly cried.
He looked at his watch. Seven minutes. No way was the remainder of the building going to stand up that long. He abandoned his rifle and threw an arm over Kimberly's shoulders. "Stay down. Our silhouettes will show up against the fire and make us easy targets."
She huddled against him, shaking like a leaf.
A few bullets sailed up at them, but he ignored them. At this point it might be a blessing if the rebels shot them. All he could hope for was that the smoke would knock Kimberly unconscious before the roof collapsed and flung her down into the inferno. The thought of her burning to death, of her suffering, was almost more than he could bear.
The roof shifted ominously beneath them and it was growing hot.
Kimberly rolled onto her side and wrapped her arms around him, hanging on tight. She, too, had abandoned her rifle. "Tex," she said calmly. "If I have to go, I'm glad I'm going to die with you."
"Hey, we're not done for yet, darlin'," he objected.
She looked up into his eyes, her gaze soft and wise. "You don't have to put on a good front for me anymore. I know we're not going to make it. I just wanted to tell you before—" her voice broke briefly "—before the end, that I love you."
She smiled. "You're nice to say that. You always were a gentleman."
He shook her lightly. "I mean it. I love you. I'm not saying this to be nice. Hell, we're about to go face our Maker. I'm not gonna lie now!"
She stared back at him. And then an angelic smile broke across her face. She reached up with both hands and took his cheeks in her palms. "Kiss me, Tex. That's what I want to feel when I go. I want that to be the last thing I remember."
He swept her close and did as she asked, kissing her with all the passion and fury and love in his heart. The flames roared around them and the building gave a great warning heave. An entire end of the building collapsed and the roof tilted dangerously in that direction.
And still they kissed, wrapping each other in the protection of their love, giving their very souls to one another in their last few moments on earth.
A thwocking noise startled Tex out of his absorption in the woman he loved. He looked up and saw the dark silhouette of a Huey helicopter race into view above the trees.
It slammed to a hover directly overhead and a cable snaked down out of it. Two men leaned out the door, one guiding the cable and the other firing a submachine gun in a continuous and deadly rain of lead.
A heavy metal object tore through the layer of camouflage netting and thunked to the roof less than ten feet away from them.
Tex jumped up, hauling Kimberly to her feet with him. "Let's go!" he shouted.
He raced to the missile-shaped extractor, yanked down on its folding seats and pushed Kimberly onto one of them. He jumped on the other seat, wrapped his legs around hers and hugged both her and the steel extractor. Before he'd barely climbed on, the winch above them whirred.
The helicopter drifted to the right, away from the burning roof as they rode the metal cable upward.
Tex looked down and the entire roof of the building was engulfed in flame. Only a tiny portion of the roof wasn't ablaze—the spot they'd been lying on seconds before.
He squinted as a whoosh of flame erupted. The remaining bit of roof collapsed, crashing all the way to the bottom of the inferno. An angry column of sparks shot up into the night sky.
He pulled Kimberly close against his chest. Needles of pain pricked him as hot embers landed on his back, burning through his shirt.
And then the skid of the helicopter came into sight from above. Arms reached down for Kimberly and he handed her up. Then he passed up the RITA rifle, which somehow was still slung over his shoulder. Last, he climbed into the helicopter, landing with a solid thud upon the cool metal floor.
Something sleek and soft pressed against him from shoulder to knee. An instinctive, sexual knowing of that body flooded him and he opened his eyes.
Kimberly's emerald gaze met his. He flashed back to the first time he'd landed in a helicopter beside her a lifetime ago. The same memory was clearly mirrored in her eyes, too.
"We made it," he murmured to her.
In the orange glow from the mayhem he'd wrought below, he saw her gaze cloud over. A tear slid down her cheek.
He reached up to wipe it away, but Charlie Squad's medic, Doc, intervened, asking her about her health. And then Doc was talking to him, asking him about his injuries. All he wanted to do was wrap Kimberly in his arms and never let her go, but too many people were in the way. He already missed her. And there wasn't a damn thing he could do about it.
Chapter 19
Tex stood stiff and uncomfortable in an ornate room about to do the thing he'd once dreaded. Face Kimberly Stanton across a Senate hearing chamber. His dark blue Class-A uniform felt tight across his shoulders and his starched shirt and tie rubbed his neck. Time to pay the piper.
Kimberly'd done as she promised and, with her father's help, launched a congressional investigation into her kidnapping and subsequent rescue. This afternoon he and she would both be allowed to testify about it before the Senate Arms Committee. Or ordered to, in his case.
Tex's chest tightened as a dozen senators filed into the room and made their way toward their places. God, how he hated having his future rest in their hands. Unfortunately in his line of work, controversial missions and occasional political fallout came with the territory.
Colonel Folly touched his elbow and directed him toward the table where he'd sit with the lawyer the Air Force had provided for him. His back was to the door when Kimberly walked into the room, but he felt her presence as surely as if she'd grabbed his belt again. He turned around.
The whole room came to a momentary halt as she stepped in, such was the impact of her beauty. And then the low buzz of muted voices started up again.
She looked stunning. Her hair was twisted up into some sort of knot, every golden strand perfectly in place. Her makeup accentuated her features and a dark green suit made her eyes glow as bright as the morning jungle. Every inch of her was cool and elegant, classier than he'd ever imagined she could clean up. And he had a pretty outrageous imagination.
Tex's gut twisted into a hot knot as a good-looking, power-lawyer type took Kimberly's elbow to guide her across the polished marble floor. Tex looked down. Yup. Three-inch spikes.
He glanced up and she was looking at him. Her lips curved in the faintest of smiles and she nodded coolly at him.
She remembered, too.
He remembered everything about her, about their time together. He missed the feel of her sleek body against his. He missed kissing her. Hell, he missed fighting with her. He'd slept lousy every night of the two weeks since they'd been rescued. He kept hoping she'd call, even though his lawyer told him the two of them couldn't have any contact until after the congressional hearings were over.
He lay awake until all hours wondering what she was doing. Wondering if she thought about him at all. Or if she'd slipped right back into her hoity-toity world without even a backward glance for him.
As she slid gracefully into her seat, every inch of her perfect, he supposed he had his answer. She couldn't even see a grunt like him from the stratosphere she orbited in. Grimly he sat down beside his own lawyer as the session was called to order. He half listened to the drone of the chairman reading into the record the reason for today's hearing.
And then Senator Norwood addressed him. "Captain Monroe, the members of this committee have read and reviewed your report concerning the kidnapping and rescue of Miss Stanton. Do you have anything to add to your statement at this time?"
Tex winced. Even in the dry language of official reports, his mission report made for condemning reading. Attacking and looting the guard in the truck, assaulting another soldier and tying him to a tree, and killing a third rebel outright from the cliff. And then came the good stuff—assuming incorrectly that Kimberly was the target, handing over the RITA rifle, and the night they got rescued—hell, he'd slit a man's throat while Kimberly looked on.
He didn't even want to guess how many men he'd shot. The damage estimates suggested in excess of a hundred dead and twice that many wounded out of that one night's work.
He leaned toward the microphone and cleared his throat uncomfortably. "The only thing I would like to add to my report is how relieved I am that Miss Stanton was unharmed throughout her ordeal. If I had it to do all over again, I would do the very same things I did in order to secure her safe return."
He caught Kimberly's startled glance at him over her lawyer's shoulder.
"Ahem, well yes, Captain," the senator responded. "So noted." And then the gray haired man turned to Kimberly. "During your unfortunate absence, this committee had ample time to review your proposal for the disbanding of Special Forces squads like the one that rescued you. In light of your recent unique opportunity to observe a member of one of these units at work, do you have anything to add to your recommendations to this committee?"
Her voice slid across Tex's skin like velvet. "Yes, Senator Norwood, I do."
Here it came. Tex steele
d himself for the charges he'd been told by his lawyer to expect her to level at him. He glanced at the pair of federal marshals positioned by the doors. He fully expected to leave in their custody this afternoon.
"My attorneys have written a complete brief that goes into more detail. We will file it after this session. But I have prepared a short summary of my observations and recommendations for you."
The senator gestured for her to read it.
With a quick shuffle of her papers, she began. "'During my time with Captain Monroe, I witnessed the full extent of his training. It encompassed skills in survival and camping, escape and evasion, hunting and tracking, and multiple demonstrations of his physical prowess. He is highly intelligent and extremely resourceful, particularly in violent or dangerous situations.
"'Additionally, I saw Captain Monroe engage in hand-to-hand combat, knife fighting, sniper shooting, and mass weapons combat. In short, he demonstrated amply to me that he is, in fact, the nearly unstoppable killing machine I once accused him of being.'"
Tex couldn't help but flinch. To hear the woman he loved speak so emotionlessly, so damningly, of him and everything he'd worked so hard to be cut deep.
She continued, "'I have had some time to reflect upon what I saw and have come to the following conclusion. We the people of the United States must do everything in our power to train and support Captain Monroe and the men and women like him who defend our nation so ably.'"
Tex lurched in his seat like an electric shock had just shot through it. A buzz erupted. It echoed off the chamber's vaulted ceiling and rattled loudly inside his skull. She supported what he'd done? Shock and elation warred for a position as foremost in his gut. Kimberly Stanton, anti-military lobbyist extraordinaire, holder of his heart, had not turned on him after all?
Senator Norwood stared at Kimberly in surprise. "Am I to understand, after your harrowing ordeal, that you are completely reversing your position regarding the disbanding of military hit squads?"
"That's correct, sir."
Another buzz, even louder than before. The chairman rapped his gavel for quiet. "I must say, you've taken us by surprise, Miss Stanton. Perhaps a recess would be in order for my colleagues and me to review your new position papers."
