Protector (Navy SEALS Romance Book 3)

by Rachel Hanna

  “Yeah… I mean, roger that.” Jake sighed and released his comm switch. He knew Mike was right, at least from a probability and logical standpoint. But he wasn’t busting his ass scaling a rock face while the waves pressed closer and closer just to bring home a body. He had to believe this was their missing person, and that he was going to be okay.

  Night fell outside the hospital window, making the room seem larger as it all reflected back at Angel. Manuela had fallen asleep in the chair again, staying awake as long as she could after her shift. The poor kid, Angel thought as he looked down at her. She was too young to have to do this. She was on summer break from college so at least she didn’t have to worry about failing any of her classes, but there was still her regular job to work around.

  Is this what I did to my family? Angel thought, taking in the sight of both his mom and his sister. His two other sisters were still trying to make their way back to Texas, one from New York and one from Michigan, but with their jobs and their kids being out of school, they couldn’t just walk away and head home.

  I lost Madison so I could go play Rambo halfway around the world, and now what’s left of my family is scattered all over creation, just trying to keep their heads above water. I should have stayed, he chastised himself. I never should have left them. I would never have lost Madison, my sisters wouldn’t have taken jobs anywhere their degrees would pay them...

  He shook off the negative thoughts and focused on his mom’s peaceful face. What’s done is done, he realized. All that mattered now was his mom.

  And Madison, a quiet voice inside his head reminded him.

  They’d spent the night together, and during those few hours it had felt like there had never been any distance between them. But Angel wasn’t naive enough to believe anything had changed, at least not for her. One night of pleasure brought on by the stress of seeing each other again in a time of pain and need didn’t exactly form the basis of a relationship. Besides, Madison hadn’t even been in to check on his mother all day long, or to see him either. There hadn’t been so much as a phone call or a text. It felt a whole lot like she was avoiding him, and that could only mean that she was feeling pretty bad about last night.

  As if by some kind of divine intervention, the door opened and Madison slipped through. Instead of looking like a nurse dutifully seeing to her charges, she looked guilty, like a thief who doesn’t want anyone to know her whereabouts. She stood at the foot of the bed, only edging closer to Angel when she saw his sister still there.

  “Hey,” she whispered, an air of awkwardness around her.

  “Hey yourself,” he whispered back, trying to keep things light. Instead of humor, he felt for all the world like he was trying to keep from spooking a beautiful wild animal, alarming it into running away.

  “I heard she’s been showing some more brain activity today, so… that’s good.”

  “Yeah. She hasn’t opened her eyes again, but I’ve seen her fingers move every once in a while.”

  “Yeah? That’s really good. You’re still talking to her and stuff, right?”

  “I’ve talked ‘til I’m just about hoarse,” he answered. Like I once had to do with you, but with no luck, he thought before pushing that thought away. “So, you didn’t have to work today?”

  “Oh no, I had too much overtime this week. I had to drop a shift to keep the bosses happy. I wouldn’t even be here now but two nurses are out and there’s already a shortage in other departments. I’m here but I’m off the clock.”

  “Hey, they’re not allowed to do that to you!” he fired back, angry at the way higher ups could treat their employees and get by with it. Madison waved her hand like it was no big deal.

  “I’m not about to sit at home and let my patients be the one to suffer. It’s not the hospital’s fault, either, so here I am.” She forced a smile, but didn’t want to look too eager.

  Angel and Madison stood silently for a long time, each one desperate to break the tension in the room, but neither one knowing what to say.

  You’re a freakin’ SEAL, you wimp, he argued with himself. You can shoot a terrorist at fifty yards but you can’t talk to a girl you slept with last night?

  “Um, Madison… I don’t even know how to begin…” he started to say, but she cut him off.

  “You don’t have to say anything. I’m the one who came over there, it’s not like you forced your way into my apartment or took advantage of me. You don’t owe me anything just because we… I mean, I’m not sorry we… God, I’m screwing this all up.” She sighed in frustration while Angel watched, his spine searing with pain from tensing up. Was she really telling him that last night didn’t mean anything, that they should just forget it?

  Hell no, he thought, a fierceness in his movements. He squared his jaw as he saw the conflicted look on her face, then came around the bed and stood in front of her, staring down into her wide eyes for a moment before kissing her deeply. Madison froze for a moment, more from surprise than anything else, then slid her hands up Angel’s chest to link them behind his neck, pulling him closer.

  “Stop,” she said suddenly, leaning away from him and taking a step back. Angel felt the absence of her in his arms and the effect was like falling through the ice. She shook her head. “I need to know…”

  “What?” he pressed when she didn’t finish her sentence.

  “I can’t,” she finally managed, shaking her head. “If this isn’t going to mean something, it hurts too much. I was in pain all day, wondering if last night was just a one-time thing or some trip down memory lane. And then there was the hurt of not knowing what it was that I wanted myself. But if we don’t plan to go any further, then this should stop.”

  “But I do want it to go further. I want you,” Angel answered in a desperate whisper, coming towards her again. “I never stopped wanting you, even when I was so angry that I never wanted to see you again.”

  “How does that even work?” Madison asked with a soft laugh.

  “I don’t know! I never said it made sense, I said I wanted you but didn’t want to see you!” He returned her quiet laugh as he took her in his arms, kissing her once before pressing his forehead to hers. “Whatever we have to do, we can make it work.”

  “But there’s your job...and mine…”

  “We’ll work it out, I promise. Just tell me that you want it to work, and we’ll make it happen.”

  Chapter 11

  Jake took a long swig of water from his camelbak and resumed his slight ascent. He’d had to stop more than once to tie himself off to a climbing rope, swing a small grappling hook across a crevice, then traverse the massive gap using only his own strength. At times it felt like the body was actually getting farther and farther away, but he knew it was only an illusion. He’d faced far more psychologically and physically arduous missions than this one, and he just needed to keep his head on straight and focus on his mission.

  Too bad Ruiz wasn’t here. He was Jake’s wingman at times like this, and vice versa. Ruiz would have kicked his ass for even needing to stop for a drink, let alone actually doing it. Jake muttered a few choice curse words under his breath for having to go this alone, but then immediately felt bad. It’s not like his longtime teammate had exactly chosen to dump them, not at a time like and not for such horrible reasons.

  “Move your ass, Jake,” he muttered after his pity party. Picturing Angel screaming at him was all the recharging he needed. He got back to his hands and knees and continued his trek around the rock face.

  Within thirty minutes, he was there. He lifted himself up the last few feet of the ledge until he was eye-level with the body, and instantly regretted taking a full look. The kid couldn’t have been more than fifteen, and there were signs of trauma all over his thin body. His sun-bleached hair said this had clearly been a kid who spent a lot of time outdoors, but he still had a boyish that clearly said he had a curfew and a bedtime each day.

  “God kid, how’d you even get up here?” Jake mumbled, sighing as
he reached for his comm button to call it in to the chopper. “You bird, I’ve got contact on the body. I’ll send over some cam images from my chest unit for comparison, but I’m sure it’s our missing kid.”

  “Roger, ground team. Have you done an assessment of the condition?” Mike asked, his voice businesslike in the face of finding a dead child.

  “Negative, just got up here and wanted to give you a heads up on my progress. Start making your way back to my coordinates and I’ll be ready for a recovery lift--holy shit!” Jake screamed when the kid’s hand reached out, grasping weakly in the air. “Bird, we gotta get more teams ready! Our victim is still alive, repeat, victim is alive.”

  Jake let go of the button and scrambled up beside the kid. He ripped off his gloves and immediately checked for a pulse, watching for any sign that the young man was breathing. There was a pulse, although it was weak, but the harder the surfer tried to breathe, the raspier it became.

  “Buddy, can you hear me? My name’s Lieuten--never mind. The name’s Jake, and I’m here to rescue you.” He got to work assessing the victim, calling back information on his vital signs to Tanner. Only when the sound of the chopper’s blades smashing through the air echoed over the crash of heavy waves below did Jake begin to make plans to get the boy out of there.

  Jake signaled to the chopper when it was directly overhead, then waited while Tanner lowered himself down on the hoist accompanying a lift basket. Without much room to place themselves on the precarious footholds, Jake and Tanner had to take turns standing and positioning themselves in place.

  With the surfer finally strapped into the basket and Tanner strapped into place beside it, it was up to Mike to lift the two passengers into the helicopter. Jake waited, his mixed emotions tormenting him. He was desperate to get into the chopper and get to work on further assessing their rescued victim, but he was also too overjoyed that they’d found him alive--for now, at least--to let his mind think much further.

  After the basket was disconnected from the winch and the surfer was safely stowed aboard, it was Jake’s turn. Lightning had just started to flash in the distance and the waves below crashed against the rocks with almost as much force and volume as the helicopter rotors beating the air overheard. Tanner leaned out the door slightly and waved to Jake, sending down the hook that would clip to his harness.

  Jake reached out over the drop to retrieve the cable, but a blinding flash of lightning nearby caused him to turn his head as he leaned forward. Instead of gripping the cable and clipping in, he fell forward towards the rocks, his arms and legs pushing against nothing as he fell.

  “Angel! Wake up!” Madison hissed insistently, finally resorting to leaning over him and pressing her soft lips to his cheek. “Come on, your mom’s awake! She’s asking for you!”

  Angel pushed himself up to sitting on the waiting room’s rubbery sofa, blinking in surprise. “She’s awake? She can talk?”

  “Not exactly,” she answered with a reassuring smile. “She won’t be able to talk until the breathing tube comes out, but she wrote a little bit on paper! She’s still with us, and she wants you. Come on!”

  He raced down the hallway and past the nurses’ station on Madison’s heels, hurrying to keep her pace. He spun through the doorway of his mother’s room, nearly crying at the sight of his mom sitting slightly inclined and his sister smiling broadly.

  “Mamacita! I’m here!” he said in a breathy rush. Madison came up beside him and squeezed his hand, reassuring him that it was really okay. He moved closer to the bed opposite where Manuela sat and took his mom’s other hand, holding it tenderly until he felt a slight pressure from her weakened fingers.

  His mom gurgled for a second, forgetting once again that she couldn’t talk with the ventilator in place. She looked around wildly until her gaze settled on Angel’s face, then something very close to a smile spread across her expression.

  Angel leaned forward and kissed her forehead, more to hide his tears of joy than anything else. When he finally sat on the edge of the bed, the corners of his mom’s mouth turned up in a thin, tired smile.

  “Mama, we’re all here. Can you open your eyes?” he begged. He lifted her hand again and gave it a gentle squeeze, not wanting to hurt her IV port. Gabriela’s eyelids fluttered briefly. “That’s it, Mama. Open your eyes and look at us.”

  It took more effort than they realized, but finally his mother’s eyes opened to barely half slits. A twitch at the corner of her mouth was all she could manage around her breathing tube, but it was so clearly a smile that Angel and Manuela both wiped back tears of happiness.

  “I need to let the doctor on call know. I’ll be right back, I promise,” Madison said in a quiet voice, then hurried from the room.

  It felt like hours but was really only a few minutes that Gabriela struggled to wake up. When she was finally able to focus, she pressed a hand to her throat, then ran her fingers over her breathing tube. She patted it gently.

  “Oh, I know, Mama,” Manuela said, taking her mother’s hand away from the tube. “They’ll take it out just as soon as they know it’s safe. The nurse has already gone to let someone know.” Her voice cracked as she spoke, the weight of what had happened still holding her down.

  Madison returned with a doctor, and Angel and Manuela were politely ushered from the room. They waited just outside the door for almost twenty minutes, then immediately stood up straighter when the doctor emerged, followed by Madison.

  “Well, I’ve finished my early assessment,” Dr. Emerson began in a low voice. “She’s looking really good, all things considered. She’s very weak and is in a lot of pain--”

  “Wait, was she hurting this whole time?” Angel interrupted, a wave of emotional nausea hitting him in the gut.

  “We can’t really know that, but we believe she wasn’t. She had preventive doses of painkillers for that very reason,” the doctor explained patiently, “but yes, there’s always a chance. Fortunately, if there was any pain, the IV at least would have dulled it to a manageable level, and keeping very still while in a coma would have helped as well. As I was saying, though, her vitals look stronger than they have since she was admitted. She’s not completely out of the woods yet, but the repair to her heart seems to have taken. Once she’s strong enough, she’ll have a lengthy rehabilitation ahead of her, so I don’t want to give anyone the impression that she’ll be jumping out of that bed anytime soon.”

  They paused a moment while the doctor’s news sunk in. Angel threw his arm around his sister’s shoulders, reassuring her that he was there for them both.

  “What about her breathing tube?” Manuela asked. “She doesn’t want it. Does she still need it?”

  “Geez, I hate to take it out,” the doctor said, rubbing the back of his neck as he thought it over. “At this point, there’s a very real danger still that she could code, or lapse. Until I see a little better blood gas level and know that her heart is healing correctly, I just feel better leaving it in place. I really do hate to do that to her, but she’s far better off with a very uncomfortable tube than having to endure us putting another one in place if it’s needed.”

  “I don’t get it… you mean the tube is hurting her? But doing it again could… what?”

  “Intubating a patient can be hard,” Angel explained, leaning closer to her. “If Mama was awake when they had to do it, they could actually hurt her worse. If they didn’t get it put in exactly right, they could even paralyze her. Or worse.”

  “You know your way around an emergency procedure, huh?” the doctor asked, impressed.

  “I was a SEAL. I’ve had to intubate people a time or two,” he answered without a shred of boasting.

  “Wow. Respect, sir!” Dr. Emerson said, smiling broadly. “I was a medic in the first Gulf War before deciding to go to medical school, but I can’t even imagine what it takes to be an actual SEAL.”

  Angel ducked his head. It felt good to have someone else recognize the service he’d given to his country for o
nce, but it was the look on Madison’s face that actually meant something more. She wore the same impressed look as the doctor, and he could tell that the opposition to his goal that had come between them was long gone.

  “Anyway, I’ll be back to check on her in a few hours. If she keeps progressing and everything looks good, I promise I’ll get her off the ventilator as soon as I feel like it’s safe. In the meantime, go back in there and welcome her back to the land of the living!”

  He shook Angel’s and Manuela’s hands, then returned to his other patients. Madison smiled at them, and let out a sigh of relief.

  “You guys did great!” she gushed.

  “Us? You guys are the ones who did everything. We just got in the way a lot,” Manuela joked weakly.

  “No, it was all you. You kept her hearing your voices, you gave her a reason to wake up. It’s not always like this for my patients. You’ve got to give yourselves most of the credit.”

  Manuela returned her smile and went back in to talk to her mother. Angel glanced at Madison, then threw himself at her, lifting her off her feet and turning in a circle while he laughed out loud.

  “I can’t believe it. I didn’t think it was gonna go like this. My mom’s gonna be okay, I just know it… and so are we.” His expression turned solemn and he looked straight into Madison’s eyes before kissing her right there in the hallway. He immediately pulled back, then looked around nervously. “Crap, are you gonna get in trouble for that?”

  “Hey, I’m off the clock, remember? If they don’t want me kissing patients’ families, they should probably pay me!” She grabbed the front of Angel’s tee shirt and pulled him back for another kiss.

  Seconds later, Angel’s cell phone buzzed in his pocket. He ignored it, too intent on the way Madison felt in his arms to care.