“Yeah, good idea. Do me a favor, would you? Call Blake and have him search the slope to the west. Let me know if you see or hear anything.” Jesus! I can’t believe I let her slip away. MacGyver shook his head. If he didn’t move now, he’d fall apart. “I gotta go, Travis.”
“Hey, MacGyver, we’ll find her.” Travis spoke with enough conviction to give MacGyver a flash of hope.
“Yeah. Sooner rather than later.” MacGyver ended the call, sent his GPS coordinates to Travis and approached the base of the tree to begin his search.
Blood on the ground caught his eye first, and his temper spiked again. The sonofabitch who hurt her had gotten off far too easy. MacGyver raked a hand through his hair. Get it together, man. He couldn’t lose it now. Best case scenario, Kellie was hurt, traumatized and alone. He had to find her. No other option existed, and he’d need all of his faculties and training to pull it off.
She’d left plenty of prints under the tree, wearing the same sandals she’d left his hotel room in. Strappy little numbers that were worse than useless for this terrain. Yet, she hadn’t complained once on their hike down the hill that morning. And he’d treated her as though she had the plague. He’d been an ass. If he was ever going to get her to forgive him, groveling would definitely be involved. He’d have to find her before he could forgive himself.
Her path led straight downhill. MacGyver texted Travis before he started after her. She’d been running, her long strides covering the ground as she zigzagged, slipped and fell, picked herself up and ran again. It was thirty minutes of steady walking before he found a spot where it looked as though she’d stopped to rest. When she started out again, she’d been walking in a northwestern direction, toward town. He texted the course correction to Travis and pressed on.
He’d heard the chopper making passes above the treetops, but the forest was so dense, he hadn’t spotted them yet. It was unlikely they were seeing anything on the ground, either. MacGyver was about to text Blake and call him off or have him move lower, where the trees weren’t as thick, when the chopper’s speed suddenly increased, and the sound got louder and closer. His phone vibrated in his hand, and a burst of adrenaline shot through his veins. Blake must have found something.
“What do you have?” MacGyver’s world stood still as he waited, hoping the news wasn’t bad.
“Hey, MacGyver. This chopper I borrowed is sweet. Did I tell you it has thermal imaging equipment onboard? Do you think Palazzi would let me keep it?” Blake laughed.
MacGyver looked skyward, hearing the helicopter overhead, but the tall pine and fir trees still blocked his view. He squeezed his eyes closed for a second in gratitude. Thermal imaging meant Blake knew exactly where MacGyver was—his body would be lit up in red on a screen somewhere in front of the aircraft. And Blake’s relaxed banter no doubt meant he knew where Kellie was also.
“If you’ve got good news for me, Blake, I’ll buy the damn thing for you.”
“Well, we’re not out of the woods yet—no pun intended—but if you keep walking another five hundred yards straight ahead, you’ll run right into her.” The teasing in his voice faded, and he paused. “MacGyver, be advised, Kellie’s horizontal, and she’s not moving. She appears to be at the bottom of a rock face. I can’t land nearby, but I’ll get as close as I can and bring a first aid kit.”
“Let Travis know where she is, would you, Blake?” Without waiting for an answer, he shoved his phone in his pocket, breaking into a run. No! Goddammit! She did not fall off a fucking cliff! She had to be okay because he…loved her. Shit! Where had that come from? Did he? He couldn’t. They were practically strangers. Besides, he didn’t do long-term relationships, so that ruled out being in love with her, didn’t it?
So, asshole, why is your heart beating like a bongo drum while you risk a broken neck racing down this mountain to make sure she’s still in one piece? The devil on his other shoulder apparently had no answer for that one.
MacGyver barely had time to pull up at the edge of a rocky overhang. The ground disappeared abruptly. A sheer drop of ten feet or so became dirt, shale and underbrush, where the huge boulder met the hillside. The steep slope continued another fifty to sixty feet until the terrain began to level out. Near the bottom, Kellie lay on her back, her torso pressed against a tree trunk, her bound hands thrown over her head.
His gut ached as though he’d been sucker punched one too many times. He leaped from the crest of the boulder, hitting the shale-covered slope on the heels of both feet, and slid the rest of the way down on the seat of his pants.
Kellie lay motionless. Her shirt flapped open, exposing bare skin the color of chalk. Even the red of her lips faded to obscurity. As he focused solely on her still form, the entire forest seemed to go silent. Squirrels stopped their chatter. Birds interrupted their songs. Even the wind, swirling through the branches above his head, paused.
MacGyver laid his hand at the upper edge of her bra, adjusting his breaths to match her faint ones as her chest rose in a shallow inhale. She’s alive, and her heart is beating strong and steady. He dropped his chin and sent up a silent thank you as he struggled to contain the emotions that rocked him.
“Kellie? Hey, Champ, let me see those gorgeous green eyes.” He alternated between rubbing her arms and wrists and smoothing his hand over her face, while coming down from the panic-high that had nearly undone him. MacGyver frowned, inspecting the bruise forming on her right cheek and the split lip that hadn’t been there before. A blast of anger toward the man who’d hurt her clenched a muscle in his jaw. Too bad he’s dead. A blade to the heart was too merciful.
Kneeling over her, he brushed dirt, twigs and cheatgrass from her hair with his fingers. Not that snarls and knots in her wavy strands were anywhere near the worst of her injuries. The inch-long cut on her throat had bled a lot, but the placement and depth could only have been for intimidation. The bastard had wanted her afraid for her life.
In repose, her features, free from the guilt and remorse she normally wore, radiated an aura of innocence that teased him with the story of who she’d been before Iraq. She would never totally return to that person who’d existed previous to the incident that’d injured Blake’s brother. MacGyver should know.
He ran his hands over her legs and arms, checking for breaks or cuts. Satisfied there were none, he dug for his pocket knife and cut the ropes that bound her wrists. Kellie moaned as he brought her arms down to her sides, reminding him of the night he took her to his hotel room—her curled into a ball on his bed, passed out cold. The moans and whimpers escaping as she slept had cemented his need to rescue her. He smiled at the recollection, although who had rescued who the most was open to interpretation.
Releasing a sigh, he tapped her cheek gently. “Open your eyes, Kellie. You’re safe. It’s me—MacGyver. I’m right here, darlin’. I’m not going anywhere without you.” Amazingly, he’d almost added ever to the end of that sentence. Like forever was something he knew anything about. Neither could he identify the emotions whirling in his chest, all of them centering on the woman beside him. A sharp pain cut him in half every time the idea of not being close to her crossed his mind.
She stirred, shielding her face from the sun while she observed him without a hint of surprise. She might still have been unconscious, except for her intense regard that caressed his face as surely as if she’d touched him. The brilliant green of her eyes eased the pain in his chest—and suddenly forever didn’t seem like nearly enough.
Chapter Twenty
“Hey, Champ. Are you hurt?” MacGyver grinned down at her, his presence by her side so right in a world that had gone so wrong.
She studied every inch of his familiar, confident, caring face, then reached to touch the laceration on the left side, near his temple. Her fingers skimmed the nasty gash, a frown starting until he caught her hand and pressed it to his lips.
“Talk to me, baby. Can you move you
r legs?” The words rasped from his throat, sounding stern, contradicting the relief in his expression.
And he called me baby.
Kellie opened her mouth, licked her bottom lip and formed a word, but no sound made it past the constriction in her throat. She tried again and managed a whisper. “Did you get him?”
MacGyver pushed his baseball cap up a notch, letting her see more of his eyes. “It’s okay. You’re safe. He won’t ever hurt you again. We’re going to get you fixed up as soon as Blake gets here with the first aid kit.”
A million questions crowded into her brain, but she didn’t have the energy for all of them. “How did you find me?”
MacGyver leaned closer, and the tension in his face clearly said he’d gone to hell and back since she’d last seen him. “Actually, Blake located you on the infrared in the helo.”
Kellie’s gaze slid away from MacGyver’s. She’d been wrong about Blake. MacGyver had every right to call her on not listening to Blake’s side of the story—not giving him a chance to explain. If not for him coming to their rescue with a helicopter, the ambush Tony’s men had planned might have worked. She and Pop would no doubt be at the mercy of Tony right now. MacGyver and the others…most likely dead. Regardless of what Blake thought of her, he’d been loyal to his friend.
MacGyver, condoning Blake’s reaction to her role in his brother’s injury, had hurt her only because she’d allowed herself to fall for him, and his opinion had cut her to the core. That was on her. Maybe Blake and MacGyver were right. Maybe defending an Iraqi citizen, resulting in the paralysis of an Army soldier, made her a traitor to her brothers and sisters in uniform. She didn’t know anymore.
He squeezed her hand and smiled when she turned back. Sympathy and regret radiated from him. “Kellie, I’m sorry, but—”
A whistle interrupted him, and he jerked his attention toward the rock face looming above them. Kellie followed his line of sight. Blake waved from the top and then started down, walking along a deer trail worn into the hillside to the right of the boulder.
MacGyver stood. “We’ll talk later, okay?”
Listening to what he had to say was probably the right thing to do, but she didn’t want to know what he was sorry about. Given the circumstances, it couldn’t be good. “Sure. Later.” Time alone was what she really needed—time to figure out her own feelings, especially now that she’d started to doubt the validity of her actions. She sat up straight and shifted to lean against the tree. As best she could, she arranged the edges of her torn shirt to cover her bare skin.
MacGyver shrugged out of his jacket and held it toward her. “Wear this.”
Kellie leaned forward and MacGyver draped it over her shoulders, bringing the ends together in front of her. His hands fisted in the lapel, he held her, moved closer and pressed his warm lips to her forehead. It was such a sweet act of kindness and caring—just not the one she wanted. Kellie closed her eyes against the threat of tears. She wouldn’t cry over something that was never meant to be.
A moment later, Blake thrust a first aid kit toward MacGyver. “Well, what’s the prognosis? Will she make it?”
Kellie raised her chin, glad for an opportunity to focus on Blake. “Hey. I’m right here, Sorenson. If you want to know something about me, ask me.” Later, she’d catch him alone and apologize for misjudging him. For now, she gave him her best go-ahead-I-dare-you look.
Blake shot her an amused smirk, and his good-natured laugh eased some of her guilt.
He crossed his arms and puffed out his chest. “All right, Corporal. Answer me this. Have you always been so damned disagreeable?”
Kellie allowed her focus to travel from his head to his toes, then looked away and shrugged. “Damn right, sailor.”
Blake raised a brow, his expression stony. The next instant, he threw his head back and hooted a laugh. Turning to MacGyver, he slapped him on the shoulder. “She’s gonna be fine, Bro. Too damn ornery to stop fighting just because some lightweight gangster doesn’t play well with others. Open that kit. Let’s get the woman fixed up. What are you waiting for?”
MacGyver did as his friend suggested, casting Kellie a curious glance.
Who would have thought Blake Sorenson would ever understand me better than MacGyver? Yeah, maybe hell did just freeze over.
Blake knelt in front of her and held the open first aid kit MacGyver handed him. “I ran into Travis after we landed. He was on his way to meet up with you, but I asked him to backtrack to the chopper and stay with Charlie and Jeremy in case there was trouble.”
“Good idea.” MacGyver cleaned and applied antiseptic ointment to her busted lip and the cut on her neck. “The man who did this to Kellie claimed Palazzi was on the move. I think Charlie is off his radar for now. Unfortunately, my aim was a little off. He didn’t have an opportunity to tell me where Palazzi was heading.” He fixed a butterfly bandage to her throat, his touch sending warmth radiating through her.
“There you go—good as new. Think you can walk?” With a wink and a smile, MacGyver held out a hand to help her up.
“I can walk.” She was in a hell of a lot better shape than if MacGyver hadn’t come for her. “Which way?”
“About a half mile…straight up.” Blake jabbed a thumb back the way she’d come.
Kellie laughed and shook her head. “You couldn’t have parked that thing on the downhill side, huh?”
MacGyver’s phone vibrated and he checked the screen before accepting the call. “Hey, Travis. Where are you?…Palazzi? What happened?…Charlie knows better, right? I warned him Palazzi might try that.”
“What’s wrong? Is Pop okay?” Kellie tried to squelch her impatience when MacGyver wouldn’t answer her.
“Yeah, I can see how that would upset him. Kellie’s right here. Calm down and put Charlie on the phone.” MacGyver held out the device and started to chuckle as he kept her from raising it to her ear. “He needs to know where you are and that you’re all right. He’s holding Travis and Jeremy at gunpoint, giving them one chance to prove Palazzi doesn’t have you.”
Kellie almost laughed at the image of her pop holding a Navy SEAL and a US Marshal hostage, but she cleared her throat and managed to swallow her amusement. “Pop?”
“Kellie?”
“It’s me, Pop. You can let Travis and Jeremy go. I’m fine.”
She heard him exhale. “Palazzi said he’d kill you. I wasn’t there when Anna needed me. I wasn’t going to let anything happen to you.”
Kellie’s eyes misted. “I know. You’ve always been my hero. You know that, right?” Was he crying? “Everything’s okay. MacGyver and Blake are with me, and we’re heading your way. We’ll go somewhere far away from here, where Tony will never bother us again. Don’t shoot the guys, Pop. They saved our lives.”
An awkward silence filled a brief moment. “I’ll try to stay out of trouble.”
“Might be too late for that. See you soon.” Kellie ended the call and handed the phone to MacGyver. Then she took the point, starting up the deer trail that led to the top of the rock outcrop.
Twenty-five minutes later, worn-out, battered and fighting a headache from hell, Kellie crawled into the belly of the chopper and hugged Pop. As soon as she slid down the bulkhead and sat, Chip climbed in her lap and welcomed her with whimpers and butt wiggles.
Blake, Travis and Jeremy remained outside and followed MacGyver to a spot a few feet from the open bay door. They huddled and spoke quietly together. Paranoid as she’d become, Kellie tried not to jump to the conclusion they were discussing her, but a balloon of dread inflated in her stomach just the same. If not her, what were they talking about, and why hadn’t she and Pop been included in the confab? She pushed Chip from her legs and stood just as the group disbanded and strode toward the chopper.
Blake hopped in, threw her a grin and continued to the front to slip behind the controls. Jeremy cli
mbed up as the engine cranked over and the rotor blades hummed into action. Kellie watched as he stuffed an extra water bottle in both MacGyver’s and Travis’s packs and carried them to the opening.
MacGyver’s glance skittered over her as he took his pack from Jeremy and shrugged it onto his shoulders. Fear pierced her chest like a knife. He wasn’t coming with them. He and Travis were…what? Going after Tony and his hired guns—just the two of them? Were they crazy?
Her hands squeezed into fists as she rushed to the bay doorway. “What are you doing?” She had to raise her voice to be heard over the engine noise.
He slanted his head up to look at her, and the sexy grin that had grown so familiar nearly knocked her legs from beneath her. He reached for her ankle, slowly skimming his hand to her calf. The intimacy of his touch was almost unbearable.
He leaned closer. “Thanks to Palazzi calling Charlie and demanding he surrender, we know he left here thirty minutes ago, and he’s headed for Felts Field, outside Spokane. Figured we’d take Charlie’s car and surprise him.” MacGyver zeroed in on the left side of her face, where she was sure an ugly bruise and swelling had done her looks no favors. “The bastard has terrorized you, your sister and Charlie long enough. It ends today.”
“Going up against that many men—just you and Travis—it’s suicide! Don’t go, MacGyver. Let the Justice Department and the marshals have him.” Kellie was about one argument away from panic, and she struggled to calm down.
MacGyver shook his head. “Even if they get a conviction for murder, he’ll be up for parole in ten years. Anna will have to stay in hiding, and you’ll have to disappear too, because a man like that doesn’t forget. Is that what you want, Kellie?”
Her hands balled into fists. “So…you’re going to…what? Kill him?”
MacGyver glanced away as though a barrier had dropped between them. “Excuse me if I don’t share your horror, Kellie. Travis and me…that’s what we’ve been trained to do. We run toward a battle, not away. We get in the thick of it and stir the shit and then use the resulting chaos to gain control. When someone in the chain of command decides a despicable piece of dirt is too dangerous to let live, they send men like us. Today, that someone is me. Right or wrong, Kellie, I’m not going to let him have another shot at you.” He released her leg and shifted until he found her eyes again. “It’s time for Palazzi to pay up.”
Honor Among SEALs Page 24