Waiting... On You (Force Recon Marines)

by S A Monk

  Since then, she could have sworn that she had been followed home from work each night. Since he grandmother’s house sat at the end of McHenry Point Road, it was pretty easy to spot unusual traffic. Not many people used the road; only those who lived along it or those who were sightseeing. However, who went sightseeing at midnight? She wasn’t a woman given to a fearful imagination, but she’d been spooked the last few nights. She couldn’t shake the feeling that someone was watching her.

  She’d been checking over her shoulder since she’d left the house this morning. It was too early for there to be much traffic on the coastal highway. So far, she had not noticed anyone trailing behind her today.

  She’d pedaled about half way around the ten-mile circular bike path when she found her thoughts turning to Nick Kelly. On duty in Afghanistan, near the Pakistani border, he was in command of several special-operation teams. What exactly he and his fireteams were up to was classified, of course.

  He had risen to the rank of Major in the United States Marine Corps and was involved in some very secretive, dangerous missions. He’d been a Force Recon Marine for most of his career. Several years ago, he’d been incorporated into the newly created special operations component of the Corps called MARSOC.

  Ever since she had known him, Nick had wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps. Nick Kelly Sr. had died in Vietnam saving his Marine recon unit and a Navy SEAL team from a North Vietnamese Army ambush. Posthumously, he had been awarded the Medal of Honor. Jessie and her two young sons had gone to the ceremony in Washington D.C to receive Nick Sr.’s medal from the President. Then they had buried him at Arlington Cemetery.

  Nick had been old enough to remember his father well, and to understand the extent of his heroic self-sacrifice. He had told Hanna once how deeply his father’s death had affected him. After Jessie had married Sean Price, who’d been a close friend and a member of Nick Sr.’s squadron, the boys heard even more tales about their father’s bravery and conduct as a Recon Marine.

  Nick had done an admirable job following his father’s example, and he now had put enough years in the Corps to retire, but Hanna knew he wouldn’t. With his new promotion to Lieutenant Colonel, he would no doubt remain a Marine for years to come. And why not? He was only thirty-eight. With his connections and outstanding service record, it seemed highly likely that he’d make general someday.

  Hanna was as proud of him as his brother and mother were. Everyone who knew him was proud of the service he had given his country. But deep in her selfish heart, she had secretly hoped he might retire and come home to help his brother run the family boat and salvage business. There had been years and years of letters and brief visits home, but nothing to satisfy her longing for more.

  Once Hanna reached the southern tip of her route, she stopped at a roadside picnic area. Setting her bike against a tree, she chained it, then grabbed her knapsack and headed for a grassy hill. On the downside, she sank onto the grass, took a long drink of water, and pulled out an energy bar. The waves from the bay lapped against the rocks below her with a soft clapping sound.

  Tourists had started to arrive on the peninsula, but it wasn’t over-crowded yet. There were just a few boats out on the water; a couple of motor boats, a fishing boat, and half a dozen sailboats. Driven by the gentle, salt-scented breeze, the sailboats glided over the azure blue water like butterflies floating on air currents.

  Hanna half wished she was out there with them. She loved sailing. She loved the water. She often imagined she must have been a fish in another life. The water had always beckoned her. It was cold most of the year this far north, but in the summer, she put on her wet suit to dive and swim from her boat.

  As a child she’d learned to sail and dive alongside her brother and the Kelly boys. Her grandfather had frequently taken all of them out on his fishing boat. As teenagers, they had earned money by helping him bring in the catch.

  While they had learned to crew a fishing troller from Ben McHenry, Sean Price had taught them to dive and sail. In addition to the boat shop Jessie and Sean Price had operated, they’d conducted underwater salvage operations. Dylan and Hanna had regularly joined the Price family on their salvage dives in and around Puget Sound. Except for Jessie, they were all avid divers.

  Life with her maternal grandparents had been good. Colleen and Ben McHenry lived on the west side of Quimper Peninsula, fifteen miles or so from the little coastal community of Port George, Washington. The original hundred acres settled by the McHenry ancestors was situated on a headland that was landmarked with their name.

  Their neighbors, the Prices, lived on land adjacent to the McHenrys. When Sean Price had come back from Vietnam, he sought out his commanding officer’s young wife to personally tell her about his friend’s heroism. A year later, he and Jessie Kelly married one another, and when he got out of the Marine Corps, he took his new family home with him to the Pacific Northwest.

  Hanna had been five when she had first met Lance and Nick Kelly. Despite their initial reluctance to let a girl tag along, they had eventually let Hanna join them on all of their adventures. It had been a happy carefree childhood, full of many wonderful memories.

  Born with an extremely high IQ, Hanna had moved rapidly through school. At fifteen, she had graduated from high school with Nick, though she was nearly four years younger than him.

  High school had been difficult. Besides the social impediment of being pathetically shy, she’d been too young, too smart, and too geeky-looking in her thick-lensed, dark-rimmed glasses. Trendy eyeglasses and clothes were beyond her grandparents’ financial capability. She couldn’t compete with the popular girls in looks or social maturity. As a result, she’d been the target of frequent, often malicious teasing.

  She’d tried to avoid the kids who had bullied her, but nothing had really worked―except Nick Kelly. He was a popular, good-looking athlete who had excelled at several sports. Whenever he caught someone teasing her, he put a stop to it. He’d always been her defender and her champion. His support had made high school bearable.

  Maybe if she’d gotten a few social genes along with all her smart ones, she would have been less alone all through school. By her senior year, she was more than ready to see high school come to an end. She’d always known what she was going to do with her life. Her parents’ altruistic lifestyle and self-sacrifice had inspired Hanna to become a doctor. Being inspired by the deeds of their parents was something she and Nick had in common.

  Her senior year, she applied for and won an academic scholarship to the University of Washington, in Seattle. The only thing she’d wanted more, at that point, was to attend her senior prom with Nick Kelly.

  It was kind of like wishing for the moon. He was simply too popular with the girls. He’d always had lots of dates and lots of girlfriends; one right after the other. Hanna had sadly watched the endless parade of them. It wasn’t any surprise that he had a date for the prom months in advance. In fact by that point, he had been exclusively dating one of the cheerleaders. But two weeks before the end-of-school-year event, the stupid girl broke up with him.

  At barely fifteen, no one had asked Hanna to go to her senior prom. She hadn’t expected anyone to. Who wanted to go with an underage, brainy, tongue-tied, skinny geek? She had thought about asking Lance, who was only a junior, but she really couldn’t generate any interest in going and watching Nick spend all evening dancing with the most popular girl in school.

  But a week before the big event, he had shown up on her doorstep and shocked her speechless when he’d asked her to go to the prom with him! Dumbfounded, she’d wondered what had happened to his date. He’d told her he and his cheerleading hottie had gotten into an argument. The girl had cancelled their date to the prom. Secretly, Hanna thought the girl must have had rocks for brains!

  Angry over the whole arrangement for some reason, Lance later told her that his mother had asked Nick to ask Hanna. Luckily, the revelation had come after the big event, and while it hurt, it didn’t
diminish her memories of her big date with Nick.

  To her delight, Jessie took her shopping and bought her a beautiful full-length gown that was stylish enough to compare favorably with all the other girls’ formal dresses. Jessie had also taken her to get her hair trimmed and fashionably styled. Then she’d gotten her ears pierced, something she had wanted to do forever!

  By the time Nick had picked her up, she hadn’t recognized herself in the mirror. Nick’s reaction had mirrored her own. He’d been so stunned by her altered appearance, he’d been tongue-tied.

  In the week prior, Hanna had watched him get repeatedly teased for taking her to the prom. She’d been sure that he’d renege, or at the very least, ditch her once he got to the dance. But he had done neither. The entire evening, he had been completely attentive, never once leaving her side.

  He’d even refrained from complaining when she’d stepped on his toes while dancing because she’d refused to wear her eyeglasses. Except at very close range, she was virtually blind without the thick lenses, but vanity had won out over common sense for that one special night. Of course, Nick had had to lead her everywhere, but it had suited her just fine to cling to his arm all night.

  After the dance, she had expected him to take her straight home. Instead, he’d taken her to the post prom parties with him. Nick’s feather-brained ex-girlfriend had tried hard all night to get his attention, but he’d never once bothered with her.

  Then, miracle of miracles, at the end of Hanna’s magical Cinderella night, he had given her her first kiss. She’d fantasized about him being the first one to kiss her for so long that she was over the moon when it actually happened. And oh, it had been everything she’d dreamed of! Not a quick polite kiss, either. Even in her inexperience, she had known immediately that it had been full of restrained passion. And she’d seen how it had surprised him. After twenty years, that kiss was still imprinted on her memory as if it had happened yesterday.

  The summer after graduation had been a special one. She and Nick had been particularly close for two and a half months. It had been an unexpected moment out of time. Then they had gone their separate ways. Nick had gone off to the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, and she had moved into a dorm room at the University of Washington on a full scholarship. Across the country from one another, they wrote often, and that first year, she had helped him long distance with his academic assignments. As a first string linebacker for Navy’s football team, he’d had trouble adjusting to the rigorous schedule of a student athlete.

  In the twenty years that followed, they had continued to write to one another regularly. They also saw each other whenever he came home. Except for a brief interlude three years ago, there had never been enough time together, though. Much to Hanna’s regret, they remained best friends, but nothing more. Not that she wanted to lose his friendship, but she had always hoped that one day he would see her as more than a lifelong friend.

  Sometimes Hanna wondered if she’d still be waiting for Nick Kelly when she was old and gray. No one had ever come close to replacing him in her heart. She had always been helplessly and hopelessly in love with him, and she probably would be until the day she died.

  Now, he was coming home again, after being gone three long years. Colleen had told her that his commander had given him all the leave he needed to assist his family in finding his brother. Hanna was elated and yet scared to death. No doubt, they’d be seeing a lot of each other as they worked to discover what had happened to Dylan and Lance. Her life was in an upheaval as it was, and Nick Kelly’s extended visit was undoubtedly going to bring even more chaos.

  CHAPTER 3

  “THAT WAS A NICE PIECE OF EMERGENCY SURGERY, DR. WALLACE.”

  Rick Penman was a resident physician who frequently assisted Hanna in surgery. As they stood side by side at the sink, removing their surgical gloves, then washing their hands, his compliment made her smile self-consciously. A blush heated her face. Compliments always made her feel awkward, but one of her teachers at medical school, a favorite, had told her once just to be gracious and say thank you, so she did.

  “I was afraid he’d lost too much blood from that leg laceration. That was a bad car accident out on Highway 20. The cops were saying the guy who caused it was high on something,” Dr. Penman told her.

  Hanna shook her head as she left the operating room with the young doctor. “I heard he was hardly injured.”

  “Just a few scratches. The triage nurse patched him up before the arresting officer took him over to the police station for booking.”

  “The young man we operated on was lucky. If he’d been older all that blood loss probably would have killed him. He should be fine, eventually.”

  She’d had to stop the rapid and heavy blood loss from a deep wound to the man’s right leg. In addition, he’d suffered broken bones in the both legs when he’d gotten trapped in his demolished car. The firemen at the scene had used the Jaws of Life to extricate him from his totaled vehicle.

  One thing she saw a lot of in the emergency room at George Vancouver County General Hospital was car accident victims, especially during tourist season. Too many were caused by intoxicated drivers, drunk, or lately, high on drugs. Port George was a community of around 9,000, so they hadn’t had much of a drug problem, until recently. And it wasn’t just pot or amphetamines or barbiturates. They were seeing more and more cases of cocaine overdoses in ER, even heroin occasionally.

  “Are you done for the day?”

  Hanna glanced at her watch. “Yes, barring any more accident victims coming through those doors before I get out of here.”

  It was Friday night, and she was anxious to get home; to take a long hot bath and curl up with a good book. She’d worked twelve-hour days all week. But she had the weekend off. Then she had only one more week until her two week vacation. Besides being the chief trauma surgeon at the hospital, she was head of ER, though you’d never know it by her arduous work routine. No perks for her.

  But she loved her job, and she loved the emergency room. People needed a good doctor when they came into the ER. She felt like she was doing something important, not just making money. She hadn’t gone into medicine to make money. She’d wanted to make a real difference; to help people. And she loved the nonstop energy of the emergency room. It kept her sharp and on her toes. You had to assess quickly and correctly in emergency situations. George Vancouver County General wasn’t as fast paced or as challenging as Harbor View Medical Center in Seattle had been, but she had more responsibility as head of ER, so it made up for the slower pace.

  Though she certainly needed the rest, her vacation was going to be a working one. She was going to spend her two weeks looking for Lance and trying to solve the mystery of her brother’s death, with or without Nick Kelly’s help and in spite of the fact that he had told his mother to tell her to leave it alone until he got home.

  Well, he hadn’t come home yet, and she wasn’t going to sit around waiting for him. She planned on interviewing the folks who lived around Nat Simm’s place, and she was going to make a more thorough exploration of Discovery Bay. She’d dive the entire bay, if she had to. And while she was at it, she just might try to find Lance’s worthless ex-wife, not that she thought it would do much good, but at this point, anything was worth a try.

  Hanna was just about to go into the doctor’s lounge where her locker was located, when Rick Penman caught her arm and stopped her. “Want to go have a drink or a cup of coffee?”

  The man beside her was only two years younger than Hanna, but she felt much older than him. She’d done her residency ten years ago. She had a lot more experience than he did. Not only was she head of ER, but she taught medical classes at the University of Washington during the regular school year and lectured frequently at other medical facilities in the Puget Sound. He was a very nice man. He was even moderately attractive, and he was an excellent physician with a promising future. But she just wasn’t attracted to him.

  “Sorry, Rick, but
I’m so tired tonight, I just want to go home and soak in a tub of hot water. It’s been a long week.” She hated disappointing him, so she smiled and left him a little hope. “Maybe next week after one of our shifts together.”

  Rick definitely didn’t look too happy. “I’m not sure we have any shifts together next week, but I’ll hold you to some future date.”

  Hanna smiled again and nodded, wondering if she had given him the wrong impression about an actual date. Well, as always, the social graces were not her forte.

  At the back of the lounge, she opened her locker and pulled out the clothes she’d been wearing before surgery, then headed toward the women’s dressing room.

  After a quick shower, Hanna dumped her scrubs in the laundry bin and slipped into her red linen dress. With a button-up front, it had a shirt-style collar and a deep neckline, cap sleeves and twin pockets over her breasts. The tailored darts in the front and back created a form-fitting effect that flattered her tall, willowy figure. Her red high-heeled sandals matched the dress. It was one of her favorite outfits, feminine, but professional.

  Unfortunately, her hair was not nearly as neat and stylish. Once again, it was in a short French braid. Loose wisps of honey blonde hair had escaped to curl around her face and neck, proof that it had been another long hard day. She repaired it as best she could, then headed back to her locker where she reached into the pocket of her white hospital jacket and dug out her eye glasses. Because she was always misplacing them, she kept extra pairs everywhere, in her coat pocket, her purse, the operating room, at home, in her car. It was ridiculous. She ought to just get laser surgery. She had contacts, but they were troublesome for her, so she didn’t wear them often.

  After grabbing her shoulder purse, she headed for the exit. At the double doors that separated the emergency care rooms from the waiting area, she came to a dead halt. Through one of the small windows in the door, she saw Nick Kelly on the other side, talking to some of the staff.