Sworn to Secrecy (Special Ops) (4 page)

“That doesn’t surprise me,” he marched onward, tugging her beside him. She could either walk or be dragged.

“I got caught leaving my father’s office when I shouldn’t have been in there. He was bringing a guy inside while I was leaving. I made up an excuse for being in there, but I forgot to close his desk drawer all the way. I thought I had.”

“And he just left it open for you?”

“No…I picked the lock.”

“I don’t believe you. Keep walking.”

“He’ll kill me,” she wailed. He wanted to feel sorry for her, but her father had already told them she liked to make things up. He wasn’t even sure she was really in trouble at first until he sent a team in to find her and they turned up dead. That’s when he knew she was in trouble. That’s when he knew he had to get somebody more skilled to find her and bring her out. He came to their search and rescue agency and Alex, being the unlucky guy in this case, drew the shorter straw and had to go in to get her. It was supposed to be simple. Find her and bring her home was all that was included and that should have been a simple rescue, but nothing about this had been simple and she wasn’t trying to make it any easier. Never in his career of rescuing people had he ever come across somebody who didn’t want to be rescued. He figured she was just a few days away from wearing the native apparel—which was nothing on the top and very little on the bottom. Stockholm syndrome worked quickly he would guess, but then she probably wasn’t all there in the first place.

“Please don’t take me back?”

“I’m just doing my job, lady. Whatever daddy issues you have you can work them out with him when you get home.” As if he were buying her story. Ronald Jones was friendly with politicians from the lowest man on up to the president of the United States. The man was not guilty of sedition. He was contemplating that thought when a bullet struck a tree right next to him. He wrapped his arm around Carissa’s waist and threw her to the ground. “Stay down!” He pulled his weapon out and took the safety off, ready to shoot once he had the enemy in sight. Another rapid fire round hit the brush and trees around them.

“What the hell! They’re coming after you?”

“Are you that dumb?” Her voice was a calm panic, if there were such a thing. “Those are men my father sent after me. They no doubt followed you here.”

“Yeah right, lady.”

“Seriously, did you see any big machine guns where you found me?!”

“That’s not a machine gun,” he corrected her. He was angry because somebody was shooting at them and somebody had lied to him. Either she was lying or her father was and right now, seeing as though somebody with a big AK-47 was shooting at them, he would venture a guess she wasn’t the one lying. Still, he wasn’t ready to believe Ronald Jones was a traitor to his country. The man had helped some of the men he had served with get back to civilian life when they returned. He had found them jobs and homes; his money and his charitable work had helped do that. Maybe Ronald didn’t know the men personally, didn’t understand just how much this was personal to the team, but all of them had known guys who had gone off to battle with everything and came back to nothing at all. He knew a couple personally and when they benefited from one of the charitable organizations that Ronald had contributed greatly to he couldn’t help but admire the man even more. He couldn’t be a traitor. There had to be another explanation. Maybe somebody wanted to get to him and they were doing it by getting to his daughter.

“Stay low and move,” he growled. Simple search and rescue mission; yeah right. Villagers with primitive weapons; yeah right. Those weren’t primitive weapons. Those were weapons of war, and he wasn’t prepared for war. When they were out of fire range, from what he could tell anyway, he forced her up to her feet and they ran. He needed to use his SAT phone to call the guys. He also needed to contact the pilot and tell him to start the engines because they were coming in hot. He couldn’t make either call with the men on their tail. He needed to find a secure location where he could get a signal and make the call. The guys were first because if he couldn’t make the plane he needed backup. He also wanted some answers and somebody was going to have to start digging now. If he died the bastard behind this wasn’t going to get away with it.

He ran until he thought he had found a secure location and he stopped to make his call. It would have to be quick. They needed to keep moving and he needed to get to his backup jeep if he wanted to make the airstrip.

“Preston, I’m telling you something is off here. I have guys with AK-47s shooting at us. That’s not the primitive weapon of a villager. Something is up and Carissa assures me her father is not above board honest. Get some research done. I’m going to try to make the plane before nightfall. We’ll be coming in hot so make sure we don’t have any unwelcome visitors when we land.” He had barely finished his sentence when another round of gunfire came their way. He snapped the phone shut and secured it while returning fire. “Let’s go!” He grabbed her hand and pulled her up. She wasn’t up for long before she took a bullet in the outer portion of her upper thigh.

“Oh God!”

He knelt before her. “It’s a single entry—one bullet only, with no exit wound. The bullet is still in there. We have to keep moving.”

“I can’t,” she cried.

He couldn’t take the time to work on her injury. They had to move. He covered himself from another round of bullets before the man firing at him came into sight. He was definitely not a villager. That was an American, he was sure of that, and he was wearing military garb. That didn’t mean he was in the military. More like a militia. Alex took the kill shot, allowing them a chance to move before anybody else showed up. He tossed Carissa over his shoulder and ran with her. His jeep wasn’t that far away. They had to make it. They would make it. He was going to carry her because she couldn’t run on that leg and he couldn’t afford for her injury to slow them down.

His first priority was safety. Once he got her on the plane he could deal with taking care of her wound. He kept moving, knowing there were more behind him. He was sure of that because the gunfire had come from different angles. When he finally reached the area where he left the jeep he lowered Carissa to the ground and then removed the covering he had used to hide the jeep from anybody passing overhead. He tossed it and opened the door. “Come on,” he pulled her up and she hobbled to the car.

“I can do it,” she assured him.

“Do it faster,” he said right before another shot rang out; this one hit her in the back of her arm. He turned swiftly with weapon in hand and took several shots at the man who had shot her. The only thing left to do was get her in the car and get out of there before anybody else showed up. He pushed her into the vehicle, slammed the door and quickly got to the other side. He settled himself behind the wheel and took off toward the airstrip.

He contacted the pilot and told him he was coming in hot, to get the plane started because they wouldn’t have much time. There were too many of them, and he knew that. Something in his gut told him Carissa had been right. There was no way this was anything other than what she had said it was. Knowing that made him angry. He would find a way to bring her father down, but first he had to find a way to save her. She was going into shock.

He slammed on the breaks, jumped out of the car and hoisted her over his shoulder again. He dashed up the steps of the jet. Once he was in he dumped her in a seat before helping secure the door closed. Julian started moving immediately. That was his job; Alex’s job was to save Carissa and he was going to do it.

He pulled out the emergency kit and went to work. The second bullet wasn’t a through and through either. He was going to have to dig it out and he couldn’t completely put her out. He opened a pack of painkillers and popped one into her mouth before grabbing a bottle of water, opening it, and helping her drink. She coughed and sputtered.

“Stay with me, honey.” He brushed his hand through her hair as he reclined the seat so that he could work on her. He attended to her leg first because she was losing the most blood from there. He was thankful the bullet hadn’t gone too deep. Once he had it dug out and the wound as secure as possible he rolled her over and set about digging the bullet out of the back of her arm. She moaned and groaned at the pain once again. There wasn’t much he could do about that. He knew she was hurting. He’d had bullets dug out of him in the field too; when no hospital was around and there was no ability to completely put him under because he still needed to be conscious in case of an attack. He knew she was hurting but the only thing he could do was try to get the bullet out, patch her up and finish quickly enough so that she didn’t have to suffer much longer.

“You’re going to be okay,” he assured himself more than her. Right now his heart was going out to this woman. She didn’t deserve this. Somebody was going to have to pay for this—he was going to see to it.

She passed out somewhere between his digging for the bullet and actually getting it out. Fortunately it wasn’t too deep either. She would live and the wounds would heal. At least he could offer her that comfort. When he finished stitching her wounds closed he kept checking to make sure she was still breathing. He needed to focus. He needed to change course.

He knocked on the cockpit door before entering.

“How is she?”

“Not good, but she’ll live. The injuries aren’t as bad as they could have been. I think the bullet must have hit something else first, gone through something that slowed it down. The impact for her wasn’t as deep as it could have been.”

“What the hell happened back there? I thought we were dealing with villagers and primitive weapons. Guns aren’t primitive.”

“I know that. She told me a story, Julian. One that tells me we’ve all been played because Ronald Jones is not the man he claims to be. We need to divert course. I don’t trust what he’ll do if he gets his hands on her. Fly into the Keys, and get a secure line to let Preston know of the change. I can’t chance going back to Austin right now.”

“Got it,” he agreed and set course to their new destination. He looked at Alex. “Is all that her blood or did you take a hit?”

Alex looked down at his ribcage. “It’s hers.”

“Are you sure she’s going to make it?”

“I’m sure she better make it,” he growled.

Carissa opened her eyes to find green ones staring back at her. “Where am I?” She couldn’t go back to Texas. It would get her killed if she did. She needed to get in touch with Agent Garrison. She would know what to do. She was the one who had promised her she would be safe if she helped them take the terrorist ring down.

“We’re in the Keys. We’re in a safe location. My friends are working on some things. I didn’t want to take you back to Texas just yet. I have questions that I need answers to before I take you back there.”

“It hurts,” she tried to sit up, but he gently pressed one hand against her shoulder to keep her down.

“I know. I’m sorry I couldn’t stitch you up more neatly. You’ll have scars.”

“I’ll live—for now.”

“Why did you decide to turn against your father?”

“So you believe me now,” she forced a smile. He was handsome. That was the first thing she noticed when he snuck into her tent. The green eyes and the brownish-blond hair were the stuff fantasies were made from. The hot body didn’t hurt either. She could tell it was a hot body even under all that stuff he was wearing.

He shrugged. “I’ll take my chances with the person who didn’t just unload several rounds on my location. Now, why did you turn against your father?”

Clearly he wasn’t one to dish out a lot of conversation. He wanted answers and he wanted them now. She didn’t know where to start really. Deciding to tell on her father’s activities was one of the hardest decisions she had to make. Telling on him was like betraying the man who had sheltered her, protected her, guided her and supported her—not to mention loved her, since the day she was born. Turning him in was so wrong, but at the same time it was the right thing to do…at least that’s what she thought at the time.