Mustang nodded in appreciation. He knew all about how Rocco had met his wife on a mission, and how she’d saved his life.
Mustang tried to be open-minded, to not assume someone was weaker than he was simply because of their gender. Hell, he’d seen some amazingly strong women in the Navy, so it wasn’t that he thought women should be barefoot and pregnant or anything. Still, Rachel had shocked the shit out of him by not hesitating to kill the pirate. She’d even said she didn’t really like guns, despite shooting them before.
“She intrigues me. I know nothing about her, and yet I can’t stop thinking about her. I know it’s ridiculous. She could be dating that officer she’s with, or married, or a lesbian…it’s making me crazy.”
Rocco grinned. “For the record, if the long look back at you as we were walking away was any indication, I don’t think she’s into women or married. Of course, I could be wrong. But here’s the thing, Mustang, there aren’t a lot of women who can handle what we do. Kissing her goodbye and not being able to tell her where you’re going or when you’ll be back sucks. You need to find someone who’s strong enough to handle the stress that comes along with being a SEAL’s partner.
“She saved your life, man. I never thought I’d ever be in a situation where I needed a civilian to save my hide, but I did, and Caite is literally the best thing to ever happen to me. My advice is to go find Rachel. Tell her you’d like to see her again. I don’t know where she’s from or how that’ll work, but if you’re that interested, I advise you to do everything in your power to make it happen. At least make it clear to her that you want to see her again. You’ll regret it if you don’t.”
It was a long speech, which surprised him, but it was what Mustang needed to hear. He felt a bond growing with Rachel he hadn’t felt with many people in his life. She’d been scared to death, and yet she hadn’t hesitated to do what needed to be done.
“She’s the cook,” Mustang told his friend. “I bet she went down to check out her kitchen. Or at the very least, make sure the bodies of her crew mates were properly stored.”
“If anyone asks where you are, I’ll make sure they know you’re doing official SEAL shit so you’ll have time to talk to her.”
“Thanks, Rocco. I owe ya.”
“Nah, it’s what friends do.”
They shook hands once more and Mustang turned to head for the exit.
“You goin’ to find her?” Midas asked as he passed him.
“Yeah. I just want to make sure she’s okay after everything that happened,” Mustang said.
“Tell her thanks from the rest of us,” Aleck told him. “It would have sucked to have to get used to a new guy on the team if you’d gotten killed.”
Mustang rolled his eyes. Aleck had gotten his nickname partly because his last name was Smart, and partly because he was a smart aleck.
“Might do you all good to get someone new as team leader. They wouldn’t put up with your shit,” Mustang fired back.
“You know you love us!” Pid chimed in.
“Yeah, you’d be super sad if we weren’t around to give you that shit,” Jag added.
Slate just crossed his arms and smirked.
“I’ll be back soon. Don’t leave without me,” Mustang told his team.
“Never. Who’d do the paperwork if we left you?” Midas asked.
Mustang chuckled as he left the bridge. He passed a few Navy sailors who were standing guard and headed for the stairs leading down to the lower decks. He wasn’t sure what he was going to say to Rachel, but hopefully he’d figure it out by the time he found her.
Elodie felt horrible. She was exhausted and every muscle in her body hurt. Probably from all the exertion she wasn’t used to. Not to mention the stress and bouts of extreme terror she’d yo-yoed through for over twenty-four hours.
When she’d been escorted up to the bridge by the other SEALs, she’d been both relieved she was out of the engine room and terrified for Scott and his team. She knew they were going to go right back down into the bowels of the ship to try to find the missing pirate, or pirates, if there was more than one left lurking about.
She couldn’t believe she’d actually killed someone. Even though she’d lived through it, it felt as if the last few hours had happened to someone else. She wasn’t GI Jane, not even close, and yet she hadn’t really even hesitated to take that man’s life. What if he had a wife and children? Would they ever know what happened to him? No, he wasn’t exactly doing nice things, but did that make it okay for her to take his life?
She’d known deep down in her bones that he was going to kill Scott and Midas. He wouldn’t have hesitated, which is why she’d pulled the trigger. It was him or the men who’d risked their lives to save her, and everyone else left onboard.
When she’d gotten up to the bridge, there had been a bunch of people she’d never seen before doing what they could to try to keep the cargo ship from running aground. A female sailor was trying to manually steer the ship without the use of electricity or the engines. There had been lots of swearing, but amazingly she’d been able to straighten out the ship so it wasn’t sitting sideways in the middle of the strait.
Elodie had stayed as far away from the dead bodies of the captain and the others as she could. The men on the other SEAL team had moved to stand between her and the bodies, which she appreciated more than she could say.
She’d been relieved when word came up to the bridge that Scott and his team had found the last pirate. Not long after that, a few officers who’d taken refuge in the engine room appeared on the bridge…including Valentino. Elodie was glad to see he was alive, but she wasn’t prepared for him to throw his arms around her and hug her as if they were an item or something. She’d had to pry herself out of his arms and reassure him that she was fine.
The other officers told her they were glad to see her and had gotten to work helping the sailors get all the systems up and running again, now that the electricity was back on and they could communicate with the engineers below decks once again.
The SEAL team helped the sailors remove the bodies. She’d known they were taking them downstairs to the freezers. The thought of ever again going into whichever freezer they planned to use was revolting. Now that the danger was over, the only thing Elodie wanted to do was get off the ship altogether, which wasn’t possible at the moment.
She’d stayed on the bridge for a while watching the activity around her in a semi-trance. She wasn’t sure what she was supposed to do. Valentino offered to escort her down to the galley to check it out, and Elodie supposed she needed to clean things up down there. Remembering the way the pirates had rifled through the pantries and had broken glasses and stuff made her wince. The jar of spaghetti sauce Scott said the pirate had thrown against a wall would definitely need to be dealt with.
Yeah, even though she wanted off the ship, she still had a job to do. The crew still needed to eat, and they were probably all very hungry after not eating for so long.
So she’d agreed to Valentino’s escort. He wasn’t exactly a big strong Navy SEAL, but his company was better than the alternative…going below decks by herself. It would be a long time before she felt comfortable walking around the ship alone again, if ever. She knew she’d imagine pirates jumping out from behind every corner from now on.