There was a moment of silence on the other end, and Rex’s stomach clenched in concern. Rocco didn’t usually beat around the bush. It had to be something bad.
“It’s Avery,” Rocco said quietly.
For a second, Rex wasn’t sure who his friend was talking about.
Then it hit him. “My Avery?”
It was a silly thing to say. Avery Nelson wasn’t his. They weren’t even dating. He’d flirted with her, and she’d flirted back. Rex had made extra trips to the hospital to see her, and he was working up the courage to ask her out. But she’d been gone for about a month and a half. She’d been assigned to a special detail that had gone to Afghanistan for a humanitarian mission…to help teach nursing skills to women.
But she was the only Avery he knew, and if Rocco was being extra careful in telling him what was going on, it had to be her.
“Yeah. She’s MIA. Ten days ago, a small arms convoy was attacked near the clinic she was assigned to assist.”
Rex’s blood ran cold. “What’s our mission?” he asked.
He was breaking protocol. Both he and Rocco knew they weren’t supposed to talk over the phone about where they were going or what they were being sent to do, but he couldn’t stop the question from popping out.
“Rescue,” Rocco said briefly. “Friendlies in the area said she and a couple of others from the convoy were taken up into the caves in the mountains nearby.”
“So she’s alive?” Rex asked as he threw some necessities into a duffle bag.
“As far as we know, yes,” Rocco said.
Taking a deep breath, Rex said, “I’ll be there in thirty minutes or less.”
“Drive safe,” Rocco said, then hung up the phone.
Rex closed his eyes and thought about the last time he’d seen Avery. He’d gone over to the hospital to say goodbye before her mission. She’d been laughing with another nurse when he’d seen her, and he’d been struck once more by how pretty she was. Her bright red hair shone in the harsh fluorescent lights of the hospital and every time he saw her, he swore more freckles had popped out on her cheeks and the bridge of her nose.
He’d approached and, after seeing him, she had smiled so big, he felt as if he was truly the center of her world at that moment.
“Hey,” he said.
“Hey back,” she’d responded.
“Heard you’re headed out soon.”
“Yeah. The day after tomorrow.”
Rex had opened his mouth to ask if she wanted to get some coffee or something before she left, but just then an alarm sounded from one of the rooms, and she gave him a look of apology. “Sorry, I need to go check that out.”
“It’s okay,” Rex had said. “Be safe over there, and I’ll see you when you get back.”
She’d given him a look he couldn’t interpret, but eventually nodded. “I’d like that,” she’d said.
Then she was gone. Hurrying down the hall to check on her patient.
“I should’ve asked her out,” Rex said out loud, opening his eyes and resuming packing for the unexpected mission.
He wasn’t going to make the same mistake twice. He knew more than most how short life was. How quickly things could change. He’d been an idiot, and he hoped like hell he’d have a chance to fix things. He knew without having to ask for details from Rocco that they’d be going in to rescue Avery and the others.
“Hang on, Avery,” he whispered. “Just hang on. We’re comin’ for you.”
Avery Nelson blinked, but just like the last two hundred thousand and twenty-three times she’d blinked, nothing changed. She still couldn’t see anything. Not a spec of light anywhere. Her head was throbbing, and she knew she’d gotten a concussion when an RPG had hit the clinic she’d been hunkered down next to.
The large piece of concrete that had fallen and hit her on the head hadn’t done her any favors. She’d been disoriented, and when one of the terrorists who’d attacked the convoy had run across her, she hadn’t been able to protect herself. He’d forced her into one of the trucks carrying the American weapons and had driven up into the mountains with her, the guns, and two other hostages from the convoy.
She’d been thrown into one of the hundreds of caves in the mountainside and beaten to within an inch of her life. She hadn’t seen the other two hostages since she’d arrived, but she’d seen plenty of terrorists.
They’d stashed the weapons that had been in the trucks they’d stolen from the convoy in a cave near where they’d been holding her. And everyone who came to get a weapon had been invited to gawk at her. To hit her if they wished. To torture her.
As a part of her training, she’d been taught how to withstand torture. How to stay strong in the face of adversity. But she was almost at the end of her rope.
The men had taken her boots, and she was in nothing but the dark tan T-shirt she wore under her desert camo uniform and her cargo pants. She hadn’t been raped, but the beatings and the mental torture had been just as bad.
They’d enter the small alcove where she’d been tied up and sit just out of reach to eat their lunch. They’d pour out bottles of water at her feet, then laugh as she fell to her knees to try to suck the liquid off the ground. They’d bring her moldy bread and rotting meat, and take great pleasure in watching her attempt to keep from throwing it up.
The only thing that had kept her alive this long was the fact they left her alone at night. They’d make sure the chain around her ankle was secure, then leave her with only one guard outside the cave. When darkness fell, she’d silently crawl over to the wall of the alcove and lick the water dripping down the sides of the rocks.
She’d spied it her first day as she’d lay in the dirt in agonizing pain from the rock that had fallen on her head back in town and from the beating she’d gotten. The men didn’t seem to even notice it. That water was her salvation. Without it, she wouldn’t even have been able to stand. Her body would’ve begun shutting down by now.
As a nurse, she knew better than most what the human body was capable of, and without water, it was doomed to fail.
But yesterday, her hell had been different.
No one had come to pick up any weapons. No one had thrown stale and moldy food at her, laughing when she ate it as if it were the best thing she’d ever tasted.
In the early afternoon, a group of men had arrived but they didn’t come into the back alcove where she was being held. Then there was silence after the men left.
Avery felt her hopes rise. If they left her alone, even for an hour, she would find a way to get out of the shackle attached to her ankle and get the hell out of there.
But instead, not too long after they’d left, there had been a large explosion, leaving Avery in pitch dark.
She’d been in darkness ever since. Without being able to see the sun rising and setting, she had no idea how much time had passed. Didn’t know if it was day or night.
But she wasn’t going to give up. No way. Those assholes thought they’d killed her or buried her alive, but they were wrong. Their mistake was not shooting her in the head before they’d blown up the entrance to the cave.
Ever since she’d managed to use a rock to smash the links of the chain attaching her ankle to the floor of the cave, she’d been gradually, one rock at a time, doing her best to unbury herself.