“Be careful!” she ordered as the transfer was made to the gurney. “If you don’t stop trying to nudge me out of the way, I’m going to shoot you,” she told someone at one point. Of course she didn’t mean it, but the tone of her voice was enough to have the poor soldier backing away from her slowly.
“Climb up onto the gurney with him,” Rex told her.
She nodded and did just that. Straddling Phantom’s knees and bending over him to keep her grip on his leg. The second she was stable, three men began pushing the gurney toward the building nearby.
“Whee! I’ve always wanted to ride one of these!” she said breezily, still focusing on Phantom. Rex knew she was probably monitoring his breathing and heart rate as they rushed toward the medical clinic.
He ran after them, the rest of the team right on his heels.
“Avery’s going into surgery with him,” Rex said as he ran. “She’s not to be left alone. Not for a second. And we all need to be paired up until we’re on our way home.”
“The traitor?” Rocco asked.
Rex nodded and said, “I can’t talk about it here, but suffice it to say the attack on the convoy wasn’t random, just as the sergeant major suspected.”
“Shit,” Gumby said.
“Fuck,” Ace agreed.
“Right,” Rocco added. “What’s the deal on Phantom?”
Rex told his teammates what Avery suspected had happened to him. About his nicked popliteal artery.
“Let’s hope it’s just nicked and not severed,” Bubba said.
They entered the clinic and followed the gurney down the hall, listening to the lieutenant give orders as they went.
Instead of taking Phantom into one of the exam rooms, Avery insisted they wheel him straight into one of the operating rooms, and Rex wasn’t surprised when they did just that. He tried to follow them in, but was stopped by a naval captain. “You can’t go in there,” he told them.
Sighing, Rex nodded. He wasn’t happy, even though he understood. But he wasn’t going to leave Avery unprotected either. He would stay outside the operating room, his weapon at the ready, just in case. He turned to the team. “I’ll stay here with them.”
“I’m staying too,” Rocco answered. “Assuming we’re going to be here at least twenty-four hours before we can catch a bird home, now that Phantom’s been injured. Gumby, will you work on sleeping arrangements for us? In the same room, if it can be arranged. We don’t have all the details yet, but it sounds as if we’re better off not bunking with anyone else at the moment. Ace, can you and Bubba contact Commander North and start arranging for us to get home? I know it’s protocol to go through Germany, but considering the situation…” His voice trailed off.
Rex added softly, so as not to be overheard by anyone passing by, “And tell North that the lieutenant is going to need to look at pictures of every sailor and soldier, and even civilian, who is currently stationed here in Afghanistan.”
“Shit. All right, will do,” Bubba said.
Rex was itching to sit down with the team and go over everything he’d learned from Avery, but they all had things to do if they were going to get back to California sooner rather than later. Of course, that depended on Phantom and how badly he was hurt.
Rex peered into the operating room and saw Avery gesturing wildly with her free hand. Her hair was in disarray and badly needed washing. Her clothes were dirty and torn and sometime in the last few minutes, her split lip had begun to ooze blood once more, but he couldn’t ever remember seeing a woman more attractive in his life.
It was the way she carried herself. How she put others before her own welfare, which was something he’d have to be careful about in the future. Make sure he took care of her while she was taking care of others. The thought should’ve scared the shit out of him, but instead, all he felt was determination to make Avery his.
They hadn’t even gone on a date, but if she thought anything that had happened over the last couple days would turn him off, she was way wrong. He was more determined than ever to go out with her. Continue to show her that he was a man she could count on. That he would appreciate who she was and didn’t want to change even one thing about her.
After Bubba, Ace, and Gumby had left, Rex turned to Rocco. “There’s something else.”
“What?” Rocco asked warily.
“Phantom remembered what’s been bothering him about the Timor-Leste mission.”
“He did? Thank God. What?”
“He said Kalee wasn’t dead when she was in that pit. That she moved her foot.”
“Fucking hell!” Rocco swore. “Is he sure?”
“Positive.”
“Something else to discuss with the commander,” Rocco said. “But first we need to make sure he’s good to go, get home, and find a fucking traitor.”
“Amen to that,” Rex said. But he mentally added, And make sure Avery is coping with everything that happened to her while she was a POW.
Until then, he’d take care of her. Make sure she got clean clothes, showered, ate a nutritious meal, made an appointment to talk to a psychologist as soon as possible, and saw that her own cuts and bruises were tended to. But he had a feeling she would balk at all of that. She was independent and feisty. He’d have to be sneaky about seeing to her needs.
Weirdly enough, Rex looked forward to it.
Chapter Ten
An hour later, Rex was still standing outside the OR watching his friend and teammate get stitched up. The doctor had taken the time to send out a nurse to let them all know Avery had been correct, Phantom’s popliteal artery had just been nicked.
Now, it looked like he was finishing up the surgery, and Rex was more than glad. He’d been watching Avery wilt more and more with every minute that passed. She was now leaning against one of the walls, and he was pretty sure that was the only thing holding her up.
She was not only most likely experiencing one hell of an adrenaline drop from their rescue, and Phantom being hurt and bleeding like a stuck pig, she was far from being back to her normal self after not eating for so long.
The second the surgery was over, Rex was taking her somewhere, anywhere, so she could eat, then sleep. He knew they had a lot to do, but it could all wait. He’d told Rocco earlier to put off a meeting with the base general about what Avery had seen until the morning. They all needed a few hours to decompress, and Avery needed to get some sleep. It was up in the air when they’d be leaving, that was dependent on Phantom and when he’d be stable enough to fly back to California.
He watched as the surgeon nodded to his assistants and walked over to Avery. They had a short conversation, then the doctor put his hand on her elbow to lead her to the door. It was crazy for Rex to be uneasy about the other man touching her, but he couldn’t stop the feelings. It wasn’t jealousy, exactly, just a general sense of agitation.
The second the pair came through the door, Rex was at Avery’s side with an arm around her waist.
“Go and shower, get something to eat, and sleep,” the doctor was saying. “Your system is all out of whack after your ordeal. The best thing you can do for your friend is to take care of yourself.”