The problem was the tons of rocks between her and freedom.
To solve it, she just had to move the rocks one at a time. Little by little. Baby steps.
It was what she told her patients when they wanted to go home. Wanted to get better. Wanted to get back to active duty.
As Avery was crawling with the rock clasped to her chest, her knee landed on a sharp pebble on the dirt floor of the cave. Gasping in pain, she instinctively put her hand out to catch herself when she began to fall, dropping the rock she’d been holding and smacking her forehead against it in the process.
“Shit!” she exclaimed, bringing her hand up to her head and feeling the spot she’d hit. She didn’t feel any blood, thank God, but the accident hadn’t been her first lately. She was becoming clumsy and getting more and more uncoordinated with every hour that passed.
Deciding it was time to take a break, she carefully crawled back toward the alcove she’d been held in before the terrorists had blown up the entrance to the cave. She wasn’t thirsty, but she stopped to lap up some of the dripping water anyway. Anything to fill the emptiness in her belly.
Then she lay down on her back and stared upward. It was pitch black, but she could still imagine the rocky ceiling of the cave above her head. She’d lain awake looking at it for many hours when the terrorists had been there.
Feeling herself sinking into a depression she could ill afford, Avery couldn’t help but think about all the things she’d yet to do. All the stuff she desperately wanted to do but, as things were going, likely wouldn’t make it out alive to accomplish.
At the top of that list? Getting up the courage to ask out the very handsome SEAL who’d been stopping by the hospital more and more often.
Her fellow nurses had told her he was coming solely to see and talk to her, but she hadn’t believed them.
Then, right before she’d left the country, she was sure he was going to ask her out. Something about the way he’d looked at her made Avery finally believe her friends.
Normally she wasn’t all that into men with beards or mustaches, especially not beards as full as his. But on him, the facial hair was positively delicious. He had thick black hair that was too long for a regular navy man’s. She knew the SEALs were allowed leeway in their grooming standards because of the undercover work they did.
She’d asked around and learned his name was Cole Kingston. His buddies called him Rex, but Avery preferred Cole. His eyes were dark, almost as black as the coal his name suggested. And one time, when he’d worn his PT T-shirt into the hospital, she’d caught sight of the colorful tattoos that ran up and down his right arm. She wondered if he had anymore.
Fantasizing about a man’s looks wasn’t normal for Avery. She was usually much more concerned with how they acted. Were they conceited? Did they look down on her because she was “merely” a nurse? Did they act like a complete baby when they got hurt?
But she just couldn’t get over how good-looking Cole was.
Which was why she’d convinced herself there was no way he kept showing up at the hospital because of her.
She wasn’t anything special. She had thick red hair, but most of the time she was too busy to do anything with it. When she was out in the sun too long, she got even more of the atrocious freckles across her cheeks and nose. In her experience, men didn’t really like that she was so tall. They liked petite women. And Avery had muscles. She could outrun a lot of men and even do more pull-ups than some. Add all that up, an athletic, independent, smart, tall, freckle-faced woman…it made for some lonely nights.
But for some reason, Cole kept coming back to the hospital. He was only a little taller than her, and if she wore heels, she’d be at eye level with him for sure. He was built, even a little dangerous-looking. And she’d thought for sure he was going to ask her out that last time she saw him. And Avery’s answer would have been yes. Hell yes.
But then an alarm had gone off in a nearby room, and she’d had to check on the patient.
She’d wanted to tell Cole to wait, that she’d be right back, but he hadn’t given her a chance. He’d smiled and told her to be careful and he’d see her when she got back from Afghanistan.
Sighing, Avery opened her eyes to pitch blackness. It was so disorienting. She knew her eyes were open, and that meant she should be seeing something, but all she saw was blackness all around her.
Avery decided if she got out of this cave and somehow made it back down the mountain to safety, after she arrived back in California, she was going to track down Cole Kingston and ask him out.
If he said no, fine, but she was done sitting back and waiting for the things she wanted in her life. And she wanted to go on a date with Cole. Wanted to sit next to him in a restaurant and learn as much as she could about him. And she wanted to feel his lips on hers at the end of the night. Wanted to find out how it felt to be kissed by a man with a full beard and mustache. Would it tickle? Was he a messy eater and would it gross her out if food got stuck in his facial hair? Did he wash it in the shower like he did the hair on his head?
There was so much she didn’t know about him but wanted to find out.
And dammit, when she got out of this fucking hole in the side of the mountain, she’d do just that.
Her spirits once more restored, Avery took a deep breath and sat up. If she was going to ask Cole on a date, she had to get moving. She’d move ten more rocks. After that, she’d take a short break then move ten more. Then ten more. Eventually, she’d move enough that she could wiggle through to freedom.
Turning over onto her hands and knees, Avery slowly and carefully crawled back toward the opening to the cave. Picking up another rock, she turned and threw it off to her right, away from the path to and from the alcove with the water.
One down, nine to go.
Easy-peasy.
Chapter Three
Rex and Phantom moved silently and steadily toward the cave where their informant had said Avery was being held. Rocco and Gumby were on their six, and Ace and Bubba were watching for insurgents nearby.
No one was happy about the fact that they hadn’t come across anyone. If there was a prisoner of war close by, the area should’ve been crawling with bad guys. The fact that it seemed deserted wasn’t a good sign. Not at all.
Not wanting to consider the fact that their informant could’ve lied, Rex and Phantom pushed on. The terrain was rough, but that could be because they were avoiding the road that led straight up the side of the mountain toward their target.
They’d been cautious, moving slowly so as not to draw attention, but it was looking like they could’ve just walked straight up the road because they hadn’t seen even one person.
“I’m not liking the feel of this,” Phantom said.
“Me either,” Rex agreed.
“We sure that guy was being straight with us?”
Rex shrugged. “He seemed on the up and up, but…” His words trailed off as they climbed over a ridge near their target.
“What’s wrong?” Phantom asked.
Rex frowned and turned to his friend. “Are we sure we have the coordinates right?”
“Positive.”
Rex gestured to the side of the mountain in front of them. “Then where’s the fucking cave?”