SEALs of Honor: Cooper (8 page)

“Doc,” Evan said. “Aren’t there others around here that can help him?”

“Yes,” she said without looking up. “Go find me one.” She shot Cooper a stern look. “But I assume people want to talk to him.”

“No, no,” Jamel cried. “No want to talk.”

Several of the other men surrounded them.

“Back up and give me room,” she ordered. “You can ask him questions, but I don’t want him doing more damage to his injuries.” She bent down and reached out to open his bandage, but he shook his hands at her. “No. No,” he cried. “They will take me away.”

“If they do,” she’s said, “I’ll be with you.”

He stared at her with hope. “You would help me?”

“I’m trying to help you now,” she said gently. “Sit still so I can look.”

He stilled long enough for her to unwrap the bandage. She sat back on her heels. This was what Ron had taken a bullet for. He’d been grazed. That was all. They hadn’t intended to kill him or even maim him. “Did you clean this out?”

He nodded. “My wife.”

Sasha sighed. “But you didn’t go to the clinic to get help, did you?”

“I was afraid. Everyone knew I had been taken too.”

“Did they?” Cooper asked in a hard voice. “How is that?”

Jamel shrank back at his tone of voice. Sasha was about to admonish Cooper when she thought better of it. The camp needed doctors. The doctors needed to be safe. Therefore Jamel needed to give a good accounting of his actions. So she bit her lip and studied the wound. It would benefit from a good cleaning and a new bandage, but other than that it would pain him but it wouldn’t kill him. She looked at the leg but decided it didn’t likely require any emergency attention from her. But the wounds bothered her. “What happens with him?”

“He comes with us.” Mason held up his phone. “The Turkish want to have a talk with him.”

Jamel cried out.

She stood up. “You took money for taking those men to where we were working, so they could kidnap us, didn’t you?”

He looked at her in shame and then nodded.

“Well, that answers that question,” she said quietly. “Of course the Turkish want to talk to you. They need to know who the men were and why they wanted us in particular.”

“They wanted the Americans. Just the Americans they said.”

“Which is what we figured?” She looked at Cooper, one eyebrow raised.

Cooper half lifted and half carried Jamel to the SUV.

“Good, now we can finally get to Yalta’s family and finish this,” she muttered. As she walked back to the SUV with Markus she realized that Mason might have changed his mind about letting the father know. She raced over to where he stood with the huge mountain man that seemed to be everywhere and nowhere. Along with his sidekick she barely saw clearly. Talk about living in the shadows.

“Mason,” she interrupted when there was a break in his conversation, only to realize she was the reason for the break. They were all looking at her. She brushed her hair back off her head self-consciously. “Sorry for interrupting, but I want to confirm that we’re still heading for Yalta’s family?”

She stared directly at him.

His gaze narrowed as if hoping she’d relent. Instead she straightened her back and jutted out her chin. “Nothing has changed,” she said.

“Lots has changed,” he countered. “We now have a person of interest that we need to take in for questioning.”

“And that doesn’t change the need to let a young man know that his wife and son are alive and well,” she said gently. “It’s only a few minutes from here,” she said persuasively.

“Might as well do it,” Markus said when Mason looked over at him. “Doc here is a mite too stubborn for her own good.”

“Exactly,” she said with a beaming smile at him. “Thank you for explaining, Markus.”

Markus frowned at her. Mason just narrowed his gaze.

“I’m even more stubborn when it’s for the good of others,” she said in response to Markus’s irritation.

He rolled his eyes at her.

“You should get that problem fixed,” she said earnestly. “One of these days your eyes are going to stay in the back of your head and you’ll be blind.”

He snorted.

She raised an eyebrow and stared calmly back.

He started to look worried.

She snickered. “Gotcha.”

And she ran back to the SUV laughing. Cooper shook his head at her. “Still up to your bad jokes, huh?”

“That was a good one,” she cried out.

“If Markus was six, maybe,” Cooper said.

“Well…” she chuckled and walked to the open passenger door. She stood up on the running board on the side of the truck and as he was close enough, cute enough and the idea just seemed good enough she leaned over and kissed his cheek. “You’re a sweetie to be so worried about your buddy.”

And she scrambled into the back seat where she’d been sitting before.

*

Cooper didn’t need
to see that the others were staring at him with smirks on their faces. He understood the awkward silence well enough. He sighed and was about to climb in beside Sasha when Markus opened the front passenger door and asked, “Sweetie?”

With a glare, Cooper got in and slammed the door.

There was an odd silence inside as well. He turned his dark gaze on Evan who was desperately trying to hold back a raucous laugh. Sasha, however, seemed completely calm. She fussed over Jamel.

“They won’t hurt me, will they?” Jamel asked.

“Nope,” she said cheerfully. “They just want to talk to you. It’s important we catch these guys. They shot Dr. Ron because he went to your aid.” Her voice deepened. “I still don’t know if he’s pulled through.”

“He’s a good man,” Jamel said with tears in his eyes. “I only wanted to save my family. They kept saying they would kill my little Jakel. She’s only eight. They said they take them for the men at that age.” His shoulders started to shake. “I couldn’t do that to her. Not to my baby.”

Sasha’s lips turned down, and Cooper could feel his own anger rising. It was so typical of an army particularly the ones they were facing in the Middle East now. The little girl wouldn’t likely have survived and would have died a horribly slow death.

He could understand Jamel’s actions, though he couldn’t condone them.

But he could sure get behind Sasha’s exuberant show of affection.

S
asha watched and
wondered at the speed they were traveling through the camp. Or rather the lack of speed. What was Mason looking for? And why wasn’t he finding it. The stares were getting uglier the deeper they went. The camp was full of issues and tolerance was needed. A lot more than tolerance.

“I’m not really looking forward to seeing Yalta’s family,” she whispered to Cooper, not wanting Jamel who’d slumped down on the seat beside her to hear.

“You won’t be alone this time,” Cooper said in a low tone showing that he’d understood what she meant.

“Well, Jamel was with me,” she added. “So I wasn’t really alone then either, still…”

The lead vehicle pulled to a stop up ahead. Swede parked behind it. Sasha loved to see these men do everything so…effortlessly. They were so capable and wore their self-confidence like a mantle of power.

Very sexy.

She waited for Swede to turn off the engine and for Cooper to let her out of the vehicle. She motioned to Jamel. “We need him.”

“No, we don’t,” Cooper said.

“I think we should get his help anyway. He knows them. If he were to say anything wrong, then Markus could tell us.”

Cooper frowned. He turned to look at Jamel but the man had shrunk deeper into the SUV.

“See,” she announced. “He needs to come.”

“Jamel, come with us.”

He shook his head, but the door at his back opened and Swede tugged him out. With Jamel between Markus and Swede and looking more terrified than she could remember seeing him before, he led the group forward. She walked behind with Cooper and Evan. There were a couple more men around, but she didn’t know their names. Cooper had spoken to them earlier but hadn’t introduced her. He was always making eye contact as if they had a way to communicate silently.

She wished she did. She also wished she understood the underlying threats going on.

Why did Jamel not want to come here? She normally wasn’t a suspicious person, but there was something about the way he was acting. As if he were afraid but not so much of the men they were going to see but…well she didn’t know.

As they approached, men stepped out of the shelters. She could understand.

She’d brought a large group of strangers all dressed in military gear, and they appeared threatening. Many of these people had fled persecution in their homeland and came by fear naturally – particularly of the military.

“Yalta is okay,” she cried out.

The men stood arms across their chests, their hard gazes on her.

As she was about to step forward, Cooper grabbed her arm to hold her back. Together, they stepped up beside Markus. “Tell them please, Markus.”

He immediately started speaking. The men stared at him in surprise. One gestured to the large group and Markus shook his head. He seemed to be explaining the group’s presence and obviously convinced them that they weren’t in trouble because they all eased back. She studied their faces, but the one young man she’d seen holding Yalta’s hand wasn’t there.

“Ask for Yalta’s husband,” she said.

Markus spoke again. Two men stepped back and pointed to a shelter beside them. She bolted inside, Cooper and Markus on her heels. Inside lying down in the shadows was a young man – the one she’d been looking for – despondent and grieving.

“No,” she cried, dropping to his side. “Yalta is fine.”

But he wouldn’t listen.

Markus crouched down beside her and grabbed the young man’s shoulder and gave it a shake. He snapped at Markus and Markus snapped back. Then spoke slowly and carefully.

She waited and watched.

And finally the young man sat up, shock on his face. Words poured from his mouth as he grabbed Markus’s shoulders and gripped them so tight his knuckles turned white.

And finally he seemed to believe – his face lit up in joy and he shouted out. Just as suddenly he burst into tears and hugged Markus.

Markus grinned at her over the young man’s shoulder.

“It took a bit,” he explained.

She looked up to see a half a dozen men and then an older woman slowly enter. And she realized that with the father crying, they thought Yalta was dead. She motioned to Markus. He slowly stood up and helped the father to his feet.

More conversation, then the father turned to his friends and family and beamed. He shouted out something and the chaos started.

She was picked up and hugged several times as the place came alive with joy.

The shelter filled with well-wishers.

It was all she could do to sneak out.

And came face to face with Jamel as he slipped around the back of the building.

*

Where had she
gone now? Cooper raced outside, there were so many damn men cheering and slapping each other on the back it was impossible to maneuver. And impossible to keep track of Sasha. The do-gooder who always seemed to find trouble. And not for doing anything wrong, just for trying to help. That was the problem. For all he knew she’d found someone else in need and raced over to give aid. He could just imagine what her life was like here. For three months she’d have worked herself to the bone and never taken a break.