Trinity: Military War Dog (28 page)

In other words, presumed dead.

Parwan Province, Afghanistan

Free-falling snapped Darci awake. Her arms shot out and she yelped. Rocks scored her palms as she slid along the ledge. Her face smeared the ground. Head spinning, wet, warm stickiness sliding down her neck and chest, she groped for her bearings. Something fluttered down around her. White … light … Snow?

“She came at us from out of a tunnel like the snake that she is.”

Inwardly, Darci cringed. She knew that voice. Knew that meant she was in a very bad position.

“Did you think you could escape with our secrets and not face the consequences?”

“Jia,” a hushed whisper sailed amid the Chinese flowing like the fat white flakes around them. Cold bit into her fingers still planted on the ground, thanks to the boot pressing against her back. She blinked and rolled her gaze around, trying to find the source of English.

She spotted Toque, pinned between two guards.

“Get her up.”

The world swirled in a mural of white and olive green as the uniform gave way to the hauntingly familiar face of Wu Jianyu. Hair grown out and pulled into a ponytail, he leered at her. “Why are you in these mountains?”

“Enjoying the view,” she spit out in Mandarin.

His jaw muscle popped as he walked to the side, pulling her gaze with him. He stood next to Toque. Walked behind him.

No. No, don’t do it
.

He was testing her reaction. If she showed one, he’d kill Toque. But she would not give him one. Instead, Darci locked her attention on him as he paced behind the survey team. The professor and Toque had been roughed up a bit, scratches clawed into their lips and cheeks. No doubt they’d provided a little resistance.

In Chinese, he said, “You cost me everything.”

“The only thing I cost you,” she replied back in Mandarin, “was pride. Everything else was your own doing, Jianyu.”

Fury exploded through his expression. He shoved between Jaekus and the professor. “No!
You!
You cost me everything.”

“If you had been half the soldier you claimed to be, I never would have gotten as far as I did.” The words were cruel, and she should’ve reined them in.

As if a stone mask slid over his face, the anger fell away. “Let me show you the cost of your actions.”

He turned, exposing his firearm. Jianyu raised it and aimed at the professor.

“No!” Darci lunged, but two of his elite Yanjingshe fighters secured her, yanking her backward—hard.

The report of the weapon ricocheted through the canyon and through her heart as Professor Colsen slumped to his knees, shock frozen on his face.

With a kick, Jianyu shoved him over the cliff.

            Twenty              

FOB Murphy, Afghanistan

T
rinity at his side, Heath waited with a medic as the retrieval team barreled through the secured gate. Amid a plume of dust, the MRAP skidded to a stop, spitting dirt and rocks at Heath. He didn’t care. The woman—he was sure he’d seen her with the geology team.

The back door flew open, and Watterboy stepped out with a girl in his arms. Their gazes collided for a second. “Dehydrated and scared out of her little mind. Get us a stretcher.”

The medic took the child and vanished into a building

“What about the woman? What’s wrong with her? Why does she need a stretcher?”

“Ankle’s messed up pretty bad, but no other visible injuries. And she keeps asking for Burnett.”

Heath peered into the vehicle where Candyman crouched next to a woman. An IV snaked into her arm and disappeared beneath her skin. “Who’s Burnett?”

“The boss’s boss.”

As Candyman stretched to the side to adjust her fluid bag, Heath saw the young woman’s face up close. “She was with the geology team.”

Watters glanced at Heath with an undecipherable expression.

“Did she say anything about”—Heath swallowed the words that would’ve exposed his true interest—“the others? Why is she wandering around the desert? Why isn’t she with her team?”

“If she’d talk, I imagine she might answer them. Said she’d only talk to Burnett.”

Two more medics emerged with a stretcher. “Coming through.”

Heath and Watters shifted aside, but no way would Heath let that woman out of his sight. She knew about Jia. Knew what happened to the team. Knew if that explosion they’d seen was connected to the geology team.

Mind buzzing, Heath ignored the hammering against his temples. He grabbed the bite straw of his CamelBak and squirted some water into his mouth along with three ibuprofen. As the medics disappeared with the woman, it took everything in Heath not to follow. Instead, he locked his gaze on the mountains. On the spot where he’d seen the smoke billowing hours earlier.

There was one reason that young woman would be wandering the desert just before a storm, alone, and with an Afghan girl. Something had gone wrong. Terribly wrong.

“Should get a team up there.”

Watters clapped him on the shoulder. “You can take the soldier out of the war, but never the war out of the soldier.”

Heat infused Heath’s face. He lowered his head. “Sorry.”

“No way, man. You know the drill, you know what needs to be done.” But that expression flickered through Watters’s face again.

“What is that?”

His friend shifted. “What’s what?”

“That look on your face.” Ibuprofen hadn’t kicked in yet. And the telltale pressure in his chest told him the anger rising through him wouldn’t help. Besides, why was he letting things get to him?

Because he was assuming the worst, that Watters didn’t think he should be here. That he didn’t have a right to be here.

But Watters had never been anything but supportive and encouraging.

In Heath’s periphery, a shape slid into view. Timbrel. Then a cold, wet nose nudged his hand. All signs and warnings that said,
Get a grip, man
.

Mentally, Heath took a step back. He wouldn’t face off with one of his only allies here. “Forget it.”

“Ghost …”

He didn’t need to be placated by a warrior brother. “I get it, man.” It was a bitter pill to swallow, like pieces of charcoal going down. “Just … keep me posted about the geology team. ‘Kay?”

Watters looked down, then nodded. “Sure.” He spun and entered the building where they’d taken the woman.

Heath pivoted on his heel, and the world spun. He stiffened and waited for the feeling to pass. As his vision and focus realigned, he found the team staring at him.

Aspen stepped forward, chin and shoulders up. “I’m sure she’s fine, Heath.”

“No.” He didn’t want to live on false hopes. “Nobody knows that.” Curse himself! He’d just indicated his interest in Jia with his roiling emotions. “It doesn’t make sense that she’d be out there, wandering the desert alone with that little girl. Something happened.”

“Do you think they’re still alive?” Leave it to Hogan to be straightforward.

Like a bad action movie, the explosion played over and over in his mind. What he couldn’t get around was that it’d take something large and mechanical to create an explosion like that. A chopper. And if she’d been on that chopper, she wouldn’t have a prayer.

“Hey.” The quiet, firm voice of Hogan snapped—once again—through the self-beatings of his attitude. “Got a sec?”

“No.” Heath extracted himself from the familiar and took a jog with Trinity. Alone with the one girl who’d never expected anything from him, except to be there. The only thing God asked of Heath was obedience.

And what had he thrown back at Him? Rebellion in the form of control and anger, borne out of hurt and/or fear. Why had God allowed him to get so messed up? Why had God stolen his career from his fingers?

He wasn’t angry, but it rankled.

Well, maybe that wasn’t the complete truth. Because if he wasn’t angry, things like this wouldn’t bug him. He’d deal with them, release them to God’s all-powerful hands, and take the next leap of faith.

The thought of something happening that would require him to leap with faith …

God … please … don’t. Give a guy a break, okay?

Heath groaned. Already, he could feel it coming. It would hit him head-on. And he’d crumble because he no longer had faith or strength. He’d come out here, insisting this was what he wanted, to be back in the action. He’d never been more wrong in his life.