Extraordinary
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How Honey and Hunter MetHere is more info on how Major Thornton and Hunter, the Navy SEAL who appears in each of my books meet. The hero, Jack and the heroine, Honey are in bed talking. Enjoy.
“I’ve never had a close call. Have you?” Jack asked Honey ran the tip of her index finger over what remained of the scar low on her belly and remembered her grand opening. “This.” “That scar isn’t from surgery?” She shook her head. “Wanna tell me about it?” Jack said and nuzzled the side of her head. “A group of Special Ops and SEALs were interviewing Afghans in a cluster of compounds that supported the Taliban. It was old men, women and children. To interview women they needed female military to accompany them. My team was on a week stand down but they pulled my sergeant, Gloria Santiago, and I to go. An Army Lieutenant I’d never met joined us. It was one of those a hundred and twenty degrees in the shade days. We entered a compound courtyard. An old man with a reddish beard shuffled forward, two women in burquas trailing him. I immediately felt something was off. My first thought was the women were really Taliban. I was behind and on the right shoulder of the Army Captain in charge when he starting speaking to the guy. Red beard reached inside the folds of his clothing and came out with a Luger. I saw his eyes and knew he wasn’t giving the Captain a gift. I shoved the Captain aside and shot the bastard. One of the women materialized an AK and was immediately taken down. The woman directly in front of me lunged swinging one of those huge ceremonial blades. Caught me under my vest. My guts were bubbling out before I knew I was sliced.” Jack shivered. “I was lucky. Rounds fired by the rest of the team stopped her forward motion or she would have cut me in two.” Jack said nothing. “I was lucky in another way. There were two med techs in the group and a Pararescue chopper was twelve minutes away. Gloria cut my BLOWOUT bag out of my pocket and the med techs were working on me in seconds.” She closed her eyes. The memory was surreal. She remembered everything clearly but the angle was screwed. She wasn’t on the ground looking up, she was standing behind them watching them work. Stripping away her gear. Listening to the calls for the rescue helo. Even the smell of blood came to her. The strongest memory was of one of the SEALs, a moose of a man, leaning over her ordering her to be okay. It was up to her to make it happen. “The rescue helo set down a hundred yards away. They couldn’t land close because the fields hadn’t been cleared of IEDs. They were going to stretcher me to the helo but the SEAL, Hunter was his name, said it was too slow he was going to carry me. One medic protested. Hunter said something I didn’t catch then scooped me up and ran, literally ran, me to where the chopper landed. All of the time telling me I’d be okay. Ordering me to make it happen. I thought he was pretty cheeky, an enlisted man ordering an officer around. He demanded to go in the chopper and no one was fighting him.” Her lips quirked in a smile remembering that flight. “What’s funny?” Jack said. “Hunter held my hand, leaned close when he wasn’t in the way of the PJs, still ordering me to make it okay. I asked for ketamine to knock me out. Hunter relayed it to the PJs. One asked how much pain I was in on a scale of one to ten. Told him no pain I hated being in choppers.” Jack laughed and pulled back to look at her. “For real?” “Yeaph.” She nodded. “Hunter’s reaction is what made me smile. He growled and said, Great Caesar’s ghost, like it was the worst profanity ever then added never to scare him like that again. He stayed with me until I left for Germany. Each time I opened my eyes he was there. When it was time for me to fly out he wrote, be okay, on one palm and make it happen, on the other with a marker.” She examined her palm. In her mind’s eye, she could still see the black letters. “Then he shocked me. He moved my gown and wrote on my belly. They had me doped up for the flight and I couldn’t stop him.” “What did he write?” Jack levered himself up on an elbow. “I didn’t find out what it was for a couple of days when a doc came by on rounds and mention my guardian angel. I had no idea what he was talking about. The doc read it to me. “Some people have guardian angels watching over them. This woman has Navy SEALs. Take good care of her. You fuck up and we will fuck you up.” “No way,” Jack said. “Way,” she said snuggling against him. “I have pictures.” |