12. River

12

River

“This whole place is hunting for them,” I muttered, looking around. It had been a while since I’d been back to this hellhole. I glanced at the guys. “Where do we start?”

“Hell, if I know,” Gage replied.

“If she’s alive, she’s got to be somewhere in town. There are more places for her to hide there.” We took off walking and soon spotted the jeep with Gideon and Tag. He raised his arm as we approached, and I spoke before climbing inside. “Have you found her?”

“No, but we know they’re after her. This entire place is on the hunt. Some guy claimed they took his wife and granddaughter at gunpoint. We know that’s a fucking lie, but we played along like we were just two Taliban men on the street.”

“We have to hurry before the sun goes down. How the hell did we end up here? We had the best assistant, and now she’s turned into a damn mercenary? What is she thinking?” I demanded, more to myself than anyone else. “Why would she come here without telling anyone? Didn’t she realize how dangerous it would be? ”

“How do we know she hasn’t done this before?” Gage asked.

“She has taken days off before. She could be doing this every time she has time off,” Gage suggested. “It shocks me that she would come here alone.”

“We get that, Gage; you keep saying how surprised you are,” I said, wanting to shut him up.

We searched all night and found nothing. Early the next day, we ran into a man I recognized—someone who had helped us before.

“Henry, how have you been? Have you seen an American woman around here?” I asked.

“Hey, River, it’s been a while. Yes, I saw her with another man. Both were shot—she had two bullet wounds, and he had three that I saw. I’d be surprised if they’re still alive.”

My heart stopped. I wanted to roar with anger. She’s mine, I wanted to shout. I will kill anyone who touches what is mine. My hands were shaking, so I hid them behind my back.

“The Taliban were close to finding them. I tried to spread the word that they were at the other end of town to buy them some time. Be careful—the Taliban are everywhere.”

“We know, we’ve seen them. Where did you see Kat?” I asked urgently.

“Keep going straight, and when you see a building with an ‘X’ on it, they were there.”

“Thanks.” We hurried to the building, guns drawn, ready to shoot if anyone surprised us. I saw blood on the floor—someone had lost a lot of blood. I had to take deep breaths as I walked to a door, fearing what I might find.

When I opened the door, I saw empty boxes and then a pool of blood. I threw the boxes aside and found Steven. I felt for a pulse, and he jerked slightly. “Where’s Kat?” I demanded.

“Kat,” he mumbled before blacking out again.

“Someone, check on this guy,” I said before running outside to search the area. Kat had to be nearby.

I spotted something on the ground and sprinted toward it. “Kat, thank God I found you.” I checked for a pulse—she barely had one. After assessing her injuries, I carried her back into the building.

“I’ve got her! Grab that guy, and let’s get out of here.” I held her in my lap until we reached the plane, then we loaded them both in. As soon as we were in, we took off. Tag carried Steven while I cut Kat’s clothes off to assess her wounds.

Her pants were soaked with dried blood; they were stuck to her skin. I poured water on them, and they came away from her skin. I cut off her top and saw where a bullet had hit her right in the shoulder—she must have lost a lot of blood.

“I have to remove one bullet; the other one went through. Tag, give me a hand. Grab my bag so I can disinfect her wounds. Gage, how’s it going over there?”

“He has three bullet wounds. Two went through, but one is still in there. I’ll have to take it out myself. I hope he doesn’t wake up.”

“I’m already awake. Just take the damn thing out,” Steven murmured. I glanced over as Gage started to cut, and Steven passed out.

I worked on Kat for two hours. The bullet was out, but I had to get the cloth from her shirt out of the wounds. She was all sewn up but still didn’t open her eyes. When we landed in Germany, they were both rushed to the hospital .

The guys went home, and I sat in her room. Three days later, Steven walked in.

“How is she?” he asked.

“She’ll wake up soon. The doctor said her brainwaves show she’s coming around. Has Kat done this before?”

“Done what?”

“Try to rescue someone.”

“Not that I know of. It was the little girl that drove her to help this time. Joel knew Kat was familiar with the area. The grandmother recognized her immediately. That’s why she decided to go with Joel.”

“What happened to Joel? He didn’t come back for you.”

“I don’t know what happened to him. I’m sorry I let her get shot. Will you tell her for me? I have to leave today.”

“You had nothing to do with her getting shot. She knew what she was getting into when she volunteered. But I’ll tell her. Take care of yourself. Don’t come here alone again.”

“I’ll remember that. I will be calling the Golden Team to help us find my brother Michael. If that’s okay.”

“Of course. Tell me about your brother,” I said. He told me about his missing brother and the Russian woman.

“They are probably drugging him. If he’s smart, he’ll figure that out and hide the pill in his mouth. I’ll tell everyone about Michael, and we can investigate everything before we meet with you and your brother Jason.”

“Two days later, Kat woke up. I was sitting next to her when she suddenly jerked and looked around.

“Where am I?”

“You’re in a hospital in Germany.”

“Germany,” she repeated, her brain working to catch up. “Oh my God, Steven—I put him in the closet before I went for help, but I didn’t make it far. How did you get here? Are my vacation days up? ”

“The Golden Team rescued you after your neighbor came to us. You were late getting back, and she was worried. And yes, your vacation days are up. Steven has gone home. He said he’s sorry he let you get shot.”

“I couldn’t call because my phone died. I’m sorry for causing so much trouble. You don’t have to stay with me. Did you call my family?”

“I wanted to, but I didn’t. I knew you’d live and figured you wouldn’t want me calling them.”

“Thank you for not calling them.”

“Tell me, what made you decide to go to Afghanistan to rescue a little girl? Especially when they hate us there.”

“I thought Captain Jackson had it more planned out. When we got there, I realized he was using me to navigate because I knew the area. By then, we were already there, so I took him to the town center where the girl was. I thought we had more backup—that was my mistake. I assumed we had backup, but I was never told we did.”

I knew Captain Jack was going to get a visit from me. “I don’t understand why he never came back for you.”

“Yeah, I have a problem with that too,” she said as her eyes began to close, signaling she was about to sleep.

Damn, I wanted to wring her neck. At the same time, I wanted to pull her into my arms and never let her go. From now on, we will be open with each other. I should have never let her think I was with Charlotte. Even taking the next day off work, I knew she would think I was still with Charlotte. Is that why she left? Was she so angry at me that she didn’t care what happened?

That was something I was ashamed of—letting her believe I would kiss her like that and then leave with someone else.