Hunter turned toward the mouth of the cave. “Hoyt, call in the bird. We need to med flight these two out pronto.”
“Roger.” Hoyt Crow, scout sniper, touched his neck and said, “Big bird, need carry out.” A second later, he told Hunter, “ETA five minutes. He’s gonna land on the road.”
“Is he stable enough?” Hunter asked Aaron.
“Yeah, lemme bind his chest first, then we can get him downhill. I’ll IV him when we get on the helo and finish treating his wounds in flight.” Aaron began to wrap a large white bandage around Merc’s chest and Nightshade couldn’t help but stare as fresh blood immediately soaked it through.
“Caroline,” Ethan stepped a little bit closer. “Can you walk?”
“Yes.” They had to move fast. She could hear the low hum of the helo growing louder in the distance. With one last glance at Merc, she got slowly to her feet. As soon as she stood, though, her side spasmed and she toppled forward. Ethan grabbed her before she hit the ground.
“You’re hurt.”
“Just a little. Not like Merc. Don’t worry about me.”
Without hesitation, Ethan scooped her up. The banded steel muscles in his arm rubbed her newly opened wounds on her back and she didn’t have to fake the gasp of pain.
“I need to carry you to the helicopter to attend your wounds. Think you can handle it?”
At any other time, she would have scoffed at his worry, but not now. The weakness from her blood loss continued to grow. “Take care of him first.” Nightshade lifted her head to glare directly at Ethan. She needed to make sure he understood the seriousness of her tone.
“We’ve got him. Relax. You don’t have to worry anymore.”
Swept suddenly with the fatigue that always came in the aftermath of an adrenaline rush, she let her head drop to Ethan’s shoulder, craning her neck back to keep a close eye on Merc as his teammates grabbed the edges of the blanket and carefully lifted him in the makeshift litter.
The helicopter crested the mountain top, and the loud roar of the blades filled the small valley as it landed below. They picked their way slowly down the mountain to the road. Someone opened the door to the cab and Ethan ducked inside, holding her in his arms the whole time.
“Shit, what the hell happened?” Cord, another TF-S operator, turned from his pilot seat.
“I’ll fill you in when we’re in the air. Gonna need a stretcher for both of them.” Ethan made to lay her on the only visible stretcher in the helo, but Nightshade hooked her arm around his neck.
“I’m fine. You need that for him.”
Hunter jumped into the cab, his expression set with stubbornness. “With all due respect, ma'am, Merc's a tough guy. He can handle a few injuries. You can't.” The unspoken words fell between them as crystal clear as his command: If anything happened to Senator Tom Cotter's precious daughter, TF-S would suffer.
Her hate for the man who had kidnapped her sister at birth and tore her family apart festered inside. But as much as it disgusted her, Nightshade pulled her sister’s princess status for good. “And I'm telling you, soldier, if you don't take Merc first, I'll personally see to it that every single one of you are dishonorably discharged from the military.”
Hunter’s concern shuttered under her harsh command. But as team leader of her own unit, Nightshade knew how triage worked. The most injured were always cared for first. Always. And she owed Merc. She vowed to see him safely back to DC. Then she’d cut ties and they would be equal once more.
“Hunter, move over. He's heavy as all shit and bleeding like a stuck pig,” Aaron yelled.
Hunter immediately skated to the side, watching her until his attention was drawn to his injured teammate. With the help of Riser, Aaron, and Ranger, they were barely able to lift Merc up into the cab and onto the bright orange stretcher.
Hunter slammed the door shut. “Get back to base ASAP.”
The halo took off at stealth speed.
“Goddammit!” Ranger stalked to the side and slung himself against the wall. “They cut him up bad, beat the shit out of him. I swear to God I’ll string up the fucker responsible for this and peel his face off." Ranger, Hunter’s brother, shoved a hand through his thick blond hair and settled back against the wall.
“You know J’s responsible,” Hunter rasped out.
Nightshade fought the automatic need to defend her father. Her mission needed to take a side seat to Merc right now. “You can put me down.”
“You sure?” Ethan asked.
“Yes.” He set her beside him and she scooted into the corner, as far and out of the way as possible to give the men plenty of room to move about and work. Despite the fact that Merc was easily one of the biggest men she'd ever seen, his body only held so much blood, and she knew from the way her robe had caked to her arms, he’d already lost more than enough.
Ranger clicked on an overhead lamp, flooding the dark cabin with light.
