And until right now, he’d thought he lost her forever.
“Hey man, you've got her. She's safe and alive because of you.” Ethan leaned in close from his seat next to them.
Aaron's throat burned and he squeezed her tighter. “I should've never put her in this position in the first place. It's my fault.”
“Hey man, that's total bullshit and you know it. I was there, too – remember? Neither one of us suspected a man on the inside. No one on the whole team did.”
“Yeah, but I should've never had her there in the first place. She was a civilian, she wasn't trained.” No, he’d been thinking with his dick instead of his head. They'd needed a second female to stand in on what should have been a cake babysitting mission.
“You do remember Kate, right? She was trained, crap she could take me down, and they still nearly got her, too.” Ethan's voice took on a rough edge.
“I can't stop thinking about what they could've done to her. What if we hadn’t found out about the meet? I would've never found her.” Aaron rocked forward and closed his eyes.
“You can't think about it like that, you know that as much as I do. You found her and that's all that matters.”
“I know you're right. I know I should be thinking that, but I can't. Not when I know it's my fault.” He thought he’d done the right thing by leaving her, but he’d driven her right into the kidnapper’s hands.
Ethan shook his head, his blue gaze unreadable. “You’ve just been handed a second chance. After being in the Teams so long, you know that people don't get second chances. You better figure it out before she wakes up and if you really did hurt her – you better work your ass off to win her back.”
Every single word Ethan spoke rang true. Aaron’s whole life, he’d had it easy with women. He knew women and their idiosyncrasies, their quirks; knew how they could be as unbending as iron one second and then soft as a feather the next.
But Celine took all that knowledge and turned it upsidedown. She made him feel out of sync, off key – and for the first time in his life he honestly didn't know what he would do.
Ethan said, “Damn,” Ethan scraped a hand down his face. “How are we going to find Caroline now? We got lucky with Celine. Damned lucky.”
Aaron pulled his mind from his regret and focused on the facts they had at hand. “Celine was being transported to a sex trafficker. They either needed to get rid of her or needed cash. My guess is – they never intended to kidnap her in the first place.”
And if Aaron hadn’t been a total chicken shit, he’d have faced up to his feelings for her and held her tighter instead of shoving her away.
“So, Kate and Celine weren’t supposed to be on that plane.”
“Or alive. It’s a miracle either of them survived,” Aaron said.
Ethan caressed his rifle, yelling to be heard over the roar of the helicopter. “And if we don’t find Caroline, the senator may yank our whole team off the mission.”
Robbing them of their chance at revenge for everything Mr. J had done.
The helicopter dipped and turned off-course and Aaron sat up in alarm. “Where are you going?”
The copilot turned and said, “Been ordered to take you to a different medical facility.”
“Where? You're heading west – I'm not aware of any major medical facility in this region,” Ethan said.
“I know, me either, but command just redirected us.” The copilot turned back around.
Aaron glanced at his teammate, who silently slid his hand down to the weapon at his waist. They had no choice except to go along for the ride, but they would be prepared. This time, he wouldn’t let Celine out of his sight for a second and he didn’t care who the hell had a problem with that.
An hour later, the helicopter landed outside of a low-lyingadobe building on the edge of the mountains. Two nuns led by a priest pushing an empty gurney rushed out.
Ethan disembarked first, stopping the group before they reached the helo as Aaron climbed out with Celine limp in his arms.
“Who are you?” Ethan asked with his rifle gripped in his hands.
The priest, a weathered old man about as thick as a bean pole, handed over a sat phone. Ethan took it and put it to his ear, leaving Aaron hovering near the helo, ready to back his friend up or launch inside depending on how this went down.
“Yes, sir.” Ethan disconnected the call and gave the phone back to the priest. And then he slung his gun over his shoulder and turned to Aaron. “That was Colonel Grey. The command wants her tended to here; they don't want anyone to find out we rescued her.”
“You mean that we rescued Celine and not Caroline.”
