Page 40 of Her Honorable Hero

“Susan,” Josiah and Griff answered simultaneously.

“Got it.”

“Hold on, Billy. Take my cell phone.” Griff handed his over. “You can use it for light.” He rattled off his passcode. “Call if you need us.”

“Hand that over,” Josiah demanded. “I’ll plug my number in.”

While they waited, Griff tried to think through how in the hell he was going to get to Miranda. When Josiah was done, Billy took the phone.

“You ready for an adventure?” Billy said soothingly to the child. She hiccupped and looked up at him in fascination. The young man flashed the light and started to pick his way toward the back.

“What happened?” Josiah asked as soon as Billy was out of earshot.

Griff took a look at Scarlett, who was out cold, but still taking in air. That was good. He turned back to look at his captain.

“As soon as she got a hold of Hope, I got my ass out there. She shoved the baby at me and I bolted for the train.” Griff swallowed, replaying the moment in his mind. “I thought she was behind me. I didn’t realize she would have any trouble following. It’s my fault. By the time I got inside the train with Hope, I turned around and saw that Miranda was damn near where I’d left her. Then.” Griff stopped and gulped. “Then the ground beneath her gave way. She went over the side.” He said steadily.

Josiah clasped Griff’s shoulder. “It’s not your fault. You did the right thing, it was the mission. It was what Miranda wanted. Now we focus on the second part. Remember, the cliff wasn’t a straight drop,” Josiah said as he cradled his wife in his arms.

Griff wanted Miranda in his arms.

“I’m going out to get her. I’ll tell the men where you are,” Griff told Josiah.

“Let me give you Billy’s phone. That way when Mason calls, you can take it.” Griff thrust the phone to the older man.

Josiah shook his head. “I have him on speed dial, no need.”

Griff should have known. He watched as Josiah stroked back a lock of Scarlett’s hair, then looked back up at him. “Now, go get your woman.” With that, he bent his head back down next to Scarlett’s and whispered something in her ear. Griff sent up a silent prayer for both women.

* * *

For some reason,Griff had thought it would be better once he got outside of the rail car. He was wrong. Instead, it was another kind of hell. The lead car was the power car and it was on fire. The next one was the closest to him, the business rail car, before there had just a wisp of smoke floating above it, now it was shrouded in black furls of smoke. He looked at the landscape surrounding them and realized there wasn’t a chance in fucking hell that fire trucks could reach them. No wonder there were military Humvees driving up along with various civilian trucks.

He so wanted to walk to the other side of the top of the car, near the cliff, to see if he could spy Miranda, but he was concerned that his weight could shift the precarious position of the train.

“Griff?”

He turned and saw a huge man peering up at him. He vaguely recognized him as the second-in-command of the Midnight Delta SEAL team, Drake Avery.

“We’re coming up,” the man shouted. He was talking about himself and two other men beside him. One of them had to be his lieutenant, Mason Gault, Billy’s brother.

“Don’t come up. We have a problem. I’m coming down.”

Griff ran to the end of the car and found the handholds necessary to climb down. On his way, he met three men who were working to uncouple the downed car from the dining car. They were struggling with the equipment. Nothing seemed to be going right. Drake met him when he reached the ground.

“This is Mason, my lieutenant,” Drake introduced quickly. “The other guy is our communications/tech guru, Clint Archer. Whatchya got?” Drake asked.

“A woman who means a hell of a lot to me fell down the side of the cliff when she rescued a baby,” he said as he pointed between the two rail cars. Nothing more needed to be said, Griff could see that they were immediately in mission mode.

“I brought some supplies with me.” Drake indicated the duffel at his feet. “I’ve got other shit that we might need, in my truck.” Drake took off at a dead run.

“The Humvees are equipped with cable. They’re planning on securing the train so it doesn’t slip any more than it has. We can commandeer some of that,” Mason said.

Griff looked over and saw emergency crews and Marines hooking up the cable to the bottom of the downed rail car. He also saw men working to open the entry door so that people could be evacuated. Shit, he recognized Hunter and Dalton. Hunter was a new guy on his team. He was using an exothermic torch.

“How many people are in that car? How’s Billy?” Mason asked.

“Billy’s been a big help,” Griff answered. “He’s got a great head on his shoulders. As for how many people are on the car, I don’t know. If I had to hazard a guess, I’d say about forty-five on the top floor, and I saw at least eight bodies. I have no idea how many on the first floor.”