“We did it,” I muttered to the baby, even though she was just the size of a grain of rice at this point. I glanced up at the chopper snagged on the trees. It hovered there, like caught on giant toothpicks.
Holy shit. I stumbled across the steep ground to get away from the wreckage. I felt a little banged up, maybe some bruising from the harness and scratches getting out of the trees, but I wasn’t hurt.
“Now we just have to hike out,” I said aloud, catching my breath. My adrenaline was pumping. Hard. I didn’t hear the other chopper. It probably saw me hit, then flew on as planned.
“I’m going to guess your daddy will be here in about T minus ten. They’re smart and quick like that.”
I hadn’t been following the radar there at the end, but I’d worked myself closer to the compound. The helicopter full of men who wanted us all dead would be there by now. That had me quickening my pace. They were headed right to Kennedy and the others. I hadn’t had tons of time to think on it, but it seemed my dad’s poking around had gotten Williams to act as we’d all thought. Except we expected them to do it on one of the assigned jobs, not at a random day and time.
What if Kennedy and the guys couldn’t take them?
No, I couldn’t think that way. They were ex-navy SEALs on their home turf. And with my being shot out of the sky and all, they had a heads up of things to come.
If I knew my team, those assholes who put my baby in danger were already dead.
I hoped. Yeah, I was already ridiculously protective.
The thought of Kennedy being shot before he got to meet this baby terrified me. And I didn’t mean a scratch on his head.
Had I actually intended to keep a baby we made together from him? To not tell him about its existence? I must’ve been out of my ever-loving mind.
I checked the sky to make sure I was headed in the right direction, but the clouds that had been threatening to storm had fully gathered now, blotting out all signs of the sun. I knew I wasn’t more than a mile or two from base. I also knew it was down, not up the mountain. Civilization of any kind was at a lower elevation. Talking with Indi, I remembered her saying once to find a creek or a stream and follow it out if ever lost and stranded.
“Okay, baby bean. It looks like we might get wet, but that’s okay. Mama has toughed it out in worse.”
Not five minutes later, thunder rolled, and I shivered as the sky opened up and dumped pelting rain on us. It also erased the smoke from the crashed helicopter that might have helped my team extract me. If they’d been monitoring radar, they’d know my last coordinates. They’d find me. I knew they would. Except they might be busy with bad guys. In the meantime, I would find my way out. My job was to get us to safety.
I sure as hell hoped Search and Rescue had found their hikers. Too bad I wouldn’t be able to pull them out.
“Maybe I’ll commandeer the enemy’s helicopter after my team takes care of them,” I say to the baby. The thought cheered me as I made my way down the incline, using the base of the pines to help.
A whistle pierced the air. It was a sound I recognized. It was Ford’s signal.
I didn’t know how to whistle, but I sent up two loud whooping sounds with my voice.
The whistle immediately responded with two notes.
“Quincy?” I heard Kennedy’s shout echo off the mountains.
“Here!” I shouted back. My heart kicked in double time. He was here!
A few moments later, he called again. This time, his voice sounded closer. “Quincy?”
“Yes!” I ran in the direction of his voice, watching the ground, so I didn’t trip.
As if the sky was celebrating our reunion, too, the rain slowed to a drizzle.
“Quincy!” I didn’t know why he sounded more frantic. He’d found me. But when Kennedy barreled through the trees toward me, I suddenly knew what it was like to be loved. He was in jeans and a t-shirt, not his usual mercenary outfit, but had a backpack strapped to his back, a thigh holster, and was carrying an AR.
This man… I knew it in my bones. In my cells. In the womb where our sweet tiny baby grew. He was mine.
He didn’t have to say it. Kennedy loved me. He wanted me. The rest we could figure out.
“Quincy, thank fuck!” Kennedy caught me in an embrace, lifting me off my feet. He was big and solid and warm and dripping wet. “You’re not hurt?” He stroked over my body with his hands, pulling back to inspect my face, the rest of me. “Oh God, I was so fucking scared.”
“I’m okay.” I caressed him back, catching his face in my hands. “I’m okay.We’reokay.”
In my periphery, I saw the other guys arrive behind Kennedy, forming a circle around me. They weren’t in fatigues, but they were armed just like when I’d flown them into enemy territory. We weren’t in a war, but we had a fight on our hands.