Page 1 of Hearts Under Fire
Chapter 1
Kate
The ceaseless tapping of Lieutenant Kate Cross’s fingers on the pristine wood desk betrayed her otherwise calm, collected, and unaffected demeanor. A shrill ringing cut in, and Kate whipped out her phone to hush the obnoxious ringtone.
TheBarbie Girltheme song played loudly, and Kate answered with annoyance, “I’m changing your ringtone and, I’m never leaving you alone with my phone again, Izzy.”
Lucious, rich laughter filled Kate’s ears as Izzy ignored her ire.
“Don’t lie to me. You love me and you’re never changing that ringtone. Even if you do, I’ll just change it back. You sound pissy today. What’s going on?”
Kate glanced around the nurses’ station, grateful she was alone. Usually the medical ward was flooded with patients, officers, distinguished visitors, and foreign allies. On this occasion, they’d just transferred out the only patient the night before, and a medical transport flight with new patients wouldn’t be arriving until the next day. Normally, Kate wouldn’t talk on her personal phone at her station, but the floor wassilent, and no one was around. She spoke quietly, in calm, measured tones.
“I don’t want to talk about it. How’s Korea? Are you enjoying Kunsan?”
Kate could practically hear Izzy’s eyes roll at the deflection.
“It’s wonderful. I love it. Great. Now that we’ve covered that, tell me what's bothering you.”
A groan accompanied Kate’s scowl. It was difficult hiding things from your best friend, especially if they were as emotionally intelligent as Izzy was. Kate gave in, knowing Izzy wouldn’t let it go.
“I was assigned a new partner.”
The silence was palpable. Izzy knew Kate didn’t talk about her last partner.
A dull rumbling began and Kate sighed. “Hold that thought.”
Palstein Air Base in Germany was known to many of the world's military members as a hub for overseas missions. The base was constantly bustling with activity—training missions, C-130’s coming in every couple of hours to take the next round of willing boots headed to the sandbox for deployment, F-18’s running exercises, practice bombing runs, and so much more. There was never a dull moment, and one always had to be prepared to lose the ability to hear and speak for a few minutes at the drop of a dime.
As the aircraft drew closer, Kate resisted the urge to jam her fingers into her ears. Soft rumbles turned into the loud roaring of the turboprop engines announcing the safe return of another platoon from deployment. As much as Kate hated that the medical ward was next to the flight line, hearing each aircraft land safely and bring more soldiers home always made her feel grateful.
It was only too easy to lose soldiers, friends, partners out there- as Kate knew only too well, so each one safely home was a relief to her.
The thrum of the engines finally died out, and Izzy’s laughter came through the speaker of Kate’s phone once again.
“Ah, gotta love base life. So. Tell me who this new partner is. Have you met them yet?”
Kate’s unease lingered, but she answered anyway. “No. I haven’t met her yet. The brief they sent just gave me her name and record. Give me a sec.”
Kate tucked the phone into her shoulder with her chin and began thumbing through the folders on her desk. Finding the right one, she flipped to the first page.
“Lieutenant Alexis Cole. Combat rescue officer with a distinguished record. No known reprimands on file and has several commendations and exemplary physical test scores.”
Izzy let out a sharp whistle. “Oh, Kate. I’m so deeply jealous of you.”
Kate coughed a gruff laugh. “What the hell are you talking about? Do you know her?”
Izzy gasped. “ Alexis Cole, are you kidding? You’ve never heard of her?Lieutenant love ‘em and leave ‘em.This is wonderful. I’m not ruining this for you. I’ll let you go into this blind, but I will tell you I’ve met her, and I’ve heard of her long andskilledreputation.”
Kate frowned. Concern filled her gut like lead. “You have to give me more than that.”
“I know a girl with whom she went on a few dates. Apparently, this woman is so talented with her tongue and fingers that--”
“Hey! That’s not what I meant,” Kate barked, interrupting. Her voice echoed through the empty hall, bouncing off the tiles.
“I don’t need to know that. She’s my partner forwork,” Kate emphasized, her voice breaking at the last moment.
Izzy tried to speak again, but Kate continued. “We just got a mission assignment, and we’ll be deploying any day. I have literally zero intention of becoming involved with anyone, least of all, some rescue officer who enjoys fucking half the platoon. She can be a lesbian Casanova on someone else’s time. We’ll have to focus, and distractions can get people killed.”