Page 35 of Healing Home
Then a group broke away from the building and headed to the east— directly toward his team.
There was so much radio traffic he couldn’t get a word in edgewise, but he waved at Favore and caught his attention. The LT nodded and motioned for Link to head off to meet the group head on.
Link took off running, weapon to his shoulder as he engaged the enemy. Toro was directly behind him and to the right, firing constantly. Two of the terrorists went down in the initial assault and three hostages ran toward the platoon, but one got shot in the back. Link took great pleasure in taking that terrorist shooter out.
The other two hostages reached their position and Link started moving them back, using cover as much as possible. He thought he’d gotten them clear until another terrorist revealed himself. The dark-skinned man reared back his arm to throw something toward them, and Link thought it was a little strange for a Taliban insurgent to have grenades. He shot the man center mass, but not before he released the grenade. Link knew it was going to be bad. He had a split second to see the grenade flying through the air on a direct path toward their position. He lunged toward the prisoners, hoping that he could protect them at least a little before he died.
The feel of BB’s hug slammed through his mind, and he imagined landing in her arms. He should have told her how much he appreciated what she’d done for him.
The world exploded with heat as he hit the ground.
* * *
BB feltoff for some reason. Physically she felt fine, but something was just … wrong in her world. But she couldn’t see or feel what. It was a beautiful day outside, windy, but the sun was shining gloriously. Frankie ran around in the back yard like she’d been cooped up for days, but it had only actually been an hour since she’d been out. Frustrated with work, BB kept leaving her desk looking for distractions. Frankie was always ready to be the center of attention.
So, she played tug of war with a rope bone and tried to pinpoint what it was that was bugging her.
There was a deadline looming but she was well on her way to being done with the project— just a few more small tweaks. She was making good money and all of the family seemed to be doing okay. When Carolina had asked her to take another contract, though, BB had declined. It was too soon after Lincoln. As soon as she’d hung up with her sister, she’d wondered if she was crazy. Her life had pretty much crawled to a stop as she waited to hear that Lincoln had made it home safely.
She was imagining what he would think of her place when her phone rang in her pocket. Her heart began to race as she saw Mary’s name on the display.
“Hey, Mary!”
“I don’t want you to freak out,” were her opening words and BB’s blood ran cold. “He’s okay, but a bit beat up.”
“What happened?” She asked, already planning her drive south to Coronado.
“They got most of the prisoners out, where Link was, but when they engaged with the Taliban the shit hit the fan. There was a massive fight. Several of the platoon were injured. Lincoln was escorting two civilians to safety when a grenade landed behind him. He protected the civilians, but his back took serious damage, and his thighs. He had to have surgery to pull several dozen pieces of shrapnel from his skin, but it’s not as bad as it could have been. They’re flying the team back now and he’s expected to make a full recovery, but he’s going to be out of commission for a few weeks. They’ll be landing in about six hours. Black just found out. He’ll have to be in the hospital for a few days. Apparently he was fighting a fever and infection when he went into battle, so they’re dealing with that too.”
“Where do I go?” Her mind was spinning, so she grabbed a pen and paper as she went into the house.
“If I were you I would go straight to the hospital. He’s drugged, Justin says, so he won’t know you didn’t come to the airfield to meet him.”
“Okay.”
She wrote down what Mary told her to, dropping to her couch.
“I wasn’t sure how you would feel about this.”
“Oh, I’m glad you called. Believe me. I’ll be down as soon as I can make arrangements and find someone to watch Frankie.”
“Bring her here,” Mary said quickly. “Then she won’t have to be away from you for long.”
Tears filled BB’s eyes as she thought about Lincoln being hurt. “You swear to me he’s going to be okay.”
“I do,” Mary told her firmly. “Swamp Man says he’s not a hundred percent, but he’s okay.”
“Thank you for calling me, Mary. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
BB didn’t wait for Mary to respond, just hung up. There was so much to do. She had to pack a bag for her and one for Frankie. The drive was going to be interminable.
It was good, though, that she finally realized what was bothering her.
* * *
Lincoln rousedas they were carrying him off the plane. He wanted to move, but they had him strapped down on his belly. Yes, he could sleep on his belly, and did a lot, but being in the same position for the past two days was really beginning to infuriate him.
Even more infuriating, though, was coming off the plane being carried like a damn invalid. His world spun as they turned toward the hangar and he had to close his eyes as dizziness swamped him. He had to choke back nausea. Okay, maybe it was better they drove this time.