SEAL's Embrace - Makenna Jameison Page 0,10
she was his or something. A woman he’d never even set eyes on before earlier this afternoon.
When he’d pushed her to the ground in the cafeteria, he hadn’t even thought twice. They’d heard the alarm sounding, and he’d acted. He hadn’t even gotten to enjoy the feeling of her soft curves beneath him or her silky hair beneath his hand, he’d been so focused on keeping her safe and assessing the situation.
Of course he’d noticed how attractive she was—that was why he’d introduced himself in the first place. But he’d been more worried about shielding her from any harm than acting on his feelings in that moment. When he’d locked eyes with Blake, he’d known they both had the same thought—Sayed.
Which meant that tomorrow, they’d be going door to door through the village, finding that bastard if it was the last thing they did.
Adrenaline coursed through him as he moved, and he frowned as he saw the chaos out front. There were three people lying on the ground, a medic tending to one of the injured. He saw Ethan and the rest of his team hovering over another body, his teammate performing CPR on the injured soldier.
Fucking hell.
“SITREP?” he asked as he jogged up.
“One casualty, aside from the suicide bomber.” Blake nodded to the right, and Grayson cursed as he saw a sheet being draped over a body. “Three injured. The base is on lockdown.”
“Any word on tomorrow?”
“I’m going to meet with the general in fifteen minutes. I don’t expect he’ll want us moving in before dawn.”
Grayson nodded, watching the heavily armed soldiers guarding the blown-apart checkpoint. Additional barricades were already being moved in, and he clenched his jaw, looking at the carnage. It could’ve been worse—so much fucking worse than this.
And oddly enough, relief coursed through him that Hailey had been nowhere nearby. That she didn’t have to see this scene. He didn’t even know the woman but felt protective toward her. Yes, she was beautiful, but there was something more. An unexplained connection and chemistry that just was. Somehow they’d clicked in the brief time they’d talked, and he wanted to sit down with her and see if anything else really was there between them.
Ethan stood as a medic team rushed over to the injured soldier where he’d been performing CPR, taking over for him. “Are we sure the suicide bomber was working alone?” he asked, wiping the blood from his hands on a towel someone shoved at him. He grabbed a sterile wipe and began cleaning his hands off.
“That’s the current assessment, although you know as well as I do, someone could’ve slipped in during the explosion,” Blake said.
“They’d have been blown up, too,” Grayson said with a frown.
Blake lifted a shoulder. “Most likely. It’s good you got Hailey back to the housing though. It’s safer than walking around out here.”
“Agreed. And I don’t think she had any interest in hanging around the chow hall after that.”
The men moved aside, watching as another medical team came rushing over with a stretcher. “How can we help?” Jackson asked, all business.
“Get him on here,” one of them barked.
Jackson nodded, and he and Troy lifted the injured soldier onto the stretcher while the first two medics continued their lifesaving efforts, one of them continuing CPR, another trying to stop the bleeding. They hurried over to a truck that had pulled up, loading the injured man inside so they could rush to the hospital on base.
“This is bullshit,” Logan said. “We should’ve fucking gone after Sayed this afternoon.”
“That wasn’t our mission,” Blake ground out. “We were doing recon. No one knew he’d disappear from the insurgents’ camp by the time we flew in from the States.”
“That’s still eating at me,” Grayson said. “It’s just too much of a damn coincidence.”
“The whole thing is FUBAR if there’s an informant here. But nabbing Sayed tomorrow could also flush him out. Either he’ll give us a name of the mole or the guilty party will accidentally expose him or herself.”
“Or we just have the worst fucking luck in the world,” Logan said.
The men watched as the injured were taken away, and Jackson and Troy walked back to their group.
“Hell,” Troy said. “Never a dull moment.”
“You guys should head back to the barracks and change,” Blake said. Both men had blood and dirt on their uniforms from helping carry the injured soldier. Ethan was a mess as well. “I’ll meet with the general and fill you in later. We’ll need to go over our plans