SEAL's Embrace - Makenna Jameison Page 0,17

sight.”

“God damn it!” Blake yelled. “We’re on a fucking wild goose chase.”

“Should my men continue searching?” the Army officer asked over the headsets.

“Yes, finish your section. We’ll continue on while I report back to the general. It sounds like this op is FUBAR.”

Blake stormed off to the next house, Ethan and Grayson following behind. The men eyed each other, ready to move in on Blake’s word. “You think it’s someone in the general’s office leaking intel?” Ethan asked.

“It would have to be. These missions are highly classified,” Blake ground out. “Most people had no idea who we were or why we were here.”

“Hailey guessed we were Special Forces,” Grayson commented.

“Yeah, well, I imagine she sees all sorts from her position. Every team that meets with the general moves through there. She wouldn’t have access to our missions though,” Blake said.

“Agreed. I wasn’t implying it was her or that she was in any way involved. But she does see a lot. I wonder if she’d have an idea as to who the traitor is—if she noticed anyone suspicious in the office.”

“We’ll share our concerns with the general before we check in with her.”

“Absolutely. She’s in the base hospital anyway. She just had more insight than I expected. I shouldn’t have been surprised—she seems intelligent and quite aware of her surroundings.”

“You two take point while I update the general,” Blake said, nodding at the door of the house where they were standing. Ethan pounded on the front door with a fist, but a young mom opened it before they needed to break it down, a baby in her arms.

“Fucking hell,” Grayson said, looking around at the scene inside. There were kids sitting there and another young mom, but it was the same as all of the other houses. Women, kids, and elderly grandparents. But not a man or teenage boy anywhere in sight.

Chapter 5

“I’m sorry, we still haven’t been able to locate a Ms. Kimberly Turner,” the nurse said, walking over to change the saline bag hooked up to the IV in Hailey’s arm.

“What?” Hailey asked, her heartrate monitor spiking as she tried to sit up in bed. “She’s missing?”

The nurse helped her get settled again. “No, she’s unaccounted for. We had a lot of patients rushed in last night, and some were already medevac’d out. It’ll take some time to get everything sorted. I’m sorry, because I know that you’re worried, but most of the injured will be fine.”

“Most,” Hailey muttered. “We don’t know if she’s injured. She’s missing.” Her head was still pounding, and now she was growing more and more worried about her friend. If Kim was okay, she’d be looking for Hailey, too. The fact that she hadn’t heard from Kim and couldn’t find out anything about her was nerve-wracking. Something was very wrong.

“I know it’s a lot to take in, but it’s possible a few people were missed as far as updates. We had to set up a triage area on-site and rush people over to the hospital. So many people were helping, bringing the injured here themselves without waiting for the medics—it was complete chaos. The residents were all relocated to other buildings, so even if she wasn’t hurt, it’s going to be tough to track her down until everything gets updated.”

“Is that supposed to make me feel better?” Hailey asked, holding her hand to her stomach. At the moment, she felt like she was going to vomit. Kim was one of her closest friends from back home. She’d thought it would be amazing to have her here during some of her last few weeks in Bagram. The military was huge, spread out all over the world. What were the chances that one of her best friends would get to be temporarily stationed where she was? And now she was gone. Missing.

Hailey looked over at the nurse. “Were there any casualties?”

The nurse pressed her lips together, and Hailey began to feel dizzy. “She could’ve been killed!”

“I’ll try again to see what I can find out. I took the liberty of ordering you some breakfast since you were asleep earlier. You need to get some food into you. The flight will be leaving within the hour, and you’re stable enough to be transferred to Landstuhl. The emergency patients were already transferred yesterday.”

Hailey gasped.

“What’s wrong?” the nurse asked.

“What if Kim was horribly injured and is already in Germany?”

“You don’t know that,” the nurse said soothingly. “She could be in another building on base looking for you right now.