SEAL's Embrace - Makenna Jameison Page 0,19

the other woman he was driving from the hospital to the plane on the other side of base.

“Good luck, Hailey,” the nurse said.

“And you’ll give my note to Grayson?” she asked anxiously.

“I’ll make sure he gets it,” the nurse assured her. “And if I hear anything about your friend Kim, I’ll get word to my colleagues in Landstuhl so they can update you.”

Hailey nodded, tears smarting her eyes. Another passenger was carefully placed into the back seat, and then the man was climbing back inside and starting the engine. A minute later, they were driving away, riding toward the airstrip in a small military truck.

Hailey could still smell smoke in the air from the fire, and the base was more somber than usual, despite all the activity around the hospital. Men and women were hurriedly walking around, conducting their business, but the world just felt darker than it had yesterday. She never imagined she’d leave her assignment because of an injury—that she’d be medevac’d out of the country where she’d spent nearly an entire year of her life. And she never expected to fly back home with none of her belongings—with most of her things destroyed in a fire.

She looked out the window as they drove her to the plane, a lump in her throat. This was probably the last she’d ever see of Bagram. She wasn’t in the military. She’d taken the year-long assignment for the experience of it all, and for the way it would look on her resume. She’d likely get a promotion quicker now, but at the moment, she just felt damn sad. Someday she’d settle down and have kids. Start a family. She wouldn’t be taking hazardous positions again or even be applying for jobs all over the world.

And after this harrowing experience? Even if she never met Mr. Right or had the family she dreamed of, she’d be content to work in the U.S. from now on.

***

“God damn,” Grayson muttered as their convoy of vehicles rolled back into base. Armored trucks, Humvees, and other military vehicles were all pulling up to the heavily fortified gates, the soldiers guarding it waving them through. He and his SEAL team were used to running ops alone most of the time, and this was quite an imposing convoy.

There were temporary barricades in place and extra patrols on the perimeter.

This entire mission had been fucked up before they even began—the abandonment of the terrorists’ camp, the bombings on base, the fact that all the strong and able-bodied men were all gone from the village. Gone or killed, he thought, remembering the bodies of the teenagers that had been found.

“What’s the plan, Raptor?” Jackson asked over the headsets.

“We’ll debrief with the general, but I have a feeling they’ll be sending us back to Coronado. If we don’t have intel on Sayed’s whereabouts, they won’t need us sticking around.”

“Shit. You think they’ll send the fucking Army platoons after him?” Troy asked.

“I don’t know,” Blake said. “It depends where he ends up. Our mission was to infiltrate the terrorists’ camp and grab him. He’s been one step ahead of us the entire way. Unless we have intel indicating where he is, our commander won’t want us sitting on a fucking base in Afghanistan twiddling our thumbs.”

Grayson clenched his jaw. Although his mind had been on the op, he’d been thinking of Hailey all morning. He wished he’d gone back over to the hospital last night to check on her. They’d had to meet with the general though and then grab some food and go over their plans for the failed operation this morning. And since they were up at the ass crack of dawn for their mission, it’s not like he could’ve checked on her first thing.

Blake looked over at him, seeming to know exactly what was on his mind. “I heard some of the injured were being medevac’d to Landstuhl this morning.”

“Shit,” Grayson muttered. “I hope I get to check in with her before she goes.”

“So much for your dinner, Ghost,” Logan said. “No worries. We can hit the bars back in San Diego and find you a beautiful woman.”

Grayson muttered a curse. “That’s the damn problem—she was different than all those women usually hanging around base. I don’t want any of them—I want her.”

“I hear ya,” Blake said. “Clarissa is as different as those women as night and day. But I thank fucking God I found here down in Colombia.”

Ethan crossed his arm, chuckling, as he looked back and forth