скачать книгу бесплатно
“Seriously, I have to go back. My nurse is there. If the raiders who attacked the government office make it out to the refugee camp, they might take her. So, if you’re not taking me there, at least let me out and I’ll walk.” She moved toward the door and placed her fingers on the handle.
“Hey.” Graham reached out with his injured arm and winced but grabbed her wrist anyway. “You can’t jump out of a moving vehicle.”
“If that’s the only way to get back to the refugee camp, I’ll do it. I won’t leave my nurse to be terrorized, killed or sold into slavery.” She spoke louder. “So if you don’t stop this vehicle now, I’m going to jump.”
Chapter Two (#ulink_b38ca162-107c-5f0c-a716-c224f6f88148)
“Hold your horses. We’ll take you to the camp,” Diesel said. “Just let me get us far enough away from what’s going on downtown.”
“Jump from a moving vehicle?” Buck chuckled, then stopped when he realized Angela hadn’t been kidding. He shook his head. “You’re as stubborn as you always were.”
Angela lifted her chin. “It’s what keeps me going here. My stubbornness got me through medical school and my internship.”
She didn’t say it, but Buck could hear the comment she didn’t make: Unlike you.
Buck felt the cut like a knife to his gut. “I had my reasons for leaving,” he said and ended it there.
“Where’s the refugee camp?” Diesel asked.
Angela turned away from Buck and focused her attention on Diesel. “Southwest of town.”
Using less-traveled streets, Diesel drove the van to the edge of town. Before they left the cover of the buildings for the open landscape, Big Jake glanced back.
“No one behind us for now,” T-Mac confirmed.
Diesel shot out of Bentiu and into the open.
Not far from the town was the beginning of a city of tents and poorly erected shelters made of scrap plywood and tin.
“We can’t drive right into camp,” Big Jake said. “Remember, we’re not supposed to be in this country.”
Angela nodded. “Our tent is on the back side of the camp. There are some buildings past that where you can hide the van and let me off.” She directed Diesel past the camp and a little farther, to where a stand of shanties stood.
Diesel parked behind one that appeared abandoned.
When Angela reached for the door, Buck gripped her wrist. “I’m going with you.”
“There’s no need,” Angela said with her fingers curling around the handle. “I’m not coming back.”
“The hell you aren’t,” Buck said.
“I’m not here to argue. I have to check on my nurse.” She shoved the sliding door open and dropped to the ground. Without waiting, she took off toward the camp at a slow jog.
Buck shot a glance at Big Jake. “I can’t let her go it alone.”
Big Jake jerked his head toward Angela’s departing figure. “Then go. We’ll wait here as long as we’re not discovered.” He tapped the earbud headset. “Stay in touch. I’ll send a couple men out to keep watch for bad guys.”
“I’ll keep you informed.” Buck jumped out of the van and ran to catch up with Angela.
She didn’t slow for him but kept jogging toward her destination. “You didn’t have to follow me,” she said. “I know what I’m doing.”
“Humor me.” He raised a hand to the makeshift bandage on his arm. “Besides, I need you to patch me up better.”
“How do you know I didn’t do a good job?”
“I’m the corpsman, the medic for the team. It’s my professional opinion that you need to clean the wound and apply a fresh bandage to keep it from becoming infected.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Right. You’re a medic. Do it yourself.”
“I can’t perform surgery on myself, now can I?”
She sighed and kept moving. “Fine. It wouldn’t hurt to clean the wound and apply sterile bandages.”
Buck suppressed the smile threatening to spread across his face. He’d scored a very minor victory, but one that would give him a little more time to convince her to leave an extremely volatile area.
As they approached the sprawling camp, they circled around a large white tent to the entry at the front where a canvas sign was tied over the door. The red, white and black lettering stated Médecins Sans Frontières, which translated to Doctors Without Borders.
Buck knew all about this international nongovernmental organization known for humanitarian relief in war-torn or developing countries with little or no medical services available to the general population. He’d hoped one day to be one of the doctors to volunteer his time to help others less fortunate. He’d had lots of dreams when he’d started medical school.
A woman with graying blond hair stepped out of the tent and frowned when she saw Angela and Buck. “I heard an explosion in town. That wasn’t anywhere close to your demonstration, was it?”
Angela’s lips pressed together. “Brenda, we need to prep for stitches. I’ll fill you in on what happened while we’re sewing up this man.”
Brenda smiled at Buck. “Hi, I’m Brenda Sites. And you are?”
“Graham Buckner, but you can call me Buck.” He nodded toward the tent. “We don’t have time for stitches,” Buck said. “A clean pressure bandage will do for now.”
Angela shook her head. “No, we need to close the wound to keep it from getting infected. I can do it in less than five minutes, if you’ll shut up and let me get busy.”
“All right, sweetheart. You don’t have to be so bossy.” Buck’s lips twitched as he followed Angela into the tent, his gaze taking in the neat little hospital complete with a few beds and a separate room for more advanced procedures.
His curiosity always piqued when he was around medical equipment and medicine. More than anything, he wished he’d been able to finish his degree and residency. Alas, his past had caught up with him, and he’d had to leave school or risk exposing the people he cared most about to the murdering, scum-of-the-earth gang members he’d grown up with in Chicago.
He’d left school, Angela and his dreams behind to get away from his past and to get his past away from Angela. He couldn’t regret that. She’d deserved to finish her schooling without being stalked, harassed and potentially harmed by Buck’s old gang members.
The only way Buck had gotten the gang to leave him and Angela alone was to give up his dreams and leave Chicago all together.
“Have a seat.” Angela indicated a folding chair in front of a small field desk.
“Really, we could just clean the wound, bandage it and be done in a lot less time,” Buck said. “If you’ll give me whatever you use to clean with, I can try to do it myself.”
“Didn’t you say you couldn’t perform surgery on yourself?” Angela washed her hands, dried them and pulled on a pair of latex gloves, while her nurse spread out sterile drop cloths across the table, then laid out scissors, gauze, Betadine and tweezers. She used the scissors to remove the makeshift bandage from his arm. Blood oozed from the wound.
Angela inspected it. “See? You need stitches.” She took over after the nurse completed removing the bandage and irrigated the wound with a syringe.
The nurse patted it dry with gauze and applied Betadine to the skin around the wound.
Angela threaded the needle with suture line, her movements quick and efficient. “We’re short on local anesthetics. Hell, we’re out of most medications.” Angela met his gaze with a steady one of her own. “You’ll have to hold very still and grin and bear it.”
If he wasn’t mistaken, she almost looked like she was enjoying taunting him with the threat of pain. He nodded. “Just do it quickly. We don’t know when or if Koku’s men will show up and cause more trouble.”
Before the last word left his mouth, she stuck the needle into the edge of one side of the wound and looped it through the other. She talked softly as she worked, informing her nurse of what had occurred in Bentiu.
Buck stared at the top of Angela’s head while bracing his jaw to keep from cursing. It hurt like hell, but he wouldn’t jerk his hand away or let loose any of the choice words he wanted to say at that moment. Instead, he focused on Angela, taking advantage of her concentration on his arm to study her.
She hadn’t changed much in their years apart. If anything, she’d become even more beautiful. Her dark hair framed her face, her olive-toned skin was a little darker and the confidence she exuded was palpable. The woman had matured into a self-assured, capable doctor with a steady hand.
Buck’s heart swelled with pride for her. “I always knew you’d make it,” he said softly.
Her hand stilled for a fraction of a second before she tied off the first stitch. “That’s what happens when you stay focused.”
Her comment hurt. He shouldn’t have let it, but it did. Angela hadn’t known how much he wanted to stay at school and be with her. He hadn’t told her, figuring a clean break would be better than leaving her holding out hope for his return. “I had my reasons for leaving.”
“Yeah. And it doesn’t matter, does it? You left. I stayed. We lived our own lives.” She slipped the needle into another section of the wound. “Separately.”
Buck winced and bit down on his tongue. He figured Angela was right. Why bother rehashing the past? It was over. What he needed to do was concentrate on getting her out of the camp before Koku’s men came looking for another place to shake up.
Angela and Brenda worked on his arm with quiet efficiency.
By the time Angela tied off the last stitch, Buck could swear he’d ground at least a quarter of an inch off his back teeth. He released the breath he’d held and stood.
“Now, let’s get you out of here.” Buck reached for her wrist.
Angela stepped backward, avoiding his hand. “I told you, I’m not going. I can’t leave these people.”
“You saw what happened in Bentiu. Those guys could come here next.”
“These people need us. We can’t abandon them.” Angela peeled the gloves from her hands.
Buck’s jaw tightened. He couldn’t walk away and leave her here, in danger. “You’re not safe.”
“They’re not safe.” She laid the gloves on the table and captured his gaze in an unflinching one of her own. “I’m not going.”
Big Jake’s voice came over Buck’s headset. “We’ve got company.”
“You may not have a choice,” Buck said. “My guys say Koku’s men are coming into camp as we speak.”
No sooner had he made the announcement than a burst of gunfire could be heard outside, followed by women screaming.
“If you don’t leave for me—” Buck nodded toward her nurse “—leave for Brenda. We need to get both of you out of here. Now.” He took Angela’s hand and dragged her toward the door.
More gunfire erupted.
Angela dug in her heels and pulled her hand free. “You’re a SEAL. You can stop them.”
“Not if we’re outnumbered. And sometimes that only causes more casualties when so many civilians are involved.”
“Seriously, guys,” Big Jake said into Buck’s ear. “They’re headed straight for your tent.”
“My men say Koku’s men are headed directly for this tent. Are you coming with me or staying to argue with a killer?”
* * *
ANGELA HAD SPENT so much of her time working with and healing the people in the refugee camp. To leave them would be like abandoning her own children.
“Dr. Vega.” Brenda touched her arm, her eyes rounded, her hand shaking. “We can’t help anyone if we’re dead.”
Her nurse’s words hit hard. If Brenda was scared, Angela owed it to her to get her out. She turned to Buck. “Take my nurse and get her to safety.”
He shook his head. “I’m not leaving without you.”
One of the women Angela had been training to assist with medical treatments ran into the tent. “Dr. Angela! Dr. Angela! The men. They’re coming for you. They’re coming for the doctor.” She took Angela’s arm and hauled her toward the door. “You have to go. You go. Now.”
Angela’s gaze met Buck’s over the woman’s head. “Okay. We’ll go.”
Buck touched his headset. “We’re on our way.” He stepped in front of Angela before she could leave the tent. “But not that way.” He pulled his Ka-Bar knife from the sheath on his belt and strode through the tent to the back, where he jabbed the knife into the fabric and slit an opening large enough for a person to get through.
Then he stepped out and held the fabric wide. “Now you,” he said, waving for Brenda to come next.
The nurse ducked through and moved out of the way.
While Buck and Brenda were making their way out of the tent, Angela got busy throwing equipment, supplies and medication into her backpack.
Buck stuck his head back into the tent. “Angela, we have to go now. They’re almost on us.”
Angela shot one final glance around the tent she’d called home for the past six months, tossed in a couple bottles of water and dived out of the tent.
Loud voices could be heard from the men storming through the refugee camp toward the hospital tent.
Her heart thundering against her ribs, Angela ran.
Buck grabbed the backpack from her arm and slung it over his shoulder. Then he took her hand and urged her to go faster.
By the time they reached the deserted shack, Angela could barely breathe. T-Mac and Harm were waiting at the sliding door, where they lifted Brenda off her feet and into the van. They did the same for Angela and then clambered in after them. Buck was last inside, slamming the door as the vehicle took off.
Angela stared through the back window of the van at the camp she was leaving behind. Smoke rose from the tent they’d just vacated, the fabric succumbing to the flames shooting into the sky.
Men in black clothing ran toward them, firing their rifles.
But by then, the van was far enough away, and the bullets fell short.
“We don’t have much of a lead on them,” Buck said. “Once they get their trucks rolling, they’ll be after us.”
“Then we need to keep rolling,” Big Jake said. “The faster, the better.”
Diesel pressed his foot to the accelerator, taking the van as fast as it would go, fully loaded with SEALs and the women.
“If we’re lucky, the sun will set before they catch up to us,” Big Jake said. “The 160th is on standby for extraction as soon as we give them the coordinates.”
