Page 17 of River

“I know I don’t, but I want to. Tell me about yourself,” I said, smiling. Trying to get his mind off of going overseas.

“You know all there is to know about me. I’m an open book. Tell me about the fires in Texas.”

I told him about my family there and how I saw all ofthem. I talked about Alex and Conner, my husband and baby, who died. He was in shock when I finished speaking.

“I don’t know what to say. God, I’m so sorry. That must have been a nightmare for you. Is that why you seem different?”

“Do I seem different?”

“Well, I’ve never seen you in jeans before. You seem more relaxed—except when it comes to River and the guys. They might just be unable to call. Plus, I’ve never known you to talk so much.”

“Yes, I am more relaxed. Plus, I found out I don’t have to wear high heels every day if I don’t want to. I’m going to take care of a few things. You can stay at my place while you recover. I don’t want you getting worse.”

“Kat, I’m also a medic; we all are. So you don’t have to worry. I’m not going to let myself get sicker. I want to learn as much about our missing team as you do. I hope they aren’t locked up somewhere.”

“I know.” I glanced at Farron, who was half-American Indian. He was handsome, with his black hair tied back with a piece of rawhide and a chiseled jaw. He was muscular and tall, like the rest of the guys. His dark brown eyes could stop you in your tracks when he was angry.

I saw him angry once when we were all in Japan. We went there to find two missing girls. Their father thought his ex-wife’s father had kidnapped them, so he hired our team to find his daughters. It took four days, and the man who had them had beaten them. Farron slammed his fist into the man’s jaw so hard that I heard the bone break. Then he beat the man senseless. No one said a word because the man had beaten both girls. I hoped he died from that beating.

“Are you ready to leave?”

“Yes, I’m ready. I’ll stay at your place because I do feel weak. But I don’t want you waiting on me.”

“Can I at least cook enough food for two people?” I asked with a slight chuckle.

“Yes, that would be fine. I might even have a sandwich before dinner.”

“That’s great. I made chicken salad yesterday. It makes a delicious sandwich.”

“I love chicken salad sandwiches.”

8

River

I couldn’t believewe were in this predicament. First, Gideon gets shot, and now we’ve been holed up in this damn tunnel for a week. Our point man was dead, and someone else had taken his place, pretending to be him.

We see more of the Iranian Army every time we try to leave. I just hoped Kat wasn’t doing anything reckless because our phones were dead. Lately, she had been surprising all of us to the point where we never knew what she might do next.

“How’s your wound?” I asked Gideon.

“It’s fine. I can run whenever we get the chance. I’m tired of this fucking tunnel,” he said, running his fingers through his hair. “I need a shower or at least a pond to rinse off all this sweat and grime.”

“We have to find those missing Army Rangers. Cooper Allen and Neal Grinnell have been missing for over a month. We’ll also need to refill our canteens soon. And yeah, you’re right—you do smell pretty bad,” I said, walking away with a laugh. I even heard him chuckle.

“I don’t see any signs of movement out there. Do youthink we can make a run for it? There are three of us; we can easily take down ten guys,” Gage said. “They’ll find this cave soon. I don’t want to be inside when they do.”

“Let’s wait until dark, and then we’ll move. I want to try to find out if the Rangers are still alive. What were they even doing here?”

“I don’t know,” Gage said.

Once the sun went down, it was pitch black outside except for the stars. “Let’s go,” I said, and we ran along the cliff. The temperature had cooled enough that we could run without overheating.

After a couple of hours, we spotted lights ahead. I raised my hand to signal a stop as a large jeep with two occupants approached.

“We’ll take the jeep from these two,” I whispered. We were dressed like Iranians, so we were surprised when they pointed guns at us. The two occupants glanced at each other, and then I heard a familiar chuckle.

“Fuck, what the hell are you doing here?” I asked, pulling her from the jeep.

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