Page 24 of Lucky Charm
“Alpha Five and Seven stay behind us. Cover our back. Alpha Four, go ahead with Six and find the caves.” Hunt ordered, shifting his weapon to accommodate pulling Doc to his side again.
She fought him. “We both fell last time. Let me walk alone. Then it’s only me.”
Hunt pulled her close. “Then I have to traipse down and get you.”
“But at least you won’t get hurt more on my account.”
“That’s why they pay me the big bucks.”
Doc snorted and opened her mouth to reply. He didn’t let her. “Do everything I say,” he ordered, his face against hers. “Copy that?”
The mutinous expression turned up her cute nose and would have been sexy and tussle worthy if the weather and the bad guys weren’t combining to create a very nasty day. God, he wanted to kiss her. Talk about poor timing.
The expression blanked from her face. She nodded.
He moved up the slope, pulling her along at his side. The pain was manageable – or so he lied to himself.
∞∞∞∞∞
“Hang on, Doc.”
Hunt’s whisper woke her from a light trance. She rode on Doogie’s back with Hunt guarding them from behind. Baxter remained at the front with the radio, but the rest of the men were carefully fanned out to keep track of each other in the nasty weather. She’d walked to the point where she could no longer keep going, and with Hunt’s injured ribs, Doogie swooped in to carry her. She appreciated the ride more than she could express. While she admitted they moved faster carrying her, it rankled that she slowed them and made the danger worse. She hated the fact that Hunt’s back would take the first bullet to protect her, and she had to constantly swallow the bile that rose in her throat.
She tucked herself closer against Doogie’s big back to try and cut the wind.
“About forty more feet, Doc, and we’ll be in the cave Carter found. You’re doing great.” Hunt’s calm voice reassured her. He stepped back to let Doogie move ahead.
She refused to ask what happened from here. The doctor in her was assessing her physical state. Her outerwear was encrusted with snow. Her feet and hands had numbed some time ago. Aches and pains from their slide sans toboggan were now making themselves felt in tightened muscles and a side ache. Whether they’d have time to do anything constructive about her physical state depended on whether they had time to stay put. The snow was blinding. How these guys knew where they were going was beyond her, and she never wanted to learn.
Back in her trancelike state, it seemed like seconds instead of minutes when they entered a dark cave.
“Stay put, Doc. Let us figure out if we have company.” Hunt patted her arm on the way by.
Doogie slipped her off his back and maneuvered around to hold her. “You’re safe here. Rest a minute while we get situated.” He helped her to sit on the ground near the wall. She wobbled and slumped, trying to fold into herself for warmth. She’d never been so deep-down cold. She tried to examine the cave, but the darkness and the shivers stopped her.
The thin stream of barely-there light from the entrance didn’t allow for a closer look at the space. The smell defined rank – dead skunk yuk mixed with musty dirt. She learned early on as a residentto take shallow breaths through her nose to mitigate the worst odors. If she had the energy, she’d dance a jig that they were out of the storm. One more mile with her eyes shut against the blow of the blizzard with only the team’s skills between her and nature would have been one too many. Thank God everyone was safe for the moment, and the death squad that chased them appeared stuck, stalled by the same horrible weather.
Whether they were truly safe was a matter of perspective. Hunt and Tommy huddled at the door with the others for an intense conversation. That suggested a whole lot of issues were at hand which she wasn’t privy to. Without her earpiece to listen to them, dread spiked in her overloaded body. Physically exhausted and dangerously cold, she wasn’t moving under her own steam.
She was a surgeon, used to taking charge and making decisions. But in this case, she would accede to Hunt, who knew better what should come next. Interfering would not help. She had nothing to bring to the table – and given her level of expertise in the special warrior department, she might as well click her heels three times and wish for a division of Marines. That would be the best she could do.
She closed her eyes, fighting an avalanche of fatigue. A sliver of sudden awareness whispered at her. The lure of sleep was a heartbeat away when some professional part of her brain raised a desperate warning. “Hunt...”
She couldn’t hear herself, couldn’t open her eyes, couldn’t move. “Hunt.” Desperation made her attempt louder.
“What is it, Doc?” She felt his hand in her hair where the hood and scarf had slipped.
“Body...tooo cooold.” Her lips were thick and unresponsive to her commands, but he must have understood because he pulled her gloved hand to him and pulled up her sleeve to touch her arm.
“Carter, get over here. Doc’s too cold.” She hadn’t heard that tone in his voice before, and her brain couldn’t connect to why his concern mattered.
“Well fuck.” Carter reached for his med kit.
She lapsed into unconsciousness, trusting her body to Hunt and Carter.
Chapter Five
“What’s happening?” Hunt couldn’t stifle his sharp tone.
