Page 57 of Savage SEAL's Virgin
Even in my personal thoughts, I couldn’t finish that sentence. It was too horrible to think about.
I’m not sure when I fell asleep that night. It was the first night I’d been without him in a couple of months. My dreams were bothersome; they didn’t let me rest well. When I woke up with the sunlight streaming in through the window, I found I was wrapped in the sheets, tangled so badly it was hell getting out of them.
I was up an hour ahead of schedule, so I took a shower. My head was aching and nothing was relieving the pain. Tatum and I were quiet as I took her to school. She asked about her daddy when I took her into her classroom. I promised if I heard anything at all, I’d tell her as soon as I picked her up.
Tatum was such a good girl. She patted my tummy, then kissed my cheek. “He’ll be back soon. Don’t worry.”
Patting her on top of her head, I said, “Hey, that’s my line.” I smiled at her, kissed her cheek, and left her at school.
The day crawled by, as did the next one, and the one after that. Three nights had passed without a word sent back to us. No one said a thing. We all hoped he’d show up soon. Any minute, he could walk through that door. But he didn’t. Two more days passed, then his father decided he’d make a phone call. We didn’t get any information other than that we’d be informed if anything happened to our soldier.
That alone gave me hope that Troy was alive.
I’d never given a second thought to those people who had loved ones in the military. I never knew there were constant worry and anguish that plagued them. I never knew how they were walking around in a daze, taking care of the things they had to. They were waiting to find out if the person they’d built a life around would come back to them or not.
I was luckier than most. I lived in a home that was cleaned by maids, ate food that was cooked by chefs, a had a yard that was taken care of by a lawn crew. All I had to do was take our little girl back and forth to school. I was supposed to be doing my online classes, but I’d decided to put them on hold until Troy got back. I couldn’t concentrate, after all. No need to rack up bad grades.
When two weeks came and went, so did all hope of him coming back. But I had his baby in my womb and his daughter clinging to me. I had to stay as strong as I could for them. On day seventeen, a phone call came in. Troy was officially declared missing in action. He was somewhere in Afghanistan. His captain hoped he was being held prisoner, but wasn’t sure about that.
I didn’t know what the hell to hope for. I didn’t want him to be tortured. How could I pray that he was merely the prisoner of a bunch of cut-throat barbarians? Would he be better off dead than being beaten nearly to death or otherwise tortured mercilessly? Would I ever get over his death, if he was dead?
I didn’t think so. I didn’t know what I should do. So I went to bed and didn’t get up for a few days. I became vacant—a shell of a person. I wasn’t me without him. I couldn’t be. He’d brought me to a world full of love and happiness, then left me there all alone in it. It was a place I’d managed to avoid for twenty-two years.
How could he!
Troy
A storm raged as the ship rocked. Some of the newbies were losing their shit as those of us who’d been through rough patches before held on, knowing it would be over soon.Everything ends at some time or another.
The mission itself would be a fairly straightforward one. Go in, take out three bad guys, and get back to the ship. Easy enough, until you added in the storm and the fact that the intel was inaccurate, putting my team right into enemy’s hands. It’s not often you find driving rains when you get to a foreign desert. But that’s what we found. The chopper that took us in left us far enough away. We only had to make it three clicks to get to our target.
Fate was against us when we were almost there. The night skies opened up, and a deluge saturated us, cloaking us and our enemy, who was well aware of our whereabouts, it seemed.
They found the rainfall to be working for them and attacked us, taking us down one by one, until all six of us had been captured. Buried in something that seemed a hell of a lot like a mineshaft, we were imprisoned in the cages they had made. Kept apart from one another, the other SEALs and I had no way to form an escape plan. A diet of bugs and filthy water did little to keep up our strength. It was enough to keep us alive, but nothing more than that.
Not very long after we were captured, one of the men in our group, who wasn’t feeling well when we’d started the mission, was dragged through the dark chamber that ran in front of our cells. I shouted at him, but he didn’t respond. The asshole escorting the men who were moving him spat at me, then said in broken English, “Useless, pigs. Oink!”
It was my guess, then, that we were supposed to be kept alive. Maybe we were being traded for some of their soldiers who had been captured. It gave me hope that I’d see Blyss and Tatum again.
I couldn’t lose hope, no matter what!
Time isn’t something one can keep when locked away in the dark where you can’t hear anything that’s going on outside. I had no idea how much time had passed. It felt like an eternity, though. The best way to tell that not much time had passed was the length of my hair and the growth of my beard. I’d been clean-shaven and my hair had been cut in the typical military style right before we left. My hair was still short and my beard wasn’t too shaggy yet. With those clues, I thought it had been a few weeks since I’d left home.
As I sat on the ground in my cell in the dim light, I found a crack in the cement. It was near the back wall I was glad my fingernails had grown and began to dig at the crack. Over time, I made a hole in the floor. I found dirt there, and then I dug. I took my shirt off to cover the hole as I was working on it. There was no cell next to me—only open ground. I could dig myself out, save the other men, and get home to my family.
With that in my head, I forged on. Blyss had to be staying strong for Tatum and our unborn child. That’s what I prayed for the most. I knew Mom and Dad would help her, but I was worried about her. Blyss was still fragile. She’d pulled it all together for Tatum, but how long would that last with me gone and her heart broken?
If I allowed myself to give up and perish in the dungeon, I’d have only hurt Blyss exactly the way she had always feared I would—leaving her alone. On top of that, with my children to care for, it was worse than anything she ever thought of.
I couldn’t do that to her. She needed me, and so did my kids.
So, I dug and dug until I couldn’t anymore.
After much digging—it seemed days had to have passed—I made it to the other side. The time was near. My pulse increased, as I knew once I reached the outside, I had a shitload of things I had to do. Getting my team out was the number one priority. And there would be men to fight before I was able to do that.
My inner thoughts were interrupted when a commotion began and three men came down the corridor. One pointed at me, and I shook my head. “Take one of the others.”
I knew they were coming to get a bargaining tool. One of my team to put on television to show they had a live person to trade. I didn’t want to be that tool for them. I had other plans. And if they let me out, they’d make me put my shirt on and find the hole I’d made. I’d be good as dead.
