Catching Eagle's Eye (14 page)

“Yeah,” Dane agreed in a voice oddly devoid of emotion. He turned his head to the left. “Truman, I need help over here,” he hollered.

Will turned his gaze upward and tried to breathe through the mounting pain.

The pilot slid up to them, her face sweaty and her breathing fast. “Yes, sir?”

“I need you to find whatever basic first aid supplies you can. Ensign Chadwick has been shot.”

“Yes, sir.” Truman turned and started rummaging around the crates and boxes stacked up nearby.

“Is anyone in here a nurse or doctor?” he called out as he gingerly pulled Will’s clothing away from the wound. When Will hissed in pain, Dane’s gaze darted up. “Sorry,” he murmured, and while he didn’t add the “baby” afterward, Will heard the word nevertheless.

“No, sir,” Truman yelled back. “Other than the three of us and my co-pilot, Wu, there’s only the local men we pay to load and unload supplies and a couple of other laborers who dashed in here when the attack started.”

“It’s okay,” Dane said mainly to Will. “I have basic medical training. He reached up and placed his palm briefly on Will’s forehead. “I’ll take care of you.”

Biting back the grunts of pain, Will did his best to give Dane an encouraging smile. “I know you will.”

They stared at each other for a few seconds before Truman returned with an armload of stuff. “This is all I could find so far. I need to get back and help Wu guard the windows.”

Dane grabbed what she had and set them down next to Will. “Thanks, but don’t shoot unless you see something you’re sure you can hit. We don’t know how long this is going to last, and we can’t waste what ammo we have.”

“Understood, sir.”

Will closed his eyes as Truman scampered away. He didn’t want to see what Dane was doing, and his eyelids felt so heavy anyway. He’d thought of himself for years as being a pain slut, but there was pain and then there was agony. As Dane cleaned Will’s wound to the extent circumstances allowed, Will couldn’t help but writhe and cry out. The sound of Dane’s voice washed over him in an obvious effort to comfort. It helped, but not enough. As Dane pressed hard to stop the bleeding, Will felt himself fall down a dark hole.

****

Dane stared at Will’s pale, still body. It was as if he’d already died, except that his chest rose and fell and his pulse beat quickly in his neck. The wound was bad, although how bad he couldn’t tell. Will needed a real doctor and surgery, and he needed it fast. With difficulty, he tore his gaze away from the unconscious man and ran at a crouch to Truman.

“How’s Chadwick?” she asked without taking her eyes off the window she squatted next to.

“He needs a dustoff now.”

Truman shook her head. “My bird is a pile of scrap metal.”

“Yeah,” Dane agreed, “and even if it were flyable, we have automatic weapon fire and mortars to contend with. My guess is that whoever’s in the clinic has already called in for help but it’s going to take a couple of hours for anyone to reach us. Even then, unless we can call in the coordinates for where they’re launching from, our rescue could turn into a massacre.”

“I wish I could see something from here. I’ve got nothing to aim for. And you’re right about holding fire; we’re black on ammo.” Truman shot him a frustrated look.

He understood how she felt. The village was surrounded by hills. The terrorists had the higher ground and were taking full advantage of it. Glancing back at Will, he knew a moment of helplessness before he mentally slapped himself in the face. He was a SEAL, goddamn it, and a sniper to boot. If anyone had the ability to get them out of this, it was him. All he needed was a perch and a long-range weapon. The roof of the hut they were in might give him enough elevation, but he hadn’t brought his rifle with him. All he had was his 9-mils, and that for sure wasn’t going to get the job done.

“I need your M16 and whatever clips you have,” he told Truman.

She blinked a few times at him before handing the weapon over. “I have only a few more rounds left and this one remaining clip.”

Dane took what she offered and automatically checked the sight on the rifle. “This will have to do.” It would do, he’d make sure of it. Will’s life was in the balance, not to mention an entire village and other American personnel.

“What’s the plan, sir?”

Dane looked around the room. “Is there another way out or another window at least?”

“Yes, sir, over there,” Truman replied with a nod of her head. “There’s a window behind those crates. We blocked it off to give us an easier position to defend.”

“Good. Get some help and unblock that window. I’m going up on the roof and see if I can neutralize the hostiles.”

Truman gave him a skeptical look before hurrying to comply. Dane checked the sight again before slinging the weapon over his shoulder and running back to Will. A small moan came through dry lips before his boy’s eyes fluttered open. Dane smiled down at him.

“Welcome back, baby,” he whispered.

“How long was I out?” Will asked in a voice laced with pain.

Wiping the sweat from Will’s brow with his palm, Dane answered, trying to hide his fear. “Just a few minutes. Everything’s fine,” he added. “Help is on its way.”

Will grimaced. “Are we still under attack?”

“Yeah, but I’m going to take care of that. Don’t you worry.”

“Seriously? How am I supposed to not worry when you’re obviously going out there?” His question ended on a groan and a shudder that scared the crap out of Dane.

“Shh,” he tried to soothe. “This is what I do, remember? I’m not going to let these assholes hurt anyone else.”

He knew better than to say anything about saving Will’s life. The guy might have been hit while saving his patient, but Dane was sure his stoic sub wouldn’t want anyone risking their life for him, Dane most of all. As the two words “his” and “sub” came together in his mind, he knew a moment of clarity about them. Will was his sub and he was Will’s Dom. Any effort to fight that basic truth had been stupid in the extreme. He vowed to himself that he would take care of Will now and for as long as he let him.

Leaning over, he said, “Will, you’re not to worry about this. I’m here and I’m in control, remember? I’m going to get all of us out of this mess, then when you’re all healed up, I’m going to redden your ass for doubting me. Understand?”

A ghost of a smile played across the guy’s lips. “Yes, sir.”

“All set, sir,” Truman said over his shoulder.

With a final nod of encouragement to Will, Dane turned away and headed for the now-clear rear window. He shoved every thought to the back of his mind except the mission at hand. He slung the rifle over his shoulder before peeking outside. He lingered with his head raised above the sill just long enough to be seen but not long enough to get his face shot off. When no bullets were fired at him, he took the leap of faith that no one was shooting from the back end of the village.

The risk was that someone was out there and too clever to shoot right away. In his experience, a lot of the terrorists were young and dumb and looking for perverse meaning in their lives, not competent soldiers. He hoped it was true of whoever was attacking them, but it didn’t matter in any event. He had to clear the perimeter so that help could arrive without undue risk.

So after a few seconds of waiting, he stood up and climbed out the window, instructing Truman to block it again once he was clear. With a nagging concern that a bullet would find his back at any moment, he shimmied up the crude building to land on its shaky roof. He crawled over to the front, keeping himself flat against the structure. He spotted the first shooter as soon as he cleared the roofline. While the M16 was nothing like his usual sniper rifle, when it came to accuracy, his skill made up the difference. Within seconds, he had dropped the first man.

Of course, that gave the others a warning that he was up there. Bullets struck the building near where he lay. Not being as skilled as he was at shooting long-distance targets, they didn’t come anywhere near hitting him. They did give him excellent intel, though, about where to direct his next shots. He dropped two more men with the same cold precision he had honed over the years. Given the urgency of his lover’s condition, he felt a certain satisfaction at his success that was new to him. It wasn’t just his duty driving him. It was his devotion. A devotion to a particular person.

He made himself lie still for long minutes while he waited to see if anyone else waited for him to show himself. Everything was relatively quiet during that time. All he heard was the wailing of young children still frightened by the noise and chaos that had driven them inside the meager protection of the buildings that comprised the primitive village.

Just as Dane got ready to raise his head, another large explosion rocked the area. He grimaced as he lifted his upper body. The mortar team was still out there, of course, and apparently not out of ordinance. At least he had to assume they hadn’t depleted their supply. This more than inept snipers was the real risk to any rescue team.

Scanning the area, he tried to find the location of the gun. He tried to gauge by the places that smoked from the explosions where the mortars probably came from. He couldn’t spot anyone or anything, however, given the many rocky outcroppings outside the village. The building wasn’t tall enough to give him the right sight line. He’d have to get to higher ground. He scoped out a likely hill top that required him to run in the open for a good amount of time. There was no helping it, though. Time was getting short.

Sliding down the backside of the roof, he dropped to the ground and took off as fast as he could in a serpentine pattern. He kept waiting to feel and hear bullets pinging the ground around him, but none came. He jumped behind a group of large boulders and slid down out of sight long enough to catch his breath and steady his body. There was still no fire. Staying as low as he could, he scrambled up the hillside, ignoring the dig of rocks into his palms and the dirt trying to clog his nose and mouth.

Just below the top of the rise, he pancaked and waited a full minute before peeking over the top. He cursed the lack of binoculars as he scanned the area to locate the point of origin of the attack. A flash of movement caught his eye and, using the scope as a way of focusing his vision, he got a bead on a small depression just beyond the far side of the village. He saw three figures and their gun. There was more ordinance, at least one more, cradled in one of the men’s arms.

Dane focused his concentration on the vision lined up with the site. Taking a deep breath, he squeezed the trigger in a controlled and steady fashion. He heard the report of the rifle, although in his mind it was the sound his target made as he was hit.

He allowed himself one second of satisfaction before taking aim at a new target. The other two were now alerted to his presence, but it would make no difference. They couldn’t possibly hit him given his location and their lack of training. It was a waiting game, one that Dane was extremely good at. He wasn’t worried about time anymore. The rescue could arrive without worry because he was there to stop any effort to blow the birds out of the sky. He wanted this over and done with, though, because he wanted to be with Will. There was nothing he could do to speed up the unfolding of events, so he waited.

And waited.

And waited.

One of the men popped his head up to look around. That was all it took. Dane dropped him with a single pop. And when the third man made the mistake of firing an automatic weapon as he tried to retreat instead of simply being a squirter, Dane neutralized him, too. Then it became truly silent around the area, as if everyone was waiting to see if the danger was indeed over. Dane held his position for a few minutes more, scanning the hills to see if anyone was suicidal enough to linger. When he heard and saw nothing further to worry about, he slid down from his perch and ran to the clinic to make sure help was on its way.

His boy’s life was in the balance, and he was going to get him help even if he had to carry Will all the way to it.

****

Will worked to push down the panic that threatened to consume him. The pain of his wound was nothing compared to his worry over Dane. He was out there among the bullets and the explosions, and knowing that the man was a highly trained SEAL did nothing to lessen his fear. He strained to catch every sound, trying to make sense out of them and weave a story that held his lover safe. When the hideous noises stopped, there was only the muted sounds of heavy breathing and the shuffling of bodies in the room.

After a few minutes, he let himself hope that Dane had succeeded in killing their attackers and was coming back to him. Suppressing the moans pushing past his lips, he lay still and waited. The sound of a familiar voice forced his eyes open. He managed to turn his head in the direction of the door and saw Truman letting in a large and welcome figure. Will forced a smile at Dane as he crouched beside him. A large hand pressed against his forehead.

“How are you doing, baby?” The SEAL was covered in sweat and dust, but he was unharmed.

“Fine,” Will croaked out. He regretted his voice wasn’t stronger when he saw Dane’s expression scrunch into worry.

“Help’s nearly here,” Dane assured him while he stroked his hand across Will’s head. “You’re going to be fine.”

With the way he felt, Will wasn’t so sure. Cliché as it was, he didn’t want to waste what might be the only opportunity to tell Dane what was in his heart. “I need to tell you something.” Damn, he could barely speak above a whisper. A jolt of pain made him jerk and gasp.

“Easy, baby.” There was a catch in Dane’s voice, and he looked away from Will for a second before continuing. “Save whatever you have to say until you’re feeling better.”

Licking his dry lips, Will murmured, “No. I can’t wait. I’ve waited too long already.” He gazed into Dane’s worried eyes. “I should have held onto you. I should have given us time. By insisting you come out before you were ready, I wasn’t being fair to you and I tortured myself. And not in a good way,” he added with what he hoped was a wry grin but felt more like a grimace.