Hallowed Ground

“Where else would I be?” I asked, and then kissed her.

“I hate when you’re gone,” she said softly.

“Me, too. God, I’ve missed you, December.” I lifted her by the backs of her thighs, and she wrapped her legs around my waist.

“You don’t have to miss me anymore.”

“I just want to stay here,” I said, a feeling of panic coming over me.

“Then stay,” she whispered against my mouth, and then kissed me sweetly, gently sucking on my lower lip.

I deepened the kiss, wishing I could dive inside her and stay forever.

“Walker!” I heard the voice from a distance and looked up, scanning our kitchen.

“Josh!” Ember cradled my face, turning my head with her hands. “Josh, come back to me. Come home.”

“I’m home, babe. I’m not leaving you again.” I brushed my fingers over her cheekbones, loving the smattering of freckles that summer always brought to her skin.

“Walker!” The voice was closer.

“Come home to me!” she cried, breaking into tears. I wiped them away.

“Stop, December. Stop crying. I’m here.” No matter how many tears I cleared, more flowed.

She sobbed, and her tears ran red.

With blood.

“Walker!” she screamed, grabbing my face. “Walker! Wake up!”

Light blazed through my vision, and my thigh buzzed, then burned. Ember vanished, and I jerked my head to the side.

“Thank you, God,” the voice said, and its owner dropped his hands from my eyelids.

Pain shot through every inch of my body, and my head rang with a high-pitched buzzing. “Can you hear me?” he asked. “Walker?”

“Carter,” I said, recognizing the voice. “I hear you, Will.”

“Are you okay? Where are you hurt?”

I blinked steadily until the world came into focus around me. Will lay next to me—wait—above me, shining a light on my face. I tried to block it from my eyes, but my right arm wouldn’t cooperate. I swatted it with the left, instead. “I’m fine. My right arm isn’t responding, and my left leg is bleeding…or I pissed my pants.”

Will snorted and shone the light down. “Damn. I wish it was the latter.”

I swallowed, my mouth full of copper. “Rizzo?”

“I’m here, Lieutenant. Pretty sure I broke a few fingers on my left hand, my neck hurts, and my head is ringing like a bell, but I’m okay.”

Thank God. “You, Carter?”

“I’m okay. It hurts like a bitch to breathe. I think I popped a couple ribs, but I’m okay.”

I couldn’t see past Will, but I knew Captain Trivette was still there, strapped in. “She’s dead.” Somehow I kept my voice level.

Carter nodded slowly. “Yeah. Look, we’ve been down about ten minutes, and you know we’re not going to be alone for long. We have to get out of here.”

I nodded and gritted my teeth as Carter ran his hand under my left thigh. “Good news or bad news?”

“Bad then good.”

“Well, you have a rather large chunk of metal sticking out of your thigh.” He shone the light again, but I couldn’t get a look with the angle we were at. “It’s pretty substantial.”

“Is that seriously the good news?”

“No, the good news is that it didn’t go all the way through. You’re not pinned to the seat.”

“Great. Let’s get the hell out of here. How close are we to Jagger’s site?”

“About a hundred yards,” Rizzo answered from outside the bird.

Will unbuckled me, and my weight dropped to my right arm. I couldn’t stop the yell that burst free. “Fuck, that hurts!”

“Sorry,” Carter mumbled. Then he grabbed ahold of my vest and pulled. I pushed with my right leg in an awkward scramble out of the cockpit.

“We can’t leave her.”

“I know.” Once we were in the back, I made it out with Rizzo’s help. He lowered me to the ground, and then they got Captain Trivette out.

She deserved so much better than this, being laid on the rocky ground of some valley in Afghanistan. Jesus, she had kids. A husband. A life that was now over.

Because I wanted to save Jagger.

Not now. Shove it away.

“Where’s the Apache?” I asked, cradling my useless right arm and collapsing against a boulder. Fuck, it had gone dark in the last half hour.

“They’ve been circling, but they’ve got to be low on fuel,” Will answered, drawing his weapon and setting a perimeter, then grabbing his CSEL to radio out. “Gunman one-two, this is Dustoff one-two. Over?”

“Dustoff, this is Gunman. Glad you made it out. We have backup coming your way, ETA seventeen minutes. What is your status?”

“Three Deltas and one KIA.” Will looked away from my stare.

“Roger that. You have company coming your way fast. They’re armed and don’t look friendly. We’ll cover you while we can.”

I stumbled to my feet and took his CSEL. “Is there movement from the other crash site?”

“Not that we’ve seen on thermal.”

“Fuck.” I thrust the radio back at Will and reached for one of the M4s they’d pulled from the bird.

“Sir, I need you to sit down,” Rizzo ordered.

“We have to get to the other crash.”