Protecting Caroline (SEAL of Protection Book 1) (8 page)

“Okay, that’s
easier for me to remember. I’ll call you guys that.”

They all smiled
at her as if they thought she was cute. Mentally rolling her eyes, Caroline
couldn’t go around calling these masculine men by the silly nicknames they’d
given each other for probably asinine reasons.

Seeing their
smiles reminded her that she needed to make them leave. They’d leave soon
enough, she might as well hurry them along so she could go and find a seat and
feel miserable in solitude.

She looked at
each of the men and said in a tone that projected dismissal, “Well, thanks for
coming to check on me, but I’m okay and I have to go get in line now. I’m glad
you’re all okay too. Good luck on your upcoming mission and stay safe. All
right?”

She peeled
herself away from Matthew and turned toward the line. She waved lamely at the
three men, turned her back on them and went to get in line. She couldn’t let
them stay. She didn’t belong with them, she was just plain Caroline. Not Ice,
not a part of their team. She was nowhere near their league. She had to leave
now before her heart decided it wanted more. Before she let Matthew break her
heart.

Mozart, Abe, and
Wolf watched as Caroline walked away from them without a second glance and got
in line.

“Well, that
didn’t go well did it?” Mozart asked no one in particular.

Wolf grunted and
headed toward the stairs. Fine. If she didn’t want them around, they’d go. He
didn’t understand his feelings of hurt, but he’d never chased after a woman,
and wasn’t going to start now, no matter how much he wanted to. A little part
inside told him he was being an ass, but he ignored it. He’d thought they had a
connection, but if Caroline was able to walk away from him that easily, he was
obviously wrong.

Caroline held
her breath. She didn’t really want them to go, especially didn’t want Matthew
to go, but she didn’t think she had a choice. They weren’t really interested in
her; they were just following up on the incident. She was glad to see that none
of them seemed to be hurt though. That was good. Caroline hoped they’d be safe
in their upcoming missions. The more she thought about those missions, the more
she panicked a little inside. She had no right to worry about them—no right to
be concerned. She was a passing oddity for them. Once they got to Norfolk
they’d laugh about the entire thing and come to their senses.
Matthew
would come to his senses. He’d realize she was a nobody, a geek, and move on
with his life.

Once she knew
they were gone, she’d go back and sit down. She couldn’t stand in this line
much longer. She already felt dizzy and was still nauseous. She swayed on her
feet trying to calculate how much time they needed to disappear and how much
time she had left before she fell on the floor in a dead faint.

Abe and Mozart
followed Wolf down the stairs. They didn’t say anything to him, but they knew
he was fighting some sort of demon they didn’t understand, so they didn’t push
him. Of course they figured it was about Ice, but since neither of them had
seen him act like that before, they weren’t sure what was going on. Wolf was a ladies
man, like most of them. He didn’t have to work hard to attract women, but
lately he seemed out of sorts. He hadn’t been out with them for a while and he
just didn’t seem interested in women…until now. Until Ice.

Mozart took a
hard look at Wolf. His hands were clenched at his sides and he strode
purposefully down the stairs. They were headed out of the building to another
part of the airport where their military bird waited for them. Suddenly Mozart
noticed something else, something Wolf and Abe seemed to have somehow missed. He
knew they’d be pissed they’d overlooked it. After all they’d been trained to be
observant. Mozart couldn’t wait to rub it in.

“I’ll meet you
at the plane,” he promised Abe and turned and ran back up the stairs taking
them two at a time without any other explanation. Abe had no idea where his
buddy was going, but shrugged and followed Wolf out the door. He’d be back soon
no doubt.

Wolf sat in the
seat on the military airplane brooding. He wasn’t sure why Caroline had gotten
to him so much, but she had. She was smart and brave and…dammit. He didn’t want
to leave her. But what choice did they have? Did
he
have? They had a
plane to catch. Did he have to leave? What if he stayed and flew commercial
with her? He still had some leave time. Shit. His commander had said they had
to get to Norfolk and debrief in person. They had to meet with someone there
and go over what happened. Wolf knew the entire episode was a security breach
and someone had to answer for it.

But Wolf still
had a thousand questions for Caroline. What did she tell the authorities, where
did she spend the night last night, what had really happened with the terrorist
Mozart had killed when he was on top of her? And maybe most importantly, did
she want to see him again? Wolf was still brooding about the entire situation
when he looked up and saw Mozart escorting the woman he couldn’t get out of his
mind onto their plane.

What the hell?
Mozart knew
civilians weren’t allowed on official military flights. Wolf stood up to chew
him out when Mozart signaled him to “wait.” Wolf ran his hand through his hair
in frustration. What had he missed? Why did Mozart go back and get Caroline? He
wasn’t someone to buck authority, ever. But he was now. What was going on? Wolf
sat back down and bided his time. He trusted his team, but he wanted to know
what was going on now.

He wasn’t sure
he could handle spending more time with Caroline only to have her rebuff him
again. It hurt enough the first time. Yes, it hurt, Wolf admitted to himself.
Every instinct he had was screaming at him to get up and go to Caroline, but if
Mozart wanted him to wait, it was for a damn good reason. He’d give him a bit
of time, but as soon as they were in the air he was going to find out what the
hell was going on.

Caroline tried
for the tenth time to get Sam to let go of her arm. He wasn’t budging. He’d come
back up the stairs, straight to where she was standing in line, took her arm
and led her away. Away from the airport and to here, this plane. To where
Matthew was.

She tried to
tell him to let her go, tried reasoning with him, tried making him mad, tried
everything she could think of, but he just held on and kept walking. He didn’t
say anything to her other than, “Come on, Ice, you’re traveling with us back to
Norfolk.” That was it. Nothing else. She didn’t even know where they were going
once they got to Virginia, but she supposed anyplace beat sitting in the
airport going nowhere.

Caroline sat in
the seat Sam led her to gingerly. He helped her get buckled in, then walked
further back into the plane to find his own seat. Thank God he hadn’t put her
next to Matthew. She didn’t want him to know she was hurt. It hurt to lean
back, so she sat upright in the seat. Surprisingly enough, none of the SEALs
came and sat next to her. She’d seen both Matthew and Christopher on the plane,
but neither one approached her.

She was glad,
but also sad too. Mostly she was confused. As the plane taxied down the runway
she tried to relax and not think about hijackers. Nothing was going to happen
on this flight. It was a military plane, flown by military personnel with three
SEALs on board. There were no flight attendants, only the four passengers and
the pilots. She tried to relax, but couldn’t. She couldn’t get the thoughts of
the terrorists out of her mind.

As soon as the
plane was airborne and at a relatively safe altitude, Mozart stood up and went
to Ice. On his way he signaled to both Wolf and Abe, “injured.”

Wolf watched as
Mozart got up. He wasn’t going to go to Caroline. She didn’t want to come with
them. With him. He’d be damned if he….just as he was working up a good temper toward
her, he saw Mozart’s signal. Fuck. Injured? How the hell did he miss it? He got
to Caroline about the same time as Mozart. He didn’t remember getting up and
moving forward, but there he was.
Caroline was injured? What the fuck?

Mozart let Wolf
squeeze by, and as he did told him quietly, “I saw the blood on your shirt from
where you grabbed her in the airport.” Sure enough, Wolf looked down and saw
the tiny smear of blood. He’d missed it. Jesus. Thank God Mozart hadn’t. He’d
never live it down, but at the moment he couldn’t give a damn.

Wolf kneeled
down next to Caroline’s seat. Her seat belt was buckled, but she was sitting up
straight, unnaturally straight. Now that he knew she was hurt, he could see how
uncomfortable her position was.

“Caroline, where
are you hurt? Let me see.”

Caroline shook
her head, but didn’t look at Matthew. “I’m fine, really…”

Wolf gave a chin
lift to Abe and Mozart and signaled for them to get the makeshift cot in the
back ready. Like most military planes, this one was equipped with a space in
the back for injured soldiers.

“Come on
Caroline, up you go. We’re going to the back. Let me take a look and make sure
you’re all right.” He reached out and quickly unbuckled her seatbelt, brushing
her hands aside when she tried to prevent him from taking care of her.

“Seriously
Matthew, I’m okay. I just want to sit here. I’m tired.” Caroline whined, trying
to resist, but she was too tired and hurting too much to put up more than a
token resistance.

“Caroline,
please. Let me help you.”

It was the
please that finally got to her. She sighed and nodded, defeated. He was going
to have his way no matter what she said. Besides, they were already airborne;
it wasn’t as if she could ignore them or walk away.

Wolf helped her
to the back and sat her down on a cot. He sat next to her and put his hand over
hers on her knee.

“Mozart here is
going to take a look.” When she struggled a bit and looked like she’d stand up,
Mozart leaned down toward her.

“Look at me, Ice,”
Mozart demanded. At the tone of his voice, Caroline looked up at him, panic in
her eyes.

“I’m just going
to look. I’m sure you’re fine, but at least let me see…okay? I won’t hurt you.
I
am
trained you know,” Mozart said with humor in his voice.

“It’s not that…”
At their expectant looks she sighed and quipped sarcastically, “Okay, but if
you suddenly have the urge to jump me, don’t blame me!” She knew what kinds of
women these men were used to, tall skinny women without an extra pound on them.
She wasn’t that, no way, no how. Usually she didn’t care, but baring herself to
them, especially to Matthew, wasn’t something she wanted to do in this
lifetime. She couldn’t seem to lose the last fifteen pounds that clung
stubbornly to her stomach and thighs. She didn’t tan, and …she couldn’t think
of anything else because Mozart was lifting up her shirt and exposing her
stomach and side. She tried to suck in her breath and her stomach at the same
time.

“Relax,” Wolf murmured
next to her head. He tilted her head up so she had to look him in the eyes.
“Talk to me Caroline,” he commanded.

“Wh-what do you
want to know?” She stuttered trying to ignore what Mozart was doing.

“Tell me what
happened after I got up to go into the cockpit,” Wolf insisted.

Caroline was
quiet for a moment, then tried to downplay what had really happened.

“When you got up,
the other guy was coming for you so I tripped him. It stopped him for a moment,
but you were still busy and he was getting up. I grabbed him to stall him and
then Sam came up and killed him.” She finished in a rush and looked away from
Wolf’s eyes.

“Now tell me
what
really
happened,” he growled. “You’re a terrible liar.” He paused
and when she didn’t continue he added, “Please tell me. Caroline, I’ve been on
hundreds of missions for my country, but I don’t have the words to express how
thankful I am that you were sitting next to me on that plane. Not Mozart, not
Abe…
you
.
You
did what you had to do and you saved my life and the life of everyone on that
plane not once, but twice. Now tell me.”

Caroline ducked
her head. Crap. She hadn’t done anything she was ashamed of, but for some
reason she really didn’t want to tell Matthew what had truly happened. She
couldn’t help but feel as if she should have done more. She inhaled a quick
breath when Sam did something to her side that really hurt. Damn. She quickly
stumbled over her explanation to get it out of the way and to try to take her
mind off of Sam’s probing.

“The terrorist was
on the ground but getting up and you were still trying to get into the cockpit.
I knew I had to do something or we’d all die. So I jumped on his back. I tried
to keep him down, but he was too strong for me. He flipped me over and we had a
kicking and hitting match. I didn’t know he had a knife, which was dumb I suppose,
but he must have gotten me while we were fighting.”

“Why didn’t you
say anything afterward? Either before we landed or when the paramedics were
there? Didn’t you see an EMT?” Abe asked suddenly from somewhere off to her uninjured
side. Caroline shifted her gaze over to him.

“For the same
reason you didn’t, Christopher,” she explained slowly. “I heard what you told
that woman on the plane. She asked why you weren’t going to get help. You said
the hospitals were busy enough with the other passengers. They wouldn’t have
had time for you and it wasn’t fair to the other passengers. I agreed, and
besides it was just a scratch. I got some antiseptic wipes from the EMT and
tried to clean it last night. It wasn’t until this morning that it started
looking red.”