Uniform Desires (Make Mine Military Romance) (28 page)

SEAL Team 10 was everything to him. Until Delaney had come along, he couldn’t picture himself with anyone he loved more.

The woman in his thoughts waited outside the hospital tent, pacing.

Backus and Tuck stopped in front of her.

"Captain O’Connell." The navy commander held out a hand and Delaney took it. "I’m sorry to hear about the loss of Captain Kuntz, Lieutenant Metzger, Sergeants Ketchum and DeSpain. The recovery team is on its way back with their remains."

"Thank you, Sir." She let go of his hand and rubbed her arms as if she were cold. "At least, the families will have some closure."

"Any news on Reaper?" Tuck asked, looking for his answer in her expression.

Delaney glanced at the commander, refusing to meet Tucks’ gaze. "A nurse came out a few minutes ago. She expects them to be with him for at least an hour. As soon as they stabilize him, they’re sending him back to Landstuhl."

"Some of the best surgeons in the world are stationed there," Commander Backus said. "He’ll be in good hands."

Nodding, Delaney continued. "They’ve got a critical care air transport team and a C-17 on standby, waiting for him in Bagram."

The news hit Tuck with a complex sense of relief and sadness. He and Reaper had been through BUD/s training together. From the moment they’d graduated training, they’d been assigned to Team 10 and hadn’t been separated since. The sense of loss hit him hard, weakening his knees. If he’d been alone, he might have given in and dropped. With his commander and Delaney standing close by, he couldn’t. He was a SEAL. SEALs didn’t show weakness.

He sent a silent prayer to the heavens. God, help Reaper and while you’re at it, help me be strong for him. With Delaney at his side, the man would be okay.

Tuck didn’t want to think whether or not
he’d
be okay. He couldn’t picture Delaney with Reaper. In the back of the Black Hawk helicopter on the way to their mission, he’d convinced himself he couldn’t live without her.

Now he’d have to.

Chapter 7

Cory woke once after the doctors amputated the shattered arm, cleaned his wounds, and packed them with pressure bandages.

Delaney was there when his eyes blinked open three hours later.

"O’Connell?"

"Yeah, Cory. I’m here." She leaned over his bed and smiled downward. The nurses had done a good job bandaging his face. Thankfully, none of the shrapnel had hit his eyes, but he’d have scars on his forehead, nose, cheeks, and chin. They’d just give him more character.

"My arm hurts like hell." He shifted his shoulder and lifted his head to get a look at it.

Delaney touched his chest. "Lie back. I’ll talk to the nurse about upping the pain meds." She turned to flag down a nurse.

Cory snagged her arm with his left hand. "Why can’t I move my arm?"

Her heart broke as she struggled to come up with the words to tell him he’d never move that arm again.

"What’s wrong? Why the sad face? Am I paralyzed?" He lifted the other arm, I.V. tubes and all. "Don’t lie to me. Give it to me straight."

She sucked in a deep breath. "The explosion destroyed your right arm. The doctors couldn’t save it. They had to..." She couldn’t say the word
amputate
. "They had to remove it."

Cory’s brows drew together for a moment, then he lay back, a smile curving his lips. "Is that all? And here I thought the injury was serious." He lay still for a few seconds.

Delaney thought he’d slipped into unconsciousness again until he spoke.

"How’s Tuck?"

"He’s okay. Took a bullet to the leg. I believe the medics had to sit on him to make him stay still long enough to pull it out."

Cory chuckled once, his brows twisting. "Remind me not to laugh. Hurts. And the others?"

"All the SEALs made it out."

His eyes opened. "Who didn’t?"

"The other helicopter crew."

"Damn."

"The main thing is for you to get better. They’re moving you soon. You get a first-class plane ride to Landstuhl then back to the States."

"Always wanted to go to Germany," he said, his voice fading.

"Sorry, you won’t get to tour this time. Unless you count the inside of the hospital."

"Maybe for our honeymoon."

"About that..." Delaney started, not sure of what she wanted to say. The truth would be best. She turned and paced the length of his bed. "When I agreed to marry you, I wasn’t thinking straight. I was worried about you and said what I thought you wanted to hear. The thing is, I love you, but like a brother. So you see, you don’t want to marry me. I’m not the right girl for you. You deserve someone who will love you like a husband." Delaney spun to face Cory to gauge his reaction.

He lay as still as death, his breathing shallow, his skin pale from the loss of so much blood. As far as Delaney knew, he hadn’t heard a word of her confession.

And as far as she was concerned, he never should. Losing an arm would be hard enough to recover from. Losing an arm and a fiancé at the same time was setting him up to fail. And failure meant death.

Her heart aching, Delaney sat beside Cory, loving him like a brother while she longed for Tuck’s arms to be around her, his voice reassuring her everything would be all right.

Captain Swinson stopped beside her. "They’re getting ready to move him. If you’re going with him, you might want to pack a bag."

Delaney stood and glanced down at Cory.

"Don’t worry, I’ll stay with him until you get back."

"Thanks." Delaney hugged the other woman and hurried out of the hospital, breathing in the fresh desert air. The sun was just beginning to rise, bathing the camp in a golden haze.

Tired, disheartened, and worried, she hurried to her tent, packed her rucksack with the essentials and a change of uniform, and returned to the hospital. All the way there and back, she glanced around, hoping to catch a glimpse of Tuck.

When she arrived back at the hospital, they had Cory loaded onto the big wheeled gurney, a medic carrying the IV still attached to his arm. They loaded him into the back of an ambulance and made room for Delaney. She slipped onto a bench next to the medic who hung the IV over the collapsible gurney.

The ride to the helicopter pad passed quickly. Too quickly. Soon, they’d be on their way to Bagram and from there to Landstuhl. She might never see Tuck again, and she hadn’t had the opportunity to say goodbye.

At the helicopter pad, the transfer went without a hitch and the pilot shook hands with Delaney. "Heard what happened. Sorry about the crew."

"Me, too."

"I’ll try to make the ride as painless as possible."

"Thanks." Delaney climbed on board and behind the pilot, the experience of
riding
in a helicopter so much different than
flying
it.

"Wait!" A shout sounded over the sound of the rotor blades building up speed and one of the medics closed the sliding door.

"Wait!" Across the tarmac, Tuck ran, wearing gym shorts, T-shirt, and tennis shoes, his thick, muscular legs covered in swaths of orange Betadine and patches of stitches. One of the ground crew clotheslined him, bringing him to a halt before he could get close enough to the blades now in motion.

Delaney started to unhook her harness, but the helicopter lifted off, the pilot’s focus already on the task ahead, unaware of the man waving frantically. Get the patient to Bagram safely and swiftly. The sooner he got out of the theater, the sooner he’d get the specialized help he’d need to survive.

Helpless to stop the chopper from rising, knowing slowing the trip would only put Cory in more danger, Delaney watched through the scuffed window as Tuck became a tiny dot in the middle of the airfield. Her eyes burned with unshed tears.

Delaney’s life was now on a different course. Cory would be her focus until he was well enough to manage on his own.

Chapter 8

One month later...

 
"Cory, you have to do it. I can’t go back until I know you’ll be okay." Delaney stood beside Cory in the large room dedicated to rehabilitation of wounded soldiers.

His face burned red, sweat popping out as he tried to pull the long rubber strap toward him using what was left of his right arm. When it was only halfway, he let go and growled. "Fuck this!"

A pretty blond physical therapist stepped up to him. "Cory, the only way you’ll get better is to fight past the pain, and use those muscles that haven’t been used in a month. Now do it." Her voice was soft but firm, her lips set in a thin line. Petite and delicate-looking she might be, but she wasn’t taking anything less than Cory’s best.

"You’re new here, aren’t you?" Delaney asked.

"Yes, ma’am." She placed the rubber strap over Cory’s arm and stepped back. "My name’s Leigha. I’ll be Cory’s physical therapist for the next few weeks."

 
"I don’t want a different therapist," Cory groused. "What was wrong with the one I had?"

"He was transferred to San Antonio Medical Center. He’s leaving in two weeks." Leigha nodded toward the rubber strap. "Now, give me five repetitions with the strap."

"I don’t have the rest of my arm. Why bother?"

She crossed both arms over her chest and leaned close, whispering, "Are you a SEAL or a pansy ass?"

Delaney was torn between telling off Leigha for being so hard on Cory, and laughing out loud. The woman looked like she could be broken in two by any one of the wounded warriors in the rehab center. She couldn’t be more than five feet tall in heels, but she had backbone. In a place as depressing as it was hopeful, she’d need the strength.

Cory had been through multiple surgeries on his stump to clean out the shrapnel, dead tissue, and bone. The pain he’d suffered broke Delaney’s heart, and she was glad her commander had given her leave to stay with him through the worst of it.

But now duty called, and she had to go back to the war. After smelling the acrid scents of alcohol and disinfectant, and freezing in hospital rooms kept cool to ward off infection, she looked forward to the grit, dust, and heat of the desert. And she couldn’t wait to get back behind the controls of a Black Hawk helicopter.

During one of Cory’s rest breaks when his therapist had gone off to help another soldier, Delaney touched his shoulder. "Cory, honey, I need to leave. I have to pack and be on the plane in two hours."

"You sure you don’t want me to come with you to the airport?" Cory looked up, his eyebrows raised in a hopeful expression.

Delaney shook her head. "I don’t like tearful goodbyes, and I don’t want to worry about you getting back to the hospital."

His face fell, and he reached out with his good hand to capture hers. "I don’t know what I would have done without you, O’Connell."

She smiled. He’d never called her Delaney and he’d yet to kiss her like he meant it. Sure he’d pecked her on the cheek, but he acted as if he’d lost some of his manhood when he’d lost his arm. As bad as it had been through his surgeries, the agony, and depression, Delaney couldn’t tell him how she really felt. After losing an arm, what more disappointment and heartache could he stand?

She really loved Cory and couldn’t bear to see him in any additional pain. But did she have to marry him to keep him from giving up hope?

Maybe once she was back in the desert, he’d come to realize they weren’t meant to be. And to prove it to him and to herself, she leaned up on her toes to get closer, captured his face between her palms and kissed him like she would have kissed Tuck—long, lingering and with a little tongue action.

Cory didn’t taste like Tuck, but he cupped the back of her neck and deepened the kiss. Granted, he was a good kisser. At least, he had that going for him. But the spark just wasn’t there—that soul-inspiring jolt of electricity that pulsed through her veins when she kissed Tuck was absent.

"Eh-hem. Want me to come back later?" Leigha stood behind Cory with her brows raised.

Delaney straightened, her cheeks burning. "No. I was just leaving."

"Take your time. I’m here all day." She winked at Cory and performed a perky about-face.

Delaney chuckled. "I think you’ve met your match in that one."

"Yeah." Cory frowned, his gaze following the woman across the floor. Then he turned to Delaney. "Promise me you’ll Skype when you can."

"I’ll try. With the time difference, I’m not sure how often I can."

"And tell Tuck I’m okay. He’s probably blaming himself." Cory stared down at his arm. "He shouldn’t. I don’t."

"I’ll let him know." If she saw him in theater. The SEALs didn’t always stay in one place for long, and she wasn’t sure of her assignment when she got back. They might send her to another province. Her chest ached at the thought of seeing Tuck again. Having left in such a hurry, she hadn’t had an opportunity to say all that needed to be said.

Knowing the way Tuck felt about commitment, she wasn’t sure there was anything left to say. She was engaged to Cory. Anything they might have had was over unless she broke her engagement.

"Cory?" Delaney opened her mouth, wanting to say so much more. To tell him the kiss hadn’t done anything for her, that they weren’t meant for each other. To break their engagement.