Running Fire (21 page)

Wanting to reach out, but stopping herself, Leah had to get used to the fact they were now in civilization. “I wish,” she said softly, holding his warm gaze, “we were back in that first cave where you rescued me.”

“But we aren't,” he said gently. “There will be other times and places, Leah. Right now, I want to get you cleaned up, and I want some food in that belly of yours. We've been on the run for days and we've both lost weight we can't afford to lose.”

“You're such a big, bad guard dog, Ballard.”

“Better believe it, Sugar.” He winked at her. “See you over at the chow hall in two hours.”

Leah watched Kell turn around and leave. He wore a black baseball cap and his M-4 was in a sling across his chest. She looked at other men, comparing them to him. The way he walked, the boneless animal grace, stole her heart. He had confidence she'd never seen anywhere else, other than in the men at the SEAL HQ just now.

* * *

K
ELL
WAITED
OUTSIDE
the chow hall. His heart hammered briefly as he saw Leah walking confidently down the avenue. She looked good in her desert-colored flight suit, although it didn't show off her curves, which he knew so well. Her hair was loose and he could tell it was damp, barely touching her shoulders. When he met her eyes, he smiled a silent welcome to her. There were a lot of people milling around the entrance to the chow hall and he stepped out of the way of the traffic.

Leah smiled up at him. “I'm starving. How about you?” She him gave him a wicked look.

Kell's smile widened. “Oh, I'm starving all right.”

“Poorly phrased,” she admitted, feeling heat sweep up her neck and into her face. “Hungry for
food
,” she admitted with a soft laugh.

Leah turned away because of the intense, burning look in Kell's eyes after her remark, remembering their intimacy with one another. Around him, her shields dissolved and she was fully vulnerable to him in every way. Swallowing hard, she walked with him into the busy facility. Just being with Kell made her needy for him again.

“It's okay,” he soothed, giving her a teasing glance. Kell held the door open for Leah and followed her in. The place was packed with the noontime crowd, mostly men in uniform, although there were civilians among them.

As they stood in the chow line, Kell saw her remove her baseball cap and stick it into the thigh pocket of her uniform. He inhaled Leah's scent along with the fragrance of the soap she'd recently used. “What? You traded in my lye soap for almond-scented shower gel instead?” he teased.

Turning, Leah nodded. “You bet I did,” she said. Pushing her fingers through her damp hair she added, “It feels so good to be clean.” And her body was responding to his quiet, powerful presence whether she wanted it to or not. She knew Kell well enough to see that gleam in his eyes that was meant solely for her. It wasn't obvious, but she felt heat course through her in response to that look. The man could turn a rock on. Hell, he'd turned her on, a major miracle in and of itself.

“How are things in your neck of the woods?” Kell picked up two trays, handing one to her. He didn't really care if the men, who always watched the few women that came to the chow hall, knew he was with her or not. But maybe it'd go a long way to make a subtle statement to other males that Leah was taken. She was his. And there would be no hiding the fact that if they met here every once in a while to eat together gossip would start. Forward operating bases were magnified fishbowls of the human condition. One of the worst kinds. There were a thousand personnel here at Bravo and 95 percent of them were men.

Leah spotted a hamburger and added it to her tray. Her stomach was growling. She ignored the looks she always got from the men. With Kell behind her, maybe she wouldn't get hit on, which usually always happened.

Once they were through the line, Kell said, “Over here.” There were two empty seats at the rear of the chow hall. They could sit together and he would have his back to the wall so he could see everything out in front of them. SEALs never sat with their backs to an entrance or exit, or near windows.

Leah took the end seat at the long table filled with the Marine security force that kept Bravo safe. She recognized the two sentries who had let them in earlier in the morning and nodded a hello in their direction. Kell sat between her and a Marine Corps sergeant.

Settling in, Leah put a lot of ketchup on her fries. “Our first real meal together,” she teased, grinning. She liked the way his mouth curved at the corners. On Kell's tray were four hamburgers and twice the amount of French fries she had on her tray. She had one hamburger. He was a helluva lot taller and weighed much more than she did.

“One of many to come,” he promised her, picking up a hamburger. Kell noticed the men at the table looking longingly at Leah. He wondered how women in general handled this kind of alpha-male, testosterone-laden environment. Leah completely shut it out, busy eating. He could feel she'd put up her shields, so maybe that was her way of dealing with it. Women out here on the frontier were few and far between.

Leah had waited until the men across from her had eaten and left. She didn't want to have a private conversation with Kell that could be overheard by others. Finally, the table cleared as she ate a huge piece of cherry pie for dessert. Sometimes, her elbow would accidentally graze Kell's elbow. Every touch felt good to Leah. She yearned to be in his arms, to kiss that wonderfully male mouth of his, to sink against him as the world melted away.

“How's it going over at the squadron?” Kell asked her, pushing his tray to the other side of the table.

“My CO, Captain Markley, told me Hayden is gunning for me.”

“Is this the first time?”

“No.” Leah finished her cherry pie and put the tray to the opposite side of the table. Picking up her mug of coffee, she said, “Hayden gets this way when he wants me to put in a good word with my father to have him considered for the next early rank selection. He's up for light colonel, so he thinks I'm going to aid and abet him.” Her voice turned to a growl. “Not this time.”

Kell nodded and picked up his coffee, sipping it. “That flight recorder leaves tomorrow morning. Clutch's been assigned to hop a flight into Bagram and personally hand deliver it to Grant. I'll be interested in what Clutch sees in him.” In more ways than one. Kell wished it had been him that Ax had assigned to take the recorder to the bastard. He wanted eyes on Grant to ferret out his weaknesses and strengths.

Leah smiled a little. “You guys go by such funny names.”

“The master chief gives everyone a nickname when we first enter our platoon,” Kell told her. “Clutch got his name because he's good in the clutch. He's solid, steady and reliable.” He chuckled. “And if you knew Clutch, he gives the name new meaning.”

“How so?” Leah asked, enjoying his closeness, his Southern drawl.

“Clutch and I went through the same class at BUD/S to become SEALs. He came out of a very rich family. And he has a mind like a razor. He's a good man, Leah, someone you want on your mission. Clutch trusts no one, sees their weaknesses and can exploit the hell out of them. He always goes for the jugular when it comes to a tango.”

“When I saw him appear out of those bushes, he scared the hell out of me,” she admitted.

“Yeah, he's pretty intimidating when he wants to be.” Kell agreed. “But no one will have your back like he will, either. Clutch's loyalty is to his SEAL brothers. Everyone else comes second.” And then Kell smiled a little. “Except for you, of course.”

She felt heat rising into her cheeks. “Why did you have to tell everyone we're a couple?”

“Because it's how SEALs work. No one will hit on you. If one of the team guys is around and they see you, they'll keep an eye out for you. And if you have a problem or a question, you can go over to our HQ and ask Ax. He's our manager, so to speak, and he's the go-to guy if you need anything. He'll make it happen.”

“But does Ax know about us?”

“No. But he will shortly. When I get back to the HQ after lunch, I intend to tell him.”

“I don't think he'll take it well.”

“Probably not, but he'll get over it,” Kell murmured. He held her worried-looking green gaze. “And he won't throw you to the dogs, Leah. He'll protect you. Even though he's going to raise hell with me and give me this parent-child talk about officers not consorting with enlisted men, he'll do right by me and you. He'll have our six.”

Leah wasn't so sure. “Are you sure you won't get in trouble, Kell?” She knew of other mismatched relationships in the military, had seen an officer lose rank and an enlisted woman court-martialed and kicked out of the Army.

“Nah, don't worry about it, Sugar. You just keep getting well.” He looked at her arm. The bandage was off and he could see the red line indicating where the original gash had occurred. “You getting a flight surgeon to check you out?”

“Markley's calling Hayden to see if he'll cut loose a flight surgeon to fly out here to examine me.”

“Think it will happen?”

Leah frowned. “I don't know.” She moved the cup slowly around in her hands, studying it. “I just don't want to get cornered by him again, Kell.”

He heard real concern in her voice, saw it in her face. “Keep me posted on that, okay?”

“Why?”

He straightened and rolled his shoulders. “Because, if you are forced to fly into Bagram, I'll make sure I'm going with you.”

Relief plunged through her. “Really?” She saw Kell's eyes narrow and felt the energy shift around him. That protective embrace was once more in place around her.

“I'm not leaving you alone with that bastard.”
Never again. Not ever.

“I could use the moral support.” Leah knew she'd get called into his office behind closed doors. Just knowing that Kell was nearby was good enough for her.

“You'll always have my support.” Kell cut her a serious look. “I have your back, Leah.”

“Well,” she muttered, “let's just cross our fingers Hayden approves the flight surgeon coming here.”

* * *

K
ELL
KNOCKED
ON
the master chief's door and stuck his head in. Ax looked up and gestured for him to enter.

“What's up?”

Kell closed the door. “I need a few minutes of your time.”

“Sit down.”

Kell sat and said, “A lot of shit went down with that crash.”

“I'm waiting for your report on it.”

“These are things that aren't going into my report,” Kell warned him. And as quickly as he could, he filled in his master chief on Major Grant Hayden.

“So, where's all this leading?” Ax demanded, scowling.

“First,” Kell said, his voice flat and hard, “Grant is not only a sexual predator, but he was also abusive toward Leah, as well.”

Ax stared at him for a moment of stunned silence. “Dammit, Kell, what the hell have you gotten yourself into?”

He had anticipated this reaction. Kell knew Ax's hot buttons and he'd just pressed one of them. “I haven't gotten myself into anything I didn't want to get myself into,” he told him calmly, holding the master chief's frustrated stare.

“She's an
officer
, dammit!”

Kell took his growl in stride. “I knew that from the beginning.”

“Shit!” Ax got up, running his thick fingers through his hair, glaring down at him. “This isn't good and you know it.”

“I'll be careful, Ax.”

He shook his head, muttered some more curses and sat down. “Her ex-husband is Major Grant.”

“Yes. That's the point in all of this. Grant's accused her of being at the controls of that bird when it crashed.”

“We're sending that flight recorder to him. That should clear her.”

“I don't trust him, Ax.” He told the master chief how Hayden manipulated Leah to get to her father. When he was done painting the ugly picture he added, “Now, Grant wants early colonel's leaves and he's trying to pressure her into saying something positive about him to her father.”

Rubbing his jaw, Ax studied him darkly in the growing silence. “That's why Grant came here, planting seeds.”

“Yes.”

“Asshole.”

Kell knew Ax, as master chief, didn't like anyone screwing with his kingdom as the head of the platoon. Especially someone from another military branch trying to maneuver him for their own political purposes. He sat without saying anything. Ax was a strategist and he knew how military politics worked inside and out.

“You know,” Ax growled, “that if Grant even
suspects
something between you and her, all bets are off. He'll use it to put the screws to her, big-time. Maybe even get her court-martialed and you along with her. Dammit all, Kell.”

“I'm aware,” he told Ax.

“Then,” Ax muttered more to himself than to Kell, “I need to pull in a favor from that woman Intel officer, Lieutenant Sinclaire, down at Bagram SEAL HQ. I'll have her check out the flight recorder first. I'll send Clutch over there with it. Then—” and Ax looked across his desk at Kell “—she'll make a copy of it, and only after that is done will I have him take the original to Grant.”

“Do you think Grant would try to deep-six that flight recorder?”

Snorting, Ax gave him a deadly look. “I met the bastard once. He's a snake oil salesman. Didn't like him on sight and was really pissed off with him after our little conversation. He's
not
to be trusted.”

“Why can't I deliver that flight recorder to him instead of Clutch?” Kell wanted a bead on Grant.

“Are you nuts?”

“He won't know I'm connected with Leah.”