Hot Zone (Elite Force #2)(24)
Author: Catherine Mann

The garden paradise she’d loved since birth had been obliterated in a few earth-shattering seconds. Nothing about the current wreckage resembled her childhood island home, her last connection to her parents, who’d died while she was in college in the States. The loss around her, the grief and the heartbreak, festered inside her until it was all she could do to keep from vomiting during the surgery.

But her help was crucial, especially in these early hours while relief personnel and supplies were still en route. Airplanes overhead promised the arrival of more aid, but they were also faced with the shortage of nearby landing space… then ways to transport the goods and people to the critical areas.

Wind parted two tarps and revealed a bulldozer in the distance alongside a woman and man digging with shovels. The couple moved like automatons. They’d been picking through the rubble for as long as she’d been here. Looters would have left long ago. Their search was more personal. But after this much time, their odds of finding a live family member were growing slimmer.

Her gut grumbled again.

She dipped a finger into a small jar of menthol and thumbed a streak under her nose. She tipped her head back and inhaled. Exhaled. In and out, until her stomach settled. She huffed a spiral of hair off her brow.

Exhaustion steamrolled over her. She’d been on her feet for nearly five days, already exhausted when they’d arrived, racked with indecision over what to do about the adoption.

Then she’d met Joshua and fallen in love with his sweet face. Even now, she remembered the feel of his baby-soft cheek against hers. In that moment, she felt the connection, the bond. He’d become her son. She couldn’t do anything to jeopardize that.

Except now he was missing, probably dead.

Could this be God’s justice for her selfishness in wanting it all?

Sagging forward, she grabbed the rim of the rubbish bin. A mess, just like her life. She wanted to believe she hadn’t deliberately allowed herself to get pregnant. She’d only found out for sure with a pregnancy test taken during their layover in Miami on the way here to get Joshua.

And she hadn’t even begun to figure out how she would tell Aiden.

Persuading him to adopt had been tough enough. She never would have won the battle to have a biological child together. He had such immovable reasons for that decision, he would never change his mind. But they’d reached an understanding with the adoption. They’d done everything possible to prepare, taking into account the special needs that could come with international adoption. They had support and resources in place to guide them through.

But in all her preparations, she’d never taken into account one possibility.

Her hands slid over her stomach. Aiden would figure it out soon enough on his own. He was a doctor, for heaven’s sake. He likely would have noticed the signs already if he hadn’t been so distracted by the adoption.

She loved Aiden, always had since she’d they’d met at Auburn University. After graduation, she’d opted to stay in the States rather than returning to the Bahamas. Her parents had died in a boating accident. She’d felt anchorless. So she’d followed Aiden to medical school, no great sacrifice, since she loved him.

And now she’d risked losing him. Tears burned behind her eyes for him, for herself, but mostly for Joshua, the child she already loved as much as the one she carried inside her. The child inside her that Aiden would never accept.

A hand settled on her shoulder and she almost jumped out of her skin. She looked back to find her husband standing behind her and she relaxed, sagging with relief. Aiden’s blond hair was spiked wildly from the hours of work and lack of a good shower. More than that, exhaustion carved strain lines in the corners of his pale blue eyes behind round glasses.

He was handsome in a lanky, rawboned kind of way of a man who forgot to eat. He didn’t have time for recreation, so his face was burned from their time in the sun here.

Concern dug trenches in his scorched forehead. “Are you okay?”

She smoothed a hand over his brow, his angular face so dear, so familiar. “I’m only tired. What do you need?”

“I’ve got some good news, finally.” He cupped the back of her neck, his thumb stroking her hairline as he’d done a million times. “They’ve found Joshua and Amelia. Alive.”

Tears rushed to clog her throat and eyes. Days of stress and grief exploding inside her as she finally, finally could let her emotions roll free. She started shaking and Aiden kept stroking, comforting. What was he holding back?

“How, Aiden? Where? What happened to them?” She shot to her feet. “We have to go to them. Now!”

His hands fell to rest on her shoulders, holding her still. “They’re at a makeshift hospital located in a school the next town over. He and Amelia both are listed on their admissions roster as patients. There aren’t any specifics on their condition, and it’s going to be tough getting past the roadblocks.”

“But they’re alive?” She grabbed his arms and held onto her anchor. Some called him emotionless, but she knew her husband better than that. He was just reserved. Stalwart. Strong. He had to be, to tamp down the horror she knew sometimes threatened to pull him under.

He squeezed her shoulders. “They are alive. And I promise you, nothing will keep me from our son and my sister.”

***

Hugh had the best rescue and survival training in the world, and still he wasn’t sure yet how the hell he would get Amelia and the child out of the back of this van alive. For now, he focused on minute-to-minute safety until a larger plan could form. He positioned himself closest to the front, with Amelia and Joshua on his other side, his arm locked around her shoulders. If he were alone, he could take out the man and woman. It might cost him a knife wound, or cause him to take a bullet, but the odds were good enough for him.

But having others in the line of fire was a game changer.

Apparently they didn’t want to risk stopping in the city. His guess? They would kill and dump him later. They’d already taken his cell phone, radio, and weapons. They’d tossed the phone and radio out the window into a bog, which ruled out anyone finding them through the GPS tracker on either device. Tandi had kept his pistol and knife well out of his reach, of course.

The thought of what people like these would and could do to Amelia, especially with the country in such a lawless state… He fought back the wave of blinding rage. He needed to stay clearheaded and calm, nothing clouding his instincts, to have even a chance of getting them out of here alive.