known for a long time. Death was his job, but it wasn’t who he was. He was the man who loved Melina, who Melina loved back. He didn’t seek to kill and took no pleasure in it, but he didn’t hesitate when it was called for. His adversaries asked for no quarter, as he and his men asked for none in return. Some fights were to the death, and you only lost one of those. For eight of his men, a cold mountain in Afghanistan had been their one and only run of bad luck.
Maybe tonight would be his moment, maybe not. But until that moment came, his job was to keep living. And loving. He glanced over his shoulder and caught sight of Melina. She had her hands over her ears, her eyes screwed tightly shut, and she looked frightened beyond belief.
He yelled into his radio, “Bravo Squad! Hold your fire! I’m going in to join Melina.”
“Are you nuts?” Hathaway bit out.
“She can’t take it alone. I say again, hold your fire!” he shouted back into his radio as he sprinted toward her, standing there alone and terrified in the center of hell.
Melina couldn’t wrap her brain around what was happening. Men were falling all around her like toy soldiers. Falling singly. Falling in waves. Covering the ground in a carpet of blood and bodies thick enough to walk on without ever touching dirt. Bullets flew past her so close she felt them brush her cheeks, her arms, her belly. And Huayar’s men kept on coming, and kept on dying.
Why one of them hadn’t just raised his gun and shot her before now, she had no idea. Huayar must have given some sort of order not to kill her. Where was he, anyway? She’d seen no sign of him since he ran out of the shack a lifetime ago, when the water tower collapsed.
Hot lead caressed her neck, lifting her hair away from her skin with its passage, and yet another man fell, this time practically at her feet. She would have jumped back from him, but dared not move within the sarcophagus of flying lead hemming her in. Dead eyes stared up at her, impossibly young, as naive and misguided as her brother. Oh, God. That boy had a mother. A father. Maybe a sweetheart somewhere. And now he was dead. In an instant-
Strong arms swept around her from behind.
“Mel.”
She turned in his embrace and jumped as the sound of gunfire, momentarily interrupted, resumed. “You shouldn’t be out here! Huayar’s men will kill you. They won’t shoot me. Get down-”
He kissed her, probably to silence her as he sank straight down to his knees, pulling her down with him. “I love you,” he murmured against her mouth.
Joy erupted in the midst of her stark terror. “I love you, too, but I don’t want you to die. Get down!”
He glanced at the carnage around them. “Bravo Squad has it about handled. I don’t see anymore of Huayar’s men incoming. I trust my comrades with my life.”
She gazed up at him, startled. “Really?”
He blinked down at her as if just registering what he’d said. “Yeah, I guess so.”
“Did you mean it?” she murmured against his neck.
“Mean what?”
“That you love me.”
“Absolutely.”
“What are you planning to do about it?” she asked cautiously.
“Get you and your family out of here and then at the first opportunity ask your father for permission to marry you.”
The gunfire around them was definitely beginning to trail off. A few scattered shots were still being fired well up in the woods, but that was all.
“As a heart attack, baby.”
She stared up at him in awe, her heart in her throat. John froze, obviously listening to something over his headset, and then laughed.
“What?”
“Your forehead was pressing against my throat mike, and our last several sentences were transmitted to Bravo Squad. My boss just asked what your answer was.”
A hot flush climbed her cheeks.
John gazed down at her expectantly. “What should I tell him?”
“Tell him I said yes!” She flung her arms around his neck and all but knocked him to the ground. He staggered, absorbing her weight into him. He absorbed her heart into him, her hopes and fears, her past, her future, all of it. And she let him have all of her. After all, they’d been to hell and back together, and had nothing to hide from one another at this late date.
Concerned that he’d just been through another highly stressful firefight, she asked him with a certain caution, “How are you doing?”
“Fine.”
She studied him closely. He looked and sounded like he meant it. “No flashbacks?”
He laughed ruefully. “Oh, there were flashbacks, but I killed most of them. Turns out a little.42-caliber therapy went a long way toward making me feel human again.” As she continued to look at him skeptically, he added, “Really. I feel okay. Steady. Centered. I still want to talk to a pro when we get back home, but I think the worst of it has passed. I think maybe we just made it.”
She never, ever thought she’d hear those words from him. Had the slate really been wiped clean? For both of them?
He listened to his headset again, then murmured, “Your family has been secured. We found a rat hole and a team of our guys is clearing it right now.”
“A rat hole?”
“An escape tunnel. My boss says you and I are to sit tight right here. A team will be over to collect us once they’ve secured the remainder of the camp and the surrounding hills.”
“No more thoughts of nooses?” she asked him.
“None.”
“No more wild plans to randomly sacrifice yourself to the bad guys to punish yourself, or in order to save me?”
“Well, I’ll always be willing to lay down my life for you. But no, no random sacrifices.”
“Thank God.” She hugged him tightly, and he hugged her back just as tightly. They’d both faced down Death and managed to walk away from the experience. In finding love for one another, they’d each found a reason to live.
A future she’d hardly dared to allow herself to think about now stretched away before them, clean and fresh and unwritten. And to think. They would get to shape that future together. It was enough to choke a girl up a little.
“You’re an amazing man, John Hollister,” she whispered against his neck.
“You’re pretty amazing yourself, Melina Montez,” he murmured, his lips moving against her temple.
She snuggled into his arms and laid her head on his shoulder, content to stay right here for as long as he’d have her. Forever and beyond. After all, they’d already been to hell and back. The only place left for them to go was Paradise. Together.
CINDY DEES
started flying airplanes while sitting in her dad’s lap at the age of three and got a pilot’s license before she got a driver’s license. At age fifteen, she dropped out of high school and left the horse farm in Michigan where she grew up to attend the University of Michigan. After earning a degree in Russian and East European Studies, she joined the U.S. Air Force and became the youngest female pilot in its history. She flew supersonic jets, VIP airlift, and the C-5 Galaxy, the world’s largest airplane. She also worked part-time gathering intelligence. During her military
