Forged in Smoke (A Red-Hot SEALs Novel Book 3) (20 page)

Rawls nodded an acknowledgment and took hold of Faith’s elbow. From her behavior, it was obvious she didn’t need his help, but he wasn’t ready to let her go yet.

Every head in the hub turned their way as they walked into the room. Zane broke away from Cosky, who had settled on the floor with Kait curled in his lap.

Concern rose at the heat and exhaustion evident in Kait’s face. Changing directions in midstride, Rawls detoured toward her. Kait had come close to overheating that first time, when she’d healed Cosky’s leg back in the parking lot. Best to make sure it hadn’t happened again.

Zane intercepted him, his calm green eyes scanning Rawls’s face. “Glad to see your ugly mug. Mac and I were about to go look for you. Dig you up if we had to.”

There was enough residual tightness on Zane’s face to tell Rawls his best friend and teammate wasn’t simply razzing him. And from the relieved glances spreading through the cavern, Zane hadn’t been the only one worried.

“Yeah.” Rawls shrugged, aiming for a casual expression and tone. “The tunnel turned a mite possessive.” No sense in broadcasting Faith’s medical condition to the rest of them.

From the sudden relaxation of the arm he held, Faith obviously appreciated his discretion.

Zane simply nodded. But from the assessing look he turned on Faith, he knew the circumstances of their delay. Cosky must have filled him in.

“How you holding up, Dr. Ansell?” Zane asked, his tone cordial rather than concerned. As though he were merely exercising good manners.

But Rawls knew better. The sharp look of assessment his LC had leveled on Faith’s face was a clear indication that Zane was calculating how much her condition was going to cost them. Apparently Faith picked up on that as well, because her arm stiffened beneath his fingers.

“I’m just fine,” she said, her tone stiff with challenge.

Zane scanned her again and shot Rawls a quick glance. “When you get her settled, come find us. We’ve got things to discuss.”

Well, how about that. They’d decided to let him back in the big boys’ club.

Zane stepped back and Rawls continued toward Cosky. If Kait
was
overheated, the stone would be their best bet of cooling her down—which meant Cosky had to stop cuddling her and lay her out on the floor. Stone retained cold, which just might suck the heat from her. Without water, it was the best they could hope for.

Cosky caught sight of Rawls and scowled. His heavy shoulders tensed. Chips of ice swam in hostile gray eyes. “Kait’s not doing another damn healing.”

Rawls raised his eyebrows at the welcome. “I’m not expectin’ one. I’m here to see how she’s doin’.”

He was keenly aware of Faith beside him, her warmth, her stillness, the intensity with which she was studying Kait’s red, fatigued face.

“How the fuck do you think she’s doing? She’s hotter than hell and I’ve no water to cool her down.”

“You have the stone floor. Use it.”

Cosky froze for a moment. His eyes narrowed and absolute disgust slammed down over his face. Apparently his worry had shut his common sense down.

“Shit.” He straightened and eased Kait off his lap and onto the bare stone.

With a sigh of relief, she rolled over onto her stomach and stretched out. Cosky pulled her tangled, golden braid from beneath her hip and laid it next to her body. After a gentle swipe over the back of her head, he glanced up.

“Thanks.” The acknowledgment came grudgingly, and there was still a fair bit of hostility in the gray eyes.

Rawls shrugged. He wasn’t going to waste a second of guilt on what had happened there in the corridor. Of course he’d wanted another healing for Faith. He’d wanted the best possible chance of ensuring her recovery. At the time, he hadn’t realized how much the first healing had cost Kait. If he’d known, he would have backed off.

He didn’t regret his actions in the slightest. Under the same circumstances, he’d make identical choices.

He wasn’t going to apologize for that.

Beneath Cosky’s watchful gaze, he crouched to press two fingers against Kait’s still neck. Her skin was hot and moist against his fingers. But her pulse was steady and strong.

“Her heart sounds good. So does her breathin’.” He glanced around the cavern, skimming face after face. “Nobody brought water?”

He’d had some bottles in his rucksack, but it was buried back in the tunnel.

“Mom’s asking people,” Cosky said gruffly. But some of the tension had left his face.

“Rawls,” Mac barked impatiently from across the hub.

“Go,” Faith said, with a light squeeze to his arm. “I’m fine, really. I’ll wait for you here.”

With a nod, Rawls glanced at Cosky. “You comin’?”

Cosky shook his head and settled on the ground next to Kait. “They don’t need me.”

Frowning, Rawls headed toward Mac and the cluster of people surrounding him. Nobody looked hurt or incapacitated. Hopefully the situation he’d been summoned to rectify wasn’t critical.

When he reached the group against the wall, Mac rested a hand on Amy’s eldest child and steered him toward Rawls. “Would you be able to tell whether a chip was inserted in Brendan’s arm?”

Rawls froze for a second.

That’s how they’d been found?
He shook the surprise off.

“How was it inserted?” Rawls asked. Getting down to business, he accepted the narrow, surprisingly muscular arm Amy’s son presented him.

“By injection, right here,” Brendan said, brushing his finger across a slightly raised, rough patch on his arm.

Rawls carefully probed the thickened blotch of skin with his fingers. After a moment he shook his head.

“I don’t feel anythin’.” He lowered his hands. “But if they inserted it deep enough, its presence wouldn’t be identifiable by touch.”

Nobody looked surprised by this news.

“I still say we should check the spot out now. Make sure we won’t be followed to our next safe haven,” Mac said, looking straight at Amy, his voice the oddest combination of defensiveness and conviction.

Check the spot out . . .

Rawls winced, doubting Max was referring to hands and eyes. Sure, he’d operated on plenty of people in the field. But not a kid. And not without some kind of painkiller.

“And I
still
say no.” Amy’s voice was just as determined. “Not in these conditions. Not when Wolf is on his way to take us to their base camp.”

“Their base?” Rawls asked. He obviously had a lot of catching up to do.

“Our Arapaho friends’ home,” Mac said, staring flatly at Jude. “Apparently we’ve been invited to visit.”

“For a time,” Jude agreed, staring blankly back.

Rawls casually scanned the cave, relaxing when he didn’t catch site of his translucent hitchhiker. At least the Arapaho was fulfilling his obligation and sticking close by. Maybe Jude’s charm really would keep Pachico away.

Mac blew out a thick breath and rolled his shoulders. Rawls could almost feel the frustration heating the air around him.

“Now that the women and kids are safe, how do you two feel about stepping outside? Taking care of business?” Mac suddenly asked, his gaze shifting between Rawls and Zane.

“I’m looking forward to it.” Icy anticipation chilled Zane’s face, glittered in his green eyes.

Rawls, well, he wasn’t quite as eager. Yeah, he was all for leveling out the playing field and taking some of those bastards down—but there were Faith and Kait to consider. He needed to be on hand if they took a turn for the worse. And then there was his ghost. If the bastard made a reappearance, out there on the battlefield, there would be even more weapons for him to play with, and ways for him to interfere.

Best not chance it.

“Get Cosky,” Mac told Zane. “We’ll head out in five.”

Rawls had opened his mouth to man up and inform his commander that he wouldn’t be embarking on the mission with him, when Jude chimed in.

“No.” The refusal was emphatic.

Mac stiffened. Slowly his head turned. Thick black eyebrows shot up. “I don’t remember asking you.”

“My brothers are out there. Clearing a path for you. Leaving now endangers you both.”

Mac’s eyebrows collapsed into a scowl. “Wolf and his men are here? Now? Outside?”

Jude simply nodded.

“Son of a bitch
. . .
” Mac’s grim voice trailed off.

“I’m all for taking the initiative for a change, but with Wolf and his team already in the field
. . .
” Zane shook his head, frustration and regret flashing through his eyes. “It’s ripe for friendly fire.”

“No shit.” Mac looked even less happy than Zane. He turned his scowl back on Jude. “We need to grab one of those bastards who attacked us. Preferably someone up the food chain. Someone with answers.” He paused, pinned Jude with a hard look. “It’s the best shot we have of tracking these bastards down.”

Jude’s expression didn’t alter. “What you seek already walks among you.”

Rawls rocked back on his heels in surprise. The ambiguous warrior had to be referring to Pachico. But just how the hell did he expect them to pull answers from the surly ghost? Pachico was hardly in an accommodating mood.

“What the
fuck
does that mean?” Mac exploded. “And while you’re at it, you want to explain how you even know your buddies are out there? You have no radio. No sat phone. No motherfucking technology to contact your brothers, but you somehow—by osmosis, apparently—know where they are?”

Jude simply shrugged, that enormously annoying aura of serenity surrounding him again.

But the question niggled at Rawls.

How
did
Jude know his team was out there? What mystical technological advances did their new allies have up their sleeves?

Chapter Fourteen

I
S SHE OKAY?
” Faith asked, hovering above Kait, torn between wanting to help and not wanting to get in the way.

“She’ll be fine,” Cosky said gruffly. He glanced up, his face tense, his left hand resting on the back of Kait’s head. And then his gaze sharpened. After a quick up-and-down scan that took in Faith from head to toe, he raised dark eyebrows. “How are you holding up? You had Rawlings pretty damn freaked out back there.”

She had?

“I’m fine,” Faith assured him.

“Good to hear.” He turned his attention back to the woman beside him. There was a world of worry in the gray eyes watching the blonde goddess lying so limply on the rough-cut stone floor.

Judging by the glimpse she’d caught of Kait’s face earlier, he had reason for his concern. His girlfriend had looked awful—bright red, sweaty face, exhaustion evident in the curve of her shoulders and limpness of her muscles. She’d barely been able to hold her head upright. And then there was the condition of her shirt. It was soaked with sweat down the length of her spine, as well as under her arms.

The woman was obviously running a fever. She must have been hit with a nasty flu. What terrible timing. Running for your life was bad enough, doing so with a high fever and dogged by the flu had to be even worse.

Suddenly Rawls’s account of what had happened earlier burst into her mind. He’d claimed she’d died and Kait had healed her. But Kait had been in a different cabin, with separate tunnel accesses. Which meant she must have doubled back in the tunnel system to look for her.

Even burning up from a fever, exhausted to the point of collapse, she’d still braved a collapsing tunnel system to find and help a virtual stranger? Granted, they’d spent the past week in somewhat close proximity, but they’d hardly interacted enough to become friends—mild acquaintances at best.

Would a con artist do that? Driven by self-interest, a con artist wouldn’t put their own life and health in jeopardy to help someone else, would they? Not when they had a perfect excuse to stay put and avoid additional danger.

After that talk with Rawls in the kitchen, she’d been convinced that Kait was playing everyone—although
how
had been uncertain. According to Rawls, she refused monetary reimbursement for her self-proclaimed healings. But maybe she received other benefits from her con.

Faith glanced at Cosky as his mother came bustling over with a bottle of water. The lieutenant didn’t seem the type to fall prey to a con artist. He appeared far too guarded and intelligent for that. But then, beautiful women had been beguiling men for thousands of years. He wouldn’t be the first wary, smart man to fall for the wiles of a temptress. He wouldn’t be the last either.

“Here you go, sweetie,” Marion said, leaning down to pass her son a bottle of water. “Amy brought a bunch, so there’s more if you need it.” She straightened with a hand on her back. “I just don’t understand it. The poor dear was fine when we reached the hub.” A confused shake of her head sent her silver bob flying. “I’ve never seen anyone get so sick so fast. She was fine when she left with you to find the stragglers. You weren’t gone even fifteen minutes. What made her so sick? The flu wouldn’t attack that fast.”

. . . left to find the stragglers . . .

Marion’s words echoed in Faith’s mind. She’d been one of the stragglers. Was Marion referring to Kait’s trip down the tunnel to find and supposedly heal her?

“She overdid it, that’s all,” Cosky said, dragging his shirt over his head. He used the knife sheathed at his belt to slice the material and then tore off a broad strip. After soaking the cloth with water, he recapped the bottle. “She’ll be fine once she rests.”

Overdid what? Was he referring to the healing?

Faith absently watched Cosky pick Kait up and cradle her against his shoulder. He held the water bottle while she drank and then went to work running the cloth over her red, fatigued face.

She didn’t look as bad as she had before. Some of the tomato-soup color had faded from her cheeks, and the lines of exhaustion didn’t cut as deep.

If Cosky
had
been referring to the supposed healing Kait had done—how in the world did one overdo the simple laying on of hands?

She was still turning that question over in her mind when Beth arrived with a second bottle of water. “How’s she doing?”

“I’m fine,” Kait said, opening her eyes. The smile she offered took obvious effort. “You better hang on to that bottle. There’s no telling how long we’ll be here. We should preserve what we can.”

“We’ll make do with conserving the rest. It’s more important to get your temperature down. It’s too bad there isn’t a glacier-fed lake handy, like there was with Rawls,” Beth said as she set the plastic bottle on the floor next to the wall, where it promptly fell over and rolled a few inches.

“With Rawls,” Marion repeated, a shrewd gleam to her gray eyes. “What happened with Rawls, and what does it have to do with Kait’s fever now?”

The woman obviously suspected that there was more going on than she’d been told.

“I’ll explain later, Mom,” Cosky said. He lifted the water to Kait’s lips again, refusing to remove it until she’d swallowed a good share of the contents.

Beth shot Cosky an apologetic glance and stepped back. “If you need anything, I’ll be right over there.” She nodded across the room toward Zane.

Faith glanced between Cosky and his mother. Apparently, Marion was in the dark about Kait’s supposed healing powers, otherwise Cosky wouldn’t have to “explain later.” Why had he withheld the information from her?

When Beth left, Faith started to follow, only to turn back. No matter what, Kait had risked her life out there for her and Rawls. That alone deserved appreciation.

“Hey.” Faith shuffled her feet uncomfortably. “Rawls says you came back for me
. . .
” She glanced uncertainly between Cosky and his mother. To avoid additional questions, it would probably be best to keep her thank-you vague. “Anyway, I wanted to thank you.”

Kait smiled as her eyes drifted shut. “You’re welcome.”

Left with nothing else to say, and the strong impression that Kait and Cosky wanted some privacy, Faith turned away. But she had nowhere to go. Rawls was involved in some intense discussion in the corner with Zane, Mac, and Jude, and judging from the explosive frustration on Mac’s face, she’d do well to avoid that corner of the hub.

“I’m so sorry!” Beth suddenly appeared by her side to grasp her hand. “I was so focused on Kait, I completely forgot what you’d gone through out there.”

“Perfectly understandable,” Faith assured the pretty, pregnancy-plumped blonde. “She’s your friend. Besides, I’m fine, really. I was apparently out of it, so I don’t remember anything.” She offered Beth a polite smile.

“Well, you must have been pretty bad off, otherwise Kait wouldn’t be in the condition she’s in,” Beth told her absently, only to freeze and flush. “Oh my God. I didn’t mean it like that! It’s not your fault. Honestly! It’s just that fatal injuries or illnesses require a lot more energy during the healing. So they really wipe her out.”

Fatal injuries . . .

A chill prickled her scalp. “Why do you say it was fatal?”

“Cosky told Zane.” Beth suddenly stopped, blushing even worse than before. “Oh man. I obviously need to stop talking. I assumed that Rawls had told you what kind of shape you were in.”

“He said my heart had stopped,” Faith said slowly, the chill spreading down her spine. It was much harder to dismiss two accounts of her death, than one.

“Oh good.” Relief softened Beth’s face. “Anyway, for what it’s worth, I’m really glad Kait was able to bring you back.”

Interesting
. . .
Beth completely believed in Kait’s abilities. So did Cosky and Zane, from the sound of it.

She’d already known that Rawls bought into Kait’s ability. But to find out Cosky, Zane, and Beth did too raised a serious question. Rationally, it didn’t seem feasible that Kait could have fooled all four of them. Particularly the men. SEALs were schooled in scrutiny and strategic thinking. They were taught to rely on their logical mind. Maybe Kait could have fooled a SEAL lover by tangling his intellect with emotion. But Zane wasn’t in love with her. Neither was Rawls
. . .
they would have seen right through her
. . .
wouldn’t they?

The oddest doubt rose. The SEALs wouldn’t believe in Kait’s abilities so completely unless they had personal experience with it
. . .
as Rawls claimed to have.

Faith turned to Beth, the question breaking from her without thought. “Have you actually seen her heal anyone? I mean actually watched her, with your own eyes?”

Beth’s mouth dropped open in surprise. “Well, sure. So have you. Back in the forest when Rawls was shot.”

“They told me it wasn’t his blood. That he was just stunned. That he’d been wearing armor plating and it stopped the bullet.” The words tumbled out of her.

Beth looked even more surprised. “You were there, Faith. You watched them take off his shirt. There was no armored vest. Don’t you remember? You saw the healing glow. You even mentioned it.”

I did?

Of course she remembered the weird glow, but after contemplating the memory, she’d convinced herself it had simply been the light of the moon hitting the trees and refracting downward. Or even the moonlight bouncing off the lake. Except
. . .
the forest would have blocked the reflection from the lake, and the treetops would have shielded the forest floor from most of the moon’s glow.

So where had that strange glow come from? She focused. Thought back to that night six days ago.

Cosky and Kait kneeling over Rawls’s limp, bloody body. An eerie silver sparkle cocooning them.

Unconsciously, Faith shook her head. What the silver radiance had been, she couldn’t say. But it hadn’t been moonlight. That she remembered with certainty. It hadn’t reflected from the lake or filtered down through the treetops. The platinum shimmer had originated within Kait’s chest and flowed down her arms, into her hands, and from there into Rawls
. . .
and maybe Cosky
. . .
his hands and arms had been glowing too.

Amy pushing up Rawls’s bloodstained shirt, exposing the steady rise and fall of his bloody chest. “He’s not bleeding . . . I can’t even find any wounds . . .”

She reeled as the memories exploded in her mind. He hadn’t been wearing a bullet-proof vest, or armor plating, or whatever else they wanted to call it. The only thing between his chest and the bullets had been his shirt. His bloody, bullet-riddled shirt.

A shock wave traveled through her. She swayed, more off balance than she could ever remember feeling. How in the world could she have buried something so critical? She’d always been so contemptuous of scientists who steadfastly ignored any evidence that didn’t corroborate their own conclusions. Yet she’d done the exact same thing when it came to Kait’s unusual healing abilities.

“Are you okay?” Beth asked, worry in her voice.

“I’m fine,” Faith said automatically, only to swallow a bubble of laughter. At least as fine as someone could be who’d just had their entire world view incinerated.

“Maybe you should sit down.” Beth steered her toward the cavern wall.

Faith sat. When it came right down to it, she was nothing but a hypocrite. She winced at the realization. Take the Thrive generator. While they’d been working on a new energy generator first and foremost, once they’d stumbled onto the prototype’s side effects, she hadn’t denied they existed. Not like she had with Kait’s gift—even though she’d witnessed the miracle of Kait’s touch firsthand.

But then again, they’d experimented like crazy with the machine once they realized its capabilities. Or, at least they’d experimented as much as they were able to while maintaining the project’s confidentiality. They’d run double-blind testing on both the machine and its test subjects. Before long, they’d had reams of scientific data to extrapolate from. So yeah, while the Thrive generator had interfaced with certain subjects’ brains to produce supernatural-like abilities—talents that were somewhat similar to Kait’s healing ability—there was one big difference.

She knew what powered their machine’s pseudosupernatural effect. She didn’t know what powered Kait’s.

Once this was over, and the bad guys were behind bars and no longer interfering with her life, maybe she could talk Kait into undergoing some testing. If Kait really did have the ability to heal, there was bound to be a scientific or biological explanation for her gift. They just had to find it.

Of course, there was always the possibility that Mackenzie planned on doing some testing of his own—or at least the navy did. It didn’t take much imagination to envision the military’s interest in weaponizing Kait’s talent. If her touch could heal, it must have the potential to kill as well. Had any of the men broached the subject to her?

She frowned, staring absently at the wall. It might prove useful to nudge Kait aside when the opportunity arose and ask. The answer might tell her whether she could trust these men enough to fully disclose the Thrive generator’s secondary effects. They’d need to know this information if they located her team and launched a rescue.

She was so caught up in her thoughts she flinched when Rawls suddenly squatted in front of her.

“Hey,” he said, scanning her face. “How you doin’?”

She paused before answering to assess her heart’s beat and rhythm. Both felt stronger and more regular than they had before.

“I’m fine.” She groaned beneath her breath. She sounded like a broken record.

“How ’bout I have a look-see for myself?” With a reserved smile, he loosely circled her wrist, pressing two fingers against her pulse.

There was a distance to him that she hadn’t felt in a while. Not since the kitchen when she’d come to her senses to find herself sitting on his lap. She flushed slightly as images and sensation rolled through her, delineating all the other things they’d done while she’d been sitting on his lap.