Resisting Her Army Doc Rival

‘We’ll run opposite Porky and Cop,’ Sam told her, and immediately was on his feet, running in a crouch, his weapon ready.

Madison followed, matching him step for step, her eyes constantly scanning for anything out of the ordinary. Nothing was remarkable, and yet nothing was normal when compared to what she knew back home. ‘I think it’s a child.’

Sam stopped, took in what she’d observed through binoculars. ‘A lad. Don’t be fooled. He could be as dangerous as any adult you’ll come across.’ He flicked his hand at his side to get the attention of the soldiers on their left flank, pointed to the boy.

Cop raised a thumb, and they all moved forward slowly, expectantly, until Sam and Madison reached the boy, who immediately spread his arms and legs starfish style in the dirt.

Madison dropped to her knees, reached out a hand.

‘Don’t touch him,’ Sam growled. ‘He could be carrying.’

The boy cried out a torrent of words that Madison couldn’t comprehend. A glance at Sam told her he was none the wiser.

‘Now what?’

Sam didn’t get a chance to reply. The boy flipped his clothes up to expose bare skin underneath. He wasn’t carrying. Could be he was just a normal kid doing what kids everywhere did, playing in the dirt. A very dangerous place for games, if the warnings she’d heard were true. And why wouldn’t they be? The soldiers who’d been stationed on base for the previous year knew first-hand what went on out here.

The air whistled across Madison’s lips. ‘Thank goodness.’

‘Stay with him, soldier. Be alert,’ Sam commanded Jerry before moving away.

Thump. A low explosive sound broke through the silence from behind the building, followed by a gut-twisting cry.

After checking they were safe, Sam raced around the corner, Madison on his heels.

‘Man down.’ She stated the obvious the moment she saw past Sam.

‘Cover us,’ Sam ordered, and fell to his knees. ‘Porky, you okay?’

‘It’s his foot. Something exploded under him,’ Cop told them.

‘Take Captain Hunter’s place. Don’t forget there could be more out there,’ Sam ordered. ‘Madison, give me a hand here.’

Instantly she knelt on the opposite side of Porky, glancing around before focusing on their patient. His left boot was shredded, as was his foot from what she could see. Tugging off her pack, she pulled out the emergency first aid kit, tugged on gloves and found thick gauze pads to help staunch the bleeding.

Sam helped himself to more gloves then began assessing Porky’s injury. ‘Hang in there, Sergeant. I’m going to have a look at the damage. Okay?’

‘Figured as much.’ The soldier bit down hard as Sam began probing his wound.

‘We need the helicopter,’ Madison said. ‘I’ll call it in.’

‘Do that.’ Sam leaned closer to her, said quietly, ‘I suspect he’s going to lose that foot unless he’s very lucky.’

‘His luck ran out when he got hit.’ She called base and quickly explained the situation. ‘They’re on their way,’ she told Sam and Porky.

‘This damned dust doesn’t help,’ Sam muttered as he tried to protect the site of the wound.

‘You warned me it got everywhere.’ Porky needed to get to Theatre urgently, or be in sterile conditions at the very least.

Sam flicked her a warm glance. ‘Yeah, and this would have to be a bad scenario.’ He found the morphine in the kit and drew up a dose, glancing over at her before administering the drug into Porky’s thigh. Then he spoilt her focus. ‘You haven’t been confused into thinking it’s smoke today?’

‘No.’ She shuddered. Made to touch her belly where the scars were tingling, stopped just in time. Or had she? Sam’s eyes were following her gesture. ‘I only make any mistake once.’ Or tried to. Making an idiot of herself on patrol was not an option. The soldiers would never trust her as their leader when Sam left. Yesterday had been a timely lesson. Dust, not smoke. She’d gone to sleep saying it. She’d come close to tripping up today when she’d seen thin lines of real smoke spiralling from dwellings, but with Sam keeping a close eye on her she’d managed not to lose her grip and to smother her unease. So far he had no cause for concern about her behaviour while on patrol that she knew of.

Porky’s face turned grey. Sweat covered his pallid cheeks. Shock had set in. Madison lifted his eyelid. ‘Pupils dilated.’ She took his wrist in her hand, felt for a pulse. ‘Weak and rapid.’

‘Trying to clean this is hopeless.’

Madison swabbed at the ankle, cleaning away blood and sand, constantly aware of the broken bones, and the pain too much pressure could cause. ‘We can’t do a lot out here except keep him comfortable.’

‘I need to bind the foot as tightly as possible,’ Sam said. ‘Hand me the gauze. It’ll do the trick.’

She dug through the bag and came up with a large roll that would go round Porky’s foot and lower leg several times. ‘This’ll work.’

The wonderful sound of rotors beating up the air reached them, and Madison relaxed back onto her heels. ‘Thank goodness for the cavalry.’

‘I second that.’

It took only moments to lift Porky onto the stretcher and into the belly of the helicopter.

‘A well-oiled team,’ she muttered.

Sam tossed her emergency kit in and turned to her. ‘Up you get. Someone has to go with Porky and I’ve got a team to bring back to base after we’ve gone through the police block.’

‘I could do that,’ she retorted, then wished her words back. ‘Sorry, you do know your way around far better than me.’

‘Yes, Madison, I do. We also still have a boy to escort away from here.’ Then his mouth tipped into a smile, a friendly one. She was getting used to those. Had started looking for them. ‘Besides, you’ve had more than your share of drama since arriving less than twenty-four hours ago. Take the ride, and make the most of it. It doesn’t happen often.’

‘That’s something to be grateful for.’ She found herself returning his smile. ‘Not needing one of our own to be cas-vaced out, I mean.’

‘I knew exactly what you meant. Now go. The flight crew don’t like hanging around, too dangerous. Especially when we don’t know who might be loitering beyond the building.’

‘Be careful.’ Please. I’d hate for something to happen to you. She leapt on board, helped by the waiting hands of the co-pilot who then pointed to the bucket seat that was hers for the few minutes it would take to reach base. Looking out the gap where a door used to be, she saw Sam, hands on hips, staring after the helicopter as it rose, flinging sand and dirt at everyone on the ground. For a brief moment his gaze locked with hers, creating chaos in her stomach and beyond. Defrosting more of the ice that had been in her belly and the back of her mind for far too long.

Then the chopper was too high to see him and she shuffled her butt back in the uncomfortable seat to watch over their patient, who’d drifted into shock-induced unconsciousness. Reaching for Porky’s wrist, she again took note of his rapid pulse rate and the pallor of his skin, all the while thinking about those fierce yet kind blue eyes that showed a side of Sam she didn’t want to acknowledge for fear of where they might lead her.

I might find I like Sam Lowe too much.

Now, there was a worry. But what harm could liking the guy do? Plenty. For starters, there were those unwanted moments when her body reacted favourably to his. Favourably? What was this? A weather report? More like hungrily. She wanted Sam. There. She’d admitted it. No going back on her thoughts. Which kind of made becoming only friends difficult, if not impossible, unless she found a way to banish the intense physical yearning that had begun unfurling yesterday. They would not be getting close in any way. She simply didn’t have the courage required to expose her body.

The day she’d seen th

ose scars disfiguring her torso for the first time had altered her for ever. The pain from the burns had had nothing on the agony that new view had created. It’d taken nearly six weeks before she could look again, a sneaky peek at the ugliness that was the new her. It had been worse that time. Her shocked memory from her first viewing of the scars had not been honest. The horror and despair had floored her that day; while her strength had deserted her over the months spent fighting one infection after another in a cloud of pain. Sometimes she’d been conscious, at others she had been blissfully unaware of anything going on around her.

If she ever considered anything so stupid as to want to strip down naked with a man, she only had to bring Jason to the front of her mind. The revulsion in his eyes when he’d inadvertently seen her burns had scarred her more than the fire had. He’d tried to hide it, deny it, but, hey, she’d seen the same look in her own face the day before so had instantly recognised it for what it was.

Nowadays there were moments when she thought if only she had the guts to move on, not care what anyone thought, she might actually find a man who loved her enough not to give a damn about a bit of damaged skin. Looking through the helicopter’s opening, she scanned the sky for a miracle. Nope. Nothing.

Thought so. You have to love yourself before you can ask anyone else to.