Turkey, Nine Years Ago

The switch from open sky to the cover of the forest made every step more menacing. The beautiful green branches and the tall trunks of the trees loomed around them, almost like prison bars. The taller trees blocked off most of the light from the floor of the forest, casting dark shadows.

She was morbid today. Damn. But Daz’s caution had infected her.

“So you’re saying we could get shot at any time?” she asked Daz.

“I’m saying if I think we’re in that kind of danger, it becomes a combat situation. If that happens, you need to do exactly what I say. And your dogs too.”

“Exactly?”

“Exactly. This is my job. I’m good at it. I won’t tell you how to run your dogs and you don’t tell me how to protect you and keep you safe.”

“Okay.”

They all stopped as the path faded from two feet of dirt to one and split into two directions.

“Which way?” she asked again.

“Gabe?” Daz asked.

“Sorry to stop, had a glitch. It’s working okay now.”

He pointed left. The path narrowed to six inches after ten minutes and down to just a few inches some time later. When the path bulged out again around a boulder, Daz set down his pack and pulled out a handgun.

“Maybe I’m paranoid but let’s get our weapons out of the packs and where they’re available, Gabe.”

“That’s a risk,” Gabe said. “Could be perceived as being hostile to those who aren’t yet.”

“I know. But with the other people out there armed and already shooting first, we’re not taking chances.” Daz belted on his gun and holster. He also checked on the smaller gun at his ankle.

“Yes, Sir.” Gabe did exactly what Daz had done except he also pulled out a half-sized machine gun.

“Is that an Uzi?” Renee asked.

“Something like that,” Daz answered.

Daz pulled up the cuff of his jeans and pointed to his ankle gun. “Do you want a weapon, Renee? Could you handle this?”

He was giving her respect and she hated to turn his offer down but she couldn’t accept the weapon. She well remembered the rule her father drilled into her: If you don’t know how to use a gun, then don’t pick it up.

“If you had a shotgun, I’d take it. But I’ve never used a handgun and don’t want to mess with a weapon I’m unfamiliar with.”

Daz put the gun back into his ankle holster. “Good reasoning. If you change your mind, let me know. If we run into trouble, I may pass it to you for any close-range, uh, problems, anyway.”

“You’re SEALs. You’re special. What could happen to me while I’m with you?” She smiled because the idea of having to shoot someone terrified her more than someone shooting at her. Rescue work in disrupted countries always carried danger. But usually Thor and Loki kept potentially hostile people at bay. And she’d never carried a gun.

“Back to the trail,” Daz said.

She clicked her tongue and Thor fell into step with her. Loki came bounding out of the bushes—maybe he’d seen a squirrel and wanted to investigate—and rejoined them. She tossed them more treats from her pocket, which they caught in midair. “Good boys.” She pointed to her feet. “Heel.”

Dogs responded as much to motions as to words but hers knew both word and gesture.

“Do you have your men as well trained?” Gabe asked.

“Hah. It’s been my experience that men who need that much training aren’t worth the effort in the long run.”

Daz took off his sunglasses and gave her a look that she’d no idea how to interpret.

“Well, c’mon, guys, do you like high-maintenance types? I bet not,” she said.

Gabe snorted. “It depends. Are they redheads or not?”

They shared a quick laugh and set off in a good frame of mind despite the seriousness of the situation. Renee relaxed. Only just now had she realized how much she’d kept up her guard with them. Traveling with big, strong guys she didn’t know was always a risk. Not to mention these two were seriously armed and dangerous. But so far, so good.

“There’s a clearing ahead. I’ll scout it first before we go into the open,” Daz said.

“I’ll send Thor with you. If he stops and taps you on the leg, that’s the signal he scented a person. It’ll give you some warning if you’re worried of an approach,” she said.

“Thanks.”

Renee knelt to Thor, called Daz over, let Thor sniff Daz’s hand, and told Thor to “heel” when indicating Daz.

“That’ll work?” he asked.

“Yep. He’ll stay right with you.”

“Great.”

“Keep in shouting distance, Daz,” Gabe said.

Daz saluted and took off in long, loping strides. Thor stayed right at his heels and they quickly disappeared among the trees.

She watched her step as they continued. This path was full of moss-covered rocks, signaling that during heavy rain, it became a stream. One careless step and she’d turn her ankle on the jagged, uneven stones. Even Gabe slowed down. The trail steadily sloped upward and her knees and thighs began to feel the strain. The sounds of birds became louder as the forest grew thicker. Far overheard, she saw the silhouette of a bird of prey against the sun.

“Hawk?” she asked.

“Possibly, although it’s big for a hawk. There are still some golden eagles native in this area of Europe,” Gabe said.

She shaded her eyes and squinted to get a better look, wishing again for the sunglasses left behind. “I’ve never seen a golden eagle in the wild. They’re supposed to be large enough to take down a deer.”

“A lot of predators in these woods,” Gabe said.

“Lions and tiger and bears?”

He grinned. “No tigers. We should worry about wolves instead.”

“If we stop at night, we should light a fire to keep them away.”

“No can do. Fire would give us away to the more dangerous, human predators. Hopefully, we’ll get to your crash site before that.”

“Amen.”

He shifted the pack he seemed to be carrying without effort. She wondered how much it actually weighed.

“What’s your plan when we do find the plane?” he asked.

Was he testing her? He’d been more skeptical than Daz.

“I have a radio from the camp. I’ll use that to call in the location. Hopefully, Kim will have cleared all the red tape hurdles and have copters and air rescue units out looking for survivors. They can home in and our job is done. And if my radio doesn’t work, we have your beacon.”

Gabe said nothing for a few minutes. “Our copter was shot at with rocket launchers that could have taken it down,” he finally said. “When the time comes, warn them about that.”

Rocket launchers? “Those are some dangerous human predators if they’re armed with that kind of firepower.” She ducked to avoid a low-hanging branch. The trail leveled off, putting them on solid ground. “Why didn’t you tell me before?”

“We’re not even supposed to have admitted as much to you as I just did.”

“But despite all the secrecy surrounding whatever you’re doing here, you came anyway.”

“Daz couldn’t resist helping you.”

“Are you saying Daz did this just to impress me?”

Gabe shrugged. “Not just to impress you. We all want that plane found. But impressing you was definitely a bonus.”

“I’m not sure why he’d want to impress me. I’m sure Daz has no problem getting dates.” Daz could hardly lack for women.

“You’re a challenge. He likes that.”

“I’m not sure how to take that.”

“It’s a good thing. It makes him think instead of react,” Gabe said. “More like he should. On a mission, he’s like that. Off-duty is another story.”

“Ah.”

“So what about you, Renee? Have you done a lot of this kind of work?”

“You mean search-and-rescue disaster work or searches in isolated areas?”

“Either.”

“My dogs specialize in searches more than disasters. We’ve worked on lost hikers, lost planes in the mountains, even searches for criminals hiding out in wooded areas.”

“Not much earthquake work?”

“Two small relief missions. This is our first mass casualty event. Unfortunately, my dogs found mostly corpses here. I’ve decided I like searches better.”

He reached down absently to pet Loki. “You getting anything from them yet?”

“Only that they’re happy to be out for a walk and that they like you and Daz.”

“Dogs are good judges of character,” Gabe said.

Ahead, someone whistled. Thor barked, angry. Faintly, she heard Daz yell, “Holy shit.”

“Stay here! Take cover!” Gabe ran off, weapon at the ready.

Renee ignored the order and ran after him, her legs pumping furiously. Loki kept with her. Ahead, she heard Thor’s furious barking mixed in with another animal’s roars.

Bear.

Holy shit was right. She slowed, grabbed a heavy branch strewn on the ground, and burst into a small clearing just a dozen steps behind Gabe.

Daz was backed up against a tree, clearly trapped by a bear. The eight-foot-tall, snarling animal stood on two legs, looming over him. Thor barked and growled at Daz’s side, trying to protect him. Bright red spots decorated his coat. Blood.

Oh, no.

Loki shivered and whined. He wanted to join Thor in fighting the bear but the dogs didn’t have a chance in hell against such a huge animal. “Stay,” she ordered him.

Renee spotted two cubs lurking in the underbrush behind Daz’s tree. The bear swiveled its head toward them.

Joy. They had a pissed-off mom on their hands.

“She’s protecting her cubs,” Renee said in her calmest voice. “If you shoot her, Gabe, she may not go down fast.”

“Point,” Gabe said.

“If we could just get out of her way…” She whistled for Thor, praying he wouldn’t break training to attack the bear. He perked his ears and took off across the clearing to her. The bear turned, distracted now from Daz. Daz scrambled backwards, fast.

Good boy, Thor!

But instead of heading to her cubs, the bear roared and set off after Thor. Fuck.

She ran straight at the bear, waving her tree branch and blowing her dog whistle, hoping the animal would turn aside. Thor zoomed past her, to safety.

Uh-oh.

The bear swung one huge paw, knocked the tree branch away from her and tore into her hand, right near the thumb. She spun away, pain exploding through her hand and arm, bracing herself for the next blow. Gabe, shoot! But maybe she was in the way. Maybe he didn’t have a clear shot.

One of the cubs wailed. The bear froze.

Renee blinked to clear the tears out of her eyes and blew her whistle some more. Daz and Gabe closed ranks around her.

Please don’t make us kill you, Renee pleaded silently at the bear.

The bear remained motionless for what seemed like days but what really must have been seconds.

And then, just like that, she turned and lumbered over to her cubs. They rambled out of the underbrush, rubbed their noses to hers, and then the family disappeared into the woods. Had it been the whistle? Or the calls of the cubs? It didn’t matter.

“Motherfucking son of a bitch,” Daz said.

Renee fell to her knees, holding her hand up to stop the bleeding. The blood trickled past her wrist, staining the cuffs of her sweatshirt.

“Crap,” she said.

“Damn, what the hell were you thinking?” Daz asked as he dropped down next to her. “That thing could have killed you.”

“I had to save my dog.”

Gabe knelt at her other side and helped her keep the hand up. Through a haze of pain, she saw Daz run back to the middle of the clearing, retrieve his gun, and rush back.

“Sorry, the damn thing ran right over me when I stepped into the clearing and knocked it right out of my grip,” Daz gasped out the words. “Gabe, why didn’t you fire when it came after you?”

“She was kinda in the way, Lieutenant.”

Daz slipped off his backpack. “Fuck. You always take on bears with sticks, Wonder Woman?”

“First time.” She gritted her teeth, intent on not showing weakness in front of these two. “I’m okay. Look at Thor. He’s bleeding.”

“We’ll look at him too.” Daz pulled the med kit out of his backpack. He curled his hand around her wrist. “Renee, let’s keep this up.”

“I’m trying.”

“I know you are,” Daz said.

“Thor. Help my dog. Please.”

“We’ll do you both at once. Gabe will take Thor, I’ll take you.” He tossed a pack of bandages to Gabe. “Can you get him over here?”

“Sure.” With a feeble wave, she signaled Thor to come. She put her head, suddenly heavy, between her knees. No fainting. That was only shock. This wasn’t that bad, it only needed to be bandaged up.

Thor needed her.

Her dog settled against her, with Loki on the other side. Gabe poked through the fur on Thor’s back. Her puppy whined, as he hadn’t since he was little.

“Easy, babe. It’s okay. It’s gonna be okay. You did good.”

She scratched his ears with her good hand. He trembled. Dammit, if she’d made the wrong choice to search for the plane and it cost Thor his life…

Loki crept over and licked his brother’s muzzle.

“There, see, Gabe, there’s a long scratch on the right side,” she said.

“Got it.” Gabe parted Thor’s fur to reveal the wound. She craned her neck but couldn’t see how bad it was.

She very deliberately didn’t look at her own hand, where Daz was doing something to the injury. Breathe, she thought. Breathe. Long, even breaths. That was the ticket.

She raised her head, her vision clear.

“Good news,” Gabe said. “It’s a long scratch but shallow and it’s stopped bleeding already. Looks worse than it is because the blood splashed all over. I’d bandage a person but how do you do that for a dog?”

“With great difficulty, especially over fur.” She hugged Thor. He stopped shivering. “Without a cone, he’ll bite at a bandage. Do what you can to clean the wound and slather on the antibiotic. He’s had all his shots, at least.”

“Okay.” Gabe grunted. He looked over at Daz. “How you doing?”

“Well, my good news is that the bear didn’t tear your hand off, Renee,” Daz said.

“What’s the bad news?”

“You’re going to need stitches.” He paused. “I could try the wound closure glue but that doesn’t work with well with hands. Every time you moved your fingers, the cut would pull open. And stitches will hurt, even with the cream we have to numb the pain.”

How could it hurt more than it already did? “Just do what you need to do. It’s all right.”

“No, it’s not, but if we want to go on and find the crash site, that’s what I have to do. Our other option is to head back and have you treated at the relief camp.”

“No.” Admit failure? No. “If Thor’s mostly okay, we go on.”

“He’s taking me cleaning out the wound well,” Gabe said.

“What a brave puppy you are,” she said to Thor.

“He sure was,” Daz said. “Saved my life by getting between me and the bear after it ran me over.”

“Will he stand for it if I use hydrogen peroxide to clean the cut?” Gabe asked.

“He’ll be fine with me here,” Renee said.

Gabe poured out the peroxide and dabbed the scratch with it. Thor cuddled closer to her. She needed the comfort as much as he did. Agony sliced through her hand, threatening to make her curl into a little fetal ball of pain.

After the peroxide, Gabe spread antibiotic cream over Thor’s cut. “Looks good.”

“Which is more than I can say for your hand,” Daz said. “Renee, if we’re going on, it needs stitching up right now.”

She closed her eyes. “Go ahead.”

“Right. Gabe’s got a steadier hand, so I’ll sit behind you and hold you steady, and he’ll do the stitching. Just hold tight.”

“Pretty sure I can do that.” Pretty sure, though she was seeing spots and put her head between her knees as she had earlier. Neither of the men said anything about it and she silently blessed them for that. She swallowed back bile and ran her tongue over her teeth. Getting sick wasn’t going to help, just make her feel rotten and useless.

Daz slipped behind her, pulling her against his chest. His strong arms went around her stomach and she could feel his breath on the back of her neck. Gabe took hold of her injured hand. She turned her head away, into Daz’s shoulder and closed her eyes. Through the haze of pain, she noticed how solid he was.

The dogs arranged themselves at her feet.

“Here we go. Hold steady,” Gabe said.

“Sure,” she said.

Cold liquid splashed over her hand. The peroxide, she decided. It burned. She clenched her other hand into a fist.

“So, Renee,” Daz said. “How did you get into SAR work in the first place? You said something earlier about not being able to sit back and do nothing? Got some tragic backstory from childhood?”

His light teasing distracted her as he’d no doubt planned. “No, no tragedy. A triumph of sorts, I guess. When I was eight, one of my friends from school disappeared into the woods when we were on a Girl Scout trip.”

“Always knew Girl Scouts were trouble,” Daz said.

Cold cream, then a nasty stab into her hand. She gritted her teeth. “Yeah, some of those Girl Scouts can be awful.” Another stab. She sucked a breath in and out through her teeth.

“You’re doing great,” Gabe said.

Daz stroked her hair. Her stomach settled.

“Anyway, it turned out the other scout became lost after walking in circles and then sprained her ankle. I was the one who found her. She was scared and crying. I helped her walk and brought her back to the group.”

“And she was forever grateful and now you’re BFFs?” Daz asked.

“Not so much. She was a brat and used to pick on me. But she was nicer to me after that.” Her hand throbbed, a constant dull roar of pain. “But rescuing her felt better than anything else I’d ever done.”

“And that’s how you got started?” Daz said.

“Yep. I’d always had dogs growing up and as a teenager, I helped my mom raise and train a seeing-eye dog. Search-and-rescue dogs seemed a natural progression.”

“You’re good at it,” Daz said.

“Hah. Not when I get one of my dogs hurt on what’s probably a wild goose chase.”

“Not such a wild goose chase. If I thought this hike was such a long shot, I wouldn’t have decided to help,” Daz said. “Don’t give up hope now, babe.”

“Since when did I graduate to babe?” She buried her head deeper into his shoulder.

“Oh, since all the PDA,” Daz said.

“PDA?”

“Public display of affection.”

“It’s all very sexy, you holding me while I whine and bleed all over you.”

“Exactly what I was thinking. Hang in there. Almost done.”

The hands clamped around her wrist abruptly released it.

“You can look now. All the stiches are done and you’re bandaged up,” Gabe said.

She opened her eyes. As Gabe promised, the entire back of her hand was bandaged and it all wrapped around her thumb to keep it in place. “All stitches? Just how many is ‘all’?”

“Five.”

She held up her hand before her eyes. The moisture of the antibiotic cream mingled with the tickle of the gauze pad and a constant throb of hurt. But her hand was still all there and likely to remain so.

“Thank you.” She tried to flex her fingers and instead of a dull ache, the pain turned into a sharp spike. “Ouch. Remind me not to do that again for a while.”

“I will.”

She craned her neck around to Daz, even more aware of his arms still wrapped around her. “And thank you too.”

“Sure. The least I could do with Thor saving my life. You and him probably need antibiotics to prevent infection, but hopefully we’ll be back at camp soon to get them.”

Gabe packed up the medical supplies. She concentrated on breathing so when she stood, she wouldn’t fall over. Daz stroked her hair again.

“Ready to get up, babe?” Daz asked.

“Let’s go for it.”

He stood first. A light wind teased the back of her shirt, chilling her where their sweat had mingled. He’d left something of himself on her. She shifted to her knees to stand up and hugged Thor and Loki. Thor licked her face and nudged her. That meant he was happy. He must be feeling better.

“Good boys.” She spotted some blood on the ground next to her. Ick. Her stomach flipped over. “Daz, could you take my hand and help me up. I’m a little lightheaded still.”

“Absolutely.”

He wrapped his hand around her arm at the elbow. She rose to her feet with his support. Once standing, she blinked to clear her eyes of tears. The sun was high in the sky, signaling midday. They’d have light for a few hours to continue the search.

Daz handed over a full water bottle. She drank it down in one solid gulp.

“That was something, you facing the bear with just a tree branch,” Daz said.

“I wanted to protect Thor.”

“One mama bear facing another to protect her own.” Daz smiled. “I’d say she got the better of you.”

“Yeah, she was a bit out of my weight class. Can you hand me my pack?”

Daz scooped it up. “I’ll carry it for now. Which way, Gabe?”

Gabe pointed at the woods on the other end of the clearing. “And let’s stick together for now, okay?”

“Damn fine idea,” Daz agreed. “Especially since with the noise we’ve made here. If there’s someone watching, they’re already aware. We’re better off together.”

“Someone could already have spotted us? You’re just full of comforting words, Daz,” she said.

“I aim to please.”

Maybe it was her feeling faint but she went weak in the knees at his smile. Well, why not. They’d been through a lot in the last hour. She tossed Thor and Loki treats with her good hand to gain time to regain her equilibrium.

Admit it. She liked Daz, more than she’d liked anyone in a long time.