Her Mission With A Seal. Cindy Dees
bayou, the scouring action of the tides and the storm surge cut new waterways and clog others till they’re impassable.”
“So our best bet is to abandon the RIB and make our way overland toward New Orleans?” Cole asked.
Ashe chimed in. “The boat was out of gas. If we use it, we’ll have to row all the way back to town. My best guess is we’re a hundred miles west of New Orleans.”
“So far?” Nissa exclaimed.
Ashe nodded. “Weather reports said Jessamine passed west of New Orleans, and her eye wall was about sixty miles across. I figure we didn’t catch the eye wall, because as sturdy as this place is, even it wouldn’t have withstood a direct hit. So we’re at least fifteen to twenty miles west of the path of the storm center. That puts us a good hundred miles or more west of New Orleans.”
The others launched into a brainstorming session of possible ways to get back to New Orleans, but all Cole could think about was Nissa’s knee so close to his. Who obsessed about knees, anyway? And yet, here he was, taking note of how slender hers was and how perfectly proportioned to her legs.
Eventually, Bass distracted him by saying, “What do you think, boss? Do we radio for help or try to make it back on our own?”
He answered, “The folks back in New Orleans are going to have their hands full with rescue operations. No matter how hard the government tries to convince everyone to leave, you know a bunch of the locals were too stubborn to go.” The others nodded in commiseration. “We’re able bodied, uninjured and capable of taking care of ourselves. We don’t need to divert resources to help us when civilians are dying. What’s out here by way of roads or towns?”
Bastien pulled out the laminated maps that had been provided for this mission, and Cole was relieved to move over to the kitchen table to pore over the maps with his men. Close proximity to Nissa was doing weird stuff to his blood pressure.
Cole pulled out their GPS locator. “We’ve only got the one battery that’s in the GPS to work with. The spare batteries got wet somewhere along the way. Let’s get a solid position fix and then figure out where the closest place is that might have vehicles and gasoline.”
As Ashe had guessed, they were, indeed, about a hundred miles west of New Orleans along the Gulf Coast. But what shocked Cole was that they were nearly fifteen miles inland north of the White Lake Wetlands Conservation Area. “How did we get so far north?” he asked.
Bass answered, “Storm surge. All this coastal area, here, was underwater by the time we came ashore, and we motored right over it.”
“We’re only about three miles southwest of this town, Gueydan. Can we hike to it overland, or will the area between us and it be flooded?” Cole asked him.
Bass shrugged. “Only one way to find out.”
Ashe looked over at Nissa, seated on the couch. “What about her? Do we leave her behind and come back for her once we’ve got transportation?”
Cole was stunned by the visceral negative reaction in his gut at the notion of leaving her behind. Aloud, he answered, “SEALs don’t leave anyone behind, and for now, she’s one of us. Besides, she’s had a hell of a scare—several of them, in fact. Let’s not traumatize her any further by abandoning her out here in the middle of the bayou.”
Nissa flashed him a brilliant smile that all but had him striding across the room to wrap her in his arms and capture all that joyous relief for himself.
They ended up having to wait a full twenty-four hours for the floodwaters to go down and for the sodden land to reemerge. They passed the time making repairs to the cabin, inside and out, by way of thanks to the owner for the shelter. Bright and early the next morning, however, they packed their gear and headed out.
Cole was plenty glad to get out of the small confines of the cabin. Its four walls hadn’t been anywhere near big enough to contain the towering attraction between him and Nissa, and he was on the verge of losing his mind before they finally got outside and on the move, away from the momentary insanity that had been their impromptu hurricane party.
For the first time he could remember, he was antsy as all heck to get back to civilization and be done with this mission. And it had everything to do with a petite blonde CIA analyst and her big blue eyes.
The three-mile hike to Gueydan turned into a six-hour nightmare of dead ends, doubling back and wading through waist-deep water. Nissa didn’t think the trek from hell was ever going to end. She was still dreadfully sore from the last hike with these guys, but she was embarrassed to complain about being too uncomfortable to go on. They were toodling along like this was a stroll in the park. Which she supposed it was for them. Bass was actually whistling—cheerfully, no less—as he led the way forward. Instead, she suffered in silence and resolved to work out for about a month solid before she volunteered to come out into the field with a bunch of Navy SEALs again.
The only thing that kept the day from being completely miserable was that every time she stumbled, Cole’s hand was there to steady her. Every time she thought she couldn’t go another step, he called a rest break. Every time her throat was parched, he held out a canteen to her. His attentiveness was so constant and kind that it nearly made her weep more than once.
She knew intellectually that she was holding back the team and that Cole was only making sure she kept moving. But to have a man like him even aware of her, let alone concerned about her, was a fantasy come true. She tried to enjoy the attention, but before long it was hard to focus on anything except the burning agony in her leg muscles and the way they instantly stiffened up whenever the group stopped to rest.
Cole’s touch was never anything but respectful and proper, but it didn’t stop her heart from racing every time his strong fingers grasped her elbow or his palm came to rest lightly in the small of her back. His presence beside her was nothing short of devastating. He filled her senses and her mind, as raw and elemental as the stormy skies and wrecked landscape around them. Trees were snapped in half like twigs, tree branches lay everywhere and every man-made structure they came across had suffered major damage of some kind or another.
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