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They were on comm silence, so it came as a shock when the satellite phone on his hip buzzed.
Hays took the defensive position at the front of the cave so Jagger could answer. The rest of their unit was spread throughout the area.
“Lemuel here,” he answered quietly. They hadn’t seen anything, but terrorists had been known to hide themselves for years in this system of caves.
“Captain. General Bates.” The general’s voice wasn’t as crisp as usual. “Your friend Shawn Holister has been relentless trying to get through to you. I shut him down hard several times, didn’t let him get the words out, but then I heard the news about Mercedes Belle’s death, and … I’m sorry.”
Jagger closed his eyes and held tightly to the phone. He’d known it was coming. It still gouged him.
“Jag?” Hays asked from the opening.
“Mercedes is gone,” he told his friend.
Hays’s gaze was sober. The silence in the cave and on the line was unnerving. Mercedes was gone. The air felt quieter, the sun dimmer.
“The funeral?” he asked his commanding officer. He doubted they’d make it, even if they could get pulled from this assignment.
“Already done. They did a reception and graveside service for invited guests only. Close friends and family type of thing.”
Jagger shuddered. The general didn’t know what he was talking about. He and Hays were the closest friends and family for Mercedes and Shawn. Jagger’s sister Mercedes was gone now, and his brother Shawn had to endure her loss and the funeral without him or Hays.
The staccato of an automatic rifle was followed by bullets gouging into the rocky mountainside or ricocheting off.
Jagger dropped the phone and jumped to his feet, grabbing his HK416 and hurrying to return fire.
“Jag …” Hays took two steps into the cave and collapsed, blood running down the side of his head and his arm.
“Hays!” Jagger rushed to the opening, sighted in and fired and took down two of the enemy. His men were firing back. They could easily overcome the amount of resistance coming their way.
Jagger set his gun down and tugged Hays farther into the cave, gently rolling him over onto his back. All his training, all his expertise, and all he could do was stare at his best friend whose blood was staining the cave floor from his head and arm wound.
“No! Why?” he screamed at the cave roof, knowing no one in heaven was listening. “You can’t take Hays. No! Not Hays too.”
Painful, uncertain, horrifying seconds ticked by. The battle settled outside. He’d trained his men well. They’d clean up and report who had found them and taken shots at them.
He couldn’t make himself care about anything but Hays right now. He needed to check and bind his friend’s wounds, check pulse and breathing, but he couldn’t do anything but cry to a God who had never been there for him.
“My parents! Grayson! Mercedes! Bee! How much do I have to suffer?” Would the cave walls crumble in and cover him for his angry words at heaven above? He found he didn’t care. “Don’t take Hays too. Please, not him. I’ll humble myself. I’ll …” He searched for something, anything, to show how humble he could be. He’d do anything to help his best friend.
Then it hit him like a fifty-caliber shot.
Forgive.
“I’ll do it,” he yelled. “I’ll forgive Bee’s dad. I’ll do whatever you need. Don’t take Hays!”
His screams echoed around the cave. Before the sound could settle, he forced himself to grab the medical supplies, pull out gauze, and press it against Hays’s head wound first.
“Cap?” Johnston was outside the cave entrance.
“We need a medic and an evac,” Jagger called to him.
“I’m on it.”
Jagger pressed his fingers against Hays’s throat. There was a pulse. That was something. Was he losing too much blood? Where had the bullets penetrated?
Silent tears ran down his face. Was this what a breakdown felt like? He’d lost everything and everyone he loved. Would it just be him and Shawn? What about Bee? Were her parents still lying to her? Would she choose them over Jagger?
Everything was wrong and painful, and there was no hope left in this world.
