Page 98 of Keeping a Warrior

It was about an hour’s drive to the village, and they had to take some switchbacks that required almost three-point turns to navigate. Devon’s stomach flipped at the sight of the narrow roads and sheer cliffs. If she opened her door and stepped out, she’d fall into an abyss.

Matt didn’t hesitate, his driving icy cold and fearless.

“You’d make a good convoy driver,” she joked, and he chuckled.

“Maybe I should get into VIP escort or something. I love driving fast and ramming shit.”

“Just get us there in one piece, would ya?” Shane growled. “That’s all we ask.”

Matt raised one gloved hand off the steering wheel and flipped Shane off, which made Devon laugh because Shane couldn’t see it, tucked as he was up in the gun turret.

“He just flipped me off, didn’t he?” Shane asked drily, and when Devon patted his booted foot in confirmation, muttered, “Asshole.”

“Clown.”

When they at last pulled into the tiny village, Devon was amused to see the SF guys emerge pale and sweaty.

“Damn, those are some switchbacks from hell.”

Matt and a few of his Army counterparts arrayed themselves around the perimeter to pull security while the officers greeted the elders. Devon was impressed at the captain’s command of Pashto, so she left him to it and made her way around from house to house in order to greet the women.

Shane was careful to keep his distance, although Devon could feel his eagle eye watching her every move. On the edge of the village, Matt scanned the surrounding ridgeline with some powerful binoculars.

Their presence made her feel safe, and suddenly, she was grateful to Rhys for insisting they come.

I could really get used to having my own personal Navy SEAL bodyguards, she thought, amused.

The communal lunch was roasted goat and stewed carrots, along with some flatbread and cucumbers. It was simple, hearty and delicious, and Devon made sure to taste a little bit of everything.

The sun was high in the sky as the convoy left the village and inched back down the mountain. Matt, Devon and Shane were in the lead, the SF guys in three other vehicles directly behind them.

“Hey, was that piece of plywood there when we—”

Just as the words left Matt’s mouth, an explosion rocked them to their core. Devon screamed as the top-heavy vehicle lurched and tipped to the side toward a thousand-foot dropoff. Somehow it righted itself, and Matt gunned it.

“We just hit an IED,” he shouted into the comms. “Ambush!”

AK-47 rounds started cracking into the windshield with the force of a jackhammer, the bullet-resistant glass spidering but holding. Devon sat frozen, her ears ringing from both the blast and the boom of Shane’s .50-cal, her mouth filled with the sour taste of explosives.

“You in one piece?” Matt yelled to her as he fought to keep the Humvee on the road. She patted her legs with trembling hands.

“One piece,” she croaked. “You?”

“I’m fine,” Matt said grimly. “It went off underneath the engine block.”

Devon shuddered. If the bomb had exploded half a second later under their more vulnerable undercarriage...

An RPG streaked by only feet away, so close Devon could see its stabilizing fins, smell the vapor trails that filled the air in its wake.

“Light ’em up, Shane, goddammit!” Matt shouted.

The hot shells raining down on them from the gun turret was Shane’s only answer. Desperate to help, but with the cliff on her right side and the insurgents on the ridge to her left, all Devon could do was sit and pray.

“Eagle Ten to Talon Thirty.” The SF captain’s voice over the comms was low and controlled. “We are troops in contact. We are receiving intense RPG and small-arms fire from multiple emplacements.”

“Copy, troops in contact.”

He rattled off their coordinates and requested close-air support. Matt drove the battered Humvee steadily despite the withering barrage coming from the front and sides.