Page 66 of Lucky Charm

“Yes, he’s mine.”

“One of your SEALs?

“Yep. I’ve got him, Dunc. Mark the board for me.”

“Done. Need help holler.” He walked away and left her to get organized.

She turned to Carter who was hovering at the edge of the table. “Wait in the waiting room around the corner. I’ll find you when I’m done.”

“I’ll be here.”

“Where’s Hunt?”

“On the road bringing the vehicles back in.”

“Anyone else hurt?”

“Not to my knowledge.”

His answers were non-specific, leading Cait to be sure she didn’t want to know what they’d been up to. “You can wait if you want, but it might be a couple hours.”

“I’ll wait.”

“Tell LT that I need to talk to him.”

Carter gave her a puzzled frown. “I’ve told you everything I can, Doc.”

“Not about this Carter. It’s something else.”

“Copy that, Doc. I’ll pass it along.”

He opened his mouth to say something else, but she cut him off. “Let’s move, people. Get him to surgery.” She didn’t have time to make her case with him, and he wasn’t the one she needed.

She looked back at Carter as she went through the surgical doors. He stood watching her with intense concern stamped in his features. Snapping her focus onto her surgical routine, she shoved everything out of her mind. She’d deal with Hunt and the terrorist later.

∞∞∞∞∞

Hunt kept his gaze fixed on the door to the surgical area. If he could, he would magically make a good outcome for Baxter happen. Cait in real time working on him, though, was better than magic. He hadn’t seen her in five days, and the need to look at her, to feel her close tore at him. The feeling had been bugging and soothing him for days. He’d kept purposely aloof from the others because he didn’t want to talk. The only subjects that would come upwere Doc, their hunt for IQS, or now the murder of Haquiri – all like sandpaper against his nerves.

“Can’t believe Doc is working on another one of us,” Carter muttered.

Doogie rose from the stiff plastic chairs in the tiny waiting room and stretched. “We’re going to have to give Doc her own nickname.”

“Lucky Charm.” K-Rock slouched in his chair, his head back and eyes closed. Since the man sometimes talked in his sleep, Hunt wasn’t sure whether he was alert and listening or dozing. He’d been rapidly filled in on what had happened in the field and was annoyed he hadn’t been with them.

“Lucky Charm?” Doogie sat back in his seat because there wasn’t anywhere else to go. None of them would leave until they heard how Baxter was, and pacing around the miniscule room would have them knocking into each other.

One eye popped open. K-Rock was alive. The man’s slender frame hid his muscled strength and tenacious will. The crook in his nose attested to his fight, but most people missed the man’s brains and creativity. Sure, that creativity was with explosives, but it was a talent few had.

“Well, every one of us she’s worked on has made it. I consider that lucky.”

Lucky day she came into my life. Hunt didn’t even bother to try to squelch the thought because it was true. He wouldn’t change anything that had happened. Except for freezing her gorgeous ass in the mountains. He was going to have to change her unwillingness to go camping with him.

“Lucky Charm it is then.” Carter’s pronouncement closed the subject.

The sentiment froze him in place. His team – his family – had given her an honorary position separate from his feelings being known.

“You’re thinking too hard.” Doogie stepped opposite him and leaned on the other wall.