Page 48 of Stranded with the SEAL

But the door was not opening, it was simply shaking, the handle jiggling as someone on the other side tried to get in. A metallic taste took hold in Olivia’s mouth.

The taste of terror.

A man’s voice called out, “Let me in, Brooke!”

Trevor called her Olivia. Anyone else from HERO Force should be able to get inside without her help. Still she yelled back, “Who are you?”

Trevor had told her the windows and doors were bullet-proof. As if on cue, someone fired into the window she was staring at. The damage looked like a bullet-sized chip in the glass, and she screamed as several more shots were added to the collection.

She dropped to the ground in a crouch. For a moment she considered trying to fly the chopper, then quickly dismissed the idea as idiotic. She needed to get to the weapons, but if the rear compartment was connected to this one, she had no idea how.

Gunfire continued as she crawled to the wall separating the two rooms. In the dim light from the single small fixture, she ran her hands along the baseboard, searching for some kind of opening mechanism. Finding none, she moved higher.

The gunshots stopped, and Olivia wondered if that was a good sign or a bad one. Several of her fingers scraped against something sharp, slicing her skin open and making her bleed.

There has to be a way into the other compartment from here!

A loud squeaking noise rumbled through the chopper. What was he doing out there? Another round of gunfire, though this time it sounded like it was coming from a different direction.

Her hand grazed over an electric control, and she quickly pressed it down. Relief was instantaneous when the door between the seating compartment and the weapons room began to slide to one side. As soon as she could fit her body through the opening, she threw herself into the darkness.

Straight into a man’s thick, muscular arms.

“Thanks for opening the door, Brooke.” He laughed.

The smell of body odor assaulted her nose as she swung her arms violently, hitting him in the face, but he only grabbed her wrists and cursed loudly in her ear.

“Stop it! I ain’t gonna hurt you.”

She continued to fight and he tightened his hold on her until it was nearly impossible for her to breathe.

“That was real funny what you did, Brooke. Setting me up with that chick and then running away. You’re a goddamn comedian, you know that?”

“Let go of me!” she whimpered, working to get her knee between his legs so she could pop him in the groin.

“I don’t know what the fuck’s gotten into you, but we gotta go see Marco.”

Olivia stopped moving. “Marco?”

“Yeah. He’s been worried sick since your sister told him you didn’t show up at the airport.”

My sister. I have a sister!

The image of a twenty-year-old girl with curling black hair came into her mind.

“Bella?” she asked.

“Yeah. Now are you gonna stop trying to kick me in the nuts so we can get up there, or do I have to restrain you or something?”

“I want to stay here,” she said.

“Well, that ain’t an option.”

“I’m not going back to Marco.”

He smiled. “What, just because you’re banging some guy in the woods, you think you and Acero can’t live happily ever after no more? I won’t say nothing if you don’t.”

She felt sick, the metallic taste back in her mouth. “How do you know about that?”