Lindsay McKenna - Risk Taker

“Sweet cheeks, what do you say I buy you a beer? You look like you need another round.”

Ethan rolled his eyes. Women hated lines. Not that he hadn’t thrown a few at them, too, but it almost always backfired. Judging from the narrowing of Blue Eyes’s gaze, Delta’s line was about as popular as a fart in a sleeping bag.

“No, thank you.”

Delta shook his head. “Come on, honey. Just one for the road? I’ll buy.” He gave her a leering grin.

“Here it comes,” Tolleson warned him in a whisper.

Blue Eyes’s relaxed face went hard. Military hard. And those wide, gorgeous eyes of hers narrowed even more and became laser intense on Delta. Her luscious mouth curled into a slight sneer, and Ethan knew she wasn’t going to sit still for this kind of macho nonsense.

“I really don’t want to embarrass you in front of your guys, Captain, so why don’t you leave while you can? That way, your pride will remain intact.”

Delta jerked his head, mouth opening and then snapping shut. His eyes rounded, as if stunned by her response. His cheeks colored, and he started breathing hard, angry. “Who the hell do you think you are, bitch? I was being nice was all.”

She gave him a cool, cutting smile. “Get over yourself. You black ops types are all alike. You think you’re God’s direct gift to women. I got news for you—you aren’t.”

Her voice was low and controlled. Ethan looked up toward the bar to see three other Delta operators watching and frowning. Would they be as stupid as he thought they were going to be? Jump into this little tempest in a teapot? And then, sure enough, all three of them started toward her table, as if on cue.

“Dammit,” Ethan breathed, standing. All he’d wanted was an ice-cold beer and to sit and recharge after a fourteen-hour ball-busting patrol in the more than one-hundred-degree heat in that furnace of a desert. Not get into a fight with other operators.

“Yeah,” Tolleson growled, following him. “Good odds for SEALs...”

They walked across the plywood floor and met the three Delta operators, stopping them before they could reach Blue Eyes’s table.

Ethan confronted them. “Hey, guys, let’s ramp this down, shall we?”

“Get the hell outta our way, tadpole,” the tallest operator snarled.

Tolleson held up his hand. “Hey, come on. Name callin’ isn’t gonna help resolve this situation.”

The big blond Delta operator sneered. “Why don’t you two frogs go back to your friggin’ lily pad and sit this one out? You weren’t invited to this party.”

Ethan glared at them. SEALs were a pretty laid-back group, generally speaking. They didn’t strut around like roosters in a hen yard. They were night shadows, kept a low profile. They didn’t start fights, but they sure as hell finished them. “Since when,” he asked, raising his voice so everyone in the canteen could hear him, “does it take four Delta guys to pick on one Black Hawk pilot who just happens to be a woman?”

All three Delta operators colored with embarrassment as jeers, hoots and insults erupted from the rest of the men and women in the crowded canteen. They threw their middle fingers up in the air in response. The catcalls increased in volume.

Tolleson tried to calm them down. “Look, take a time-out, okay? The lady doesn’t want company, so leave her alone.”

Ethan looked like he was casually standing in front of the three Delta guys, who were now angry. But looks were deceiving. There was a commotion behind him. He turned to see if Blue Eyes was in distress.

“Why don’t all you boys grow up?” Blue Eyes snarled as she halted and glared at them. “You’re an embarrassment to the human race!”

With that, Blue Eyes spun around on her booted heel and marched angrily out the door.

More hoots, hollers and laughter broke out. The Delta dude who’d tried to pick up Blue Eyes brushed by them and went back to the bar with his buddies. Ethan looked sheepishly over at Tolleson and shrugged his shoulders.

Ethan ambled back to their table. Tolleson was grinning.

“A little excitement,” he said, sitting down.

“We get enough excitement out on patrols without this,” Ethan muttered. He pulled his black baseball cap out of his pocket and settled it on his head. “Later. I’m off to the showers to get this grit off my skin.”

Tolleson tipped the chair back, still smiling. “I’m right behind you. I’ll bet Blue Eyes thinks you’re a knight in shining armor, coming to her rescue. You were the first dude to stand up to stop those Delta guys.”

Snorting, Ethan shook his head. “Doubtful. She lumped all of us into that comment. Or did you not get that?” Judging from her demeanor and coolness under fire with the Delta guys, she didn’t need any hero to protect her. Nope, she was a Black Hawk driver and she risked her life, day in and day out, landing in hot landing zones, RPGs being thrown at her helo, to rescue wounded men or women who desperately needed medical help or would die in the battlefield. If anyone was a hero...it was her. “Later,” he murmured to Tolleson.

“We got mission planning at 0800 tomorrow,” the LPO reminded him.

“I’ll be there with bells on,” Ethan growled, sauntering out into the bright sunlight. The canteen was in the center of Camp Bravo. To his left, Ops and the runway. He heard a C-130’s whistling engines as it came in for a landing. The smell of kerosene aviation fuel used by the helicopters was everywhere; the wind carried it in his direction. Overhead, the June Afghan sun bore down on him like a heat lamp out of control. Already Ethan was starting to sweat again. The eight-thousand-foot mountain where the FOB was located was dry and freakin’ burning up under the heat. He was from Anchorage, Alaska—he loved the cold and hated desert infernos.

Ethan quickly walked down the avenues of camouflage tents sitting on concrete blocks with plywood floors. The dirt was fine and dusty and got into every crack, pore and crevice that a human being owned, not to mention his M4 rifle and the SIG pistol he always wore.

The sky was a light blue as he walked alertly down several other avenues, heading for the showers. There were only forty SEALs on this black ops FOB. They were a small but mighty contingent on this 24/7 base.

He turned down toward the main supply building, an area clear of tents and a shortcut to the men’s showers.

“You sonofabitch! Get off me!”

Ethan wheeled around toward the woman’s angry voice. His eyes widened when he saw Blue Eyes down in the dirt with an enlisted Army sergeant on top of her, groping at her flight suit. The sergeant’s big hand reached down and ripped open the front of her uniform. He held her down with his other hand, fingers closing around her throat.

Blue Eyes weighed a good hundred pounds less than the guy, but, as Ethan ran swiftly and silently up behind him, she was giving a damned good account of herself. The man’s nose was broken and bleeding, and he sported a black eye. SEALs made a living out of being shadows. With one swift movement of his fist, he coldcocked the unknown assailant in his left temple. The man went flying off her, knocked unconscious.

Ethan turned. “You okay?” he asked, kneeling down. She had blood on her cheek, and her nose was bleeding heavily.

“That stupid bastard,” she breathed angrily, trying to pull her torn uniform closed at her neck.

Her eyes were blue fury. Ethan glanced over his shoulder—the stranger was out cold. “He won’t bother you again,” he murmured, giving her a concerned look. Her hair was dirty, and blood ran down her lips and dripped off her chin. Digging out the dark green bandanna he always wore when out on patrol, he said apologetically, “It’s dirty, but maybe you can use it to stop your nose from bleeding?”