Forged in Smoke (Red-Hot SEALs #3)(42)
They shared an amused smile at the thought. But soon the worried furrow returned to Kait’s forehead. Faith fussed with the dish towel, straightening it out and lying it across the edge of the sink with painstaking obsessiveness while the silence built.
“I’m confident the mission went as directed. They definitely planned for any contingency,” Faith finally mumbled, compelled to fill the weighty silence.
Kait’s smile looked forced. “I’m sure you’re right.” Except she sounded far more worried than certain. “Are you packed and ready for our new home away from home?”
Ahh, Cosky must have told her about the safe haven they were sending all the civilians to. Maybe that news was partially responsible for her obvious misery.
“I haven’t even started,” Faith admitted. Not that she had much to pack anyway, just the two changes of clothing and other essentials Wolf had picked up for her. “When is this happening—do you know?”
While Mackenzie had informed her that she’d be accompanying the rest of the women and arriving children, he hadn’t bothered to tell her when that would be.
“Tomorrow sometime. Zane’s brother is meeting the chopper and escorting us to our new refuge, but he can’t make the drop-off point until early afternoon.” She sounded tense, but resigned.
Curiosity stirred. Faith had expected frustration and arguments from the other women, not grudging acceptance. “You seem okay with this . . . ?”
Kait blew out a long breath, which must have released some of her tension because her face smoothed. “Not exactly okay with it, but I understand their reasoning. Civilians underfoot increase the danger significantly. If we’re attacked, the team’s focus is fractured. They have us to protect. They’ll be safer without us handicapping them.”
Faith nodded slightly. That made sense. No doubt things got even more tangled when emotions were involved, like the obvious love between Zane and Beth, and Cosky and Kait. The men would be focused on keeping their lovers safe. Still, it had to be hard for Kait knowing the departure was coming, since nobody could predict how long the separation would last.
Not that Kait needed to think about that right now; they needed a change in conversation. “If I timed this right, the roast should be out of the oven and cooling by the time the chopper arrives.”
“Just tell me what to do and I can help,” Kait said, with a subtle straightening of her shoulders.
“As of now, there isn’t much to do,” Faith said. “The potatoes don’t need to go on for hours yet.”
“Okay. I’ll go check on Beth, but I’ll be back in a bit.” After one last thorough scan of Faith from head to shoe, Kait headed off.
Faith got back to work as soon as the door closed, and silence descended on the room. While it was hours too early to cook the biscuits, she could make the dough and set it in the fridge to chill until the helicopter landed.
As always, the act of mixing and measuring calmed her mind, and it didn’t take long for questions about that frightening episode earlier to plague her.
How had Rawls known it was going to happen?
Had he sensed it somehow?
Certain animals could sense the advent of seizures. Indeed, several canine breeds were utilized as service dogs to warn their owners of impending attacks. Was that what had happened? Did Rawls have some extra sense that allowed him to predict the onset of seizures, or whatever that event had been?
Her hands stilling, Faith stared at the half-mixed contents in the bowl. If Rawls had the ability to foresee medical crises, as his behavior implied, why hadn’t he admitted it to her? She thought back over their previous conversation and her reluctance to buy into the possibility that Kait could heal with her hands. Had her disbelief about Kait’s “gift” prevented him from admitting to his own talent?
She nodded slightly, and went back to mixing. That made sense. And if she was brutally honest with herself, she wouldn’t have believed him—at least prior to her unwilling participation in the experience.
But the episode had convinced her to consider more unconventional possibilities with an open mind. If animals such as dogs and cats could sense looming medical crises, some people might have similar abilities. Humans were animals after all, and it was certainly possible that some people had more acute senses, thereby picking up fluctuation in body chemistry or electrical currents—minute fluctuations within the human body itself that signaled impending medical problems.
She glanced at the computer tucked in the corner at the back of the room. There was plenty of time to do some research before everyone descended on the lodge for dinner. If she could identify that crippling pain, maybe she could prevent it from happening again.
However, by the time the helicopter sounded overhead, she was more baffled than ever. While two of the symptoms she’d endured could indicate a heart attack, most of the common markers were missing. She’d experienced no nausea, no sweating, and no dizziness, none of the symptoms that had beset her previously when her heart had acted up.
And while the sense of compression, of her flesh and bones being squeezed out of her body, could indicate a heart attack—that symptom didn’t quite track either. The sensation hadn’t just struck her upper body, as was common. It had struck from her toes to her scalp. So had that acidic, overwhelming pain. Both symptoms had been diffused and uniform, rather than localized, which didn’t fit the markers for heart attacks at all.