Way of the Warrior (Troubleshooters #17.5)(118)

She ran back to the car. “I’m right here!” she called. “Asshole didn’t stop.”

“I think…something’s…buzzing?” Jenn exhaled hard, which meant she was feeling the start of another contraction. They were coming closer together now, and lasting longer.

Eden held out her hand for Jenn to grab. “Buzzing?” The moment she said the word, she realized that she’d set her phone to vibrate when they’d gone into the morgue. And she hadn’t turned the ringer back on.

Damn it!

Keeping her grasp on Jenn’s hand, she reached into the front where she’d put her phone into the plastic cup holder. She touched the screen and… God, there were about fifteen missed calls. All from the same number.

She quickly hit return call and put the phone to her ear, but nothing happened. She tried again as Jenn panted the word shit from between clenched teeth. Again, nothing.

But then Jenn said, “Uh-oh,” and Eden looked down to see a tinge of red staining her sister-in-law’s maternity skirt. Oh, God! That was blood.

“I think that’s normal,” Eden lied as another contraction gripped Jenn, and she did what she promised Jenn she wouldn’t do—she dialed Danny’s cell.





CHAPTER 9


    Izzy


Izzy was heading over to where Mark Jenkins was still babysitting Dan when it happened.

He wasn’t close enough to hear, but he saw Danny shifting slightly in his seat in order to pull his phone out of his pocket. He saw Dan frown, and then Izzy read Dan’s lips as he said, “That’s weird. It’s Eden.”

Izzy started running as Dan put the phone to his ear.

“Hey, Eden, is everything okay?” Dan said, but then pulled the phone away to look at it as Izzy skidded to a stop in front of him. “Huh. Maybe she butt-dialed me.”





CHAPTER 10


    Eden


Eden was incredulous. Jenn had batted the phone out of her hand.

“It was working,” she said. “I finally had a connection!” But when she picked it up, it was back to zero bars. “Damn it!”

“I’m fine,” Jenn snarled. “I’m. Fine.”

“Yeah, you’re not,” Eden told this woman who, after Izzy, was her very best friend in the entire blessed world. “I was lying about the blood, Jenni. It’s not okay, and I no longer give a shit about mission ready.”

“But I do.”

“I get that,” Eden said. “But I need you to think, just for a moment, about the possibility that you’re not okay. You’re not fine. And I want you to think about Dan, coming home, and you not being there to meet him.”

Jenn was shaking her head.

“This,” Eden continued, gesturing toward Jenn, “is now officially a life-and-death emergency. And if, for whatever reason, we can randomly get through to Dan’s overseas burner phone out in Wherever-the-hell-he-is, then that’s what we’re going to do.”

It was then that Eden saw it—movement. A car. Way in the distance. Approaching along the shimmering heat of the road.

Except it was moving faster than a car. And it wasn’t on the road, it was above it.

“Chopper!” Eden said, but then realized she’d used the Army nickname. “Oh my God, Jenn, it’s a helo.”

For some reason, the Navy called helicopters helos, and this helo that was approaching was definitely courtesy of members of the U.S. Navy. Thank you, thank you, Senior Chief Wolchonok!

As Jenn pushed herself up to look out the back window, Eden’s phone rang. It was that same number—that one that had tried over and over to call her when her phone was stupidly set on silent.

“Thank you so much,” she said, uncaring as to who was on the other end. “The helo is here.”

“Hey, Eden. It’s Jules. Cassidy. I guess Adam and Jay found you. About time you answered your phone, sweetie.”

“Jay Lopez is really on that helo?” Eden had to shout above the rapid-fire sound of the blades as it landed in the desert, sending clouds of dust into the air. She quickly closed the car doors on that side, so that Jenn wouldn’t choke.

“He is,” Jules said, and Eden quickly relayed that to Jenn who nodded forcefully through another contraction, even as Eden put the beach blanket up and around Jenn’s head. “We’ve got both an OB-GYN and a pediatric specialist standing by to assist him via phone, in case that baby doesn’t want to wait for you to get to the hospital.”

“Thank you, but I need both hands free,” Eden said and cut the connection, jamming the phone into her pocket.

Jenn was already pushing herself out of the car, but Eden held her back. “We’re gonna carry you to the helo,” she told her friend. “Don’t want to accidentally dump the baby out onto the desert.”

“That would be my preference, too.” They both looked up to see Jay. He was wearing his beige chief’s working uniform and his usual air of cool, calm confidence and authority.

Eden knew that Jay Lopez hadn’t been thrilled when Izzy married her, and she still thought that he didn’t like her very much. Whenever he showed up to a party or dinner out with the gang, her heart always sank, just a little, and she tried not to sit too close to him. But right now, she’d never been more glad to see anyone in her entire life. “Thank God you’re here!” she said.