Second Chance SEAL(184)

He stared at me for a second, his face hard. “I’m sorry. No hospital.”

“I’m going. You can’t stop me.” I stormed off toward the front door.

I didn’t even hear him come up behind me. One second I was reaching for the door, and the next Emory was in front of me, blocking my way.

“Move,” I said.

“No. Go back.”

“Move or I’ll make you move.”

He grinned at me. “Let’s see you.”

I clenched my jaw, ready to lash out at him. I wanted to hurt him, to hit and kick him. How dare he keep me from bringing my baby to a hospital? Mason was hurting and he was my child, and I had to do everything possible to get him there.

But then I took a deep breath and let it out.

“You can stop me now, but I’m not giving up,” I said. “I’m going to get to a hospital. I’m not going to let my son suffer, no matter what.”

“You realize we have terrorists chasing after us, don’t you?”

“I know, but you can lose them. We can make it to a hospital.”

“It’s not safe, Tara.”

“None of this is safe,” I said. “Mason isn’t safe out there and he isn’t safe if we don’t go.”

Emory sighed, looking away. “I don’t want either of you to suffer.”

“Then let’s go.”

He looked back at me and then touched Mason’s forehead. “Another hour. If he’s still bad in an hour, we’ll go.”

I stared back at him. “Fine. One hour.”

I turned and walked back upstairs.

Maybe I shouldn’t have snapped like that. Maybe this was the wrong decision to make. But I couldn’t live with myself if Mason had something really wrong with him and I’d done nothing to help. I understood that men were after us. I’d seen their dead bodies. I’d seen the violence and the blood. I was absolutely terrified to leave this safe house.

But that terror just didn’t match the terror I felt when I thought about Mason sick with something that could kill him. That terror was worse, far, far worse.

One hour and we’d go. I wasn’t going to sit around for a single second longer.

I rocked Mason in my arms as his screams just kept going and going, ringing in my skull.





Chapter 20





Emory





I didn’t want to keep the damn kid from the hospital. I was not some monster who liked making babies sick and listening to them scream.

In any other situation, we’d be out that door. I’d get them to the hospital so fast that they’d forget what it meant to travel. But we weren’t in any normal situation. Leaving the safe house could mean death or even something worse.

Tara disappeared upstairs and I watched her go, hating every second of it. I wanted to get them to the hospital, but I had to consider the mission. I had to balance the dangers of leaving versus the dangers of staying, and so far it seemed like the right call was to stay.

Yes, Mason had a fever. But as far as I could tell, it wasn’t a bad fever. He was still crying, which meant he was still conscious and wasn’t too far along. We didn’t know what was wrong with him. It could be something bad, or it could be something totally fine. But I knew for a fact that there was something very, very bad outside that door, and I wanted to keep Tara and Mason from it.

But I couldn’t keep saying no to her. I’d seen how serious she was in that moment, and I knew she really wouldn’t stop. She would do everything in her power to get to a hospital no matter what. She was a mother trying to protect her baby son, and I didn’t envy any man getting in the way of that.

This shit couldn’t have come at a worse time. Of course I didn’t blame Mason for getting sick, but it was frustrating. We finally were in a safe space and could wait this whole thing out while my team found Omar and eliminated him, but now it looked like we were going to be forced to take a risk that I really, really didn’t want to take.

After a half hour of waiting, I could still hear Mason upstairs crying. I pulled out my burner and dialed Travis’s number.

“Hey, cap,” he said.

“Travis,” I said. “I’ve got some bad news.”

“More bad news? You know I fucking love that.”

“The baby is sick.”

“Oh. Sorry to hear it.”

“We might need to make a hospital run.”

There was a pause. “You sure that’s a good idea, captain?”

“No, not at fucking all, but unfortunately it looks like it’s going to be necessary anyway.”

“Shit. Okay then.”

“Think you can be ready to go in a half hour?”

“I can probably manage that.”