Page 26 of Finding Elodie
Mustang shook his head, realizing he’d zoned out for a second. “From the one and only Rocco? Of course,” Mustang quipped.
But Rocco didn’t rise to the bait. “Women can be confusing as hell. They say one thing and do another. They can be shy on the outside, but badass warriors on the inside. And if I’ve learned anything by being married to Caite, I’ve learned to never assume I know what she’s thinking.”
Mustang nodded in appreciation. He knew all about how Rocco had met his wife on a mission, and how she’d saved his life.
Mustang tried to be open-minded, to not assume someone was weaker than he was simply because of their gender. Hell, he’d seen some amazingly strong women in the Navy, so it wasn’t that he thought women should be barefoot and pregnant or anything. Still, Rachel had shocked the shit out of him by not hesitating to kill the pirate. She’d even said she didn’t really like guns, despite shooting them before.
“She intrigues me. I know nothing about her, and yet I can’t stop thinking about her. I know it’s ridiculous. She could be dating that officer she’s with, or married, or a lesbian…it’s making me crazy.”
Rocco grinned. “For the record, if the long look back at you as we were walking away was any indication, I don’t think she’s into women or married. Of course, I could be wrong. But here’s the thing, Mustang, there aren’t a lot of women who can handle what we do. Kissing her goodbye and not being able to tell her where you’re going or when you’ll be back sucks. You need to find someone who’s strong enough to handle the stress that comes along with being a SEAL’s partner.
“She saved your life, man. I never thought I’d ever be in a situation where I needed a civilian to save my hide, but I did, and Caite is literally the best thing to ever happen to me. My advice is to go find Rachel. Tell her you’d like to see her again. I don’t know where she’s from or how that’ll work, but if you’re that interested, I advise you to do everything in your power to make it happen. At least make it clear to her that you want to see her again. You’ll regret it if you don’t.”
It was a long speech, which surprised him, but it was what Mustang needed to hear. He felt a bond growing with Rachel he hadn’t felt with many people in his life. She’d been scared to death, and yet she hadn’t hesitated to do what needed to be done.
“She’s the cook,” Mustang told his friend. “I bet she went down to check out her kitchen. Or at the very least, make sure the bodies of her crew mates were properly stored.”
“If anyone asks where you are, I’ll make sure they know you’re doing official SEAL shit so you’ll have time to talk to her.”
“Thanks, Rocco. I owe ya.”
“Nah, it’s what friends do.”
They shook hands once more and Mustang turned to head for the exit.
“You goin’ to find her?” Midas asked as he passed him.
“Yeah. I just want to make sure she’s okay after everything that happened,” Mustang said.
“Tell her thanks from the rest of us,” Aleck told him. “It would have sucked to have to get used to a new guy on the team if you’d gotten killed.”
Mustang rolled his eyes. Aleck had gotten his nickname partly because his last name was Smart, and partly because he was a smart aleck.
“Might do you all good to get someone new as team leader. They wouldn’t put up with your shit,” Mustang fired back.
“You know you love us!” Pid chimed in.
“Yeah, you’d be super sad if we weren’t around to give you that shit,” Jag added.
Slate just crossed his arms and smirked.
“I’ll be back soon. Don’t leave without me,” Mustang told his team.
“Never. Who’d do the paperwork if we left you?” Midas asked.
Mustang chuckled as he left the bridge. He passed a few Navy sailors who were standing guard and headed for the stairs leading down to the lower decks. He wasn’t sure what he was going to say to Rachel, but hopefully he’d figure it out by the time he found her.
* * *
Elodie felt horrible. She was exhausted and every muscle in her body hurt. Probably from all the exertion she wasn’t used to. Not to mention the stress and bouts of extreme terror she’d yo-yoed through for over twenty-four hours.
When she’d been escorted up to the bridge by the other SEALs, she’d been both relieved she was out of the engine room and terrified for Scott and his team. She knew they were going to go right back down into the bowels of the ship to try to find the missing pirate, or pirates, if there was more than one left lurking about.
She couldn’t believe she’d actually killed someone. Even though she’d lived through it, it felt as if the last few hours had happened to someone else. She wasn’t GI Jane, not even close, and yet she hadn’t really even hesitated to take that man’s life. What if he had a wife and children? Would they ever know what happened to him? No, he wasn’t exactly doing nice things, but did that make it okay for her to take his life?
She’d known deep down in her bones that he was going to kill Scott and Midas. He wouldn’t have hesitated, which is why she’d pulled the trigger. It was him or the men who’d risked their lives to save her, and everyone else left onboard.
When she’d gotten up to the bridge, there had been a bunch of people she’d never seen before doing what they could to try to keep the cargo ship from running aground. A female sailor was trying to manually steer the ship without the use of electricity or the engines. There had been lots of swearing, but amazingly she’d been able to straighten out the ship so it wasn’t sitting sideways in the middle of the strait.
