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Chapter 11
Clay
“Shay. I’ll get you out of there, babe. I love you.”
I wait to hear her words back, but instead, I hear her screaming and the phone being slammed down.
“Shay!” I scream into my cell.
“Clay. What the fuck?” asks Caleb.
I’m looking at my cell like it’s about to blow up. I can’t get my brain and mouth to work together. It’s like they’re disconnected.
“Clay! Talk to us.” Caleb punches my arm, and somewhere between him yelling at me and punching me, I shake out of my trance and come back to here and now.
“She’s hurt. She’s fucking hurt.” I sink into a seat and hold the cell in my hand like its gold. I nearly missed the call because I left my cell on the table when I went home. Something told me to come back and get it. I was just coming in the door when I heard it ringing.
“Go back to the beginning. What did she say?”
“Erm…” I close my eyes and try to think. It’s fucking hard because I thought I was hearing things. That sweet voice. That scream. “She’s in Iraq!” I shout and stand back up. “She’s locked up. She needs my help.”
“Iraq is a big fucking place, bud.” Mike walks out of his office toward me. “Any coordinates or something significant?”
“She doesn’t know. Josh is there too, but she hasn’t seen him for months. The chances of him being dead now are high.”
“This changes a lot, guys. No one was looking for Shay and Josh because they presumed they were dead. I’ll contact the mayor. We need all the help we can get. We need feet on the ground out there, but with everything going on over there it’s highly unlikely that will happen.”
“I need to get to her. She needs my help,” I repeat, and Caleb pushes me back into a seat and kneels at my feet.
“We will get her home, Clay. I promise you that.”
“She’s alive.” The tears fall down my cheeks and the full room goes silent.
Caleb pulls me into his arms and my face rests into his neck. Usually, showing emotion in front of people isn’t my thing, but today I’m consumed by every emotion under the sun. While I didn’t think Shay was dead, there was a big chance that she was, but she’s alive. A part of me thought I’d never see or hear from her again.
“Where is Carrick?” someone asks, and I pull back from Caleb and stand up.
“I need to tell him. He needs to hear this from me.”
“I’ll come with you.” Caleb pats my shoulder and turns to the room. “Chris, you can call the mayor. Tell him I said to get his ass here. If he’s not here for…” Caleb looks down at his watch. “Nineteen-hundred hours, we’re going solo and to hell with his damage control and rules.”
“On it.”
“Mike. Amber. Get up maps of Iraq. Get the coordinates from somewhere – anywhere - as to where Shay was when this bomb went off. I don’t care what equipment you hack into. She’s locked up somewhere that needs to have good fucking security. There can’t be many places around that country of its kind. Do whatever you have to. There’s no number on my cell from her call, but I trust you’ll try everything to get it.”
“Boss.” Mike leaves the room and Amber follows him.
“Let’s go.”
I put my cell in my pocket and rush out of the office. It’s like someone is looking over us right now, because Carrick is walking toward the office, in all his disheveled state.
“Hey. I was just coming to see you.” Carrick speaks first.
He must see something on my face because he stops and shakes his head.
“No. Don’t you dare fucking say it, Clay. She’s not…”
“No.” I close the gap between us and take his face in my hands to make him look me dead in the eye. “I had a call from Shay. She’s alive.”
