Finding Dani (Once a Marine, Always a Marine Book 3) Read online

  “Goddamn, you taste good,” he said.

  “Hmm.” She wasn’t sure she was actually capable of words because he started kissing her again and it was so good she never wanted to stop.

  She’d been on some dates over the years, even shared some kisses, but none of those had inspired much more than a pleasant warmth. Nothing like the volcanic need raging through her veins. And just being in his arms, so strong and so gentle, made her want to cry again. And that was the problem. She needed him in a way that she shouldn’t. Dani couldn’t do this. She just couldn’t.

  She pulled away. “I’m sorry. That shouldn’t have happened.”

  Damon kissed her again, a quick swipe of his lips. “Why the hell not?”

  “Because it isn’t right. It reminds me too much—”

  “Of Gabriel,” he finished.

  She scooted off his lap to pace the floor, mainly because the feel of him was a temptation she was dangerously close to throwing herself at. And how could he not remind her of her dead husband? They were twins, for God’s sake.

  “Listen, Damon—” she started, but a loud pounding on the door stopped her.

  “Hope you’re decent. I’m coming in,” Gunner Halverson said before opening the door.

  He stopped just inside, briefcase in one hand and a smirk on his face. A quick look at their disheveled appearance and it was clear there had been something going on. Dani could feel the tips of her ears get hot.

  “What’s up, Gun?” Damon asked. He didn’t bother to straighten up, just sat there and looked at both of them.

  “Sorry to interrupt, folks, but we have a situation.” His grin said he wasn’t sorry at all, but his eyes were serious as he set the briefcase down and began entering the combination for the locks.

  Damon stood at that point, but Dani wasn’t sure what was going on. “What’s the situation?” she asked.

  “Seems we have an Ebola case in the infirmary.”

  “What?” Dani shook her head. “But everyone was tested when they came into the camp. There was nothing but routine cases.”

  Gunner nodded as he popped the locks and opened the case. “That’s why we need to get some samples now. I have a feeling your mutated strand is here now.”

  Inside the case was soft padding that encased two vials of a milky white liquid and a number of syringes. Gunner began loading up three of those syringes in rapid succession, showing no hesitation as he turned toward her with one of the needles.

  “What is that?” she asked. It wasn’t something she was familiar with, especially since there was no label on the vial. She’d moved closer to look.

  “This is the reason I’m here, to study the virus and come up with an antidote, if possible. Those vials are a prototype that I refined for the CDC that they’ve been being testing on monkeys. I’d planned on using mine once we’d rounded up some sample subjects to see if there was some measurable success.”

  “So, why are you looking at us like we’re now your guinea pigs?” Damon asked. He crossed his arms over his chest and glared at the needle.

  “Jesus, Damon, you’ve been shot twice and fly that chopper of yours like you have a death wish. You’re really going to give me a hard time about a little needle stick?”

  “Why the fuck are you planning on giving us shots?”

  The grimace and wary tone pulled a reluctant smile out of Dani. She hadn’t known Damon had a fear of needles. But he did have a valid question.

  Gunner answered before she could put her question with Damon’s. “This is something I’ve been working on that is preventative as well as reactive. Obviously, top secret and not something even the higher ups know about. I brought enough for myself and Damon, just in case. But I can stretch it to cover the three of us.”

  Dani knew her jaw was about to drop. The top minds in the pharmaceutical companies, as well as government, were working on something similar, but she’d heard of no advances yet. “How did you get approval to work on this?”

  He shrugged, “I didn’t. But I was one of the original doctors that began working on it when it became an epidemic, and I was the one that made all the progress. Now, roll up your sleeves.”

  “You’re not injecting me with whatever that is, Gun.” Damon backed away a step.

  “If I have to hold you down and have Dani here do it, then I will. At least three of us will have a chance against this virus. And we might be the difference between life and death for this camp.”

  His eyes were narrowed, and there was a tick in his jaw, but Damon didn’t comment. Dani turned the attention back to herself, “I don’t know what that is and I’m with Damon. You’re not injecting me with it.”

  Gunner had short sleeves, so instead of answering the questions, he merely injected himself with the first syringe. Once he was done, he put a bandage on and then picked up a second syringe. “Look, I’m one of the brightest minds out there and I don’t give a shit about government regulation. They only want a preventable solution for American troops and doctors. I don’t think the big brass care one way or the other if everyone here dies or not. But I do. And I believe everyone deserves a cure.”

  “I don’t think that’s true; they care. They’ve been working on a cure for years now,” Dani protested. She believed in what she was doing. She believed in the CDC, even though they hadn’t made any real strides yet in finding that cure for humans.

  “True or not, I want to be able to help, and this is part of what I’m working on. This anti-virus won’t do any damage, and it just might stop us from getting infected. And if this is your mutated virus, we need all the help we can get.”

  “You can trust him, Dani.” Damon was still glaring at the needle in Gunner’s hand, but his voice was calm, and something about his faith made her believe.

  “You really think this will work?” she asked.

  Gunner nodded. “It can’t hurt, and we’ve got to figure out what is going on before the infection begins to spread.”

  “Do you have any more? What about the rest of my team?”

  Dani rolled up her sleeve and Gunner stabbed the needle in before she changed her mind. The pinch lasted only a moment before he was done and applying the bandage.

  “I don’t have enough to inoculate anyone else. I’m sorry, Dani, but everyone else will have to use normal precautions when handling the sick. I’m also going to want to check our blood and take samples as well, which means more needles, tough guy. My lab is up and running, so I will be able to synthesize this serum, but it will take some time.”

  Damon had taken a couple of silent steps toward the door. Dani hadn’t even noticed. She’d been too intent on making the decision to accept the shot. She reached out and grabbed his hand. “You need to do this too. Especially since you talked me into trusting your friend.”

  “I don’t have to like this,” Damon said. He squeezed her hand and let her roll up his sleeve. All the muscles bulged in his arm as he stood stock still and waited.

  “Stop being a baby and relax or this is going to hurt more than it needs to,” Gunner said.

  “Just fucking get it over with, asshat.”

  Dani smothered another smile and held onto his hand. He was being a baby, but it was kind of cute as well. That such a tough guy was scared of needles was endearing and made him more human in her eyes. Not that kissing the socks right off of her hadn’t done the same thing, but she’d always viewed him in the way someone views a wild animal. With respect and from a distance.

  He sucked in a breath as Gunner gave him the shot, but he stood still. His thumb rubbed across her knuckles back and forth, betraying his agitation, but overall, he did well. Taking the bandage from Gunner, Dani applied it to Damon’s arm and then leaned in and gave his arm a quick kiss.

  He smiled down at her, “Thanks for kissing it better, Red. It barely hurts anymore.”

  “I’m running back to my tent to drop this off. Dani, meet me in the infirmary. Damon, I need you to find out where the hell Dani’s tea
m has been today and yesterday.” Gunner snapped the case closed and spun the numbers in the lock.

  “I’m on it,” Damon said, as Gunner disappeared. Then he turned back to Dani. “You and I aren’t done with our discussion.”

  Dani knew he was talking about the kiss and what she’d said before Gunner came barging in. But it all came down to her being lonely. She was a woman in her prime and she missed having that special someone in her life. She missed sex. But she didn’t want Damon to be a stand in for his dead twin. That would be wrong. And she couldn’t use him that way.

  “I just can’t Damon, that’s all.”

  “I haven’t stopped thinking about that kiss, Dani. The one we shared before you got married. The one that damned near melted my mama’s wallpaper right off the walls. I wasn’t a stand in, and you know it.”

  Then he left and she was alone. As much as she tried to deny it to herself over the years, what he said was true. She had known. Oh, it had started out a mistake that was helped by a dark room and a little too much champagne. But she’d known. And had dared to taste the wilder Dupree.

  Now she was afraid. Afraid she’d become addicted. And she knew she’d never survive loss like that again.

  Chapter 9

  The atmosphere inside the infirmary was one of focused attention and consternation. Dani heard one of the nurses asking how Ebola could have been missed and whose ass was going to get chewed out for that mistake.

  “Dr. Bordeaux, I’m glad you’re here,” Dr. Montgomery Nelson said. “I need a consult on these symptoms.”

  “Please, call me Dani,” she said. She was already suited up, including mask and gloves, since they had made a special area outside the tent with those supplies once they realized that one of the patients had Ebola. No one would enter this building without precautions.

  “This patient came in one week ago with a severe head injury. He had a slight infection due to the trauma, but nothing else. Now, he suddenly, inexplicably, has the virus.”

  “And there is something unusual about the symptoms?”

  Monty shot her a quick look. “What, are you psychic now, too?”

  “No, but I have a theory and that could be a huge problem for us. Let me examine the patient and take some samples.”

  She could tell Monty wanted some answers, but was professional enough to wait and let her do the exam. “Dr. Halverson is already taking samples now.”

  They weaved around tables and cots to an area that was cordoned off with some industrial strength plastic that was opaque enough to obscure whatever it shielded. The strong odor of disinfectant permeated the air. This was a sterile place that would be cleaned even more regularly due to the threat of spreading the deadly disease.

  “Perfect,” she said.

  The patient was a man in his middle thirties. Monty rattled off the stats he had, including the fact that he’d not regained consciousness since he’d been brought in. A bright white gauze bandage covered his head, contrasting brightly with his deep black skin. Monitors were on his fingers and chest, and an IV had been inserted in the top of his left hand.

  Gunner was drawing several vials of blood, similarly garbed in the white biohazard suit, large goggles and mask in place. “His fever is already at one hundred and four. And if you move the sheet, he has recent skin lesions on his stomach and thighs.”

  “It’s moving fast,” she murmured. Moving the sheet, she saw the lesions. Replacing the cover, she moved to his head and opened one eye.

  Blood seeped from the corner and the entire eye was bloodshot, pupils barely contracting in her pen light. It could only be day two, and yesterday would have been the only day her people had access to this tent. Damn. She’d been holding out a foolish hope that the village would have been the end of it.

  Clearly, it was only the beginning.

  “I must have missed something,” Monty said. “I checked all these people out myself when we got here.”

  He was shaking his head and staring at the blood still seeping from the eye of the poor man dying in front of them. The virus was already advanced.

  “I don’t think you did, Doc,” Gunner said. He packed up the vials of blood he’d taken, as well as a tissue sample from one of the skin lesions. “This is something else. Something worse.”

  “He should have shown symptoms before now. He’s been here for a week now, and while I’ve been worried about the coma he’s in, he wasn’t showing any signs of infection.”

  Dani moved around the man in the bed and touched Monty’s arm, drawing his fixed attention from the patient. “I think you did everything you could, but this is a new infection.”

  “How the hell could this be new? He’s in the advanced stages.” He still looked bewildered. Finally, he said, “I hope he doesn’t wake up to feel the pain.”

  Glancing at Gunner, she saw him nod and decided to take Montgomery into her confidence. There was no way he could be involved, and he needed to be aware of the risks and ready for more. “It’s new because we are new in camp.”

  He frowned at her, but stayed quiet, willing to listen.

  “I’m worried that someone has mutated the virus. Making it stronger and faster.”

  Monty just blinked. Dani didn’t blame him; it had taken her awhile to get used to the idea that a doctor was deliberately doing this. “That can’t be right,” he said.

  “We’ll know for sure once I can look at these samples.” Gunner was packed and headed toward the front. “My lab is set up next to the command tent and I’ve asked for it to be guarded. No one goes in except for me.”

  Montgomery nodded. “I understand.”

  Dani watched him as his eyes widened and his head swung back to her. “Someone on your team?” She had a feeling he’d be quick on the uptake. “But who? I’ve met everyone and I thought you all an extraordinary group. Your people were here helping me not that long ago. Claire and Dr. Graham.”

  “I thought so too. All of us have been in here helping out at different times, so I can’t even narrow it down that way, with the exception of our guide, Anuma, who disappeared after we arrived.” And what he’d been doing was still a mystery to her and Damon. But it was possible that he’d slipped inside the infirmary to infect the patient before he left.

  “That’s a serious charge, Dani. Once that gets out, your careers might be over.”

  She’d thought about that already, which is why she hadn’t gone to the commander of this unit. Not that life didn’t come before any of their reputations, but she didn’t want to start a panic before she had proof, and she wasn’t likely to be believed anyway.

  Hopefully, Gunner had the proof in his vials.

  Otherwise, Dr. Montgomery Nelson’s reputation would be shredded as well, because he’d misdiagnosed or outright missed a case of Ebola that could potentially affect everyone in the camp. All of his nurses and staff had some kind of contact with patient zero in the last week, though they could narrow the field a bit for those that cared for the man in the last two days.

  “I have to have the proof. Once I have that, then I can take the steps to handle the problem. Until then, we have to work on containment. I don’t want to lose anyone else and this is a large camp.”

  “The casualties to life would be severe if it’s working this fast,” Monty said. He headed toward the door. “I need to call a meeting with my people and work out a strategy.”

  “And, Monty?”

  He stopped and turned, “Yes?”

  Dani still had a hand on the patient. She wanted to look him over more thoroughly. “Let’s keep this between ourselves for now.”

  “Of course,” he said. And then he headed toward the decontamination area.

  Placing a hand gently on the un-bandaged part of the sick man’s head, Dani whispered, “Who did this to you?” And wished he could give her the answer she needed.

  ***

  There were very few things Damon actually missed about being an active Marine, but the camaraderie was one. Civili
an life paid better, the food was better, and the freedom to come and go as he damn well pleased was worth it. And when he found himself working around other branches of the military, he was the odd man out. But not with the Corps.

  Once you were a Marine, you were always a Marine.

  And when you were a sniper with a larger than average amount of kills, respect was a given. They knew of him. Which was why he could move in and around the guys, asking questions, and no one gave it a second thought. He was one of them, always would be, and he genuinely liked most of the guys he’d run into so far.

  The exception was Sergeant Larry Clemons.

  “Yeah, I saw her. Nice ass, but her tits are on the small side.”

  Damon stifled the urge to deck the Sergeant, just on general principle. He was one of those rich boys that came in and thought they knew how to handle the rest of the grunts. The man was also a misogynistic asshole, but he’d been the only one to actually remember seeing Hailey last night.

  “So, she was over in the radio tent the last you saw her?” Damon asked.

  “Yeah, she was putting those little titties in Private First Class Jenson’s face. Fine with me, he’s a good kid and could use a quick lay. Me, I’d like a piece of that curvy little redheaded doctor.”

  Damon smiled, even though he could feel his fist clench with the need to bury it in Clemons’ face. “She’s off limits.”

  That got the sergeant’s attention. “Yeah? Damn.”

  “Yeah,” he said.

  It was almost a growl when it came out. She’s mine. It was guttural and basic, and he’d never let himself think that way before, but it was there, pulsing under the surface. He wanted her. And maybe it was a twin thing after all, because Gabriel had said he’d wanted her the moment he saw her.

  She’d been like a punch in the gut when Damon had seen her the first time.

  He’d never been possessive before, but just the thought of this prick thinking anything about Dani made Damon want to break his face. Slowly. Painfully.

  The Sergeant raised his hands in a conciliatory gesture. “Hey, no problem. I got a thing going with one of those nurses anyway. She’s more to my taste,” he said. Then made a motion showing that the woman in question obviously had a larger bust size.