Forged in Smoke (A Red-Hot SEALs Novel Book 3) by Trish McCallan Read Free Book Online Page B

the darkness. But still—something about that night prickled at her, and her instincts whispered that whatever had happened out there that dark, dangerous night played directly into Rawlings’s erratic behavior of today.
    “I know he’s your medic, but if he snaps and starts shouting at an inopportune time . . . ” Amy’s voice trailed off.
    From the grim expressions stamped across the three SEALs’ faces, they shared her concerns.
    “He’s sitting this one out.” Mackenzie turned to Zane. “Talk to him. He’s a liability in his current condition. And for Christ’s sake, find out what the hell’s going on.” His scowl disintegrated into a grimace, and then a sigh. “I’ll talk to Wolf, see if he’s got anyone with medical experience we can borrow.”
    From eavesdropping on the random conversations that took place across the kitchen counter, it sounded like Lieutenant Rawlings had more than mere medical experience. Indeed, he was as close to a doctor as one could get without completing their internship. Cosky had told Kait that Rawls had graduated from medical school and passed his medical exams, he’d even completed his first two rotations of internship. Why in the world he’d thrown all of that away to join the navy and eventually the SEALs, well, that just wasn’t her business, was it?
    What was her business was whether he was mentally stable enough to approach with her problem and whether he could write prescriptions. Or if he couldn’t write her a prescription, whether he knew someone who could—someone who’d fill her prescriptions with no questions asked and no medical history required.
    The medical history was bound to get sticky, considering she’d been listed as dead by the King County coroner earlier in the week.
    She’d been off the immune suppressors for six days now. In most cases, donor rejection was chronic, rather than acute, so the damage to her heart would accumulate over a period of time. As long as the cyclosporine and mycophenolate were reinstated at a higher dose soon, the immune-system suppression should occur soon enough to prevent damage to her heart.
    The ventricular tachycardia, however, was a different obstacle completely. She needed that prescription of Cordarone. Every day without it put her life at risk. She had four doses left in the bottle; after that she’d be courting a heart attack with every beat of her heart.
    She was down to the wire now. She’d tried to find Rawlings time after time, but the man was a master at avoiding unwanted company. And while he wore a walkie-talkie, along with the rest of the men in camp, she didn’t particularly relish the thought of her medical history floating over the airwaves and around camp. Unfortunately, she’d officially run out of time. She was going to have to approach Zane or Cosky and ask one of them to contact Rawlings for her. And no doubt they’d want to know why.
    She shook her head in disgust and scowled down at the kitchen counter. She should have just stuck it out earlier, regardless of Wolf’s interference, and asked the pair for help then.
    “We’ll discuss scheduling when Wolf returns,” Mac said, his gaze hard on Amy’s face, as though he expected her to protest.
    “I want to pick up Mom while we have the chopper. She’d be safer with Zane’s father and his crazy-ass friends than where she’s currently holed up,” Simcosky announced, his square face uncompromising. He held Mac’s gaze steadily.
    The commander shrugged. “That’s Wolf’s call.”
    Faith swallowed a comment. The whole operation would be Wolf’s call since he owned the helicopter. But she didn’t bring that salient fact to the commander’s attention. Her standard operating procedure during the SEALs’ strategy sessions was to pretend she was invisible. Sometimes it felt like she actually was invisible, the men ignored her so completely.
    Not that she was complaining—there was a reason invisibility was considered a