Free Dangerous Territory: An Alpha Ops novella by Emmy Curtis

endanger him. Don’t kill that man in front of him. Just… He’s probably seen enough already. Just… do no harm.” She couldn’t take her eyes off the scope.
    “I’m an airman, not a doctor.” He gestured to the eyepiece. “I need it back.”
    Reluctantly, she passed it back. “What’s the plan?” she asked.
    “Unless you
do
want me to shoot him, we stay here, stay down, and stay quiet until he leaves. Then we stay down a little more, and if it’s clear, we move on.” He shifted down a little so he was lying flat out on his stomach. She followed suit.
    She tried to concentrate on relaxing all her muscles one by one as she was so tense even her fingers felt stiff and achy. Josh seemed relaxed, even in his element. But maybe that was his talent. And being this calm while being stranded in a war zone was a talent she wished she had. She tried to breathe deeply to help herself relax, but still her breaths came in jagged pants.
    And then she felt her hand being taken silently in his. It was warm and dry, and with each stroke of his thumb on top of hers came a steadying of her nerves. She squeezed it back, hoping her silent “thank you” would be understood. Warmth and calm slowly made their way around her body.
    They lay, fingers intertwined, for a long time. The valley became silent, and still Josh didn’t move. She glanced at him, trying to see if he was asleep, but he wasn’t. He was surveilling the terrain around them, eyes searching one way, then the other.
    “I think he’s gone,” Josh said, rolling quietly onto his side. “I’m going to get up and take a better look around. I want you to stay put, okay?”
    She nodded and felt an absurd rush of happiness when he smiled at her, lifted her hand to his lips, and gave it a fast kiss. Like he was getting up to pick up the newspaper from the driveway. She shook it off as soon as she realized the direction her thoughts were headed and disentangled her fingers from his so he could get up.
    She watched him crawl up to the ridge and peek over. He ducked back down and pulled out his scope, then used that to get a better look across the top of the hill. “All clear,” he said.
    Grace jumped up and took a step away from their hiding place. She felt her foot catch on something and fell, the forward momentum dropping her painfully on a pointed rock.
    Her left leg burned with pain as she shook her foot free of her backpack straps. Crap.
    Josh was beside her in seconds. “Are you all right?” he asked in a low voice.
    “I’ll live, but…” She virtually growled through her teeth at the pain in her thigh.
    He picked her up effortlessly and placed her back on the ground where they’d lain a few minutes before. “Let me see.” He swung his own pack from his shoulders and unzipped the front panel of it. “Are you bleeding?”
    “No, no. No, really. I’m fine. I just fell on a sharp stone. I’ll be fine. I’m sure it’ll just be bruised,” Grace said.
    “Do you feel any tingling? Any kind of nerve pain?” His brow was furrowed as he unlaced her boot.
    “What are you doing? I swear I’m fine,” she insisted.
    He hesitated and laid both hands on her ankle. “I want to be sure you can feel all your toes. If you have any possibility of nerve damage, you won’t be able to make the walk. We’ll have to move on to plan B.” As much as she relished him touching her, she held out her hand for him to help her up. He did.
    “See? Good as new.” She did a little jig, so he could see both her legs were working perfectly.
    His eyes lit up, but he pressed his lips together as he watched her. “Hm. I’m not sure. Can you do that again for me?”
    She was just about to when she realized he was making fun of her. She giggled. “You’re bad.”
    He stepped closer to her and slowly raised his hand to her face, as if he were about to stroke it. But he pulled it away, as if he’d thought better of it. As if he’d suddenly remembered she was a reporter.