Never Forget: A Novella in the Echo Platoon Series by Marliss Melton Page B

slowed his step to walk beside her, a suggestion of a smile on his rugged face.
    As they stepped into the forest, he put a hand on her elbow. “Watch your step.”
    His light but reassuring grip sent an electric charge crackling up her arm.
    Pine needles crunched beneath her sandals, but she could barely hear Rusty’s footfalls as he drifted almost silently alongside her.
    “Is this land yours, too?” she asked, taking in the freshly made path. Peering past the few SEALs ahead of them, she kept on eye on Curtis’s sun-dappled shoulders as he trotted in the dog’s wake, trying to prevent the lead from tangling in the undergrowth.
    “Thirty-three acres,” Rusty affirmed.
    “It’s so peaceful,” she stated.
    Just then, a couple of birds startled out of the trees up ahead, and the SEALs around them snapped into defensive postures before recovering with sheepish expressions.
    Rusty slanted her a look. “Forty-eight hours ago, they were being mortared,” he quietly explained.
    At his words, she regarded the warriors with fresh eyes. This sort of exercise wasn’t just a game to them; it was a way of life. Their stealth and heightened awareness inspired her respect. One man held a branch for her so it wouldn’t catch her in the face.
    She smiled and thanked him.
    “Watch your step on these roots,” Rusty warned as they came to a spot where water had eroded the soil.
    They arrived at a ravine. The dog had already forded it, disappearing over the opposite rise with Curtis scrambling to keep up. The SEALs behind him leapt over the stream and surged up the hill like it wasn’t there. To Maya’s astonishment, Rusty swept her off her feet before she had a chance to get her sandals wet.
    Held aloft, against the breadth of his chest, she suffered no concern that he would drop her as he waded through the ravine, soaking his sneakers without so much as a grimace. Then he put her down, grabbed her hand and pulled her up the rise with ease.
    Flustered by the brief, close contact, her heart continued to beat erratically. Their gazes met then skittered away, leaving her breathless.
    It’s just a matter of time until I sleep with him , she realized.
    Caught up in thoughts of their inevitable intimacy, Maya lost track of both time and distance. This wasn’t going to become some lighthearted romance that she would enjoy for a time and leave behind. This was something real, something permanent. Her heart thrummed like an engine with a fresh set of spark plugs. Am I ready for this?
    Draco’s sudden bark pulled her out of her introspection.
    “He found it,” exclaimed the SEAL holding the shovel.
    Searching for Curtis, Maya found him standing over Draco, who sat staring fixedly at a pile of sticks and leaves several feet from the path. The area looked completely natural and undisturbed. How could the bucket be hidden there?
    “Everybody stand back,” Rusty ordered, speaking quite obviously to Curtis, who hovered over the pile. “If there were explosives buried here, you and Draco would want to be fifty feet away right now. Since we’re dealing with a stash of weapons, fifteen feet is good enough.”
    Curtis backed up and joined the ring of men encircling the area.
    “It’s your baby, Higgins,” Rusty said, and the man with the shovel approached the pile of debris.
    “Higgins is a demolition expert,” Rusty added in Maya’s ear. “It’s his job to identify and neutralize IEDs.”
    Watching Higgins scrape the leaves and sticks off to one side using the end of the shovel, Maya pictured him scraping through rock and sand, putting his life on the line in search of wires or pressure plates.
    God bless you, she thought, as he sank his shovel into the soft dirt and tossed it gingerly to one side.
    As Higgins dug deeper with nothing to show for it, several onlookers started to comment that the dog must have screwed up. No way was the bucket buried more than a foot in the ground. Higgins had already dug that deep.
    “Soil’s