She glanced around at the rich green world with its splashes of color. “Not me. I love not having to keep track of my gloves.” She put her fingers to his pulse. “How is your pain level?”

“Maybe three. I feel a lot better.”

“Yeah.” She sat back on her heels. “Do me a favor and pretend you’re still in pain. I want you moving carefully until we get to the embassy.”

“Only if it gets me out of guard duty,” he said.

“Where is home for you?”

“Sweet home Alabama,” he sang. Then he added, “We’ll be relocating from North Carolina to Kentucky as soon as we get back.”

“That must be hard.”

He shrugged. “Not so much. I live in the barracks. I don’t own a lot of things, so moving isn’t too hard.” He sighed. “Harder on the married folk. The move orders got put on hold by this mission. So spouses are just kind of hanging in limbo until we get back.”

Her eyes widened. “I never imagined any of you were married. How odd that I never considered it.”

He glanced at her. “Peña’s married. She’s on our team, though. Well, mostly. She consults and is assigned to us often.” He pursed his lips. “I think that’s all that’s here. The other half of us are back at base. A couple of them are married. Gill, Ibrahim.”

She gestured at his shirt. “May I?”

“Doc, you almost don’t even have to ask,” he drawled.

She unbuttoned his shirt and shifted his T-shirt to look at his incision. It looked like it had healed nicely. She prodded around the bullet wound, appreciating the color and feel of the skin. “What about you, Sergeant? Got a girl back home?”

“You offering?”

Her gaze flew to his face, and she saw the teasing in his eyes. “I’m afraid I’m off the market for a while,” she said, buttoning the shirt back up.

“Ah, the broken heart.”

“Someone break your heart, Sergeant?”

“No, ma’am.” A look of stark regret crossed his face. “Afraid I did that all by myself.” He shifted and sat up further. “All good?”

“Yep. Very soon, you will not need my care.”

Not far from them, Peña said, “Roger,” and stood, his weapon in his hands. The nearly relaxed atmosphere suddenly became very tense.

Peña moved to the perimeter of their camp as McBride slung a rifle over his back and climbed a tree.

Cynthia glanced at Sanders. “Do you know what’s going on?”

He tapped his ear. “I have no idea. Daddy took my comms so I’d rest.”

She bit her lower lip and looked around.

He nudged her shoulder with his fist. “I promise you, you’re in the safest spot in this jungle right now.”

She glanced at the tree that had consumed McBride and wanted to believe him.