Love Me Long (Love Me Book 4)

Chapter 4

The group had been absorbed into the field hospital as soon as they had arrived. A few locals from Drevniye had been keeping the operation going, but to date, they had only been treating people from the area for minor ailments.

Chloe had been silently watching and learning about the actual state of things. Two local nurses shared the sleeping tent with the other women, and they felt secure that no one there understood their language, but Chloe understood it just fine.

At night, while she lay in her bed, she would hear them chatter about how the skirmishes were getting closer, and soon the hospital would be overwhelmed with the injured. She would also hear them mention Valentine's name in reverent tones while they talked about how he was going to save them all.

With regards to having a definitive enemy, the war was over when Valentine's uncle died, but there were still rogue bands of militants hanging on to the fight. They were attempting to get their individual leaders in a place of power to reignite the war, but it was a losing battle. Valentine had secured the country for the most part, and now the job was to locate the militants and disband them.

Chloe would listen to the local girls, Nadia and Alena, as they talked about how Valentine, who they called Juric, would attempt to talk to the militants before he would enter into a fight. They believed he was the ultimate peacekeeper and was sent by the Lord himself to keep them safe and heal their land. It was a lot to live up to for one man.

Nadia and Alena were good nurses but young, and many times Chloe had been tempted to ask them and the local doctor, Yuri Petrov, if they had trained under her father. They would surely know of him even if he didn't teach them, but something held her back from asking. She wasn't sure what it was, though. She was also keeping her ability to speak Russian under wraps too.

Perhaps she had taken all of the warnings from Silas, her father, and Valentine to heart. They had issued her many warnings over the years, telling her it wasn't safe, and the fewer people who knew of her existence, the safer she would be. The safer they all would be.

The field hospital was exactly how it sounded. It was a hospital in the middle of a field with trees towering above it. The tents were close together and set in a circle with the hospital tent in the middle.

A month after her arrival and early in the morning, she heard trucks pulling into the center of the tent circle. Chloe hadn't gone on duty yet, and she was still in the sleeping tent, so she looked out the window to see what was going on, believing it to be a delivery of supplies. 

It wasn't, and her heart started to beat at a rapid pace when she saw soldier after soldier getting off the trucks. They moved quietly and sure-footed into different positions around the camp.

Her heart stopped as she noted a familiar figure get out of the last truck.

Chloe watched as he stood in the circle of the tents doing a slow scan of everything his eyes touched. He was in profile, and she couldn't see his face. She wanted to see his face. His eyes focused on men offloading weapons from the back of a truck, and he turned his back to her, which was the opposite of what she wanted.

"Turn around," Chloe whispered in an urgent voice, and it was as if he heard her or felt her gaze on him as he turned to scan the tent from which she was watching him. There was no way he could see her, so she took her time looking her fill.

Valentine Juric had changed.

Chloe had seen him on the screen of a computer years previous, but it had only hinted at the changes. Now, standing before her in the flesh, she had to admit that he was hard and dangerous-looking, just as Cindy had said. 

His dark hair had streaks of silver in it, and he had a silver beard that hid the bottom half of his face. He was too young to have so much silver. However, it wasn't only his physical looks. It was his command of the space he occupied. He was in charge, and it showed.

His eyes narrowed as they scanned the area once more, looking for what his senses told him was there. He had a scar on his temple, and lines were bracketing his eyes from years of staring into the sun. His dark eyes looked almost soulless. Chloe didn't see a savior when she looked at him. She saw a warrior, and a dangerous one at that.

Knowing she was hiding like a coward, she moved towards the flap of the tent, and taking a deep breath as she clenched her hands by her sides, she stepped out of her den of safety. She would not hide from him.

She didn't think his eyes could grow any harder, but they did. Valentine took his time looking at every inch of her slim form in her dark green scrubs. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail giving him full access to her face.

They stood there, staring at one another for what felt like minutes but couldn't have been more than seconds, she watched him note her fists, but his expression remained hard. Then he did the last thing Chloe expected him to do. He turned his back to her as if he hadn't seen her.

She hadn't expected him to be pleased, but she had expected him to at least acknowledge her.

"Chloe!" Cindy called from the hospital tent.

Chloe moved towards her on automatic pilot.

"That's him," she hissed. "That's Valentine Juric. Isn't he something?"

"Sure," Chloe responded in a monotone.

"They're coming!" Trina ran up to them, looking out of the tent at the action that was happening.

"They're already here," Chloe said, turning away from Juric as Dr. Petrov greeted him. That's how she would keep her calm. She wouldn't think of him as Valentine. She would think of him as Juric.

Chloe moved deeper into the tent toward the nurses' desk in the back. There she paused, looking over some paperwork without really seeing it.

Nadia and Alena had their heads together and were talking about Juric using the hospital as his primary base for the area. "Did you see him!" Cindy asked them. "He's right out front!"

Nadia and Alena took off in the direction of the exit with Cindy. The four of them stood in the doorway of the tent, watching Valentine Juric, the warrior.

Chloe remained where she was, trying not to be sick. If she had any hope left deep in her soul, his reaction to her arrival had killed it.

He didn't want her there, he wasn't happy to see her, and there was no disguising it.

Chloe took a deep breath and stood up straight. This was her life, and she was tired of just existing. She wanted to live, and to live, she needed to know her father again.

Nothing Juric said or did could stop her.

She didn't understand that it was his country, and it wasn't free yet. The reality was that Juric could do anything he wanted to her, including keeping her away from her father.