Page 94

Aidan cut him off. “Our team leader is out of commission at the moment.”

“He’s just…” Nick began.

“Out of commission.”

“He’s not dead!” Ricardo snarled.

“I didn’t say that, but whatever his actual status, as far as we’re concerned at the moment, he’s out of commission. We’re not going to fall the fuck apart because of this. You guys have been through some shit before, don’t let this be what undoes you,” Aidan said, having to shout over the wind.

“That’s our brother!” Nick called back, voice cracking.

“And he would tell you to get your shit together and focus on the problem at hand. We don’t have the means to get down to him from here, and Matt’s right, we don’t have anything to use that will make do. This storm would kill us if we tried anyway.”

“So what, we...leave him?” Ricardo demanded, shoulders sagging.

Aidan shook his head. “We don’t leave anyone behind, not if we can help it. But we’re no good to him as we are. The motherfucker’s head is harder than any rock around here, and he’s not going down that easily. But if all we do is stand around and fight or get ourselves killed doing something stupid, what the fuck good are we to him?”

The three men averted their eyes, looking down at the ground as the wind howled around them. Aidan sent up a silent prayer, hoping he was getting through to them, wanting them to listen. He wasn’t even sure if he was right about Sean, but damn it all, he needed to get his team together.

Ricardo was the first to look up, straightening. “Orders?”

Aidan hid his relief, jerking his head toward the path. “We get off this mountain. Once we’re down, we loop back around through the forest below, and we find his ass.”

He could only hope Sean had fallen somewhere that left him battered and bruised and not dead.

Ricardo nodded, and the other two followed suit. Without another word, Aidan turned to continue down the path, glancing back only to make sure everyone was keeping pace with him. He had to lead them off the dangerous path, and maybe, just maybe, they could find Sean somewhere below them.

“Please, Sean, hang in there. Don’t you fucking die on us,” Aidan muttered into the wind as they descended through the storm.

SEAN

The first thing he became aware of was the silence. Groaning, he tried to roll onto his back and gasped as searing pain shot up his left side. Clutching himself, he flopped back to the ground, shivering frantically. Now, among the pain, came the deep, unsettling feeling of the cold as it worked its way into his body.

He remembered now. They’d been walking, making their way to the rendezvous point, and making good time. Sean had been impressed by how well Aidan had been able to navigate despite having so little experience in the frozen climate. The intel agent had warned them about the treacherous nature of the path, wary of the plummet to the frozen, rocky ground below.

Then the ground had given out, and Sean had reacted.

Carefully, he pushed himself up, wincing as his side ached and flared with a constant pulse of pain. Looking around, eyes adjusting to the dark, he realized he was in a cave of some sort, heavy, dense stone on all sides—the only light from a crack in the ceiling above. Sean peered at it curiously, measuring how far above him it was and noticing it was just about wide enough for someone of his size to fit.

“Fell through a hole in the ceiling. Isn’t that about my luck?” he muttered, leaning against the cave wall.

He supposed it was better than having fallen in the snow somewhere. Sean had no idea how long he’d been out, but he would bet it was long enough that exposure to the elements wouldn’t have been good for him. He was already in rough shape as it was. If he were to guess, he’d managed to crack a couple of ribs, if not broken them, and from the throbbing in his ankle, he’d twisted it pretty good.

“Could be broken instead,” he reminded himself.

Talking to himself wasn’t his favorite thing, but being alone was even worse. Despite taking moments to himself back at base or sticking to his apartment, he had always known his team was nearby in case he needed them. Sure, they drove him crazy half the time, but they were his team, and their presence was comforting.

In this cave, however, with no idea how much time had passed or what state his team was in, he didn’t have the mental safety net. He was almost certain the only person in danger during the collapse had been Aidan, and Sean had made sure to get him out of harm’s way before he’d fallen. It was likely that the rest of them were perfectly safe and probably out looking for him.

Probably.

It wasn’t like he’d been the best leader or friend lately. He’d even driven Ricardo to lose his temper, and the others treated him as someone to avoid rather than follow. Sean couldn’t blame them, though, even as he’d hated watching his brothers drift away from him day by day. He also wouldn’t have blamed them for giving him up for lost and moving on to the rendezvous point, calling in a specialized team to find what he was sure they expected to be his body buried somewhere among the snow and ice.

Sean huddled against the wall, exhaustion overtaking him and draining the energy from his senses. Maybe he had failed histeam in more ways than one, and that wasn’t even including how badly he’d failed Clint. Hell, maybe that was why everyone on the team was so keen on drifting away. They knew, in the end, it had been Sean’s fault their teammate had died.

Sean chuckled darkly, curling his arms around his knees as best he could to hold in his warmth. “Dark cave, dark thoughts, eh?”

The echo of the cave didn’t do much to stop his chuckle from sounding flat and hollow. He placed his forehead against the cushion of his arms and took a deep, painful breath. He supposed he would have to find a way to get out of the cave. As far as he could see, there was more to the cave, and hopefully, it would lead him out. There were a few rations in his supplies, but he was going to need more than a few pieces of dried meat and water if he wanted to survive.