Page 120 of Deadly Betrayal

They rounded an outcropping of rocks andtrees that hid an incredible sight. His eyes filled with tears andhis heart felt as though it would explode.

Azita. His Azita.

She was safe and whole, save for a bruise onher cheek. Her arms were wrapped around Laila on one side and Frebaon the other. Even Uncle Afrooz was here. Azita watched him with asuspicion he’d never seen from her. She knew. Dear Allah. She knewhe’d wanted her dead. Remorse was an emotion he rarely experienced.Now it filled him, drowned him. Took the color from his vision, thelight from his life.

“Azita.” He reached out to touch her, toplead for her forgiveness. His hand fell when the two men behindher lowered themselves off the rocks.

The American and the movie star’s otherbodyguard.

Azita couldn’t have picked a better fighterto help her rescue Laila. Khalid knew of no other men who couldhave pulled off a similar feat. “Who are you?” he asked theAmerican. “Not an ordinary soldier for sure.”

The American hefted his rifle in one hand andlaid the other on Azita’s shoulder. Death was in the man’s eyeswhen he bared his shiny white teeth. “I’m your worst nightmare. Anddon’t you forget it.”

Chapter 28

When Hoffman and Jenkins had cleared therocks and hunkered down with the group, Hoffman raised a brow atthe obvious hostility flying between Kaden and Khalid. Kaden didn’tgive a fuck. Azita wanted the man alive. That didn’t mean he had tolike it.

Now that they’d lost the advantage ofdarkness, he was more than eager to get a move on though. Theypaired up quickly and set off. Hoffman took point with Jenkins.Hassan followed with Afrooz, then Laila with Jake. Kaden went next,Azita’s hand firmly gripping his waistband. She carried her medicalbag in the other. Sullivan took charge of Freba. Khalid’sself-appointed caretaker, Cooper, led him out next. Ortiz and Lynchbrought up the rear.

Fourteen people. Five of them civilians,unfamiliar with evasive tactics despite having lived their entirelives in a war zone. The prickle in Kaden’s nape fired up.Shit.

“What is it?” Azita asked, her first wordssince Khalid’s arrival.

“Nothing.” He didn’t want her to worry. Thehalf mile to the pick-up location would already be tough enoughwithout her seeing shadows between the trees.

She moved closer. “We have not known eachother for long,” she whispered. “Perhaps it is because of ourintimacy”—her cheeks colored—“but I recognize when you areworried.”

Just his luck. She was as perceptive as shewas beautiful. Forcing himself to remain vigilant, he kept his eyeson the surrounding trees. “I have a bad feeling. This was all tooeasy.”

Azita snorted softly. To her, none of thiswould have been easy. To him, it had been a stroll through thepark. “Stay close. If something happens, you latch on to one of themen. They’ll get you out.”

“Kaden, I—”

He glanced at her sharply, before quicklyredirecting his gaze. “I’m serious. Promise me.”

She swallowed, then made her promise. “Ishall do as you ask.”

The prickle got worse.

“Jake, something’s wrong.”

“I know. I feel it too.”

Kaden checked out the rest of the group.There was a subtle shift in the postures of the men. Their eyeswere wider, their shoulders broader. Yet, they stayed loose andflexible in their movements.

They walked another quarter mile. Quietly.When Afrooz’s tentative gait proved too slow, Hassan picked him upand carried him. Similarly, Sullivan had propped Freba’s arm overhis shoulder. She was walking, but her feet barely touched theground.

Kaden had developed an ability to judge howmuch distance he covered, and by his calculations, they were fastapproaching the meet point. And still, he didn’t see anywhere thatan aircraft the size of a Chinook could land. A few minutes later,the path turned and dipped. Ahead, Kaden saw a clearing.

Empty.

Shit. If the helicopter didn’t show up, theywere fucked. His gut roiled. “Jake?”

“Almost there,” his buddy muttered.

Kaden wanted to roll his eyes. Instead, hemade another sweep of the woods to his right. Something glinted,then there was the unmistakable flash and whitish-blue smoke of anRPG being fired.

“Down! Get down!” he shouted. Forcing Azitato the ground, he rolled her against the trunk of a large tree andcovered her with his body. It would protect her from the worst ofthe blast. The grenade landed ten feet away, before rolling off thepath and tumbling down a slope. After a ground-trembling explosion,a cloud of dirt and tree branches filled the air.