Page 7 of Delta Mission (Alpha Tactical Ops)

Wolf

Beneath the sun visor of the second Hummer, concealed in the secret pocket, I found a note from Moose.

Fuckers have us outnumbered.

Heading to base. Will send bird ASAP.

Sorry, man.

I folded the note into my pocket. The good news was my team were hightailing it back to base, and that they would send a chopper to get us. The bad news was that we would have to survive until they returned. But we couldn’t stay here.

Hopefully, the chopper would find us when they came looking.

I strode back to Makenna. She had her hands on her hips, staring off at the mountains.

Despite what she’d been through, she looked mighty fine.

Her figure was stunning. Her long hair bounced in that high ponytail that she always wore, and her lips .

. . I wished like hell I couldn’t remember what she could do with those lips.

Yanking my mind back to the present, I pulled the magazine from my rifle.

I’d only taken a few shots, so I had nearly a full magazine, plus four more in my vest. I snapped the magazine back in and Makenna turned to me.

A speck of blood was on her cheek, and it took everything I had not to wipe it away.

Years ago, I would have done anything for her. She was my world. Now she was just my mission. Not a damn thing more.

“We have to go.”

She cocked her head. “Go where?”

“Away from here.”

Her gaze flicked from Trent’s bloody body, back to me, and she shook her head. “No. I’m not leaving them.”

“He’s dead, Makenna.”

“Yeah, no shit, Sherlock.”

“You can’t help him now.”

“I can’t leave him, or those bastards will use his body to—” Her words choked in her throat.

Shit. “Look, my job is to protect you, and I can’t do that if we stay here.”

“Protect me?” She glared at Trent’s body. “Look how good that’s turning out.”

“For fuck’s sake.” I grabbed her wrist, spinning her toward me. “Don't be a fucking idiot.”

She tried to twist out of my grasp.

I clamped tighter.

She punched my nose.

“What the fuck!” I hated that I didn’t see that coming. Rage shuddered through me, and glaring at her, I clamped my hand tighter around her wrist.

“You’re lucky that was my left hand. Now let me go.” She clenched her jaw.

“I have a good mind to do exactly that. Let you go. But you know I can't.”

Closing her eyes, she rocked her head from side to side like she was trying to work a knot out of her backbone. Or preparing to punch me again.

I let go of her and waited till she looked at me. “It’s one thing for those assholes to display a dead body. It’s another for them to take a woman captive. Especially a DEA agent.” I kicked at the dirt. “The fuckers on those horses are coming back, and when they do, we do not want to be here.”

Turmoil swirled in her dark eyes. “Okay, but can we hide their bodies in—”

“No,” I snapped, taking control. “If we move them, they’ll know there are survivors and they’ll come looking for us.”

She pressed her hands to her head like she was trying to eject a headache. “This is so messed up.”

Her chin quivered, and I yanked my gaze away.

If she started crying, it would break down one of the walls I’d built around my heart.

I scanned beyond the village, searching for swirls of dust, the telltale sign someone was heading our way. But the landscape was still and getting darker by the minute.

We needed to get out of there and find shelter ASAP.

I adjusted my grip on my weapon. “Let’s go.”

I marched past the burned-out Hummer.

“Hey, Channing.”

“What?” I spun to her.

“The woman who murdered Lyle knows I’m alive.”

“You didn’t kill her?”

Her jaw dropped. “No, I didn’t kill her. I was too busy trying to stop the blood pouring out of Lyle’s neck.”

Fuck. “Where’d she go?”

She nodded at the building opposite. “That shelter also has a trapdoor. She escaped through the drug lab.”

“Did you go after her?”

“Yes, but I didn’t find her. But there’s a tunnel at the end.”

“Show me.” I strode to the shelter and stepped through the doorway.

Lyle lay in a pool of blood. Icy terror gripped me. A woman did this. If the men in this village got hold of Makenna . . . I shuddered as I stomped on that thought.

These fuckers were going to pay. I stood next to Lyle’s body in an attempt to shield Makenna from the bloody mess.

Her rigid expression showed her fortitude, and she was all business as she strode to the secret door and raised it. “Down there.”

Kneeling on one knee, I peered into the darkness. “Is this where you got the ladder from?”

She nodded, and the way she swallowed suggested she was fighting her emotions.

I rested my hand on her shoulder. “You okay here if I get the ladder?”

She nodded again.

“Don’t move from this spot.” I squeezed her shoulder and stood.

At the door, I scanned the street, confirmed we were alone, and then sprinted across the road and up the alley. I grabbed the rope ladder and when I returned, Makenna had moved.

She squatted at Lyle’s side. The second she saw me, she flicked tears from her eyes as if embarrassed by them.

That simple move launched me back nine years to her tears that had flowed at my uncle’s funeral. Her tears had nearly ruined me. But those tears weren’t over my uncle’s death; they were over what she’d done. To me, to us, and to my brother.

Slapping away those rotten memories, I strode to the trapdoor. “Let’s do this.”

I found the hooks she’d cut the ladder from and reattached the rope.

“Follow me.” I turned on my flashlight and climbed into the drug lab that Makenna had somehow found in the middle of fucking nowhere.

She’d always been good at her job, maybe too good. Her fearlessness was how she’d secured her rookie mission to Colombia. It was probably how she talked her way into Afghanistan, too.

The trick was getting home from these hellholes.

She shut the trapdoor and scrambled down the rope ladder like a nimble gymnast.

I nodded at her. “Which way?”

She frowned. Maybe she hadn’t expected me to ask her opinion. “Over there.”

She sprinted ahead, treating me to a spectacular view of her ass.

Jesus. What the hell am I doing?

This bitch broke me, and she nearly ruined my family. Aunt Betty would never forgive Makenna for what she did at Uncle Henry’s wake. Neither would I.

Makenna stopped so sudden, I slammed into her. She spun to me, glaring.

“Sorry.” Goddammit, I need to focus.

She indicated to the far corner. A tunnel emerged from the darkness. I turned off my flashlight and a faint glow filled the passage. Was that from the setting sun?

I nodded at Makenna. “Keep on my tail.”

She saluted me.

“Wiseass.”

With my gun ready, I sprinted through the drug lab and halted at the edge of the tunnel. Makenna was right on my heels.

I peered around the corner. The tunnel was a ramp, wide enough to push a dumpster through.

It was deserted.

“I’ll check it,” I said. “You stay–”

“I’m coming with you.”

“No, you stay—”

“No!” Her eyes flared. “You go. I go.”

She pulled her gun from her holster.

Christ. We don’t have time to argue . “Stay with me. Do not shoot unless I say.”

“Yes, boss.”

I glared at her. “And cut the crap.”

“Roger that.”

I glanced around the corner one more time, then took off. Makenna was light on her feet and the rustle of her clothing was the only indication she was behind me.

The glow at the end of the tunnel intensified with every step and as we neared the end, an orange sky was visible through a narrow slit.

It must be how the woman escaped.

At the top, the exit was covered by the shell of a rusty car body. Steps carved into the rock of the tunnel led to the trunk of the car, which hadn’t been shut properly and allowed sunlight to penetrate into the tunnel.

I eased my back against the wall. Makenna slotted beside me, and I raised a finger to my lips and mouthed, ‘stay here’.

She nodded.

I adjusted the position of my rifle, crawled up the steps, put my helmet against the trunk, and pushed upward. The hinges screeched as the trunk opened, and I froze.

I shot my gaze over the surroundings and breathed a sigh of relief.

Inching the trunk higher, I climbed over the edge and indicated for Makenna to follow.

We raced around the side of the rusted Toyota.

The roar of an engine carved through the silence, and I darted my gaze left and right. Nothing.

I inched up to peer through the car.

A truck was barreling toward us with dust kicking up behind it like a sandstorm. About twenty men stood on the back, all carrying weapons.

“Fuck, get back in the tunnel,” I said. “Quick!”

I pulled up the trunk, and as Makenna jumped in, a bullet punched into the Toyota’s roof.

I dove in behind her. “Run. Run!” We sprinted down the ramp and through the field of equipment to the rope ladder.

“Go!” I clutched the rope, steadying it.

Makenna raced up like a monkey, shoved open the trapdoor, and launched herself out.

I followed her up and a bullet slammed into my helmet. “Fuck.”

Roaring my fury, I crawled into the shelter, spun back to the hole, pulled the ladder up with me, and shut the trapdoor on top of it.

“Run!” I grabbed Makenna’s wrist and yanked her toward the exit.

Sprinting side by side, we raced out the door, across the road, and into the narrow alley. We burst out the end and skidded to a halt. The kid on the tricycle was right there. He aimed a rifle at us that was longer than his arms.

I snatched it from him, sending the kid flying. He sprawled onto the dirt, rolled onto his back, and ogled us.

I aimed the rifle at the little runt.

“No!” Makenna shoved the rifle away from him.

I glared at her.

“Ah, shit.” I picked the kid up by his scrawny arm. “Tell him to shut the fuck up, or I’ll come back and kill him.”

Makenna relayed my instruction, but the boy just blinked. There was zero fear in his eyes. He was already numb to death.

“Let’s move.” I handed Makenna the kid’s weapon, and we raced away from the village, sprinting over jagged rocks and loose sand, and heading toward the giant mountains in the distance.

With every step, I expected bullets to slam into our backs and I prayed we’d make it out alive.