Leila remained still, as if frozen in place, hoping to portray a woman too frightened to move. This was the missing Dillan. Probably her sweat and heat, if he saw through heat sensors, had drawn him to her hiding place. She waited, breathing steadily. Ready.
He dropped down to the same branch, his arm circling her neck with tremendous force, pulling her sideways, away from the tree trunk. The knotted muscles in his arm locked against her throat, cutting off air.
“You stay quiet, girl. Don’t make a sound. Don’t fight me. Do you understand?”
She tried to nod, but he kept her immobile. She tapped his arm with her fist and let out a muffled choking sound as she slumped back into him.
“I said stay quiet,” he reiterated. “We don’t want company, do we?” As he reminded her, Dillan loosened his hold the tiniest bit, allowing her to draw air into her lungs. “Are you injured?”
Again, she started to answer, muffled a cough and reached upto tap his arm with her closed fist, alerting him to the fact that she was hurt.
“Can you walk?”
Once again, she raised her fist to tap his arm, only this time, her fist rose fast from his forearm. She drove her fist straight to his neck, the blade of the knife penetrating deep, severing the artery. Slamming her other elbow into his ribs, she continued the motion with her knife, stabbing deep under the armpit, cutting that artery. His arm dropped away from her, and she leapt from the tree to the forest floor. Blood poured from his wounds, and he tried to shout, to warn his companions.
The sound was somewhat muffled by the fog, but she was certain Dillan’s voice carried through the trees. They would come to check on him, and she had to be ready.
Ignoring the agony radiating through her body, she ran deeper into the forest, the fog a thick gray cover. As she ran, she shoved the bloody knife back into the leather sheath. She would need it soon enough, but she wasn’t taking chances. She was weaker than she liked, and she wasn’t about to fall on her own blade. The soldiers would be coming, and she wasn’t going to be taken to Whitney. The man was mad. Totally insane. She saw what he did to her sister, and going to Whitney’s compound as a prisoner wasn’t going to happen.
The moment the forest swallowed her completely, she stopped moving. Movement produced sounds. If she was going to ensure those men didn’t take her to Whitney, she would have to hunt them. One at a time. There was no way, in her condition, that she could take on all three at once.
Leila considered her options. If she waited, hoping Diego would show up so she didn’t have to move around, she feared the three soldiers would eventually find her. No, it was far better to hunt them. Once she made up her mind, she didn’t hesitate. Ignoringher protesting body, she hurried toward the tree where Dillan’s body was sprawled in the branches.
The sight was macabre, blood running in rivers down the trunk of the tree. The body hung partially upside down, swaying, caught only by one arm and one leg. The fog concealed the hideous sight one moment and then revealed it the next when the wind drew the veil of gray back.
Cooper burst from the trees, swearing loudly, spinning around in a circle and then staring up at his teammate. “Kyle, that son of a bitch killed Dillan.”
Leila could see Kyle crouched close to the ground, examining the dirt and plants for tracks, for anything that might tell him who or what had managed to kill Dillan.
“If I didn’t know better, Cooper,” Kyle said, straightening, “I’d say the woman did this. If it was Campos, he’s got the smallest feet imaginable. But no woman would get the drop on Dillan. It just wouldn’t happen.”
Leila rolled her eyes, but her attention was on Alex. The man hadn’t gone near the body. He was still in the forest, not setting foot into the clearing. She circled around to get behind him, working slowly and carefully through the brush. A thousand ice picks stabbed at her insides with every step she took. Her body felt a little like lead. She was going to have to end this fast if she was going to prevail.
She smelled fear when she came up behind Alex. The wind blew steadily now, taking the fog with it, spreading that gray veil through the trees. She went to the ground, propelling herself forward using toes and elbows to get close to Alex. The noises he made were annoying, a whining hiccup as he rocked himself and stroked his finger over the trigger of his semiautomatic.
Leila rose up behind him fast, slamming the blade of her knife, all the way to the hilt, into the back of his neck, severing the spinalcord. She didn’t bother to retrieve the knife; she didn’t have that kind of time. She turned and sprinted into deeper forest. Kyle had already shown he was adept at reading tracks. She didn’t want to give him an easy trail to her. There was no running a distance, not when her strength was fading. She took to the trees, turning back, circling around, using the branches to move from one tree to the next until she found one close to Alex’s body that was dense with foliage.
“He fuckin’ killed Alex right under our noses,” Cooper snapped. “Which way did he go?”
Kyle nodded toward the interior. “Took off running to the west.”
Cooper knelt beside Alex, removing his weapon and ammo belt before slinging it around his neck. “You still think it was the woman?”
“I said no woman could have done this,” Kyle corrected. Already, he was following the tracks leading him deeper into the forest.
Cooper stayed beside Alex’s body, going through his pockets. He even took money from the wallet Alex had on him. He pocketed the cell phone and one bracelet and then sat back, holding his head in his hands as if grieving. Leila knew he disliked Alex, but he must have felt responsible for him. He looked stricken—and he wasn’t paying attention to his surroundings.
She waited, once more completely still, fading into the tree, not moving a muscle. Time ticked by—time she didn’t have. Kyle would discover she’d taken to the trees. She hadn’t laid too long of a trail on the ground. Cooper finally sighed and stood up, facing her, presenting several targets. She was fast and accurate with a knife, and she didn’t hesitate. She threw one into his heart, burying the blade deep. A second followed to sink into his lower abdomen. As he turned, the third knife severed the carotid artery.Cooper went to his knees, blood pouring from the three wounds, the rifle hitting the ground as he dropped it.
“Not bad.” Kyle’s voice came out of the fog. “I knew you wouldn’t be able to resist the bait.” He stayed hidden, not taking chances. “You may as well show yourself, Campos.”
He had set up his friend to die so he could double back and catch his opponent.
She wasn’t the best at throwing her voice, but with the fog and dense foliage, she decided to take the chance. She wouldn’t be using a knife. This required a gun, and if there was one thing she was very skilled in, it was hitting a target, close up or far away.
“Not Diego,” she said, keeping her voice low. Still, it carried on the wind to him.
His head jerked up and he narrowed his eyes. “You want me to believe you bested Dillan? And then Cooper?”
