Then the truck exploded, picking up both her and Trevor and tossing them in the air like an angry giant. They hit the ground hard, slamming the breath out of her and sending pain jolting through her body. She felt the heat from the fire wash over her back a second later, making her wonder if her clothes might burst into flames.
She crawled to her feet, ignoring the ammunition in the back of the still-burning truck as it continued to explode, throwing metal fragments and flaming debris everywhere. There were two bodies lying near the center of the blast, but she doubted either of them was Wade. He was too evil to go down that easily. She moved to the side, in the direction he’d disappeared, trying to get an angle where she would have a shot at the bastard.
She caught sight of him climbing in the passenger door of the last truck as it pulled away. She fired the few remaining rounds in her weapon, dropped the magazine, reloaded, then started to fire again as fast as she could. She put at least nine rounds into the cab of the rapidly departing truck, sure she must have hit Wade at least once.
“We have to get out of here!” Trevor shouted, taking her hand and yanking her farther away from the burning truck, the fire, and the ammo that was still cooking off in the flames like giant pieces of popcorn.
She knew he was right. If one of the chunks of steel zipping out of the flames hit them, they’d be dead. Even realizing that, it was damn hard to let him pull her away.
She kept shooting as they backpedaled away, putting one round after another as it disappeared from sight, praying she’d hit something in the cargo area and make it explode just like the first one had.
No such luck.
When she ran out of ammo, she practically screamed in frustration. She looked at Trevor. “Should we chase them?”
He shook his head. “No. By the time we get back to our vehicle, they’ll already be halfway across the base. Besides, we’re both out of ammo. What would we do if we catch them, throw harsh words at them? We need to get out of here before the MPs show up and start wondering what the hell happened here.”
Dammit. She’d had Wade right in front of her, and he got away. But she nodded and started jogging with him toward their vehicle.
“At least tell me you got the tracking device into their truck,” she said.
“Damn right,” Trevor said. “Unfortunately, I attached it to the underside of the truck you decided to blow up, so I don’t think it’s going to help us very much.”
“Crap on a stick!”
He glanced at her as they ran. “I’m guessing you know that guy pretty well?”
“Yeah, you could say that. He got my entire CIA team killed a few years ago. I’ve been hunting him ever since.”
Trevor looked at her in surprise, his expression suggesting he was waiting for her to say more. Instead, she saved her breath so she could run faster. This wasn’t the right time or place for a conversation. They needed to get the hell out of there.
When they got to the SUV and climbed in, Trevor cranked the vehicle, then floored it, spinning through the grass and squawking the tires as they reached the asphalt, and racing for the gates of the ASP.
“Silly question, but I’m guessing that guy wasn’t a hybrid when you were working with him back in the CIA?”
“No. I think I would have noticed the fangs. They kind of stand out.”
“Yeah, they do.”
He didn’t say anything else for a while, not until they were out of the ASP and hauling ass through the narrow back roads that crisscrossed these remote parts of Aberdeen. Only when they were far enough away from the ammo depot and weren’t likely to get rolled up in whatever perimeter the MPs might put around the area did Trevor finally look at her.
“You’re probably not going to believe this, but we actually got what we came here for tonight.”
Alina frowned. “I’m not sure if you noticed, but those guys got away with a lot of ammunition and explosives.”
“Yeah, they did,” he agreed. “Three truckloads worth without us getting a tracking device on them. And the guy you were trying to kill got away, too. I know that bothers you even more.”
Alina couldn’t stand hearing that last part. “Yeah, don’t remind me. Just explain how you think we got what we came here for.”
“Because, while I would have liked to stop those guys from escaping and get the man who killed your teammates, at the end of the day, we were sent here to get a look at these people and figure out what they were doing. We did that—and more.”
“We did?”
“We know they were stealing Russian ammunition, you know the man who was running the operation, and we have undeniable proof the theft was conducted on the orders of Thomas Thorn.”
She stared at him as they entered the main part of the base, then pulled off the road as MP vehicles and fire trucks sped past them, heading the other way. She was suddenly tired of not knowing what was going on in this organization…and on this team.
“What the hell does Thomas Thorn have to do with any of this?” she demanded. “Why does he want Russian ammunition, and how the hell is Wade connected to him? And for that matter, who sent us on this mission to begin with? Because it sure as hell wasn’t Dick. And when the hell were you planning to clue me in to all these damn secrets you’ve obviously been keeping from me from the beginning?”
