“Colonel?” Riser asked, his voice hesitant.
“What?”
“I heard Hunter calling out from the other direction before I found you.”
Mack spun to see Riser standing with his hands clasped behind his back, his gaze locked on a tree past Mack’s shoulder. Marley didn’t bother trying to hide her glee at his misstep—she stood right where she’d been the entire time, smiling with triumph.
He thought long and hard about chewing Riser’s ass out for not telling him this critical information sooner. Instead, he clamped down on his control and said, “Lead the way.”
Riser gave a quick salute, did an about-face, and marched off in the exact opposite direction from which Mack had been heading.
“Looks like you should be glad he’s here, huh?”
Mack had never been more eager to put distance between himself and another human being as he was in that exact moment. But he’d had enough years of training to effectively mask his emotions and rob her of the satisfaction of getting another rise out of his long dormant temper. “If you don’t want to be left behind, I’d suggest you follow me.” Mack strode after Riser, forcing himself to keep from turning to check and make sure she was behind him.
For a few seconds, there was no sound except for his own footsteps and Riser’s up ahead, and he feared he’d miscalculated. And then he heard a swish, swish, swish as Marley caught up with them.
She might not want to admit it, but the terrorized expression on her face said staying out here alone terrified her. It should.
They continued in silence until Riser called out, “Top?”
The term top was what soldiers often used for their team leader.
“Over here,” Hunter’s voice came from directly in front of them and slightly to the right. A few seconds later, they stepped out of the evergreen undergrowth into a tiny clearing where the rest of the team waited.
“Sound off,” Mack said.
Hunter and Ranger, both standing without even a smudge of dirt on them, responded with an “All right.” Aaron, Merc, and Reaper sat next to them on the ground, sifting through their backpacks. They all responded with an affirmative.
Hoyt and Jared sat off to the side like they always did, silent but deadly, which made them the two best snipers in the entire special forces. They both gave a wave to indicate they were okay.
“Where is Ethan?”
“We just located him, Sir.” Hunter pointed up and Mack followed the direction of his finger.
About fifty feet up in an enormous evergreen tree, Ethan hung upside down, twisted in the ropes of his parachute. “Just hanging out, Sir.”
Mack grunted out an acknowledgment and then Marley came crashing into the clearing. Everyone’s gaze turned to her.
Tension whipped through the group faster than a bullet from an M50 rifle. Marley stumbled to a stop and pulled up short, taking a deep gulp of air.
He knew what they were thinking: despite having saved them, Marley might work for their enemy. Mack didn’t actually think she had any involvement, but he fully intended to question her as soon as possible. His priority was to get Ethan down from that tree so he could tag their location. “Riser, clean up her arm.”
Marley said, “But—”
Mack strode over to her, snatched the puny medical kit still clutched in her hand and threw it into the woods. “Don’t push me. Sit down and let him clean up your arm.”
Mack enunciated each word, making sure his point got across. Marley’s eyes widened but she kept her mouth shut and did as he said. He waited until Riser had pulled out his own medical kit and started tending to her before turning his attention back to Ethan. “Do you see any way down?”
“Well, I could cut the rope, but Kate warned me—if I come back with so much as a scratch, she’ll kick my ass.” Kate Richards had been one of Jack Mankel’s victims, kidnapped along with Celine Latimer and the senator’s daughter, Caroline Cotter, from the wedding they’d all been attending. Task Force Scorpion had managed to rescue Kate and Celine, but Mankel had escaped with Caroline. Hence their present situation.
“The last thing I want is a woman like her busting my ass for letting you get hurt.” Ethan’s fiancée was an ex-CIA operative turned private securities investigator. To put it lightly, the woman knew her way around a gun.
“I’m open for suggestions.” Ethan said. .
Unfortunately, Ethan had landed in a different type of tree than Marley. There was no abundance of limbs or vines or anything of the like for him to grab as a handhold or foothold. Even the bark was smooth. Mack approached it, sliding his fingers down its cool trunk. It had a faint sheen of moisture on it. Not conducive to climbing in the least.
From the way Ethan was tangled up, he wouldn’t even be able to swing a leg over the closest branch, and Mack didn’t have superhuman powers to fly up to him.
