“Yeah, I hear it too.”
Hear what too?It took me a moment to realize the faint sound in the distance was the helicopter.
Brecken got to his feet and offered me a hand to help me up. “Let’s go. Stay behind me and stay quiet so I don’t get us killed.”
“Get us killed?” I repeated softly, moving quickly to keep up with him.
“We’ve got company coming in hot.”
I looked around us, seeing nothing. “We do?”
Brecken tapped his ear with his free hand, the other holding his gun, aimed ahead of us. “I just heard from Sera, the chopper didn’t go unnoticed.”
“Crap,” I muttered.
“There’s a group of armed men coming from that direction.” He pointed directly across the clearing from where we were approaching it. “Five of them. We don’t know if they’re the ones who took you, but at this point it doesn’t really matter who they are because they sure as fuck aren’t friendlies coming to welcome my team to their neck of the jungle.”
“What can I do?”
“Stay behind me until I tell you to make a run for it. My team will lay down cover fire for us while I cover your back.”
He didn’t have time to say anything else because all hell broke loose. The helicopter hovered over the opening in the treesand several men spilled from the jungle, guns up and firing at it. The sound was deafening, louder than I expected.
“Ready?” Brecken asked.
“But they haven’t landed yet!”
“They don’t need to land to get us out of here,” he answered as a ladder dropped from the side of the open helicopter door to the ground. “It’s time for you to haul ass now that they’ve realized this is an extraction.
Sure enough, he was right. Two of the bad guys started shooting at us instead of the helicopter. Brecken pushed me forward and returned fire. “Go!” he yelled.
I went, running like my life depended on it. Because it did, and so did Brecken’s. With my focus narrowed on the ladder, I sprinted full-out until I reached it, knowing Brecken wouldn’t follow until I’d reached the safety of the helicopter. As soon as I got close enough, I leapt for the second rung and hauled myself up. I scurried up a couple notches, ignoring the safety harness in favor of speed. Then the ladder was being hauled up and I hung on for dear life, my eyes closed while I whispered a prayer.
“She’s in!” one of Brecken’s teammates yelled, and the ladder was immediately lowered back down.
One of the men shoved me deeper into the helicopter, and I watched over his shoulder as Brecken ran towards the ladder, firing his gun as he went.
“Shit! I don’t have a clear shot and the guy in blue is going to have Boss in his sights any second now.”
The helicopter turned, jolting me forward, right towards the door I’d been hauled through moments before. My gaze landed on a spot of blue on the ground. It was a man, with his gun raised and pointed right where Brecken would be running past unless someone took this guy out before he got there. I couldn’t let that happen and acted on instincts deeply engraved.
Springing forward, I unsnapped the shoulder harness of the guy who’d shoved me out of the way, drawing his Beretta out of the holster. I undid the side mounted safety and dove towards the opening, landing on my stomach and bracing myself as Brecken’s teammate gripped my legs to prevent me from falling out. Taking aim, I fired, pulling the trigger over and over again until the clip was empty. Fifteen shots in all, but they were unnecessary because the first one had found its mark straight in the heart of the man who’d been trying to kill Brecken.
Frantic, I glanced down at the ladder and found him hanging ten feet away from the opening as he was being hauled up. As soon as he cleared the entrance, the helicopter lifted higher into the air and turned over the treetops of the jungle, out of danger. Brecken hauled me into his arms, squeezing me tight before pulling away to look at me, shouting above the noise so I could hear him. “How the hell did you make that shot?”
“I guess one good thing has come from having an arms dealer for my father,” I yelled back. “At least he taught me how to be a crack shot.”
9
BRECKEN
Arms dealer?It was damn loud up here with the sound of the motor, but she was close enough to me that I’d heard her clear as a bell. My fascination with Hadley had apparently driven me to fuck up on the research end of this mission because I hadn’t done much looking into her father. He’d come to me on a referral from a well-respected Army General for fuck’s sake. I hadn’t seen the need to focus on him when a man I’d served under had vouched for him. Then, I’d become immersed in what I could find out about Hadley’s life. As soon as I’d tracked her down, I hadn’t waited to charge in and rescue her, assuming her kidnapping was connected to human trafficking and time was quickly dwindling before they moved her to somewhere I’d never be able to find her.
I held my tongue, resisting the urge to question Hadley and leveling Sera and Whit with a glare to ensure neither of them asked her what she was talking about. With her father’s connection to the General, odds were high there was more to the story. The kind of more that usually came with a top secret stamp on the file. None of us were in the military anymore, but being civilians didn’t mean we were going to discuss whatcould possibly be classified information with Hadley. Especially not when it was possible the discussion could put her in more danger. Hadley’s safety was my top priority.
Whit drew my attention by waving an ear piece under my nose. I checked mine and confirmed it was working before realizing he meant for me to give it to Hadley, knowing damn well I’d be pissed if he put it in for her. I turned it on and slid it into place in her ear.
“It’s a good thing for you that she knows how to shoot, Boss,” Whit said, making Hadley smile. “Sera wouldn’t have gotten to him in time, and I’m the worst shot of the lot of us, her included.”
