Instead of nearly taking chunks out of her shoulders or gouging out her brain, suddenly the bullets began biting into the dirt and choppy portions of grass. Mud and dirt went flying, spraying them and making the scene more dramatic.
Jenna panted at her side, reminding Lynnette of Jenna’s twisted ankle. This tactic was less than ideal for her, too.
Lynnette ground her teeth.Sorry, Jen. Push through it for me.
“You can’t escape my sight, Jenna!” Quetzal shouted as they sprinted past the tree line. Birds cawed and chirped from the trees around them.
Jenna gasped. “Wh-what the hell?”
“No idea,” Lynnette admitted, encouraging her friend to veer sharply to the side and stay behind the thicker brush. “But we keep moving. It’s not safe here.” They were only barely past the foliage boundary. They’d be fooling themselves to think they could slow down because the trees had closed in a little.
Chapter twenty
Jon
It wasn’t as muchfun to be back in the field as Jon might have expected. Granted, there were more than a few key differences between their current trek and any of his previous deployments. Most notably was probably the lack of gear so heavy and bulky that it may as well have been an extra layer of armor around his body. A close second was the blind hunt.
The blind hunt was fucking infuriating.
Which had made it all the more satisfying when they’d come upon their new friend a handful of hours prior. Though he was quickly proving to be something of a wimp. Seemed his smack-talk and bravado were directly glued to the sharp things he’d held in his possession, and without those, he was a simpering crybaby.
Jon flicked his wrist and splashed cold water across the half-unconscious guy’s face. “No one told you it was naptime, bud.” He didn’t bother using Spanish, his tone would translate clear enough.
The guy, probably not past his mid-twenties, let out a groan that slid into a whimper as he looked around with his unswollen eye. He swallowed visibly and sniffled so hard he probably sucked up dirt.
Alex tipped toward Jon and whispered, “I know this group’s supposed to be a big deal, but when you said ‘cartel’, I expected something … more.”
Jon grunted.
Herb moved forward and dropped into a crouch in front of the guy. He spoke in Spanish, but Jon followed every word. “You brought this on yourself, dumbass. Joining a cartel was stupid enough, but following those suicidal motherfuckers across the border? Stirring up shit in the states? Picking a fight with a bona-fucking-fide United States Marine?” Herb flicked the guy in the forehead, at the edge of a visible bruise. “Stupid doesn’t cover it, kid. You obviously got a death wish. Just tell us what we want and we’ll help you out with that.”
Herb fell quiet again, and their new friend glared back.
Billy chuckled. “Who knew ‘bona-fucking-fide’ was Spanish?”
Jon’s lips twitched.
Lance snickered.
Herb rocked back on his heels and glanced their way. “It’s all about the accent and the attitude,hermano. The way you say it? Ain’t Spanish at all.”
“P-PJ,” their new friend sputtered, his voice strained, “wants to … make you suffer.”
The group quieted. Herb faced forward. “Us?”
“No.” The guy lifted his good eye over Herb’s shoulder, up to Jon. “Him. He drew our blood, so we’ll draw his. That’s … what PJ says.” He coughed and spat up phlegm tinted red with blood of his own.
More than one pair of eyes shifted back to Jon.
Lance arched a brow. “Makin’ friends everywhere you go, just like old times.”
Jon rolled his eyes and addressed Herb and the guy whose name they hadn’t bothered with. “And what the hell did I do to piss your Pretty Bird off?”
Their friend gave a weak shrug. “No lo sé.”
Jon ground his teeth. He should have expected that the foot soldiers wouldn’t know details. It wasn’t much different from a military in that sense. They were the grunts, merely given marching orders and expected to hop-to. But it would be extremely helpful to understand why the hell a target he only knew the street name for had decided to hold a grudge against him, specifically. Sure, he’d killed a couple of PJ’s guys. But only when PJ had sent them after him, and after the women. Those were fights PJ had initiated.
Because guys like him always think rationally.He bit back the groan. For all he knew, this was because of that one damn bird. Or the botched robbery the two original hitmen had so blatantly been covering up.
