Page 35 of Her Wicked Hero

Marcia’s fingers tightened on Zed’s jacket. She hoped so. Marcia didn’t want anyone else to get injured because of her. She shut her eyes, thinking of Nurul’s father. Even now, she could hear the thud his body made as it bounced off the deck from the strike of the bullet. Her eyes opened when she heard Hana start to cry.

“Zed?”

“It’s okay, we’re almost there now.”

“Alice,” Nurul said. Zed stopped and turned to look at Nurul, the young woman was pointing through the thinning trees. “Alice,” she smiled, excited. “Ahmed,” she was grinning now.

“I’ll be damned. I should have guessed it. She knows the people who run the camp,” Zed said.

“How do you know them?” Marcia asked as she shifted in his arms. Everything hurt and trying to get comfortable was almost impossible.

“I overheard Raymond speaking to the woman who was running the camp.” Zed knelt down on one knee and set Marcia down. “I need to call Dex and find out the ETA.” As soon as he said that, the faint sound of a helicopter could be heard in the distance.

“Guess you don’t need to call him,” Marcia said. He gathered her back up into his arms and nodded for Nurul to follow him. He went quicker as the trees thinned out. The helicopter sounds were much clearer, but the sound was upsetting Hana and she was crying even more loudly. None of the sounds were good for Marcia’s headache, but that wasn’t really relevant, now was it? Power through. She just needed to power through.

“They’re really early,” she heard Zed mutter as he jogged to the edge of the clearing. Marcia saw the camp, and everyone was clustered, looking up at the helicopter. It was still tough for her to make out the markings, but it looked kind of big. No wonder people were looking at it, it was going to cause damage to some of the cabins with the wind from the blades.

“Alice,” Nurul yelled out. She tried to push ahead of Zed, but he moved in front of her, blocking her way.

“No,” he thundered at the young mother. Marcia looked up at him in confusion. Hana stopped crying for a moment when confronted with Zed’s loud yell. “Nobody move.”

“Zed, what’s wrong?”

“It’s not one of ours.”

He dropped down to his knees and set Marcia down at the same time he pulled Nurul down beside Marcia. “Marcia, I need you to keep Nurul here while I check things out.”

“Are you sure? How can you tell?” Marcia asked.

“You’ve got to stay here and out of sight. Keep Nurul with you,” he shouted as he took off at a run. He had his rifle in his hand. It took everything she had not to call out after him. He was a SEAL, but still, he was the man who’d just kissed a baby. Please God, please God, please God, keep him safe. Marcia blinked her eyes. Where had he gone? How could he have just disappeared?

The helicopter should have been a Seahawk, instead, it was a Russian Mi-17, Zed could tell because of the tail rotor mounting and the lack of double doors. He knew the Mi’s came cheap and people like the Thorne Group, and whoever these mercs were, used them. Raymond must have called in for backup.

Fuck!

Good news was he didn’t see that it had been beefed up with external cannon, machine guns, anti-tank guarded missiles, or rocket pods. Of course, who was to say what kind of firepower it had inside or how many armed men.

Zed saw a climbable tree up ahead. He wasted no time shimmying up and getting into position. He had his gun rifle mounted between two branches and his satellite phone out in seconds. Before Dex could even talk, he started.

“Got an enemy helo landing. Inform incoming helicopter.”

“Describe it.”

“Russian Mi-17. No ordnance on the outside. What’s the ETA on the―”

“Less than twenty minutes.”

“Give them a heads up. Gotta shoot some fish in a barrel.” Zed disconnected as the single side door opened and the first man exited. Where was Raymond? Zed peered through the scope on his rifle. Five men in total exited the helicopter, still no sign of Raymond to greet them. Peering into the dark interior of the helo, it didn’t look like there was anybody else in there but the pilot. He could see a mounted machine gun, but it wasn’t manned.

“You have to be kidding me,” Zed muttered. Raymond came out of the house flanked by Alice and a man who must be her husband. There wasn’t a shot. Two of the armed men from the helicopter came over to Raymond. Zed waited. They managed to position themselves right in front of the two natives and Zed’s ultimate target.

“Enough of this noise.” Zed hoped when he took out the two men he could, it would make Raymond move, and he could get to him. He peered through his scope, blocked out all the noise of the jungle. Taking one breath in and expelling it, he took one shot, then in a fraction of a second, he moved the rifle minutely and took the second man. Two dead. Raymond had hit the ground, pulling Alice on top of him.

Crack!

Crack!

Zed ducked as a branch hit his back. He slithered down part of the tree, then jumped out, knowing his hiding spot had been discovered.