Page 85 of Rescued

Breanna held her breath.

Then he shoved them back into the envelope. “Go ahead,” he said.

Breanna’s breath left her in a whoosh. She and Kimberly turned to head for the helicopter. Switch had gotten out and was still covering the bad guys. “Come on,” he said. “I don’t like this.”

But before they’d gone more than a few feet, Kimberly stumbled into Breanna, making her stagger. Two shots rang out from across the field, hitting Switch. He was flung backward, into the side of the helicopter.

“No!” Breanna tried to run, and lurched off balance, suddenly feeling woozy. She looked at Kimberly and saw the tiny injector gleaming in her hand—one that could just be stabbed into someone without preparation.

“What… did you do?” she asked.

But everything was already swirling and going gray, and then she was out.

Vaguely, Switch heard more gunshots, right next to his head. Boomer was returning fire with both hands, trying to look like as many people as possible to keep the enemy at bay.

“Get… Breanna,” Switch gasped. He could barely breathe, from the rounds that had hit his vest. And one fucking lucky shot, that had gone into his shoulder and probably nicked a major vein. It was bleeding pretty bad.

“Can’t,” Boomer said, as more rounds pounded the helicopter. “Pinned down. Fuck. They’ve got her. And the evil SWAT team is coming this way.”

Switch gritted his teeth and crawled up into the helo. “Fucking kill them.”

“As soon as she’s clear,” Boomer said, shooting some more and then ducking back. He grabbed Switch and pulled him the rest of the way inside.

Boomer leaned out and got off a couple more shots, then pulled back and yanked a grenade off his tactical vest. Leaning out, he pulled the pin. “Adios, motherfuckers!”

And he lobbed it into the middle of the advancing enemy team.

The explosion rocked the helo, and the overpressures made Switch almost pass out again.

When his head cleared, Boomer was putting pressure on his wound. “They’re gone,” Boomer said. “Picked up what was left of their team and took off.”

“Breanna?” Switch said.

“They took her,” Boomer said. “Her and Kimberly both. Sorry.”

Switch started swearing.

“Stay still,” Boomer said. “I’m trying to get the damn bleeding stopped so your shifter healing can kick in.”

“We have to get her. Did you reach the strike teams?”

“It was either get on the radio, or stop you from bleeding out. Surprisingly, I chose the second option. Go figure.”

“I don’t fucking care what happens to me. They have to get Bree.”

“Well, she cares what happens to you. So, sorry. Both of you live.”

Boomer lifted his hands gingerly off Switch’s wound. Blood still seeped out, but not at an alarming rate. Ripping Switch’s shirt sleeve, he prepared to put a regular pressure bandage on it. “This should hold, if you don’t do anything stupid.”

“Like flying this helicopter?”

“Oh, fuck. What if you pass out?”

“Shove some coagulants in there, give me some stimulants, and some water to replace my fluids. And be prepared to take the controls if I do start to pass out.”

Boomer shook his head. “Fuck my life. I knew I should have gone with the ground team.”

While Switch did the pre-flight checks, making sure there was no serious damage to the helicopter, Boomer got on the radio, running through the Outlaw Ridge emergency frequencies.