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“Ready, boys?” Patrick chuckled, his thick lips stretched wide, like a maniacal clown as he waddled over to them.
Noah slipped his thumbs beneath his belt and activated the tracker there. He’d waited. He’d been searched, his chaps and jacket removed, but that was okay. He could function without them just as well as he could function with them.
He stared back at Gaylen, the green aura that transposed over the other man from the contacts he wore didn’t take away from the pure evil glittering in the man’s eyes.
“You have a ten-minute head start. Run wherever the hell you want to.” He chuckled. “We like to make things interesting. We’ll give you ten minutes then head out for you.”
Ten minutes. Noah felt the amusement welling within him. Stupid motherfuckers. They were giving him ten minutes?
“We usually give our prey a little longer,” Gaylen announced amid the laughter that echoed around him. “But we just plain don’t like you. So we’re going to make it harder for you.”
Noah looked out over the valley. Half an hour wouldn’t seem like much, unless a man knew the area as well as Noah did. He’d played in the national park, camped in it, hunted in it. He knew it like the back of his hand. Half an hour would have seen him well on his way to the Malone ranch. Ten minutes would see him almost back to Sabella’s location.
“You don’t talk much, do you, boy?” Gaylen observed in amusement. “Savin’ your breath, are you?”
Noah smiled. It wasn’t in amusement, and for the first time, Gaylen was beginning to look just a little nervous.
Gaylen grunted, irritated now as he looked at the face of the watch he wore. “Ten minutes, cocksuckers. Get moving.”
Chuck hobbled at a near run for the gully. Noah stood and stared back at Gaylen as the other man lifted his brow and laughed in his face.
“Watch your back,” he told Gaylen. “Watch it close. Because I’ll be there.”
Gaylen laughed as Noah turned, stared around at the unlit vehicles, and hoped to hell Tehya was able to track some of the bastards with the satellite. They needed proof. Just in case he let one of them live.
Then he ran. Less than ten minutes. He needed to get to the gully and prayed to God the team had had time to get in place.
He could feel the sights on his back. Someone wasn’t going to wait. He could feel it. He dug his feet into the hard clay dirt and pushed harder, running for the gully and throwing himself into it as the first shot rang out.
The bullet sliced across his bicep and stung like hell. The flesh wound was going to bleed like a son of a bitch. He hit the rocky gully hard, the heavy stones that filled the dry ravine bit into his ribs, a barely noticeable pain before he was on his feet and moving along the shallow crease in the land.
He could hear the laughter behind him, engines gunning, the roar of a dirt bike or two. They were fully loaded, technologically advanced, and well planned. They had done this time and time again. This would be their last time.
“Gotcha.”
Nik caught him as he rounded the ravine five minutes later.
“Hold in place. Clint is moving ahead and jumping the gully into the trees as they start moving. Reno is imitating Leon and Macey is pulling him out of harm’s way. We have you covered.”
“I have to get back to the cavern.” He flicked an irritated glance to where Nik was tying off the wound with camo bandaging.
“Weapons.”
A rifle was shoved in his hand then a handgun. He tucked the smaller weapon into his belt and cradled the large one.
“Knife.” Motors were revving as Nik handed over his own Russian-made military dagger.
“They put more guards on the canyon,” Nik told him. “You have five to take out. I can’t cover you there but Jordan and the sheriff are moving on that position. They’re a little behind schedule. Seems there were some added eyes posted at the road leading out here. They had to slip around them.”
“Get that fucking agent out of here.” Noah accepted the information as he heard a horn sound behind them.
Whoops sounded and vehicles were moving out.
“Comm.” Nik shoved an earpiece in his ear, leaving Noah to adjust it.
He could hear the team now.
“Wild card in place,” he said carefully.
