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He moved and when he didn’t draw attention, he pressed his luck, then rose up enough to quickly scan the area. She was likely nearer to them. He went still again as the men splashed through the trickle of creek water, water droplets hitting him, and all Easy could see was a pair of boots in ankle-deep water. He held his breath. If this guy saw him, it would be over in a spew of bullets.
Where the hell was Jack?
The impact pushed the air from her lungs, and she was just feeling as if she was getting it back. Crashing a car was worse than she could have imagined. A terrified rolling, spinning outside the windshield, that horrible feeling of helplessness. She said a quiet thank you to the wonderful car. She forced herself to move, crouch, and scramble under the exposed roots of trees. Her head throbbed, her hands and knees were scraped and burned. She brushed leaves and branches onto herself, leaving nothing exposed. In the back of her mind, she figured she might be inside a potential snake nest, but she really didn’t have a choice. Easy had told her to get out and find cover, but with this mist, she had lost him. He could be a few feet away and she wouldn’t have been able to see him.
What she had discovered was that not only moss grew in a cloud forest like the one she was presently in, and she could attest to that cushy moss as she was currently lying on it. The heavy white and gray mist was from the forest being high above sea level, and the clouds dipped down and frosted the canopy, but with that storm that had just passed, it had created so much moisture, the fog had reached down to the forest floor.
No, not just moss, but the belles of this ball were the orchids. They were all around her in their delicate colorful glory, hot pink like her poor broken Bubbles, purple, lilac, and white. One close to her face gave off a sweet and musky scent as it grew from the trunk of the tree. This whole area felt otherworldly with the mist and the flowers, as if she had somehow crashed her car and ended up in Middle Earth.
Only Easy’s gaze shifted as the lead man moved through the ravine. He covered the entire area efficiently. When the men retraced higher up the crevasse, Easy slowly rolled to the side, and rose to all fours, crabbing up the hill. He had to find Jack. He moved through the shadows of the giant trees, the beauty of the orchids not lost on him. He placed his hands and feet carefully. Sound echoed and bounced. He pulled his rifle around, setting it against his shoulder. He needed a distraction, quickly and long enough to find Jack and get the hell out of here. The chopper rose into the air and hovered, the men still searching. One man stood out on the road where the mist was thinner. Killing Ramos would bring fast retaliation. He made his decision, releasing his breath.
“Hey,” she whispered.
Easy whipped his rifle around, then saw three fingers wiggling in the leaves. He let out a breath, head down, then backed up and moved toward her. He slid into the cover of the roots.
Easy held her tight. “Are you hurt?”
“My forehead could use a kiss or two.”
He bent down and obliged, relief washing through him.
“What’s next? I’m not exactly keen on going out like Butch and Sundance.”
“Yeah, that’s not an option. SEALs don’t really care for standoffs.”
“What do SEALs do in this type of situation?”
He looked at her. “Babe, we don’t move away from combat as in retreat, even when we’re outnumbered, and as small as our force is, we usually are.” He looked around. “It’s violence of action and neutralizing an aggressive enemy all the way.”
“Oh, God,” she whispered. “You run toward the bullets.”
“I’m an individual fighting machine, babe, and alone I pack a punch, but with my teammates we kick some serious ass. There’s only one thing we care about here…striving for nothing less than mission success.”
“Oh, God, again. That’s me.”
“Yeah, that’s you.” He looked around. “So, in this instance, I’m going to retreat because of you. I need to get you to safety. We’ve got to move out of here.”
“You say that like we weren’t just in a terrible car crash.”
Gunfire suddenly cut across the ground, and Easy held her head down, his body covering hers as bullets chunked near their position. They were no more than thirty feet from Ramos now, the stench of flash burns from his weapon lingering on the steamy air. He wanted to take the bastard out so badly. He heard voices, too soft to understand, then the chopper lifted, sweeping into the ravine, spinning debris and flattening grasses.
“Time’s up.” Easy came to his knees, aiming his weapon, and unloaded into the chopper.
13
Shark’s headwhipped around at the sound of gunfire and saw the first bullet ricochet off the bulletproof glass, the second hitting the hydraulics, a third increasing the damage. The chopper smoked, rocking violently. Shark looked back to where the shots had come from. Easy was now running for his life with Jack in tow. As soon as Ramos screamed out his rage, Shark moved into the trees, he and Juan running full out.
Ahead of them, through the mist, he could barely make out Jack and Easy’s silhouettes.
Garcia was far ahead of him with another guy taking aim. Fuck no, Shark thought as he tried to catch the guy. Juan was almost there, but he couldn’t reach him in time. He pulled off a shot, and Shark heard a male grunt of pain and the silhouettes dropped to the forest floor.
Easy!
The guy aimed again for another shot, but Juan was there, hitting him hard in the shoulder and throwing off the shot. Shark watched as Juan’s face contorted in rage and pain, pulled his knife, slashed the guy’s throat, and kept moving. They had to stop Garcia before he got to Easy.
Not to mention, the rest of the troops would be heading this way.
But the fucking mist closed around Garcia, and he was gone. Shark looked at Juan. “Let’s separate. Find him and put him down.”
