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“We were too late,” he said.
Another tremor rumbled beneath them, and Marc De Leon’s compound sank another foot into the ground. The entire structure leaned at an impossible angle, hiking Baker’s nervous system into overdrive.
“We have to get out of here.” Jocelyn shoved back from the edge of the pool with her hands and feet. No trace of enthusiasm or lightness in her expression, and he needed that slice of inner light. Just a fraction to counter the ramifications of Alpine Valley being crushed by thousands of tons of rock.
Dust kicked up and threatened to choke them both as they launched over the half wall blocking off the backyard from the house itself. Quakes seemed to follow their every step as they maneuvered around the perimeter of the compound. A gut-wrenching tremor divided the front of the house away from the back. The ground lurched beneath them, and Jocelyn fell into him.
“I’ve got you.” He kept her upright as best he could while trying to stay on his own two feet. The chasm that’d split the pool in half had grown. There was no way to jump it, but they still had a way out. “We have to go over the wall. I’ll give you a boost.”
She didn’t wait for an explanation as he bent down to clasp her foot. Blood stained his hand as he hiked her against the wall. Jocelyn turned back for him from the top, offering one hand. “Watch out!”
The ground shifted, knocking him off his feet. The cavity cutting through the backyard was inching toward him.
They were out of time.
Baker fought against the weight of the Kevlar vest packed with explosive and lurched upward. He caught Jocelyn’s forearm, and together, they hauled his weight over the wall. But they couldn’t celebrate yet. The crack in the earth was spreading. Darting right toward them.
They rolled off the top of the wall as one. Only Jocelyn didn’t land on her feet. The thud of her body registered harder than it should have.
“Come on, Carville. We’ve got to move. This place is coming apart at the seams.”
“I think I broke something.” Her voice tried to hide the pain she must’ve been feeling, but he didn’t miss it. Something was seriously wrong. Hell, she’d already survived two explosions. How much more could he possibly ask of her?
“Hang on to me.” Out of breath, Baker threaded his broken wrist beneath her knees and dragged her away from the barrier crumbling two feet away. Meant to be a protective guard between the compound and the outside world, every stone was swallowed as the cliff broke away from the canyon wall.
The last remnants of the compound slipped over the edge as Baker collapsed with Jocelyn in his arms. The bomb had destroyed more than a single home. There had to be hundreds buried under rubble and dirt below. His heart strained to rip out of his chest as he considered the loss of life of the very people he’d sworn to protect. “It’s gone. All of it...is gone.”
“I’m sorry. I tried to warn them.” Jocelyn framed one hand against his face. Cold and rough. Nothing like when she’d kissed him. Her voice wavered. “I...radioed my team...”
Her hand fell away, and every muscle in her body went slack.
“Joce?” He scanned her face in the bright moonlight. Then realized she was no longer wearing her vest. And noticed the blood. Wet, glimmering against her clothing. Oh, hell. The echo of a gunshot in his head rendered him frozen for a series of breaths.
Baker laid her across the desert floor, ripping at her T-shirt. There was a hole in her shoulder. She’d taken a bullet but somehow still managed to get him out of the compound in one piece. How was thatpossible? And where the hell was Maverick when Baker needed him? “Talk to me, Goose.”
He couldn’t think about all those lives down there in Alpine Valley with Jocelyn needing him right now. Struggling to his feet, he hauled her against his chest and started walking toward the SUV. Her added weight wiped his strength from him, and Baker collapsed to one knee.
Two bombs. Losing a fight to a cartel bomber. A device strapped to his chest. And now an apocalyptic event that’d destroyed everything he had left. All within twenty-four hours. He wasn’t sure he could take much more, but he wouldn’t leave Jocelyn out here to fend for herself. She’d saved his life. The least he could do was return the favor.
Baker bit back a groan when pain singed through his nerve endings as he regained his footing. A hundred feet. That was all he had left before they reached the SUV. They were going to make it. They had to. Because they’d survived too damn much to give up now. “We’ve got this.”
But every step seemed to put them farther away from the vehicle. Or maybe his mind had finally started shutting down from all the explosions going on around them. His clothing suctioned to him with Jocelyn’s body heat furnaced against him. “Just a little farther.”
He stepped on something that didn’t belong. Metallic and light. Too far from the blast area. Maneuvering his partner out of the way, Baker made out a pair of cuffs lying there in the dirt. Open. Warning triggered at the base of his spine, as though he were being watched. Marc De Leon had left Baker for dead inside his own truck, but even though the son of a bitch’s plan failed, that didn’t mean this was over.
He set sights on Jocelyn’s SUV. He couldn’t trust his own instincts right then, but something was telling him getting in that vehicle would be the end of them both. Emergency crews would have their hands tied trying to dig residents out of the landslide. The SUV was the only way to get Jocelyn help in time. Baker took another step toward the SUV.
The explosion lit up the sky.
Heat licked over his skin and knocked him back on his ass. His head snapped back and hit the ground harder than he expected. Blinding pain became his entire world right then, and Jocelyn slipped out of his hold. It took too long for his senses to get back in the game despite his desperation to keep moving.
The threat wasn’t over. He had to get up. Had to keep fighting.
Baker risked prying his eyelids open. The crackle of flames was too bright, too loud. His brain was having a hard time processing each individual sound, mixing it up with the pop and crack of those that’d burned down his life.
Jocelyn’s hand moved to touch his between them, a simple brush of skin-to-skin. The past threatened to consume him from the inside. He felt as though he were about to leave his body, but the grounding feel of her kept him in one place.
Light reflected off her dark pupils as she set sights on him. The smile he’d once resented tugged at her mouth. “I’ve...got you. Always.”
