by Dee Davis
The sound of rotors broke the night, the tall grass bending perpendicular in the manufactured breeze. The chopper appeared suddenly out of the mist like some sort of fiery bird from hell, the telltale tracers from gunfire spitting out of its yawning black maw.
Payton shook off the man and stumbled to his feet, already reaching for the rope ladder dropping from the side of the bird. A bullet whizzed by his ear, and then another, adrenaline surging as he sprinted forward, his hand closing on a white nylon rung.
The gunfire, combined with the chopper blades, was deafening, and the vibrations coming off the rotors almost shook him off the ladder. But he held his ground as the big bird pulled up into the sky, and when he was certain they were clear, he lobbed the grenade at Cortez's men—a parting gift they'd never forget—or remember.
He climbed the remaining few rungs of the ladder and accepted the offered hand into the chopper, flopping aboard like the striped bass he'd caught once as a kid. Wherever he was going, it was a damn sight better than where he'd just been.
He sat up, wiped some blood from the corner of his mouth and turned to face his rescuer, his words of thanks dying at the sight of Cullen Pulaski sitting in the jump seat.
He might have been rescued from the devil, but he was still in hell.
About Dee Davis
Award winning author Dee Davis worked in association management before turning her hand to writing. Her highly acclaimed first novel, Everything In Its Time, was published in July 2000. Since then, among others, she’s won the Booksellers Best, Golden Leaf, Texas Gold and Prism awards, and been nominated for the National Readers Choice Award, the Holt and two RT Reviewers Choice Awards. To date, she is the author of twenty-one books and four novellas. When not sitting at the computer, Dee spends time exploring Manhattan with her husband, daughter, and Cardigan Welsh Corgi.
Visit Dee at http://www.deedavis.com or catch up with her on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/deedavisbooks or follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/deesdavis
Photo: Jennifer Berry/Studio 16
