by Cindy Dees
Tom’s response was short. “Let’s go.”
Tom’s hand slid across her back to signal Tex.
The lanky soldier moved back down her side as slowly as he had before. Tex tugged on her ankle, and she took a deep breath. When the next flurry of gunfire erupted, she dug in with her toes and fingers and did her best to imitate his cold molasses style of movement.
Her arms ached and her calves were cramping by the time she moved a single body length back into the sheltering darkness of the alley. She paused during a lull in the fighting, panting from fear and exertion.
Tex tugged again, and she gathered herself to keep pushing on. Her nails were chipped and torn, and the palms of her hands felt raw from pushing against the rough asphalt. The smell of fuel oil permeating the ground beneath her head was faintly nauseating, but she tried to block it out.
Bit by torturous bit, they made their way backward into the inky bowels of the alley.
Annie thought she was going to cry before Tex finally tapped on her ankle for her to stop. Tom’s dark form rose to a crouch in front of her. He grabbed her shoulders and lifted her to a half crouch. She plastered herself against the cold wall at her back and crept after Tex’s retreating form. Her thighs screamed in protest, but she pushed doggedly onward.
As she scaled new heights of pain, Annie decided she was never again going to think her Crossfit instructor back home led a sadistic workout.
Just when Annie thought her legs were going to buckle out from under her, Tex slid around a corner and disappeared. She followed suit and nearly collapsed in relief when he motioned her to stand up. Tom joined them a moment later.
Annie jumped when a voice spoke into the tiny earpiece they’d fitted her with. She recognized Mac’s whispered brogue. “This alley dumps out on El Segundo Street at the east end and Reynaldo Street at the other. Where to now?”
Tom answered with a question of his own. “Where’s Howdy?”
Tex replied. “He’s back at the mouth of the alley. Last I saw he was heading into a building across the street from our position.”
Annie gasped. What in the world was Howdy doing heading toward the fighting instead of away from it?
She started when she heard Tom say her name over the radio. “Annie, does the street we just left intersect El Segundo or Reynaldo?”
She drew a blank. Oh, God. Howdy’s life might depend on her knowing the answer, and she couldn’t remember. Think, Annie, think.
She envisioned strolling down the avenue they’d left behind. There was department store with big, glass display windows. And a luggage store. The street took shape in her mind. It curved to the south and sloped downhill toward…
…toward Reynaldo Street.
Thank God.
“Reynaldo,” she whispered urgently. “If Howdy goes west for about two blocks from the alley, the street hits Reynaldo. There’s a stop light.”
Annie was startled when Howdy’s voice murmured a single word in her ear. “Landmarks?”
She thought fast. “There’s a bicycle shop on the northeast corner and a drugstore on the southeast corner.”
Tom again. “Report when you’re in the clear, Howdy.”
“Clear. Four down.”
He undoubtedly meant four men down. Howdy’d taken out four men all by himself? Already? Holy smokes.
As Tom took her elbow to urge her forward, he spoke once more. “Howdy, we’ll meet you at the corner in ten.”
“Roger.”
This time Dutch took point as they made their way down the alley toward their rendezvous. They moved in fits and spurts, timing their movements with the sounds of the gun fighting to camouflage the noise of their movement.
By her reckoning, they must be getting close to Reynaldo Street. A faint glimmer of light glowed ahead where the alley ended. She’d started to breathe in relief when, suddenly, Dutch motioned them sharply to freeze.
That had been the first signal Tom taught her, and she obeyed it instantly now. The sound of voices carried to her in a moment of relative quiet. Several male voices were muttering in quiet snips of Spanish.
In horror she watched a patrol of three soldiers turn into the alley from the opening ahead of them. No. Oh, no. She and Tom and the others were all going to die. The soldiers would see them and open fire. In this narrow concrete canyon, there was no cover, nowhere to hide. They were sitting ducks. Sick fear glutted her stomach.
At least she was going to die with Tom.
She watched the soldiers’ progress through slitted eyes as Tom had taught her to. The whites of eyes reflect light easily, he’d said, so she should close her eyes or barely open them if she was trying to be invisible. This qualified as a good time to be invisible.
The soldiers strolled forward, somehow completely unaware of the six people frozen in front of them. Disbelievingly, she followed their forward progress. The men were so close now that Dutch could reach out and touch them.
The soldiers took several more steps, drawing parallel to Tex. How in the world were these guys not seeing the team?
Another few steps. The soldiers were right in the middle of them.
With a blur of motion so fast and silent she hardly believed she’d seen it, Tom and his men leaped on the soldiers from all directions. With barely a rustle of sound, the three hapless soldiers went down.
As Tom dragged her quickly past the bodies, Doc lifted his hand away from the last throat with a silent nod at Tom, who nodded back. The medic picked up the soldiers’ rifles, shouldering one and passing the other two off to Mac and Dutch.
In shock, Annie stumbled forward beside Tom.
She’d just witnessed the death of three men. The efficient brutality of it numbed her mind. Tom and his men had just committed cold-blooded murder and responded to it with no more than a nod to one another. Sure, it was war. But she’d never seen it up close and personal like this.
What the hell had she gotten herself into?
CHAPTER TEN
In a daze, Annie followed Tom to the alley’s exit. She crouched when he told her to and stayed put when he told her to. She watched numbly as Tex and Mac sidled out of the alley and disappeared for what seemed like an eternity.
When they came back, Howdy was with them. Detached, she listened to the whispered conversation as Tom ordered Howdy and Tex to reconnoiter the area.
The two men disappeared, and Doc unfolded a tarp he took from his pack. It was made of loose netting with random strips of cloth woven through it.
Doc and Dutch stretched out on the ground under the edge of the tarp, their feet touching as they faced opposite directions. They peered through the scopes of rifles propped under their chins. Each murmured an all-clear into their collar microphones.
Tom’s arm went around her middle and pulled her down beside him where he’d stretched out between the other men and a brick wall. Her head landed on his shoulder. She couldn’t help it. She went rigid against him.
The warmth of his mouth touched her earlobe, and she jumped. “What’s wrong?” he murmured.
“Nothing.”
“Bull. Tell me what’s wrong.”
“It doesn’t matter. I don’t want to distract you.”
He shrugged. “Your call.”
Ominous silence settled around them like a burial shroud.
Tom murmured, “We’re going to be here awhile. You should get some rest. Sleep if you can.”
“You’ve got to be kidding.”
A silent chuckle shook his chest beneath her arm. “Nope. It’ll be an hour or more before Tex and Howdy get back. What’s got you so tense?”
“I told you I don’t want to talk about it.”
His voice was quiet. Final. “Look. I want you to relax, and you’re not going to do that until you tell me what’s wrong.”
“No.”
“Talk. Now. That’s an order.”
She considered arguing, but memory of what she’d just witnessed spurred her to shut up and obey. “You and yo
ur team just killed three men. Don’t you feel anything? Any remorse?”
He went very still. “It was them or us. Would you rather I’d let them kill us instead?”
“No.”
“So what’s the problem?”
“It was just so…”
“Go ahead. Say it.”
“…cold-blooded.”
“That’s my job, Annie. I do what is necessary to complete the mission. You know that.”
She’d known in the abstract what Tom and his men did, but it was so much more graphic seeing it with her own eyes. How did this kind, gentle, decent man manage to kill without batting an eyelash, yet still retain his humanity? How could she love a man capable of such casual violence?
“Annie, I don’t enjoy killing. But if it’s necessary, wouldn’t you rather have someone like me doing it than someone who gets pleasure out of it?”
He had a point. “I suppose so. I just wish it weren’t necessary.”
“We try to minimize deaths, but it’s not always possible. I’m sorry you had to see that, but it couldn’t be helped.” He rolled on his side and hugged her close. “Try to get some rest.”
She snuggled against the warmth of his body and closed her eyes. But visions of three men falling in a twisted heap kept playing over and over in her head. Sleep refused to come.
After several minutes she whispered, “Tom?”
“Hmm?”
“How come those soldiers didn’t see us?”
“They probably hadn’t been outside long enough for their night vision to be optimum. As long as none of us moved, there wasn’t much but a few black shadows to see.”
“Why are we sitting here if there’s not any fighting?”
“That’s why. It’s too quiet. Howdy and Tex are checking it out. I want to know where the army and the rebels are.”
Annie frowned. She trusted Tom’s judgment, but it still seemed as if they ought to be moving when there weren’t any soldiers around.
Tom murmured, “If the rebels pulled out their main force to attack the east sector, they should have left at least a few patrols behind.”
Annie asked, “Who were the guys you killed?”
Tom’s one-word reply chilled her. “Army.”
“What were they doing here?” Annie asked.
His reply was grim. “That’s what we’re hoping Howdy and Tex can find out.”
THEIR VIGIL WAS long and cold, but Tom had sat through worse. Until Annie’s hand started roaming across his chest. She was probably cold and looking for a warm spot to put it. He tucked it under his armpit. But that pulled her body against his, the fullness of her breasts pushing impudently against him. It also brought her mouth disturbingly close to his neck.
She behaved for a few minutes, but then her lips began to move against the sensitive spot at the base of his neck. She undulated slowly against him in the way that always drove him over the edge, while her mouth’s explorations moved from his neck to his earlobe.
His respiration jumped, as did the nether regions of his body. His body temperature spiked, and suddenly the night’s chill was no longer a problem. Nothing much was going on while they waited. He understood her impulse. One of the side effects of screaming adrenaline rushes was getting turned on. Very turned on.
His free hand roamed down her back to cup her behind the way he’d been itching to ever since he first saw her in the sassy black slacks that outlined her derriere so enticingly. He pressed her close. Her thigh rode up his until her it caressed the hardening bulge of his trousers.
And then Doc’s whispered voice shocked him like a bucket of ice water.
“You okay, Hoss? You’re breathing hard.”
Aww, hell. He was in the middle of a war zone, and he’d completely lost his concentration.
Annie’s leg jerked back down. She stilled abruptly beside him.
He muttered in chagrin, “Bad dream, I guess. Ready for me to take a turn at the watch?”
“Sure.”
Tom shrugged away from Annie and wriggled forward while Doc wriggled back. He settled into place, the position as familiar as breathing to him. He pressed his cheek against the machine gun that had been his companion for the past ten years. Its cold caress focused his mind, reminded him of who and what he was.
He hadn’t liked the reflection of himself he’d seen in Annie’s eyes earlier. Had he become a cold-blooded killer? It was a sobering thought.
A movement caught his attention, and he zoomed in the high-powered night scope. His finger caressed the weapon’s trigger with a delicacy that would have sent Annie into screaming ecstasy, had it been her instead of the gun he stroked. Stop it!
Panic clawed at Tom’s throat. Had he completely lost his ability to do his job? Should he declare himself unfit and turn leadership of the team over right now? What had Annie done to him? He was going to get them killed if he couldn’t keep his mind on his work.
He registered a tabby cat picking its way across a pile of rubble on the far side of the intersection. His threat reaction subsided, but not the out-of-control feeling hovering just beyond his grasp. Christ. He had to pull himself together for all their sakes. He concentrated fiercely on emptying his mind of everything but himself, the rifle and the street before him.
Whatever he was, murderer or otherwise, he wasn’t about to psychoanalyze himself tonight. He’d do whatever it took to get Annie and his men out of Gavarone alive. The chips would just have to fall where they would later.
And in the meantime he had to stay the hell away from Annie.
IT WAS close to two hours later when Howdy eased into Tom’s line of sight. It had taken Tom most of his watch to get control of himself again, but he believed, he hoped, he’d achieved a proper frame of mind.
The sniper dashed across the street and slid under the netting beside Tom.
In a rare state of agitation, Howdy whispered, “The whole damn army’s headed this way. They’re moving tanks, armored personnel carriers, artillery, the works. They’ve got a good two thousand troops with them on foot moving door to door. We’ve got to get out of here now.”
“How much time till contact?”
“Fifteen, maybe twenty minutes. They’re converging on our position from the south and west.”
Dutch murmured, “If we bug out now, we’ll lose Tex. He doesn’t know this sector well enough to find us. There’s no rendezvous point arranged.”
“Is Tex in radio contact?” Tom asked tersely.
“No,” Dutch replied.
Tom’s gaze swept the street through his scope while he thought furiously. Without Annie they could afford to stick around and wait a while longer for Tex to return. But with her slowing down their departure, they needed to leave now.
Dammit! How was he supposed to choose between endangering her and endangering his entire team? The next second suspended itself around him in a slow-motion eternity of hell. This was the moment of crisis he’d felt building and had dreaded for the past month. He’d known in his gut it would come down to something like this.
It was an ironclad creed among their kind never, ever, to leave one of their own behind, alive or dead. Were it not for Annie, there’d be no choice at all. They’d stay. But how could he live with himself if she couldn’t hack the pace or dangers of a hairy egress and got killed? There was no way to choose between her good and the good of his team.
Howdy murmured, “Hoss, Annie’s going to be a liability. We need to roll now.”
Tom turned his head to stare at the man who’d been at his side for the past decade. Their gazes locked. Howdy understood. Tom saw it in the fathomless grief of Howdy’s gaze. They were going to have to sacrifice Tex—their friend and brother. Tom closed his eyes for a moment, praying that Tex could take care of himself. Then he reached deep for the strength to call the retreat.
Annie spoke as he opened his mouth, cutting him off. “We’re not leaving until Tex gets back, and that’s all there is to it.” Her tone was belligerent.
Tom replied gently, “We have to, angel.”
“I won’t leave one of you guys behind again. I refuse to be responsible for choosing to let one of you die.” Her tone was adamant, final.
“Now look here…”
“Tom, unless you plan to sling me over your shoulder and carry me out of here, that’s the only way I’m budging.”
He frowned, weighing the steel in her tone. “The longer we wait, Annie, the rougher the egress is going to be. You may not be able to keep up….”
“If you guys can act like superheroes when the chips are down, so can I. I’ll take responsibility for keeping up with you guys. If I can’t, it’ll be on my head.”
Dammit! This was just the sort of behavior he’d warned her about. “Annie, you promised you’d follow my orders. And I’m ordering you to leave with us now.”
Her reply was simple. “No. I don’t consider that to be a lawful order.”
It bloody well was a lawful order, and he’d see her court-martialed and hanged from a yardarm for disobeying if they got out of here alive. But right now what he needed was for her to get her butt in gear and move out.
“I will carry you if I have to…” he started.
Howdy touched him on the sleeve, stopping his budding tirade. Tom frowned at his old friend.
The sniper said softly, “Honor her right to make this choice. She’s a duly commissioned military officer, and she knows the risk she’s accepting.”
Tom closed his eyes, hating the truth of Howdy’s words. He nodded once.
Howdy squeezed his arm briefly, while Annie’s sigh of relief tickled his eardrum.
Wrung out to the core of his being, Tom prayed fervently for Tex to appear.
Ten endless minutes ticked past. Annie’s survivability grew more and more precarious with each passing second. Tom was on the verge of ordering the retreat when, suddenly, a man-size black shape loomed in front of him.
Tex didn’t waste time on niceties.
He panted, “It’s a trap. The rebels didn’t leave this sector. They’re on foot and in vehicles, waiting in force about three blocks northeast of here to ambush the army.”
