Hallowed Ground

by Mary Alford

  Peter glanced around at the faces before him, his expression drawn. Troubled. They’d performed this type of mission half a dozen times or more. The timing was down to perfection, but something about the rush to get here worried Erin. “This one’s important,” Peter reminded them. “We don’t know exactly what we’re getting into down there, so stay alert and stay alive. Let’s go.”

  They descended the hill with stealth. One by one, the team acknowledged their position with a short whistle. Once everyone was in place, Peter signaled with another longer whistle. The silent count went to ten and then they were in motion.

  Erin and Jax eased with caution inside the camp. Nothing stirred. The place appeared eerily silent. In the past, they’d always run into a certain amount of opposition, which they managed to disarm. It came with the territory. The fact that they’d practically waltzed into the place undetected was another sign something didn’t feel right.

  To their left, a large tent had been erected. No doubt used for meetings or possibly a makeshift mess hall. Beyond that, three slightly smaller tents served as sleeping quarters for the troops.

  In a matter of minutes, the rest of the team converged in the center of the compound. Each shook their head, indicating they’d not run into any enemy troops.

  Peter pointed to the three smaller tents indicating that Dylan, Tyler and Sam should search two while Peter and Kabir took the third. Jax and Erin would cover the larger tent.

  He watched as his team entered their respective tents, then he and Erin headed toward the back side of the larger shelter.

  “I don’t like it,” Erin whispered, her voice shaky. She glanced over at Jax. His expression was drawn. His gaze darting around them.

  “Me neither. This isn’t right. I'll go in first. Keep a watch out for anything unusual.”

  With his weapon drawn, Jax stepped inside. A few seconds later, Erin followed.

  He stopped halfway inside the tent, whirling to face her. It was his expression that first told her something was dreadfully wrong. He looked as if he’d seen something frightening.

  “What is it?” she asked, her heart hammering against her chest.

  She just got the words out when he yelled, “The place is wired with explosives. Run, Erin.” Jax grabbed her arm and they raced toward the opening as fast as they could. They barely made it ten feet from the entrance when the earth around them rumbled and shook, then exploded with unparalleled shockwaves.

  ◆◆◆

  Dust boiled in all directions, covering everything.

  Erin! Where was she?

  He stumbled to his feet. Fear pumped adrenalin through his body at a rapid rate. He’d lost visual of her during the explosion. The tent and everything inside was reduced to a pile of rubble in a matter of seconds. Panic slithered down his spine. Reality set in. They were supposed to be dead.

  His hair was matted with blood, and he was scraped and bleeding in several places, but he was alive and in one piece. He ignored his pain. All he could think about was finding Erin. As the dust began to settle, he spotted her lying in a crumpled heap a few feet away. He ran to her side.

  Please. Lord. Let her be alive.

  “Erin.” Her right hand lay at an awkward angle. The same one she’d injured before. The blast had embedded bits of shrapnel in her face. Jax shook her hard, and she opened her eyes. “Are you okay? Can you move?”

  Before she could answer, a series of explosions rocked the earth beneath them once more. The remainder of the tents went up in a firestorm of blaze and smoke. Had the others escaped before the explosion?

  Jax covered Erin’s body with his until the immediate danger passed. They glanced at the raging inferno that replaced the tents. Jax grabbed his radio. “Dragon Team Two, this is Dragon Team One. Come in.”

  Empty silence met the request. He looked at Erin before repeating the command. “Dragon Team Three, come in. Dragon Team Two, come in.” He shoved the radio back in his jacket pocket and helped her to her feet.

  If his people had been inside the tents when the blasts occurred, they wouldn’t have survived. He shoved the doubts aside. “Let’s search the explosion area and pray they’re alive. Stay close to me.” He shot her a glance. “We don’t know what we’re facing. Whoever set the explosions could be close.”

  Jax hurried to the last place he’d seen Peter. Fire blazed from the contents of the tents, scorching his face. Shielding his eyes, the truth became apparent. No one from their team had made it out alive except for the two of them.

  He glanced around the wasteland. “We need to leave. It’ll be dawn soon. The people responsible for this will search the area for any survivors. It won’t take them long to realize we got out.”

  Emotion clogged his throat and he couldn’t choke back the grief. He was shell-shocked. They’d lost five good men in a matter of minutes. All were friends. No one deserved this.

  Jax forced his chaotic thoughts to come together. No matter how much he hurt and needed to grieve, now was not the time. The people responsible for this much destruction would stick close by to see the results of their work. They’d check each corpse. Every bit of evidence remaining. He and Erin had to keep moving.

  He swiveled to face her. Erin cradled her wrist against her body. Agony and grief marred her face. There was no time to address either.

  “We can’t go back the way we came,” she said. “Whoever set us up has probably destroyed the Humvee by now. They’d want to get rid of any evidence we were ever here.”

  They cleared what was left of the compound and were now faced with a decision. “There’s only one way out of here,” Jax said and spun toward the dark monster looming behind them. “We’ll have to cross over those mountains.”

  Together they stared up at the silhouette of the mountain range that had been the backdrop of some of the bloodiest battles in the War on Terror.

  Crossing the mountains meant they'd be facing dangerous weather conditions, including freezing temperatures. Yet the greater threat was traveling further into enemy territory. The passage here between the Hindu Kish Mountains was a known terrorist route. Right now, who posed the greatest threat? Al Hasan, the enemy they'd been tracking for years, or the traitor from their own country responsible for the carnage they’d escaped?

  “It’s our only hope of staying alive.” He stopped and peered at Erin. His heart went out to her. She had no way of knowing that her own people believed she was a traitor. The discussion he’d had with Peter all but confirmed that reality. If he had any say in it, she never would. He’d do everything within his power to prove her innocence.

  “Are you up to it?” he asked gently, seeing the pain etched on her face.

  She drew in a breath. The injury to the same wrist was an excruciating reminder of how difficult the crossing would be. “I am, but shouldn’t we call this in first? Let Coleman know what happened?”

  Erin glanced over her shoulder, surveyed the damage, then swallowed visibly. She’d loved each of their fallen comrades as well. The loss was indescribable for her as well as him. Jax couldn’t imagine the torment their families would go through when they learned the truth.

  Unable to stop himself, Jax faced the death trap they’d narrowly escaped before he shook his head. “Right now, our survival depends on staying ahead of whoever is responsible for what happened here.” He avoided her intense look and started walking, knowing she’d seen what he’d been trying to keep from her.

  Erin caught up with him quickly. “You know something more, don’t you? What aren’t you telling me?”

  When he ignored her question and kept walking, she grabbed his arm and stepped into his direct line of sight. “Jax?”

  He tried to think of something believable to satisfy her curiosity. "Truth is, I don’t know who to trust. Whoever was responsible for this knew we were coming. They wired the place expecting to kill everyone who walked into those tents. We’re all supposed to be dead. Why? Why are they coming after us full force?”

&nb
sp; Erin stared him down, trying to make sense of what he said. “There’s something more you haven’t told me.”

  The lack of moonlight made it hard to read her expression clearly. Jax moved closer. The death of his team weighed heavily on his conscience. He’d sent his friends to their death. “I’m saying, someone with intimate knowledge of this mission—someone from our side—tipped them off.”

  Erin blew out a breath, and they started walking once more. “There’s no way.” She felt as strongly about the team’s innocence as he once had. “I refuse to believe it was someone from our unit. It has to be someone else. Someone with a lot of juice, to be able to pull off an attack of this magnitude.”

  He was inches from her and could almost feel her trying to make sense of what he’d said. Glancing sideways, he focused on her face. She was wide-eyed. Shocked.

  “This is crazy. Isn’t it? Tell me it’s crazy,” she said, breathing the words out.

  Jax had argued the same points to himself, to no avail.

  “So, what happens now that everyone’s gone and we’re still alive? Are they going to try to lay the blame for what happened at our door?”

  He wished that he could answer no, but he knew the truth. The secretary of defense had cleared him already. He wasn’t under suspicion. Erin was the one they were coming after full force. He tried to come up with a decent answer for her. “I honestly don’t know. Right now, we need to try to stay alive long enough to clear our names and figure out who’s really behind this. So can you make the climb or not?” The words came out harsher than he intended. He was angry, not with her, but with the person responsible for so much carnage.

  Erin wanted to ask more, he could tell, but now was not the time.

  She slowly nodded. “Don’t worry about me, I'll be fine.” But he had his doubts. He couldn’t help it. He could see the way she favored her wrist. It was going to be a struggle to summit the mountain.

  “Wait here. I'll see if I can find a decent place to cross.” Jax left her alone, needing to gather his composure. He couldn’t let her see how worried he was. Their entire team was dead. Their friends gone. Someone close to them had set them up. And the CIA’s top suspect was Erin.

  Nothing about the path they’d have to take was reassuring. It would be a rough trek, but they were out of options. He shook his head and went back to her. “Here.” She jumped when he materialized beside her. “Sorry,” he said and took off his jacket. Ripping parts of the liner out, he wrapped her swollen wrist tight, then he tied a piece of the cloth around her neck in a makeshift sling. “Better?” he asked.

  “Yes, much. Thanks.” She attempted a half-hearted smile, putting on a brave front, but not fooling him for a second.

  “That should keep it from jostling around too much as you walk. I’m afraid there’s no easy way over the mountains, though.”

  Erin was a trained agent. They’d been through situations like this before. She’d pull her weight. With a final look behind them, she shivered and said, “Let’s get out of here.”

  She followed him to the path he’d chosen. When they reached it, he stopped. “Without proper climbing gear, there’s really only one way over.” Nothing about their crossing would be easy, but at least it wasn’t a sheer upward climb. There were enough rocks and small scrub trees to help with the footing, and it would give them something to grasp.

  On the other side of the mountain range lay Pakistan. Jax wasn’t sure which was the lesser of two evils. Staying and facing a traitor who’d killed his entire team or summiting that mountain range. He prayed they weren’t signing their death certificates by crossing into a territory where it was rumored the price of a life could be bought and sold to the highest bidder.

  Chapter Eight

  Erin couldn’t hide the throbbing pain in her wrist. It had swollen to almost double its size. Even with the wrap and sling, every little move sent pain shooting up her arm.

  “Let’s stop for a second,” Jax said when he saw that she was in trouble.

  Erin nodded because managing a single word was impossible. Exhaustion weighed down her limbs. They’d been walking nonstop for hours. She dropped to a large rock, closing her eyes briefly. It had been daylight for a while. With the sunrise, every step they made now posed a potential threat.

  Taking out a canteen, she drank conservatively. Jax did the same, glancing around their surroundings. He was worried for good reason. She could see the tension in his shoulders. The taut set of his jaw.

  Pulling her thoughts together was next to impossible. Their entire team had been slaughtered. They were on their own like deer during hunting season. She couldn’t wrap her head around it. By now, the people who’d set the explosions knew they were still alive and would come after them. She and Jax couldn’t afford to rest for long.

  “How’s your wrist holding up,” he asked, moving closer to her.

  Truth was, she was barely hanging on, but she couldn’t tell him that. He had enough to worry about. “It’s okay.” She tried to sound positive, but fell short, and he saw it.

  Frustration sparked in his eyes. “We need help. There are more of them than us. We’ll be outmanned if it comes to a firefight, and they’re highly motivated.” She knew what that meant. If they were captured, they’d be as dead as the rest of their team.

  “I’m going to try Coleman on the sat phone. See if he can get us out of here.”

  Erin nodded without answering, conserving her waning energy. She tried not to get her hopes up. Even if Coleman could arrange to get them out of the area, they’d still have a lengthy hike in front of them.

  Jax stepped away, searching for a good signal. When it finally came, he dialed the number. Her eyes glued to him as she said a silent prayer for God’s help. She didn’t want to die here with so many unanswered questions.

  “Coleman, thank goodness. It’s Jax. We were attacked.” Relief swept through her as Jax explained what had happened. “I have bad news.” Jax paused. “Everyone else in the unit was killed, including Peter. Erin and I managed to escape, but we need your help. The people who set the explosives are still out there. We need an exit plan.” He stopped to listen, his gaze latching onto Erin.

  “Yes, I believe so, but I’m not sure how much longer we can stay hidden,” Jax answered. “This is dangerous territory, as you well know. The enemies are unlimited, not to mention the weather playing a factor. We won’t stay alive long under these conditions.”

  She shivered at his words. The clouds from earlier had begun to produce snow. With the flurries, the temperature had plunged to below freezing.

  “I understand.” A frown creased Jax’s forehead. “You’re kidding? I can’t believe it.” All color seeped from his face. Something was wrong. “Okay,” Jax breathed out, then typed something into his burner phone. “I have the coordinates. We’ll be there.”

  He ended the call, then ran a hand over his eyes.

  Erin jumped to her feet and went to him. “What is it?” she asked, fearing his answer.

  He blew out a sigh. “The weather’s preventing an immediate extraction. They’re going to try to get us out tomorrow afternoon, if the weather clears. We’ll meet them at an abandoned airstrip across the border in Pakistan.”

  The news wasn’t good. They’d have to hike all day and through the night to make it to the site. She studied his face. There was more.

  “What haven’t you told me?” she asked.

  His gaze fell to hers. “There was an attack late last evening on the Afghan ambassador as he was heading home.”

  Shock left her speechless for a moment, her eyes wide. “Is he okay?”

  “I’m not sure. The embassy isn’t talking, but I sure hope so. Coleman and the ambassador are friends. They’ve known each other since they worked together following 9/11. He’s pretty torn up about it.”

  Erin tried to make sense of the latest news. How did it play into what happened here? “Do you think the ambassador’s attack is related to this?” She swept her
hand around them.

  “I don’t know, but I’d say it’s a pretty odd coincidence, wouldn’t you?” He shook his head. “We still have a lot of miles to cover before we get to the location, but the good news is: help is on the way. Someone else knows what happened here.”

  He touched her face gently, and she closed her eyes. His words sounded like pure heaven, as did his touch.

  She leaned into his hand, feeling warmth and strength there.

  When she opened her eyes, he was staring at her with a strange expression on his face. She’d seen it so many times before. It lay bare all the longings of his heart.

  Swallowing visibly, he drew her close. Her eyes grew large, looking into his, seeing things that gave her hope and made her want to run away at the same time. He leaned in, his lips against hers. A tiny sigh escaped as she lost herself in his kiss. Her hand rested on his chest as the kiss deepened, and she found herself drowning, blocking everything else out, including the fight to live that lay in front of them.

  But they couldn’t stay in this tender moment long.

  Jax slowly ended the kiss, his eyes dark with emotion. Questions she couldn’t answer there. She leaned her head against his. She just wanted to be close to him for a little while longer.

  “Erin,” he whispered her name. She knew he wanted to talk, but she wasn’t ready to go there yet. Couldn’t let herself think about the future with so much uncertainty facing them.

  She shook her head, touching her finger to his lips. “Not yet. I don’t want to talk about it yet.”

  As she peered into his eyes, she could tell this was not what he wanted to hear, but he accepted her answer for the moment.