Heroes in Uniform: Soldiers, SEALs, Spies, Rangers and Cops: Sexy Hot Contemporary Alpha Heroes From NY Times and USA Today Bestselling Authors

by Sharon Hamilton

  His words were drowned out by a deafening explosion. Erin’s gasp was lost in the roar. She hit the hardwood as the floor and ceiling shook, raining bits of plaster down on them. Wade jerked her close and rolled on top of her, covering her with his weight and shielding her head with his arms. When the house stopped rumbling he moved off her and she got a lungful of thick, acrid smoke coming from the family room.

  “Jesus Christ,” Schafer muttered, coming up onto his elbows to look behind them. Erin followed his gaze. The wall separating the hallway from the family room had holes the size of dinner plates in it and an orange glow flickered over the hall. The crackle and hiss of flames penetrated the ringing in her ears as the silence settled over them.

  “What the hell was that, an RPG?”

  “Felt like it,” Wade answered, his posture and face tense as he glanced from the glow of the flames through the holes in the wall and back to her. The anxiety burning inside her exploded into full-on fear as she realized they’d have to move before backup arrived, before the smoke or another RPG killed them all. “We’ve gotta get out the back before he can circle around.” He scanned her from head to boots. “Grab a jacket.”

  They had a tiny window of opportunity to exit the house before the sniper repositioned or maybe fired another rocket at them. On her stomach, she crawled as fast as she could toward the foyer, radio in her back pocket and the Beretta clutched tight in her hand. Already the smoke was thickening, stinging her nose and throat, making her eyes water.

  Her coat was in the coat closet next to the back door. She hugged the wall and gingerly reached up a hand to pull the door open, careful to keep out of sight through the glass in the back door. Behind her she heard Wade talking on his cell, calling in the situation to who she assumed must be someone at the CIA. Looking back, she saw what was left of the family room completely engulfed in flames. She jerked her jacket down from the hanger and put it on as Wade and Schafer crept toward her down the hall.

  Wade’s gaze connected with hers. “Let’s get outta here.” He nodded toward the door.

  Any exit was a risk at this point, but the door gave them the biggest opening to go through and trying the window now would stack them up and cost time they didn’t have. The smoke would kill them if they stayed in here for more than a few minutes. “Okay.” Her voice sounded far steadier than she felt. They had no idea what was waiting for them outside.

  He nodded once and started for the back door on his stomach. “Stay behind me. Schafer, you stay on her six.” They crouched together at the door. Erin’s heart drummed hard against her ribs. Was there only one shooter out there? Where was he now? No way of knowing until they stepped outside, but they couldn’t stay here like sitting ducks.

  Wade took her chin in his hand, startling her out of her thoughts. His dark eyes were so intense that she shivered. “Run east to the neighbor’s place. Don’t stop, whatever you do, no matter what.”

  He meant if he was hit, he was ordering her to leave him and keep going. Well, fuck that. She opened her mouth to argue, but he cut her off with pressure against her jaw and a tight shake of his head. “Don’t you stop. Find cover and call for help, or snag a vehicle and get out of here.”

  Already knowing she wouldn’t budge from Wade’s side if something happened to him, she nodded anyway. But she couldn’t keep from reaching up to lock her hand around his thick wrist and squeezing once, hard. She was scared, but more terrified that she might lose him. He’d come to mean so much to her in such a short time, she couldn’t take it if she lost him now. Not like this. Not before they even had a chance to find out if what they had was as powerful as she thought it was.

  His hard expression softened for just a fraction of a second, then he dropped his hand. “I’m gonna open the door and hang back a second. On my word, we’re all gonna haul ass next door. Got it?”

  When both she and Schafer nodded, he rolled to face the door and inhaled deeply. “Here we go,” he murmured, and reached for the deadbolt.

  It turned with a sickeningly loud snick in the eerie stillness.

  His hand gripped the knob. “Get ready.” He flipped the knob and yanked the door open while they plastered themselves up against the wall.

  No shots. Only the intensified sound of the wind and rain.

  Erin swallowed and watched Wade, who was scanning the area he could see outside from their position. He rose slowly to one knee, his pistol gripped in both hands. “Now.”

  With that he surged upward and barrelled through the back door. Erin felt like she was on autopilot as she shot to her feet and followed. Rain and wind slapped at her face, the waterlogged ground making squishing sounds beneath her boots with each stride. Wade tore across the grass in a zigzag pattern to avoid enemy fire as he led the way. His long legs ate up the distance but she knew he was holding some of his speed back in order to stay close to her.

  Scanning the thicket of trees to the south, her breath sawed in and out of her lungs as she waited for the shooter to open fire once more. There could be others, or he could have repositioned already without them noticing. Thudding steps behind her told her Schafer was sticking close behind her as Wade had ordered.

  It felt like it took hours instead of minutes to cross the lawn. Wade hesitated at the split rail fence separating the property lines and looked back at her. A spray of mud and grass kicked up a few feet to Erin’s left. She yelped and veered right, terror streaking through her. The lack of body armor made her feel even more vulnerable.

  Wade turned away from the fence as though he was going to come back to her. She opened her mouth to yell at him to run just as another round slammed into the grass between them. The continued misses told her the shooter wasn’t very experienced, but that did nothing to dull the knife-sharp edge of fear.

  She veered left, desperate to avoid the sniper’s crosshairs and kept on running. Wade grabbed her around the torso when she reached him and flung her over the fence. She sailed over it, arms pin-wheeling as she landed, but it was no use. Her feet came out from under her and she hit the muddy ground on her belly with a hard grunt.

  Scrambling to her feet, she risked a glance over her shoulder in time to see Wade and Schafer both vaulting the fence. Another bullet took a chunk out of the top railing. Schafer yelled in pain, his face contorting as he fell head-long on the sodden grass. Wade instantly lunged for him, jerking him up by one arm as he pinned Erin with blazing dark eyes. “Run, goddammit!”

  She turned and ran, heading for the small, red barn about fifty yards away. Her legs felt strangely numb, her muscles rubbery with fear. Almost to the barn, she heard a pained grunt and whipped her head around.

  Wade.

  He’d fallen face-first into the ground. She skidded to a stop, her heart lurching, certain he’d been hit. Before she could take a single step toward him, he got up and reached for Schafer, and Erin realized the other man must have been hit again. He was barely moving as Wade hauled him upward and tossed him over his shoulders.

  Using the adrenaline still coursing through her body, Erin sprinted for the barn. When she’d reached the far side of it she crouched down and rapidly sucked air into her starving lungs. Wade shot around the corner moments later, dropped to his knees and slid Schafer off him, revealing the trail of blood streaking his side and jeans.

  “Hit twice,” Wade panted as he settled his former teammate onto his back. He looked up at her. “See what you can do for him while I find us a way out of here.”

  She nodded and turned her attention to the wounded man as Wade got up and disappeared around the back of the barn. Schafer’s face was pinched, his jaw locked tight against the pain. Erin bent over him and pulled his hands away from the wound in his side, slipping into medical mode.

  “I’m a nurse,” she told him, ripping his shirt open. Something had penetrated his chest wall just beneath his left armpit. A bullet fragment or a shard of wood, most likely from the size of the entry wound. “Can you talk to me?” She couldn’t find an exi
t wound anywhere, but he did have another hole in his left calf. That was the least of her concern right now though.

  “Hard to…breathe,” he panted, his breaths short and rapid. Frothy blood oozed out of the small wound. A sucking chest wound. Extremely serious and potentially lethal if he didn’t get proper treatment in time.

  “I know, but try to stay calm. I’ll be here with you until help arrives. Just focus on staying calm, keep your breathing as slow and shallow as you can.” She had nothing to treat or dress the wound with and he would lose too much body heat if she stripped his shirt off in these temperatures. The last thing they could afford was him going into shock. Instead, she took off her jacket and peeled her own shirt off then put the jacket back on.

  Balling up her shirt, she pressed it to the wound, ignoring his hissed breath, and pulled his arm down to lock the shirt in position. Just as she was applying pressure to his arm to help staunch the bleeding, an engine fired up nearby. Seconds later an old blue pickup barrelled around the corner and Wade emerged from the cab.

  He took in Schafer with a single glance. “How bad is it?”

  “He needs an ambulance or an E.R.,” she told him.

  Wade’s mouth tightened at the announcement. “Can’t wait here.” He hurried forward and carefully lifted Schafer over his shoulder, sliding him into the rear bench seat of the cab. Erin climbed in next to him as Wade got behind the wheel, slammed the door and put the truck into gear. The vehicle skidded around in a slew of mud and gravel, then shot down the driveway toward the road.

  Schafer was struggling to breathe, his face pale and sweaty. She had to stop the air from leaking into his chest cavity, or his lung could collapse and send him into cardiac arrest. Since he’d stayed behind her to protect her during the run to safety and she was pretty sure he wasn’t involved in any of this since he’d been the one who was shot, she didn’t want him to die.

  She scrambled over the console and leaned in to wrench the glove box open. Rifling through it, she tossed aside a couple maps and a flashlight, then spied the insurance papers and a roll of duct tape.

  Jackpot.

  She grabbed the tape and tore off a large piece of the thin plastic envelope holding the papers. Lifting Schafer’s arm, she pressed the plastic tight over the wound to seal it and prevent any air from entering, then used her teeth to rip three pieces of duct tape. After wiping the blood away, she taped the top and sides of the plastic tight to his skin, leaving the bottom open to allow for a one-way valve.

  Once she was sure it was staying in place, she pressed his arm against it and turned him slightly onto his side to ensure optimal function in his undamaged lung. “Better now?” she asked him, using her thigh to anchor him in place. It was the best she could do under the circumstances, and she hoped it bought him enough time for them to reach a hospital.

  “Little,” he managed.

  She braced a hand on the roof to steady herself as the truck bounced and jostled its way down the gravel driveway.

  “Here.” Wade reached back to offer her his jacket. She took it and covered Schafer, then put pressure on the wound in his calf and met Wade’s eyes in the rearview mirror. There was nothing more she could do for Schafer. He needed a chest tube and a trauma team, STAT, to protect his lung and get the bleeding under control.

  Wade looked away, back to the road in front of them, expression grim. “Hold on tight,” he warned.

  Erin braced herself and Schafer as Wade slowed the truck at the end of the driveway then made a sharp, quick left and gunned it.

  Danger Close: Chapter Seventeen

  Wade pinned the accelerator to the floorboard. The ancient truck—beast had to be damn near forty years old—grudgingly responded, slowly gaining speed but not as quickly as he’d like. Adrenaline surged through him, the urge to escape intensified because of Erin. She was innocent in all of this and those fuckers had tried to take her out anyway. Raw fury burned through his veins.

  He sped down the country road in the opposite direction of the safe house. In the rearview he could see the bright orange flames licking up the siding and onto the roof, but luckily, so far no one seemed to be following them. His mind raced as fast as the struggling engine as he sped down the road, wipers swishing fast to clear the torrential rain. A sniper and an RPG?

  A stop sign appeared through the gloom up ahead. He glanced in the rearview at Erin. “How’s he doing?”

  “Hanging in there. How long to the nearest hospital?”

  Too fucking far. “Not long,” he lied for Schafer’s benefit, though even through his shock he had to realize it.

  “My wife,” Schafer wheezed. “Daughter.”

  “Shh,” Erin said. “Don’t talk now, just concentrate on taking those small, shallow breaths like you were doing. As soon as we can get you to an emergency room we’ll get you a decompression and you’ll be able to breathe easy again.”

  Wade’s jaw tightened as he slowed to make the right turn that would take them toward the highway. Whatever Erin had jury-rigged seemed to have worked for now, but it might not be enough. He was convinced Schafer was truly innocent now, but it still didn’t make any fucking sense. No way could anyone have found their location without either being dirty, or getting help from someone on the inside. Robert had sounded tense and grim when Wade had talked to him on the phone earlier and promised to assist them in any way he could. By now he’d already be at headquarters. Local cops would be on their way out, Robert would be assembling a response team and digging into what the hell was happening.

  Wade hit the brake to slow for the turn. “Hang on.” The bald tires squealed and slipped on the wet pavement as he cranked the wheel. The back end of the truck swung out in an arc as he took the corner hard and straightened it out. Thick stands of trees and field flashed by. An amber light flashed up ahead at the next intersection where a gas station and convenience store stood on one corner. Beyond that it was a straight one mile shot to the highway.

  The old engine revved with a high-pitched whine as the vehicle picked up speed once more. He didn’t let up on the gas when he neared the intersection, barely saw the dark SUV hurtling toward them at a ninety-degree angle before it shot through the light and wrenched into a hard right turn.

  Wade swore and veered to the side just in time to avoid impact. Erin gasped and slammed back into the window. A second SUV screeched around the corner and gave chase behind the first one. Was this the backup he’d been counting on? Sweat bloomed on Wade’s face and chest when the second vehicle remained behind the first. More bad guys. Must have been watching during the sniper episode and followed when they’d run. There was nowhere to go but forward and the old truck was too slow to evade the SUVs, which were already gaining on them.

  “You okay?” he asked tightly.

  “Yeah,” she muttered, rubbing the back of her head as she repositioned herself over Schafer to brace him and looked out the rear window. “What are we going to do?”

  He hated the thread of fear in her voice because he couldn’t do anything to stop it. “Buckle up tight. This is gonna be close.”

  She didn’t say anything, just scrambled to buckle Schafer in before doing up her own seatbelt and leaning low over him.

  Wade scanned the terrain around him, willing the truck to go faster. Ditches ran on either side of the two-lane road. There were no more places to turn until they hit the on-ramp. If he tried a one-eighty now he’d likely roll the truck and kill them all. The shrill pitch of the engine grated on his tautly stretched nerves—

  The rear window exploded in a shower of glass, the bullet tearing through the windshield mere inches to the right of Wade’s head. Erin cried out. He ducked and swerved, the back of the truck fishtailing before he regained control. Wind and rain blasted through the fist-sized hole left in the windshield, the safety glass already fracturing outward from it in a huge spider web. Fucking hell.

  “Stay down,” he snapped at Erin, just as another round impacted back in the bed somewhere.
He stuck his head out the driver window so he could see. The sign for the highway appeared on the shoulder. A quarter mile.

  Keeping his foot pinned to the floor, he steered the truck back and forth to try and avoid any more shots. When the on-ramp finally appeared up ahead, the SUVs were less than fifty yards behind them. Wade took the ramp at full speed and cut in front of a semi, barely avoiding its front end. The rig let out a blast from its horn but Wade ignored it, desperately trying to weave his way through the light traffic and buy them some distance and time.

  In the rearview the two SUVs were forced to slam on the brakes to avoid colliding with the semi. Wade seized the opportunity and cut into the far left lane, zipping in and out of slower traffic amidst the angry blare of horns.

  The SUVs were still back there, but having trouble following now. Wade got into the center lane, waiting until he had enough distance to give them a shot at losing the SUVs to veer across two lanes of traffic and take an exit late—cutting off yet another car. The driver hit the brakes and fishtailed on the wet pavement, swinging it around in a wide arc. The car behind it did the same, causing the semi to jack-knife and block the exit ramp behind them, providing a temporary traffic snarl.

  Thank you.

  Pulling his gaze away from the rearview as the two SUVs skidded to a halt back at the exit, Wade blew the red light at the bottom of the ramp and turned right. He sped through the residential neighborhood, zigzagging his way through the streets toward another on-ramp. As he merged onto the highway once more, he didn’t see any sign of the two SUVs behind them and pulled in the first deep breath he’d taken since that sniper had opened fire.

  There were two routes to the highway from the safe house. Too much coincidence that the two crews of gunmen had both guessed right. So how the fuck had they followed them? Were they tracking them somehow? If so, this reprieve was temporary. His and Erin’s phone were clean, he’d checked them himself.