Page 10 of Duty Bound

She held her breath, hardly daring to hope.

Holy crap, that was loud!

The shooting was right outside the entrance to the cave now. It reverberated off the stone interior, making her ears ring. The Taliban youth ran in, waving his weapon above his head, yelling at her in Pashto. She couldn’t understand him, but she did know it wasn’t good, so she curled up in a ball and tried to make herself as small a target as possible.

More yelling and shooting, then a beast of a man burst into the cave. He looked like something out of a futuristic horror movie, with a flashlight strapped around his head, a night vision scope covering half his face, and an enormous rifle aimed at the terrified Taliban fighter.

Before she had a chance to shout out, the beast pulled the trigger and cut the young man down in two short bursts from his gun.

Then he turned it on her.

CHAPTER 4

“Lilian Devereux?” the beast asked.

Stunned, she stared at the bloodied mess that had been the Taliban fighter, and then up at the shooter’s gun. He’d been so young.

“Lilian! Is that you?”

American. He was American. It filtered through her addled mind that he must be here for her.

“Yes,” she whispered, but he couldn’t hear her over the incessant shouting outside.

“What?”

“Yes!” She forced strength into her voice and bobbed her head.

“Good. I’m going to get you out of here.” Pushing the weapon over his shoulder, he bent down to inspect her shackles, then pulled out a lethal-looking combat knife. Her eyes widened as she recognized it. Joe had an identical one.

She gasped. “You’re Special Forces.”

The man pried the lock loose. He was pure Spec Ops, every move screamed it. He had that same chiseled-soldier look—all business, all mission.

With a grunt, he hauled her to her feet. Her ankles whined and blisters screamed, but with his arm wrapped around her—his grip like iron but not unkind—she was able to walk. “Let’s move out.”

They edged toward the mouth of the cave, the air turning colder. They almost made it, too, then all hell broke loose. Bullets flew from all directions.

He shoved her away and shouted, “Back!”

She crashed to the ground then covered her head.

The cave became a storm of sound and shrapnel. He was on comms, his voice a low growl of command. “Team, get the hostages clear. I've got Lilian.”

Something about the way he said her name sounded familiar, but she couldn’t quite pinpoint it. Was this one of Joe’s Green Beret’s buddies? Had their paths crossed before? She strained to get a clearer view of him, but it was dark in the cave and the blinding head light created a blurry halo around him, on top of which, the night-vision scope obscured part of his face.

He barked into his comms, the tension in his voice like a tightrope. “That’s a negative. I don’t want history repeating itself. Get those hostages to safety. That’s an order.”

This was not good.

“Other hostages?” She stared at him. “They’re here too?”

“Yeah, we tracked them via satellite. That’s how we knew where you were.” Grabbing her wrist, he pulled her to the back of the cave. “Any other exits?”

All she could think about was their near escape, and now they were trapped. A sob gurgled up in her throat.

“Lilian, look at me.”

She strained her neck. A beast of a man, but haloed by the bright head light, he was all shadow.

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