Page 21 of Hazard

Preacher’s voice came over the comms. “Nothing moving, boss. No lights, no activity. It’s like a ghost town.”

“And this is the fucking Wild West,” Boomer said.

“Break, set up overwatch and cover our sixes.” Ice’s voice was hard. Skull’s boss didn’t like what could be a major goatfuck in the making.

Breakneck headed for higher ground, making absolutely no noise.

They moved forward, and Bones started to get agitated. Then Skull got that itch—a combat itch—the feel of close and present danger.

“It’s too damn quiet,” he said. “Bones picked up something.”

“TOC,” Iceman said.

“Go for TOC,” Patch replied.

“At target. What does ISR tell us?”

SEALs relied on the small drone that gave them eyes in the sky—Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance, and Skull was grateful for their watchdog.

“Your eyes aren’t deceiving you,” Patch said.

“If that Italian bastard sent us to an empty hole—” Iceman growled. The CNP guys shifted uneasily.

By this time, they’d reached the outer door. Iceman nodded to Boomer, who pulled out a sledge and took care of the lock. They moved inside with precision movements. “Left clear,” GQ said.

“Right, clear,” Kodiak said.

Skull saw a fuse box beside the door. “Ice?”

He lifted his NVGs, and the team followed suit. He shifted the lever up. Light flooded the area. The completely empty area. There was no equipment, no pallets, no chemicals, except for the faint odor that filled the air.

“Son of a?—”

“Ice! Incoming! Incoming,” Breakneck said through the comms, but his words and voice were drowned out as gunfire ripped into the open room. Skull and his teammates hit the deck. After taking cover, Skull popped up and hit the lever, dousing the light as heated pieces of lead bounced and whizzed everywhere. Outside the window, one of the chemical dumps ignited, sending debris, fire, and smoke into the air. The blast smashed windows, buckled the wall closest to it, glass and fragments raining down on them. Skull covered Bones. It wasn’t just an empty hole, it was an ambush, a fucking kill zone.

After Hazard and his team left, Leigh paced back and forth in the sweltering run-down shack they had set up in. Her nerves were as tight as wires. She was eager for this mission to come to fruition, hopefully bagging them more intel, and cartel members or workers to twist information from for any leads.

“You’re going to wear yourself out, ma’am,” the Marine said.

She smiled at him, already worn out in more ways than one. But the coffee had given her a second wind. He wasn’t a kid, but he still looked so young. “My first SEAL mission.”

He nodded. “They are the best at what they do, ma’am.”

“Leigh is better than ma’am,” she said. Yeah, agreeing with him, they were, she thought, pushing not only her turmoil over what had gone on between her and Hazard, but the fact that he was out there, in unknown danger, doing what he was trained to do. She had to rely on the competence of that team, the one who took down NSH.

“Troops in combat!” came over the comms, and Leigh felt the blood drain out of her. That was gunfire…raging gunfire. She’d never heard real combat in her life, and this was terrifying. To think the men who she had…dammit…bonded with were in that kind of danger was almost overwhelming her. Hazard. Oh, God was he all right? “We’re surrounded and?—”

Suddenly, the computer screen went blank, and Iceman’s words were cut off. Leigh tensed.

“What happened?” Patch said. “Get them back.”

Jack manipulated the keyboard. “The drone…it’s not transmitting anymore. I think it was hit.”

“Dammit. Call in QRF.”

“Sir,” one of the techs said, “the cameras aren’t functioning cor?—”

Leigh heard the whistle just before the pressure and flash as an explosion rocked the building, knocking her off her feet, a sharp pain cutting into her side. She had no idea how long she lay there or if she had even blacked out. There was a heavy weight on her, and she shifted, realizing that the weight that hit her and was currently on top of her was her Marine guard. Dazed, her focus blurry, she blinked to clear her vision and gasped hard when she was met with his open and staring eyes above her. Swallowing against the sudden tightness in her chest and the fear that was climbing up her throat, she worked at not falling into full-blown panic as adrenaline pumped into her system.

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