Page 22 of Hazard

There was a deafening boom, and the door burst in. Automatic gunfire sliced across the room. Anyone who wasn’t already down crouching for cover was cut down, the others returning fire. She pushed hard on the corporal, but he barely moved. She was getting frantic, and in her struggle turned her head to find Anna not far from her. Her temple was bleeding, her face peppered with small cuts. She wasn’t moving.

Leigh worked harder, fear rising in her, her breathing coming in labored gasps. Finally getting the dead weight of the corporal off her, she crawled over to Anna, dragging her limp body behind cover, meeting Patch’s fierce eyes. He nodded to her. The woman was breathing. Thank, God.

There was a scream, then it was cut off. The gunfire slowed, and when she peeked behind the desk she was crouched behind, she saw glimpses of prone bodies and tangled limbs. Blood was so…red was her only thought. Splattered all over the place, the walls, the tables, the equipment, the floor, and the mangled bodies.

A sickening rush clutched at her, her heart slamming in her chest as her stomach twisted.

“Find her!” a man said in Spanish.

The noise of desks being shoved, and equipment kicked out of the way, scaped across her senses. She was trapped, a terrible feeling twisting inside her. There was nowhere to go.

Suddenly, someone grabbed her hair and dragged her away from Anna. He pulled her around and consulted a photo in his hand. “It’s her, jefe,” he said.

The man nodded.

“This one’s still alive,” said a man with a scar on his face as he stood over Anna.

Leigh froze and didn’t utter a word, twisting in his grasp, trying not to panic as a strange lost feeling swept through her. He had her wrists in a one-handed grasp and worked his other hand roughly over her body without any care for her modesty. She struggled, kicked back until a man stuck a gun in her face. She lifted her chin, and he aggressively racked the slide. Her reaction was instant. Every muscle locked. Sweat blistered her upper lip, and the only sound was her heartbeat pounding in her chest.

After a moment that stripped her nerves, the man tipped the barrel down, and Leigh stumbled back. Her stomach lurched and, determined not to give them the satisfaction, she fought the urge to fold to her knees and vomit.

The man reached for her, but she shoved him, spun, and punched the man with the gun, then jumped through the hole in the wall.

She ran hard, heading toward the direction the SEALs had walked, anguish filling her for having to leave Anna behind. A gunshot sounded behind her, and she flinched, trying to make her body small, hoping with everything she had that Anna hadn’t been?—”

Something heavy hit her from behind, the impact snapping her head back before she fell hard. Then he was on her, crushing her into the dry dust. She tried shoving him off and wrestled for a moment, his cursing only making her fight harder.

She slapped him, pulled his hair, and then bit him hard. He howled, then whipped out a knife, pushing it in her face so close that if she moved, he would cut her cheek open. She held up her hands in surrender, and he smiled slyly, pressing his hips to hers briefly, sickened by his erection. He got off her and hauled her to her feet. As they dragged her away, something fluttered to the ground.

Her stomach churned, shock filling her as she saw the photo on the dusty ground, that terrible feeling she’d had intensifying. He shouldn’t have her picture. It made her feel queasy, and trapped, and like no part of her life was safe.

She was the target. Oh, God, they had all walked into an Alzate ambush because of her.

7

Nothing crossed Hazard’s mind except the firefight they were currently trying to live through, his mind focusing on the black-and-white elements of the battlefield—kill or be killed.

“Check in,” Iceman’s voice came over the comm. Hazard held his breath at the silence where Breakneck’s voice should have been.

His boss was back on the comms. “Breakneck? How copy?” Except for a faint static, complete silence. “Kid, how copy?”

Hazard’s chest expanded and he sighed hard. Just because Breakneck wasn’t answering didn’t mean he wasn’t alive. That kid was…resourceful, a wealth of personality behind those dark, depthless eyes. He was probably busy covering their asses.

Hazard looked out to the field, tracers of the weapons aimed at them almost nonstop like fireflies in the darkness. They had them pinned down, yet they hadn’t moved in. After a moment, it dawned on him. They were waiting for something. Who did these guys think they were dealing with? Novices?

Heedless of the bullets flying over him, he belly-crawled into the open. SEALs were never out of the fight, even if they were giving ground. As direct-action guys, retreating wasn’t in their vocabulary.

“Hazard! What the fuck are you doing?” Iceman growled over the comms.

“Recon, boss. They’re keeping us pinned down for a reason. I want to know what it is.”As a team, they relied on speed, surprise, and violence of action to achieve their goals, but Hazard had to be strategic in this instance. It was time for stealth.

He wanted to get in contact with TOC. They hadn’t been able to raise them on their communication channel, and without oversight, good old-fashioned surveillance would have to do. If the cartel had ambushed them, had they also ambushed their center of command? And if they had, Leigh…all the people they relied on…he couldn’t finish that thought. He needed to be on point right now.

“Keep your goddamn head down,” Iceman ordered, a voice echoing years of experience.

Hazard noticed to his left that there was a clump of trees that would give him some cover, although getting there was going to be a long sprint into possible incoming fire. From that vantage point, he would be able to get a closer perspective and discover the cartel’s plan for them. He was sure none of it was going to be good.

Breakneck had to break cover because they’d pinpointed his location, and if he’d stayed there, he would have been aerated.

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