Page 103 of SEAL's Promise

The knots in Cal’s stomach indicated his team leader was right about one thing. Something was wrong. He worried this was an elaborate smokescreen to lure Wolf Pack from the Rocking M and Rachelle. Amy wasn’t the target. Rachelle was. But Wolf Pack couldn’t afford to ignore Brody’s call for backup.

Rachelle was in the safe room until he and his teammates returned to the ranch. Attackers couldn’t touch her. Still, he wouldn’t breathe easy until the woman he loved was in his arms again.

Twigs snapped ahead of Cal. He shifted his angle of approach, hugging the shadows. The sooner they took care of these troublemakers and returned to the Rocking M, the better. Eli’s famous gut was never wrong.

A minute later, he spotted his target, stalking through the underbrush, a weapon clutched in his hand. The man wore jeans and a cowboy shirt similar to the ones used by the ranch hands at the Rocking M. A frisson of uneasiness slithered up his spine.

“One down,” Rafe whispered through the comm system.

“Two down,” Jackson murmured.

Cal moved behind the man who turned at the last second. He slammed his elbow into the man’s jaw before he uttered a warning to his comrades. An audible crack sounded in the air as the man fell to the ground, motionless.

Cal kicked away his gun, rolled him to his stomach, and cinched his wrists with a zip tie. One of the Montgomery boys could scoop him up. “Three down.”

Jon and Eli reported one down for each of them.

Cal continued through the woods, moving closer to the house. Five tangos down. Five to go. Urgency pushed him to quicken his pace. Discipline drilled into him through years and hundreds of missions as a SEAL reined him in and forced him to move with caution.

At the edge of the clearing where the safe house had been built, another intruder crouched with a weapon in hand, aiming at the living room window. A second one hunkered fifteen feet away with his Sig aimed at the bedroom window where Eric lay.

Cal changed direction and worked his way toward the second man. The guy waited beside a large rock. Cal checked the angle. Good. He could work with that.

“You see anything?” the first man called softly to his buddy.

“No.”

“I think those bodyguards are a bunch of cowards or just plain stupid.”

“Shut up,” the second man hissed.

The two fell silent again until a shout on the other side of the clearing was cut off in mid-yell.

“What was that?”

“Trouble.”

Cal smiled. More trouble than those men knew.

“Six down,” Rafe murmured over the comm system.

Closing in on his target, Cal clamped one hand over the man’s mouth and wrapped his arm around the man’s throat, choking him out in seconds. Had to love a good sleeper hold, he thought, as he lay the man on the ground and cinched his wrists together. “Seven down,” he whispered.

Retracing his steps, Cal came up behind the first man. Something must have warned the cowboy that danger was near because he turned at the last second. He scowled, rose, and pivoted to aim his weapon toward Cal.

Cal kicked the weapon from his hand and tackled him. Cowboy landed a roundhouse punch to Cal’s jaw, threw him off, and dived on top of him to wrap meaty hands around his throat. Cowboy grinned as he squeezed, constricting Cal’s throat, cutting off his ability to breathe.

Cal slammed his fists against the crook of the man’s elbows, yanked him down, and wrapped his leg around the other man’s. He used his hip to buck Cowboy off, reversed their positions, and slammed his fist once, twice, three times into the man’s face. The thug’s eyes rolled back in his head.

After Cal secured Cowboy’s hands, he activated his mic. “Eight down.” His phone vibrated in his pocket. Scanning to be sure no threats were near, Cal checked the screen. Rachelle.

He read the short message, fear for her exploding in his gut. Cal activated his mic. “Trouble at the Rocking M. Armed gunmen heading for the house.”

“Copy,” Eli whispered. “Contact David. I’m on nine.”

“Roger that.” Swallowing hard, he called David Montgomery. “Trouble at the ranch. Armed gunmen are headed toward the house.”

“We’re already headed that direction, but we’re on the other side of the county.”

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