Page 62 of Strike Fast

Taggart grabbed his upper arm to stop him, his pale aqua gaze intense. “I’m putting you in charge. Pick four agents and gear up, then get out there before Ruiz’s men do.”

Reid leapt into action. He rounded up four special agents providing perimeter security and found a ballistic vest, helmet and weapons. They didn’t have much time, so after a brief rundown of the situation and a look at the map, they jumped in an agency SUV and roared off to a spot up the road that put them as close as they could get to the crash site.

He hopped out of the vehicle and took point as they entered the forest that stood between them and the downed helo crew, on alert for Ruiz’s men. Seventy yards in, the distant crack of sporadic gunfire filtered through the trees.

“We’ve lost visual on you,” Taggart’s voice said in Reid’s earpiece. “Be advised, enemy force is a hundred-twenty-yards east of crash site, and closing.”

Reid moved faster. “Copy.” The race was on to reach the crew before Ruiz’s men did.

The dense trees and heavy underbrush made it impossible to maintain a straight path as he led them deeper into the woods, using a compass to keep his bearings. About a half mile in, the smell of oil-laden smoke reached them. Looking up, Reid spotted a plume of dark gray overhead, trailing west from the downed helo. An arrow pointing right to them, for both rescuer and foe.

They pushed faster, hurrying through the woods as the sound of the distant gunfire grew louder. Reid shifted his grip on his rifle, all his senses on alert as they neared the far side of the forested area. Pausing just inside the screen of trees that bordered the old logging road to look around, he spotted the smoking helo about fifty yards to the left, then swung his gaze right.

The moment he saw Tess conscious, propped against a tree and wrapped in the silver thermal blanket, his heart rate slowed and he pulled in a deep breath. They’d made it in time.

“Chalk two, we’re moving toward you from your ten o’clock,” he told the crewmember monitoring the radio frequency.

“We copy.”

Reid signaled the others behind him to move forward, and emerged from the trees.

The crewmember hunched down beside Tess said something to her. She twisted her head around to look, her honey-blond hair fallen out of its normally neat bun and tangled around her face and shoulders. Blood smeared the lower half of her left cheek. When their gazes connected, the sheer relief on her pain-pinched face made his chest tighten.

Directing three of his men to maintain a perimeter, he and the fifth man started toward the crew. Reid hurried to Tess and crouched down beside her while the other man went to check out the other injured crewmember.

He set a hand on the uninjured side of her face, bringing her gaze to his. “Hey, sweetheart.” He didn’t care if it gave his feelings for her away to the others. He was just so damn glad she was alive after that harrowing crash. “Where are you hurt?”

She peered up at him with pain-glazed eyes. Her pupils were evenly dilated though. “Right collarbone,” she muttered, grimacing as she shifted.

She was beyond pale, her skin having an almost grayish tinge. He was worried about internal injuries as well. He slid his fingers around her wrist, pressing the pads of his index and middle finger gently against her radial artery. Her pulse was rapid, but strong.

“I put a sling around it as best I could,” her crewmember said to Reid.

Reid kept his gaze on Tess and released her left wrist to gently palpate her ribs and abdomen. She didn’t even flinch. “Let me see that cut.” He gently angled it toward him so he could see it better. Head and facial wounds bled like a mother. Something had sliced her skin open about an inch below her cheekbone, a couple inches long, but it didn’t look too deep. “Can I take a look at your shoulder?”

She nodded, lips pressed together in a tight line that told him she was in a shitload of pain. As carefully as he could, he peeled the thermal blanket away from her upper body. They hadn’t removed or cut the top half of her flight suit, and her right arm was bound across her chest.

Straddling her thighs, he balanced on the balls of his feet and pulled the collar of her flight suit aside. One look told him the clavicle was broken. Badly. A large lump lay beneath her skin at the edge of her shoulder, the amount of swelling and the bluish-purple color dead giveaways.

“Can you feel your right hand and fingers?” he asked.

She gave him a tight nod, her breaths choppy.

Good. “Anywhere else hurt?”

“No.” She winced again and stilled, sucking in a sharp breath.

He was betting she was beat up in other places, but the amount of pain from her busted collarbone was masking everything else. But he was confident she didn’t have any internal injuries. “Listen, we’ve got to move all of you out of here now. A few of Ruiz’s men are headed this way.”

Those pretty eyes focused on him and she nodded. “Okay.”

Reid leaned down a bit to wrap an arm around her waist, careful to steer clear of her right shoulder. “Can you stand?” A glance to the right confirmed that the agents Reid had brought were standing guard while the crewmembers helped their injured comrade up onto his good leg.

“Yeah.” She slipped her left arm around his waist, got to one knee and then pushed to her feet, hissing air between her teeth, eyes squeezed shut tightly.

He hated like hell to see her hurting but there was nothing he could do for it right now except get her to safety. “There you go,” he said, shifting his grip on her. “You gonna be able to walk out of here?” They had to follow the same route he and the others had just taken. He’d carry her if necessary, but it would hurt her a hell of a lot more.

Her eyes opened and she gave a terse nod. He didn’t blame her for not wanting to answer verbally when she was in that kind of pain.

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