Page 63 of Strike Fast

“Okay then.” He glanced at the others. “Let’s get moving.” He placed one of the agents out front, then moved in third in line with Tess and left the others to bring up the rear.

“How close are they?” Tess managed between breaths as they started through the woods. Every step would jar her shoulder, sending a fresh wave of pain through the broken bone. Reid would have spared her if he could have, but their safety dictated they move fast.

“Close enough that we can’t stop. So if this gets to be too much for you, let me know and I’ll carry you.” He contacted Taggart using the two-way radio. “Crew’s secured. We’re heading back to the vehicle.”

“Copy. Still no visual on you, or the tangos.”

“Understood.” He squeezed Tess’s waist. “Let’s get outta here.”

She didn’t answer, just tightened her grip around him and doggedly kept moving forward. It was quiet now, the distant gunfire silent.

Too quiet.

Fifty paces into the trees, a tingling in his gut had him tensing. He stopped and looked to the right, scanning the heavy underbrush. The others stopped too, followed his gaze.

A gunshot rang out through the trees, shattering the stillness. Bark flew off a tree trunk not eight feet from where Reid stood.

“Down,” he snapped at Tess, pushing her to the ground and grabbing his rifle, ignoring her cry of pain. He stepped in front of her prone body and dropped to one knee, trying to get a bead on the shooter, or at least which direction the shot had come from.

A second shot pierced the air, hitting the foliage above him.

Then Reid spotted him. Screened by the leafy branches and undergrowth, half-hidden behind a tree trunk. “Four o’clock, thirty yards,” he said to the others.

He didn’t have to look back to know the agents were getting into firing position, all his focus on the threat in front of him. Reid searched for his target. Was this the asshole who’d taken Autumn? His finger was steady on the trigger guard, just waiting for the guy to give him an opening. Enough to bury a bullet in him.

“Give me your sidearm,” Tess grated out behind him.

Keeping his eyes trained on the area where the shot had come from, Reid quickly slid his pistol from the holster on his thigh and passed it back to her.

“Prentiss.”

The sound of Hamilton’s voice in his earpiece startled him. “Yeah, here,” he said, sighting down the barrel of his rifle.

“What’s your position?”

“Sixty yards northwest of the crash site, in the trees,” he murmured, still watching for an opening. “We’re taking fire.”

“We can hear it. House is cleared, HRT’s searching it, so we’re headed your way.”

Please let Autumn be there.“Music to my ears,” he answered, his entire body coiled, ready as he scanned the trees.

Bring it, assholes.

A deep, pulsing rage built inside him, speeding up his breaths. He would take out every last one of these motherfuckers singlehandedly for what they’d put his baby girl through.

“Hang tight, we’re coming to you.”

“Copy.”

“Eleven o’clock,” Tess cried behind him.

Reid’s gaze shot to the place she’d indicated, and he caught a flash of movement through the trees. The hair on the back of his neck stood up as he realized what it meant. The bastards were trying to surround them.

He used hand signals and quiet commands to alert the others, and locked on the target area, watching for more movement, poised to fire.

Three shots cracked through the air in rapid succession. The bullets hit a tree not ten feet from where Reid crouched.

But the shooter had just given away his position. Reid honed in on it, waited a heartbeat, and the moment he saw movement, squeezed the trigger.

---