Page 129 of Deadly Strain

The man coughed again, then fell silent.

Now, what the hell was she supposed to do? She was holding the worst sort of bomb. The kind that killed slowly.

Sharp and Smoke weren’t far away, looking for the men who’d left this poor man behind. Men with more grenades.

She couldn’t ask Sharp and Smoke for help. It would put them at risk, and she wasn’t about to endanger them any more than they already managed to do for themselves. Damn Special Forces soldiers thought they were indestructible —until they weren’t. Sharp would take the grenade from her and sacrifice himself. It was the way he was built —to protect, to give and give until he had nothing left.

Her body shook with the rejection of that possibility.No.This was one sacrifice she couldn’t allow him to make.

On the heels of that thought came another. Like a freight train, it smashed through every barrier and fortress she’d ever built around her heart, and for a moment, everything stopped. Her breathing, her heartbeat, and her perception of the world around her.

She loved him.

Moments of them together flickered through her mind. Sharp smiling and laughing, playing chess and poker, kissing her, touching her, his hands and lips making her feel like she was the only woman in his world.

All of it solidified into one thought, one unalterable truth.

The biological weapon in her fist wasn’t going to eat him alive. She wouldn’t permit it.

She had enough cuts on her hands to make infection likely, and Sharp had lost too much already, too many of the people he cared about. She wasn’t going to make him watch her die too.

“I’m so dead.” There was no hope. None. Not a single move left open to her.

Except for one.

She had to go somewhere where she could throw this death trap away without risk of infecting anyone else.

Anthrax spores were hardy and could survive with all their lethal capabilities intact for decades in some environments.

She couldn’t think of a single safe place.

If she threw it down a well, the spores would contaminate the water.

If she threw it into a ravine, the spores would get spread around and picked up by people and wildlife alike.

She needed somewhere isolated. Somewhere people were unlikely to go. Somewhere a sustained, controlled fire could destroy all the spores without spreading them around.

The cave?

It wasn’t perfect, but it was the best option she could think of that she could reach on her own without help.

Sharp and Smoke were out of sight behind the brush, but she could hear them speaking softly to each other. Distances. Wind speed. Smoke was acting as Sharp’s spotter.

She crept around the plants, kept the hand holding the grenade at her side and out of sight, and waited until Smoke noticed her. It didn’t take long.

“He’s dead,” she said, jerking her head toward the deceased Afghan. “Do you have a target?”

“Yeah.”

“You do what you’ve got to do. I’m going to move back a little ways and keep watch to be sure no one tries to sneak up on us.”

“Stay safe,” Sharp said in a tone that told her if she didn’t, there’d be hell to pay.

She was already paying. Knowing she wasn’t going to be able to tell him how she felt about him, how much his trust, respect, and desire for her meant to her, was an open, festering wound.

Better than watching him die next to her.

She’d go to the cave and let the grenade destroy its deadly payload and herself quickly.

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