Page 32 of Seduced by a SEAL

“Who’s that coming up behind us?” Ryker asked, twisting to look behind them.

A car speeding out of nowhere suddenly weaved back and forth between the other traffic and accelerated ahead of them. “He’s got someone hanging outside of the window,” Colton said. “Make that something. Looks like a rocket launcher.”

“A fucking rocket launcher?” Hunter asked in disbelief. “Since when did the cartels start using those?”

“Since now,” Colton said, his voice grim.

The whiz of an RPG suddenly raced through the night sky, exploding into the fourth car in the convoy. The SUV burst into a ball of fire as it flew through the air, the other cars in the convoy speeding up to escape the explosion.

“Fuck!” Jacob shouted, swerving to avoid the fiery blast.

Debris filled the air around them, thumping against the side of the Humvee. Colton crouched in his seat, muttering a curse. Noah swerved the other Humvee in a different direction, until both vehicles screeched to a stop at the side of the highway, a safe distance ahead of the massive fire.

“Damn it!” their CO shouted over the headsets. “Someone else was trying to take him out. Is anyone getting out of the target’s vehicle? Are there any survivors? Move in!”

Colton and Ryker jumped out of their Humvee, with Hunter and Mason climbing out of the second. “Move forward!” Hunter commanded, and the men began running toward the wreckage. “Keep eyes on the other vehicles as well!”

Colton scanned back and forth, the scene before him clear through his night-vision goggles. Other traffic had stopped, and people were climbing out of their own vehicles, cell phones in hands. Some shouted in disbelief while others held their hands up to their faces in horror. Sirens sounded in the distance, and smoke filled the air.

The wreckage of the SUV blazed against the night sky, the smell of explosives and burning metal permeating the cool air.

“That was a hell of a lot of firepower to take out a damn SUV!” Hunter shouted over the roar of the flames.

The charred black vehicle could be seen through the inferno, and Colton muttered a curse. “There’s no way there are any survivors!” he yelled.

The sound of helicopters filled the air, and Colton glanced skyward to see the Colombian military in the distance.

“So much for taking that mother fucker back with us,” Hunter said. “Let’s move out!”

The men jogged back to the idling Humvees, climbing inside the vehicles. “We’re heading back to the airstrip,” Hunter said over the headsets.

“Affirmative,” their CO said. “I’ll have additional instructions once you arrive back there.”

“Damn it!” Colton said, pounding his fist against the dashboard. “God damn it!”

Jacob maneuvered the Humvee around the wreckage as fire trucks approached, driving right over the grassy highway median to head back on the opposite side of the highway to the air field. Noah followed behind in the second Humvee, and some of the cars now stuck in the traffic jam on the highway started trying to follow them across the median as well.

“Wait!” Ryker yelled from the back of the vehicle. “What’s that lying in the grass?”

Colton’s gaze swept the area outside the window through his night-vision goggles, finally noticing what looked to be a messenger bag, its contents scattered around. His eyes narrowed as he noticed a laptop lying amidst the debris.

“That can’t be from the SUV that exploded,” Ryker said in disbelief, his voice low. “There’s no fucking way.”

“What do you see?” Hunter asked over the headsets.

“A messenger bag. Laptop. Other personal belongings.” Colton’s voice was clipped.

“It must be from one of the other vehicles that sped away when Miguel’s SUV was hit,” Hunter said, the Humvee he was riding in pulling up beside them. “Maybe even that damn car with the rocket launcher. That asshole was hanging out the car window. When they swerved and sped away, it could’ve flown out.”

“I’ll grab it,” Colton said, his hand already on the door. He clutched his assault rifle in one hand and climbed out of the Humvee. He strode over to the contents scattered on the ground, nudging the edge of the messenger bag with his combat boot. “Probably a mistake that it got left behind,” he said in a low voice over his headset. “I can’t imagine they’d leave this type of thing on purpose. I don’t see any wires or explosives.”

“Let’s bring it in,” Hunter said.

Colton stuffed the materials into the torn messenger bag, his gloved hand lightly running over the laptop. If whoever had left this behind was indeed who’d taken out Miguel Rodriguez, they might also be the one who’d taken Miguel’s daughter. Which meant information critical to finding her could be right at his fingertips.

His heartbeat accelerated as adrenaline pumped through his veins. The thump, thump, thump of helicopters filled the air as the Colombian military got closer to the scene of the explosion. So much for keeping quiet on their operation to grab Miguel. The whole damn world would know about it soon.

CNN and the other news networks would be running it as breaking news.

They needed to get the hell out before their faces were splashed across the nighttime news.

“Shit,” he muttered to himself, stuffing the laptop into the bag. He hurried back to the Humvee, slamming the door behind him. The headlights cut through the darkness as they pulled forward, rolling onto the highway back to the airstrip.

Police had stopped traffic coming from the opposite direction to grant access to all the emergency vehicles converging on the scene, and they had the highway to themselves.

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Jacob asked, glancing over at Colton in the passenger seat of the Humvee.

“Hell yeah. The answers we need to find Camila might have fallen right into our hands.”

“Let’s get back to base and fire that thing up,” Ryker said. “We’ve got more work to do.”

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