Page 27 of The Perfect Stranger

I’d been spotted, but from where?

I kept low, looking through my scope at my invisible target. “Come on, you fucker. Come out of your hole.”

We were playing each other off, waiting for someone to fuck up. And then a figure began to dart across the road. It was Jase.

“Go back!” I yelled, but he continued, unable to hear. “Fuck!”

I fired a warning shot at the road next to Jase causing him to duck for cover, but it was too late. Jase jolted twice on impact before he fell, my shooter emerging from a building corner long enough to take the shots.

Retaliating, I fired four rounds momentarily pinning the soldier to the wall before he crumpled. I turned back to Jase. He wasn’t moving.

“Get up. Fucking get up,” I silently urged. He didn’t, his body seemingly lifeless.

My heart dropped to the pit of my stomach. If he was dead, I was responsible. Risking another possible shooter, I hooked my rifle and jumped from the roof. It was an eerie scene. A war zone. And I felt like I was the only survivor. Destruction was everywhere, bodies upon bodies sprawled across the blood-soaked earth like confetti.

I kneeled beside Jase, his black clothing making it difficult to find the injuries. A small pool of blood gathered beneath his head coating the gravel. I felt for a pulse. He was breathing, just. He’d hit his head hard on the fall. Rolling him over onto his back, I hooked my arms under his and dragged him out of sight. Propping Jase against the wall, I heard Colonel Gregorio rousing. I watched him in my peripheral and then his attention diverted.

He looked behind me.

I stilled.

For a micro-second, hope filled Gregorio’s eyes.

I clutched my Glock.

I had been reckless.

Heavy footsteps pounded the earth, and I spun on my heel, pointing my weapon into the darkness.

Alejandro, staring down the length of the barrel, came to a skidding halt, hands raised in surrender.

I turned back to my prisoner and watched, slightly amused, as the smirk dropped from Gregorio’s face. One of his own had betrayed him. That had to hurt.

“Where are the women?” I asked Alejandro.

“They’re safe and at the location,” he confirmed, trepidation in his tone, nervous eyes flicking to Gregorio.

“And the men?”

Alejandro confirmed my hopes. “When the explosion went off, many of the guards left their post. All except two of the youngest.” His smile reached his eyes, and I too smiled knowingly.

La Balsa men would have taken advantage of the weakened front and overrun the inexperienced soldiers.

“Is he okay?” Alejandro displayed genuine concern for Jase.

“He needs a medic.”

“Everyone has been moved out. The hospital is cleared.”

“Then we need to get him over the mountain and to a hospital. What of my father?”

Alejandro’s eyes dropped, unable to meet mine. “I’m sorry,” he mumbled. “Some of the men said he passed two days ago.”

“What from?”

Again, Alejandro looked to Gregorio, this time with menace. “He was bashed. He died of head injuries.”

I swallowed hard, my blood running cold. Almost fifteen years ago these monsters raped my mother. Now, they finished off my father, ending a life that had helped so many.

---