Page 43 of Skull

“Go!” he urged. Blade’s wife and children ducked through the broken wall with Walker close behind. Bones slipped past, ears folded tight, still keyed in for any threat. The death squad’s footsteps echoed in the warehouse, accompanied by harsh commands. Another volley of gunfire rang out, tearing through the air, but none found their mark.

Skull lingered just a heartbeat longer, covering them. His breath came in ragged bursts, a mix of rage and desperation swirling inside him. This was the time to do what he did best. There was no holding back now that they had engaged.

A bullet pinged off a rusted drum a foot away, snapping him into motion. He ducked low and sprinted for the breach in the wall, sliding through it in a shower of crumbling debris. Outside, he caught a glimpse of Walker helping Blade’s wife and the kids clamber down a steep embankment into the drainage culvert.

They were still alive. They still had a chance. And as the echo of gunfire faded behind them, Skull pushed forward into the darkness, determined to see this mission through no matter the cost.

Skull skidded to a halt, heart pounding like a war drum. He listened intently to the distant shouts echoing off twisted metal walls behind them. The death squad was closing in faster and more relentlessly than he’d hoped. Instinct warred with logic. Every fiber of his being wanted to stand and fight, but he knew better. Not with two children and their mother at risk.

He spared a glance at Walker, whose eyes were already searching for an escape route. She clutched Blade’s wife by the arm, the children huddled behind. Bones hovered protectively beside them, ears pricked.

“We’re not going to outrun them,” Skull rasped, voice low but urgent. “We can’t move fast enough with the kids.”

Walker opened her mouth to protest, but he pressed on before she could speak. “You have to take them. Get them away from here. I’ll hold these bastards off.”

Her eyes flashed with anguish and anger. “No. We’ll find another way. You can’t?—”

Skull silenced her with a hard look, the muscles of his jaw working beneath taut skin. “You know we don’t have time. If they catch us all, it’s over. The kids…they won’t survive.”

He turned to Bones, gently gripping the dog’s harness. The Malinois stared up at him, head tilted, ready for a command. Skull bent low, letting the dog sniff each member of Blade’s family. “You guard them, okay? Follow Walker’s lead. Keep them safe.”

Bones let out a low, tense whine, ears flattening. As if he understood, he went to stand beside Walker and the mother, posture rigid with protective intent.

Walker’s face was a whirlwind of conflicted emotion. Her mind told her that a clean escape was the logical choice, but his heart knew something deeper warred inside her. The same bond that made Skull’s stomach knot every time he looked at her. She gripped his arm. “You can’t do this alone?—”

Skull’s gaze flicked briefly to the children, then back to her. “I won’t let them die, and I won’t be alone,” he said, thumping his heart, his voice thick with conviction. He wanted to say more, to beg her to understand that this was the only way, to tell her he cared about her more than any mission. But there was no time. “Go. Now. Find a safe route to the extraction point. Radio the team.”

She hesitated for a fraction of a second, face twisting with an emotion she rarely showed. But she knew he was right. “I’ll come back for you,” she promised, her tone fierce. Then she grasped the mother’s hand, and Bones trotted behind them as they hurried into the shadows.

Skull watched them go, dread clawing at his insides. He thought of his father, sick in a hospital bed a thousand miles away. He silently prayed that if he never made it home, someone would tell the old man he was sorry. That he’d done his duty. That he’d tried to help those who couldn’t help themselves.

Then he steeled himself and faced the oncoming threat.

They camein a flurry of pounding footfalls and harsh voices. Skull waited in a narrow alley choked with debris, breathing slowly to keep steady. When the first figure appeared, silhouetted by a distant flicker of light, Skull fired once, a clean, quick shot. The man dropped. Another rushed in, shouting, and Skull squeezed the trigger again. Two down. Six left.

But these weren’t untrained thugs. One flicked a flashlight across the corrugated metal walls. A bullet smashed into the ground by Skull’s feet, forcing him to dodge behind a toppled barrel. He heard footsteps circling, searching for angles. He ducked under a broken sheet of tin just as another barrage pinged overhead.

Sweat stung his eyes, and the suffocating claustrophobia of the cramped alley pressed in. He tried to reposition for a better shot, but a sudden scuffle behind him sent him staggering. Too many angles. One of the cartel men lunged, knocking the rifle from Skull’s grip. Fists lashed out, and Skull took a swing that cracked bone, but a second attacker blindsided him. Pain exploded across his cheek and temple as he hit the ground.

They were on him in seconds, wrenching his arms behind his back. A boot caught his ribs, driving the air from his lungs. Dazed, Skull tasted blood. He tried to fight, but they forced him down, rifle barrels jabbing into his shoulder blades.

They hauled him back so fast into the half-ruined warehouse, he stumbled several times. Inside they threw him to the concrete floor like a discarded rag. The leader circled him, eyes cold and unyielding. “Where are they?” the man demanded in Spanish. “Where is the woman and her children?”

Skull glared, refusing to speak. Another blow slammed into his midsection, doubling him over. It was followed by a savage kick to his side. White-hot agony knifed through him. He thought of Walker, who was carrying his hope for this mission. He imagined her and the family slipping safely out of the shantytown, guided by Bones, each step taking them farther from these killers.

The beating escalated, fists and boots connected with bruising force. They demanded answers, but Skull pressed his lips together, certain that any word he uttered would endanger Walker and the others. He clung to the image of his father back home. He could almost see the old man in the hospital bed, telling him to do what was right. Apologies flooded his thoughts.I’m sorry, Dad. Sorry for not being there. Sorry you might never see me again. Sorry that duty came first.

A final strike sent him sprawling onto his back, and he could taste the copper tang of blood coating his mouth. His vision blurred at the edges. Through the haze, he could see the death squad’s leader raise a pistol. The man spat out another demand in Spanish. Skull let out a hoarse exhale, trembling with pain and rage, yet resolved. He said nothing.

He’d bought them time and that was all that mattered. If he never made it home, if his father never got to hear his voice again, at least Walker and the children might have a chance at life, and Blade would give them the intel they needed to rescue their people. Let the cartel do their worst. He would endure it, taking solace in the knowledge that he’d protected the innocent.

In the swirling darkness of the beating, Skull fought hard to keep himself together, to look for an opening, to fight for the father who waited in a faraway hospital, a woman who held his heart, to the team and the dog he loved and trusted. Navy SEALs were never out of the fucking fight. And then he braced himself for the next blow.

Walker’s lungsburned as she sprinted through the winding slum alleys, one hand gripping Blade’s wife’s arm, the other waving the children forward. Bones trotted beside them, muzzle low, every muscle tense and ready for a threat that could jump out from the shadows at any moment. For the first time, Walker’s usual calm, the composure that had always defined her, now felt frayed around the edges. Adrenaline pounded in her veins with every step, and her mind churned with images of Skull left behind.

The air smelled of sewage and desperation, and she forced herself not to dwell on the possibility of what might be happening to him. She needed to keep moving. Skull had insisted she protect this family, to get them to safety. That mission still mattered. Yet her thoughts kept snapping back to him, silent pleas echoing in her mind.Hang on. Don’t you dare die.

At last, they reached a partially collapsed wall that opened into the outskirts of the shantytown. Flickers of headlights from waiting vehicles lit the distance. The extraction team had to be close. Walker pulled Blade’s wife and the children into a crouch behind a hunk of broken concrete.

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