Page 21 of Scar

He realized after a while that Tally’s lights were still on in her apartment and it occurred to him that she might notknowthey were on. The police had turned them on for themselves when they’d entered and clearly her friends hadn’t turned them off when they’d left too. He gave it another hour to ensure that she was in bed before he journeyed back up to her apartment. There was no reason to waste electricity after all.

He found her passed out on her couch, her chef’s knife dangling hazardously from her hand towards the floor. He took it from her, bringing it back to the kitchen and returning it to the knife block. Then he turned off all the lights in her apartment that the police had turned on. After a moment’s hesitation, Scar reached for the blanket on the back of the couch and placed it over her supine form.

He was careful not to touch her skin as he did.

Scar had a feeling she’d been waiting up for him and had passed out. He felt a twinge of guilt for that. He hadn’t meant to scare her earlier. Though, come to think of it, she hadn’t beenscared.

Tally shifted on the ugly couch, revealing her cell phone. Like she’d had it on her chest and then it fell when she’d fallen asleep. There was a wireless charging disk on her end table. Picking up her phone, he was careful to not touch the screen as he placed it on the charger. He wanted to ensure it was ready for her to use the next day.

After checking that her front door was locked and deadbolted, Scar left her apartment again. He had a few hours before Tally would wake up for work—and he had two street thugs to hunt down.

Their bad night was about to become so much worse.

CHAPTER6

ELEVEN YEARS AGO

The explosion came out of nowhere. Through the chaos and firefight that ensued, Julian received verification that Patriot was dead on the other side of the convoy. The others tried to get Julian to leave, secure the package while they held the enemy off, but the odds were not on their side. Whether he stayed or went, failure was inevitable. The package would fall into enemy hands. It was just a matter of when.

Mission failure.

Eight soldiers—now seven—did not stand a chance against the several dozen surrounding them. They were Delta Force. They were the best of the best. They served with honor and without equal. They were the Army’s quiet professionals.

But they were still human.

When the second explosion came, Julian was thrown nearly twenty feet. He landed in the sweltering sand but his wrist felt too light. As darkness took him, Julian’s mind frantically thought,The package! Where is the package?

* * *

Julian’s headthrobbed as his eyes blinked open. He tried to speak, but his mouth was so dry that he only coughed up phlegm and sand.

“Solo? Come back to us, brother!”

His ears picked up the words around the high pitched ringing but not the individual speaker. “Sit-rep,” he forced out. His head swam and he felt his cheek press against something hard yet malleable.

“We’re in a cave of some sort. Based on the blast marks, they used dynamite to create this place. Can you stand? You’re putting a lot of pressure on your wrists and bleeding heavily.”

Julian hadn’t realized he wasn’t standing. He hadn’t placed much thought into his legs at all. Firming his jaw, Julian deliberately tried to wiggle his toes. He felt them scrape against something hard, which told him his boots were missing.

Pain lanced the back of his head when he tried to order his legs to move. Fuck, what the hell was wrong with him?

“Solo! Stay with us, man! You need to stay conscious!”

It took everything inside him to force the pain back. Something metal and strong touched his fingertips. After a small investigation later, Julian realized he could use that metal to pull himself up. He wrapped his hands around the links and shifted his feet more firmly beneath him.

The effort cost him. Everything that had been in his stomach suddenly came up. His head swam more, but he forced himself to stay conscious.

Spitting out the last of the bile, Julian grumbled, “Report!”

The speaker said, “We were ambushed. Do you remember?”

The package…Julian felt around but his hands only moved but so far.Where was the package?“Package?”

“It was separated from you in the firefight. They have it.”

Julian didn’t need to ask whotheywere. The Taliban. Sunni Islamic nationalists who were radicals on a good day. And the very people Julian and his team were ordered to keep the packageawayfrom.

Fuck.

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