Page 53 of Stone
“We have the target in sight.” Commander Jenkins had accompanied the team on the mission. We’d surrounded the building, the intel received checked and double checked.
“Roger that,” I said, ready to move in.
I threw a look toward Maddox, my teammate standing only a few feet away. We’d hunted the bastard for weeks, coming up empty even after several qualified tips. The asshole was responsible for gunning down several innocent bystanders in his attempt to trap and kill several of our own.
Every sound reverberated around me as we advanced, the goddamn insects on a mission to drown out every noise.
Kage motioned from only feet away. We were about to enter. As soon as we did, the creaks and groans of the building became a clear indication the initial missile dropped on the location had been a direct hit.
We had night vision goggles, but the lingering smoke from the earlier attack turned every surface into a dark shadow. We advanced in formation, rushing toward the area where the Afghan soldiers were supposedly holding innocent civilians, a former interpreter for the United States military who’d been grabbed off the streets along with his entire family.
It was our job to rescue them while eliminating the enemy.
The missile had targeted an unused portion of the building, the location meant to create chaos.
As we blanketed the area, the commander giving constant orders, we listened for any additional telltale signs of the enemy soldiers. Other than the sound of gunfire, which was lessening as every minute passed, there was an eerie quiet that troubled me.
We’d been in dozens of situations involving enemy soldiers, almost all of them dangerous. We’d been openly attacked, bombed, and almost drowned, but with every risky mission, we’d had a clear understanding of our directive while remaining certain we could handle anything thrown in our way.
Maybe that had always been too cocky. But we were just that good.
Yet tonight felt different and something had nagged at the back of my mind. There’d been no outward reason why, but as I followed the path laid out by our commander, I couldn’t dismiss the feeling we were being led into a trap.
I stopped just before heading into one of the rooms where the sensors had found human life, listening for even a single sound that would indicate my intuition was right.
Maddox flanked the other side of the doorway, Kage only inches behind him while Greg had my back. There were three rooms noted on the heat sensors, several figures moving every few seconds while others remained in one location as if shackled. The room we were about to enter held four unmoving entities.
“Watch your six,” Commander Jenkins said into the communications system. “Go. Now!”
Explosives were one of my specialties, every nuance something I’d studied thoroughly over the years. While soldiers in true military operations used sophisticated equipment in their methods of destruction, there were dozens of smaller groups who cobbled together firepower using every scrap of metal and gunpowder they could find.
They were the most dangerous.
As soon as Maddox and I rushed in, the single sound registered immediately.
“Bomb!” I called, reacting immediately and shoving Maddox back by several feet. As another round of gunfire reverberated all around us, I had a split second of registering the horror in front of me before the crude bomb exploded.
A woman and three children shackled to chairs, their tearstained faces something that would haunt me for the rest of my life. Surrounding the woman’s chest was a bomb. Our advance had tripped a wire.
As the explosion pitched us back by several yards, their screams were firmly implanted in my mind.
CHAPTER 15
Daniella
“Fuck!”
Stone was convulsing, his entire body electrified. The sound of his deep cries had awakened me, the fear gripping my heart instantly. The early morning light barely accentuated his supine body. On edge, I scanned the room, half expecting to see armed assailants bursting in through the door.
Seeing no one, I moved toward the couch, instantly crouching down and touching Stone’s face. “Hey. Are you okay?” I’d heard his moans from my room. His eyes were still rolling back and forth behind his closed eyelids and his muscles were twitching. “Stone. Wake up.” As I caressed his face, tickling sensations drifted down my arm from the stubble covering his chin. He hadn’t shaved since he’d rescued me and in the early morning light, his disheveled appearance was terribly sexy.
He tossed his head, flailing his arms, still deep in sleep.
Every word he murmured frightened me.
“No! They were babies… No. No. I killed children. I fucking killed…”
“Stone. You need to wake up. Come on, honey.” His body stiffened and I wasn’t expecting his immediate reaction.
