Page 70 of Brawler
Brawler.
He was running flat-out across the compound, pack gone. No weapon to bear, just raw fury and muscle, every stride a promise carved into the earth. Beast tore alongside him, a red-gold missile, teeth flashing, dragging men down in snarling fury before they could even shoulder their rifles.
The rest of the team poured fire into the camp, precise, merciless. Smugglers dropped one after another, their weapons never making it to ready. The whole world seemed to tilt around that one unstoppable sight, Brawler charging through bullets as if nothing on earth could touch him.
Behind her, the Marines Emily had cut loose surged out of the tent, bloodied but not broken. They snatched up enemy weapons, dropped to formation without a word, and began laying down fire at Brawler’s back. Professionals—even battered, they’d fight their way out or die standing.
Emily’s heart lurched into her throat. For one insane second, she thought she might faint, her knees buckling. She’d never seen anything so terrifying or so beautiful.
Then he was there.
He grabbed Flash first, hauling him up and over his shoulders in a fireman’s carry like he weighed nothing. Then his other arm hooked around her, yanking her tight against him.
Just like that, she was airborne, carried out of the tent, Beast snapping at anything that moved, the Marines and SEALs thundering around them, the world exploding in gunfire and smoke.
Brawler didn’t stop. Didn’t falter. He tore through the compound with all the fury of a storm, dragging her and Flash into cover while his brothers mopped up the last of the enemy.
Emily’s heart was hammering so hard she thought it might burst. She clung to him, breathless, trembling, the echo of his wild charge seared forever into her bones.
When he finally set her down, everything crashed over her at once, terror, fury, relief. She whirled on him, anger surging hot.
“Are you out of your Neanderthal mind! What was that! You could have been killed.”
Her fists pummeled his vest, the Kevlar as unyielding as his stupid granite chest. The blows didn’t hurt him, but they poured out everything bottled inside her. “You are so crazy brave. I can’t take it. What are you doing to me! Damn you and all your hero friends!”
He caught her wrists, dragged her off her feet, and crushed his mouth to hers.
The sob broke loose instantly, raw and shaking, as she melted into him, kissing him back with all the terror and relief and desperate love she couldn’t contain. She wrapped her legs around his waist, arms tight around his neck, clinging to him like she’d never let go again. His warmth, his solidity, the sheer fact that he wasaliveseared into her.
When he finally broke the kiss, his storm-dark eyes locked on her, unguarded, searing her straight through.
She shook her head, breathless, voice trembling. “Assault-burn front and center. Guess it’s all that adrenaline.”
He threw his head back and laughed, the sound rolling out of him deep and unrestrained, shattering the tension like gunfire breaking silence.
She drowned in it, in him, her man, her Neanderthal, her fucking joy.
The gunfire tapered off into silence, leaving only the acrid tang of cordite and the groans of the dying. Emily stood there trembling, her legs rubber, the metallic tang of adrenaline thick in her mouth. Her heart still hammered in her throat, Brawler’s kiss burning on her lips like a brand. Around them, the compound shifted from chaos to control with military precision.
It didn’t take long after Tex contacted their TOC. Two helos appeared, one massive, the other smaller, sleeker, deadlier. They landed and crewmen jumped out, taking charge of the massive missiles, their olive casings dull in the light, being rolled toward transport by men who moved with quiet urgency. Already confiscated, already stripped from enemy hands, as if the SEALs hadn’t just torn through hell to get them.
Bondo and Shark watched the perimeter with their rifles at the ready, eyes sharp, boots crunching over the dirt. The wounded Marines headed toward the waiting helo, their battered faces grim but proud, medical personnel already tending to them. Then Easy and Brawler moved by, carryingFlash on a stretcher. Emily’s heart seized. He looked so quiet, so still, it made her breath catch. Her hand twitched with the instinct to reach for him, but she stopped herself. A medic rushed forward, and she said a silent prayer that he would be all right.
Dagger reappeared from the shadows like some avenging phantom, his blade dark with blood. Tex, his voice hard, clipped, reporting the skewed intel and her presence in the AO. Emily stiffened, realizing in the back of her mind that he wasn’t just filing details. He was protecting her, too, wrapping her into their chain of command whether she liked it or not.
She overheard that a crew had been dispatched to the UAV and chopper crash site to sanitize it.
Her head spun, her throat raw, but in that moment she was absolutely certain of one thing. Brawler’s team didn’t just fight battles. They ended them.
The chopper carrying the Marines and Flash lifted, rotor wash flattening the grass. They took off. Tex came up to her. “We’re waiting for our ride. Should be here shortly.” She nodded, her eyes going to Brawler. This was all wrapping up too fast. Would she even have a moment with him?
Suddenly, green and brown uniforms burst through the trees, rifles lifted, shouts in Spanish snapping across the clearing.
The Ecuadorian military.
Her stomach dropped. The op had to be protected. She couldn’t have these men exposed, detained—the international fallout would be embarrassing, volatile, and damaging to Ecuadorian relations. She didn’t even think. She just surged forward before Tex could step in, plastering her best wide-eyed expression across her dirt-streaked face.
“Oh, thank God you’re here!” she gushed, letting her voice tremble. “I was kidnapped and dragged out here, and—” Shegestured toward the SEALs with frantic relief. “Of course, we can always count on the US military to save me!”
