Page 49 of Protected By The Green Berets

Torque’s jaw clenched as that realization dawned on him as well. I turned down the alley that Rush and Zinnia had escaped down.

“Where would they have gone?” Torque asked as we jogged along.

“To the camels,” I replied.

“If they could get there,” Keller added. That made all of us grow silent and solemn. If we had to tear apart the entire city to find them, we would.

More gunfire echoing down the alleys told us exactly where to go. We followed the sounds and crept our way down yet another back street. Most of these cities were mazes of alleyways and this one wasn’t any different. That was fine by me, kept us off the main street and provided some cover.

We had to go in slowly, if we surprised them we could end up shot by our own people. The shots died off as we got closer. In the darkness we couldn’t tell who was friend or foe and the moon was slowly sinking down in the sky. Soon we wouldn’t have even it to guide us.

I could hear rustling down at the other end of the alley. “What do you want to do?” I whispered to Keller. If we approached and it was Roj’s men, we’d find ourselves in another precarious position. We were crouched behind a corner where another alley intersected this one.

“Rush?” Keller called out, ignoring the sharp look of disapproval I gave him.

The rustling stopped and we all held our breaths as we waited. “Keller! Could use a-” Rush’s words ended on a grunt and loud thump echoed back toward us.

“Oops, watch out for falling shitheads!” Z yelped.

What the fuck had she meant by that? Hearing them had us running headlong down the dark alley. As soon as I approached I saw a man unconscious on the ground and Rush sitting on his ass rubbing his head. Zinnia was coming down from a ledge, gripping her rifle like a baseball bat.

As soon as she saw me, she slung it around her shoulder and flung herself into my arms. “You’re okay,” she breathed. “The others?”

“They’re fine too,” I told her, rubbing my hand over her back to soothe her.

“Sure, he gets the hugs,” Rush grumbled. “I’m just the one you dropped a body on.”

“Well don’t stand under me when I club some asshole then,” she said as she pointed at the man passed out on the ground.

“Good job with him, Kitten,” Torque said with a laugh.

Keller crouched down near them and felt around for a pulse. Once he was satisfied the guy was alive he told Torque to tie him up while he poked and prodded at Rush.

“I’m fine, he didn’t land on me. I was just hit by a flailing arm. Saved my ass, though. That asshole was waiting up there for me while I took care of his friend.” He pointed at another body slumped over in the darkness. “He would have had a clear shot at the back of my head.”

Zinnia disentangled herself from me and went to sit next to Rush. “I really am sorry.” She sounded guilty as hell.

“For saving my life?” Rush asked in a rueful tone.

“For knocking him off onto you.”

Rush leaned forward and brushed a kiss over her lips, ignoring Keller when he barked at him to hold still.

“How did you even get up there?” Keller asked. It would be hard enough for us to pull ourselves up onto the balcony.

She stood up, jumped and caught the bottom of the metal before she used her core to bring her legs up. She ended up sliding her thighs along the balcony floor while her head was upside down in some kind of gymnastic flipping move. All our jaws dropped.

Keller blinked at her as she jumped back down, then cleared his throat. It was an impressive move.

“I think we got them all,” I said, glancing around, “but we’d better get off the street just in case.”

“Bring him back to the house,” Keller ordered Torque and I.

We dragged the man through the streets and into the safehouse we’d stayed the day in. Once again we ended up with a man tied to a chair inside a kitchen. I just hoped it wouldn’t end up being a repeat of earlier.

CHAPTER22

Zinnia

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