Two Cowboys in Her Crosshairs [Hellfire Ranch] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (4 page)

“You’re going to break her heart, you know.”

Jake whirled at the low-voiced barb. Boone Shepherd sat cross-legged and bare-chested on a boulder. His black hair gleamed blue in the moonlight, but his eyes were shuttered as usual.

“What the hell are you doing out here?” Jake demanded. “Get back to bed. We have detail in the morning.”

Boone rose with lithe grace. He leapt down and landed on silent feet. He speared Jake with an almost pitying look. “Are you too blind to see that Olivia is in love with you?”

The words rocked Jake. “No,” he said. “You’re wrong. She doesn’t even know me.”

Boone snorted as he shrugged into his shirt. “We’ve lived and fought together for seven months, Logan. That kind of forced intimacy shows the real souls of those around us. She has seen yours.”

Jake clenched his fists. “Don’t get all mystical on me,” he snapped. “It won’t happen again.” He had no idea why he was defending himself to Boone. The man was quiet but watchful. He saw everything but rarely commented. He was professional and dependable in the field. He left his passions at the door. Jake could not recall a single incident when Boone went wild. Despite the rumors he’d heard about Boone, the man was the epitome of the Native American stoic stereotype.

“It’s an infatuation,” Jake argued. “She’ll get over it. We’re bugging in two months. She’ll be fine.” The words rang with desperation, and Jake knew he was trying to convince both of them.

Too bad it wasn’t working.

Boone’s black gaze was unusually sympathetic. He settled a big hand on Jake’s shoulder. “Bullshit, my friend. Pure bullshit.”

Jake shrugged the hand off. “Get back to the barracks.”

Boone offered one more deep, soul-penetrating stare then turned and silently disappeared into the night.

Jake followed at a slower pace. His mind whirled with the encounters. Was Boone right about Olivia’s feelings for him?

He didn’t have a clue what to do next. He wished he could call Hudson and talk to him. His breezy, fun-loving friend would have an optimistic view to share. How his childhood friend managed to always be upbeat was beyond him. Hud’s home-life had been filled with abuse and emotional distance. Jake could use his positivity right about now.

The barracks were quiet save the intense snoring from Briggs and Yu. Jake counted everyone in. They were all back, including Fischer.

He checked his watch as he slid back into bed. Nearly one. Only two hours had passed since their passionate meeting. It felt a hell of a lot longer than that.

Jake pressed his forearm over his eyes and tried to go to sleep.

“Time to scramble. Everyone up.” The booming voice of Colonel Reed pulled Jake from his uneasy dozing.

Automatically he sprang from the bunk and shoved his feet into his boots. Reed strode down the aisle toward him. “Logan, come to my office. I need to brief you.” He turned to his ever-present assistant. “Weathers, get everyone geared up. Quickly, man.”

Weathers saluted. “Yes, sir.”

Reed motioned impatiently, and Jake shook the final vestiges of not-enough-sleep from his fuzzy head. “Right behind you, Colonel.”

They made their way across camp and into Reed’s small, well-lit office in silence. A radio crackled with low murmurs, and Reed switched it off. A map of the area was spread on his desk with two large areas circled in red.

“We’ve had word two separate groups of insurgents are on the move.” Reed shoved an unlit cigar into his mouth and stabbed at the map. “The data we have is sketchy, but sources indicate one of them has information vital to our mission here.”

“What kind of information?” Jake asked.

Reed sighed. “Unfortunately we don’t know. Hell, this could be nothing but a wild-goose chase, but it’s something we need to track down.”

“Right now?” Jake studied the map. “If they’re holed up, wouldn’t it make more sense to wait until daylight and send out a recon?”

Reed nodded. “Ordinarily I would agree. But our informant tells us they’ve got hostages. A group of engineers from the UK. They’re using them to gain safe passage, but you and I both know they’ll kill them without a second thought.”

“Damn,” Jake whispered. The colonel was right.

“Jake, you and your squads take this section. I’ll send Carruthers and the other two squads here. We’ll see what we can rile up.” He handed him a smaller version of the map. “Your mission is to regain those hostages and whatever sensitive data the insurgents might have.”

“Casualties?” He hated asking.

“Be cautious, but be prudent. We’ve got plenty of room for prisoners.”

“Yes, sir.” Jake saluted and did an about-face.

He ran from the office back to the barracks to find his squads all ready to go. He slid into his flak jacket, buckled on his helmet and grabbed his weapon. He gathered them around and gave a terse recap of his discussion with Reed.

“Mission understood?” He gave Fischer a particularly meaningful look. To his mind, the little man enjoyed killing the enemy a bit too much. “We need prisoners, not bodies.”

“Sir, yes, sir,” they responded in unison.

They piled from the barracks and into a half-ton truck that purred like a big cat in the night. Soon they were dropped at a rendezvous point Jake had selected. Far enough away the noise of their arrival would not be detected but close enough that anyone trying to run would be caught.

They were at the bottom of a shallow canyon. The walls stretched up at least twenty feet and would afford some kind of protection from any unexpected rear attack. The front was open and wound lower into the landscape but long and winding sides held numerous black caves. They could easily hide threats. Sweat beaded Jake’s brow. The holes looked more like a giant and deadly game of Whac-A-Mole. If they were all filled with insurgents, his team would be outnumbered.

“I don’t like it,” he muttered.

“Me either,” Tag said. “What are we going to do?”

Jake ordered Olivia up one side of the ridge for an eagle’s view and Gideon Masters up the other. With their scopes and accurate aims they should be able to keep any potential threats to a minimum.

“We need to fan out and look for signs of habitation.” He quickly sketched out a plan of cautious attack then sent the teams in. Six teams of two made their forays as he and Doc Mayers watched.

“Stay on the com, but don’t do anything stupid,” Jake told Doc. “We’ll call if we need you.”

Mayers rolled his eyes. “I’m just as well-trained with a weapon as you are, Jake.”

“Yeah, but none of us can put someone back together.”

He grinned at Doc’s look of disgust then flipped his night-vision goggles down and crept forward.

He’d only taken three steps when a shrill whistle rent the air and the ground next to him exploded. He yelled and leapt to the side. Sand and rock bit into his face. Gunfire split the night, and bullets rained down around him.

Jake elbowed his way to a large rock and peered over the top. Bright white bursts came from the top row of caves in both sides of the canyon wall.

“Shit,” he muttered. A quick count came up to at least twenty active enemy weapons.

His unit scrambled around him, returning fire and seeking refuge behind the meager boulders and dunes. Jake took aim at one of the caves and was gratified to see a man in robes fall from the hole to land on the ground below.

Additional shots rang out as they battled for dominance. Jake called into his com for status reports from his people. Only about half checked in.

He had to get them out of there.

“Sarge, help.” Briggs’s southern-tinged voice pitched high and loud to his right. Jake saw the young man slumped against a boulder. Yu was laid out on the ground next to him, squeezing off shots.

“Get your head down, Briggs,” he shouted.

More gunfire echoed, and Briggs jerked forward then toppled over.

Yu shrieked and backed away then stood and sprayed the area in front of him. He was cut down as Jake watched.

“Damn it, no!”

He half rose, and the rock blasted another chip into his flak jacket. Boone yanked him down.

Jake inhaled a deep, calming breath. He still had eleven people out there to get to safety. “Hellfire Battalion,” he shouted into the com. “Fall back.”

Fischer briefly appeared at an outcropping twenty feet in front of where Briggs and Yu had been sprawled before they disappeared under a hail of bullets.

Another huge wave of gunfire swept over the area, kicking up dust, gravel, and screams. He couldn’t tell their ammo from the insurgents’ or who was yelling. All the sounds melded into one deafening shriek.

Then the air went silent. Jake lifted up gingerly and scanned the area.

Fischer was crumpled and still on the ground. Another body lay motionless beside him, but Jake couldn’t tell who it was.

Jake stood and ran to them. A single shot rang out, but this one came from above him. He whirled and saw Olivia sprawled at the top of the cliff wall. She shot again. He looked down to where the insurgents had been. Seven bodies littered the sand.

Boone loped next to him. He reached for Fischer’s neck. “He’s alive. Knocked out maybe. We need to get him to the truck.”

Jake nodded. “Get him by the boots.”

Crouched low and moving as fast as they dared, they carried the unconscious Fischer to the truck and put him inside. Mayers immediately started working on him.

More gunfire came from Olivia’s perch. Jake checked the canyon below and saw another three bodies on the ground though they were closer than the others had been.

They were running out of time. “We need to get the hell out of here,” he said to Boone.

“Olivia and Masters are doing a good job of holding them off. Let’s go find the others.”

Together they scoured the landscape, sticking to the shadows where they could. They picked up an injured Williams and deposited him in the truck then returned. They found Quade Aldren and Taggart Cain behind a small outcropping of rocks. Aldren sat on Cain’s back with the butt of his rifle against the other man’s neck.

Jake blinked at the sight. “What the hell?”

“This idiot ran out of ammo and wanted to charge them,” Aldren explained. “I’m trying to keep him from dying, but all he can do is cuss me out.”

“You’d better run when I get up, Aldren, because I’m going to kick your fucking ass.”

“Shut up,” Jake snapped. “We need to get out of here. There are too many of them. Have you seen anyone else?” he asked Quade.

“Bransom is dead,” he said flatly. “Don’t know about anyone else.”

“Get off of him,” Jake said.

Quade stood slowly, and Cain shook him off like he was a three-week-old kitten. He grabbed the man’s rifle and tried to storm forward. Boone caught him by the neck and slammed him down to the ground.

“You need to get a handle on your temper, son,” he said calmly. “Get up, get to the truck, and get it started. You need to be ready to go when we get back. Got it?”

A vein in Cain’s temple throbbed.

Jake pulled Boone away. “Go to the truck, Tag. Help us. I can’t watch out for you if you’re going to go all berserker on me.”

The big man looked as though he wanted to argue but finally nodded sharply. The look he gave Boone as he trotted off was eloquently lethal.

Boone didn’t seem to notice at all.

They found Lincoln Grace and Roark Weston and hustled them back to the truck. Everyone injured and dead was in the back of the half-ton. Everyone except his snipers.

“Masters, Martinez, fall back,” Jake snapped into his radio.

“On my way,” Masters replied.

Nothing came from Olivia except more gunfire.

Olivia was still at the top of the canyon. The insurgents had retreated into the caves, and every time one stuck his head out, she shot it off. She’d saved them today.

“Haul your ass to the truck,” he ordered Boone. “I’m going for Olivia.”

“Be careful. I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”

Jake snorted. “How the hell can it get any worse?”

He kept low to the ground as he headed toward Olivia’s perch. He called to her as he approached. She lifted her palm in a
stop
motion but didn’t lift her left eye from her scope. Jake stilled and looked down at the canyon. He caught faint movement from one of the upper walls, and his chest constricted.

“Livvie, get back,” he shouted. He started to run, waving his arms and trying to draw their attention.

“Livvie!” he yelled again. “Grenade launcher, nine o’clock.”

She stiffened and swung the scope left, but it was too late. Blinding light cut the dark sky as the grenades hurtled through the air. Jake saw Olivia start to rise and stumble backward as the first grenade hit the edge of the wall she’d been perched on. The second landed thirty feet behind her, and the concussion threw her forward just as the third grenade slammed into a boulder and exploded. She screamed as she spun around. Her hands covered her face as she crumpled.

“No!” Jake yelled. He leapt onto the ledge, grabbed her rifle, and started firing. A man fell from the top of the wall. Two more followed as he continued to sight them and shoot. The night turned quiet, and Jake waited thirty seconds, not daring to take his eye from the scope. Nothing moved. He slung the rifle over his shoulder and ran to Olivia. She lay on her back with her hands pressed to her face. Her open jacket and tan T-shirt were splattered with blood. Even her gold owl was flecked with it. He moved the necklace aside, and it came off in his hands. He shoved it into his pocket then reached for her again and checked her pulse. It was erratic and feeble, but he felt it.