Never Surrender(16)

         
       
        

He rubbed her back with his left hand, feeling helpless. God, if he'd even for one moment thought there might be a threat waiting for them outside, he never would have exited the building like that.

Erin already had Candace's sweater up and was examining the wound just under the edge of her shoulder blade. She'd worked at Craig Joint Theater Hospital at Bagram for multiple tours, and had seen every kind of trauma case imaginable. "It's still in there, buried under the edge of her scapula. Must have been a ricochet." She looked up into Candace's face. "Do your ribs hurt when you breathe?"

She shook her head. "Not really."

Erin nodded. "Anywhere else hurt? Your shoulder blade?"

"I said I'm fine." She thrust out her right hand toward him. "Now give me a damn weapon so I can shoot back at these assholes."

Ryan slipped a hand around her nape and leaned in to plant a hard kiss on her mouth. "You got it."

Erin glanced at him. "She'll be okay. I'll try to dig the bullet out and get the bleeding stopped as best I can until we can get clear."

Ryan nodded, shrugged off his pack, and dug out his pistol. After slamming in a fresh magazine, he handed it to Candace. If the shooters maintained their distance, it wouldn't do her much good, but at least she'd feel better being armed.

Now that he wasn't frozen with terror that his wife was going to die, he scanned the others, all hidden behind this low retaining wall running the length of this side of the building.

Wade was on his phone, probably talking to the cops, rifle in his free hand. Ryan grabbed ammo from his pack and loaded his rifle. His right upper arm and the back of his hand were numb, the bullet wound burning like fire.

Rolling to his belly, he crawled his way over to where Jackson lay near the end of the protective wall with his own weapon trained toward the shooters. Maya was right next to him with her service pistol, searching for a target.

As he neared them, the back of Ryan's neck prickled. All eight of them were now pinned down behind this low rock wall with an unknown number of shooters out there, making them one giant, fat target.

They couldn't stay here. He and everyone else with a rifle had to lay down covering fire while the others spread out and found a better defensive position.

Ryan bit back a grunt of pain as he nestled the stock of his weapon against his right shoulder, pressing his right cheek to it to stare through the scope. The night vision device would enable him to see a potential target in the darkness, but it wasn't as good as having NVGs.

"See any muzzle flashes?" he asked the others, aware of the blood that continued to run down his arm, puddling on the flagstone beneath his bent elbow. 

"A couple at one o'clock a few seconds ago," Maya answered. Then to Jackson, "I hit one, but I don't think he's down. Got anything?"

"Not yet," he answered, his Texas drawl making his voice seem even calmer.

Wade made his way over to crouch on one knee beside them. "How we looking?"

"No targets yet," Ryan answered. Who the hell had opened fire on them?

"Cops are on the way and I just got off a call with MacKenzie. He's alerting the local Feds and is on his way here with his brother. Said he's bringing backup."

Well, until then, they were on their own. "We gotta get the hell out from behind this wall," Ryan muttered. Who knew how many shooters there were, and what kind of weapons they had? It made his skin crawl to stay here another second.

"Yeah," Wade muttered, putting his eye to his scope.

Quickly they came up with a plan. Candace still held the pistol tight in her right hand, her expression intent as Erin did what she could to stop the bleeding.

Ryan wanted to haul her into his arms and not let go but he couldn't until this threat was neutralized. He loved his wife so damn much, respected how strong and brave she was. He couldn't stand to lose her, wanted to have a family with her someday. She was everything to him.

"You and Erin get to cover while we divert them," he said to her. "Maya and Dev, you'll cover them while we head out."

Both women nodded once, gazes trained on the darkness beyond. "Got it," Maya answered.

"Ready?" he asked the guys. They all nodded.

On his three count, Ryan and Wade burst out from behind the wall, firing spaced shots across the patio toward where the shooting had come from. Cam, Jackson, and Maya laid down covering fire for them as he and Wade sprinted to the relative protection of the water feature on the opposite side.

Flashes of light burst in the darkness and rounds slammed into the rocks in front of them. Bleeding and royally pissed off by this point, Ryan ducked around the corner of the fountain and caught sight of one of the shooters in his scope. He aimed and fired two shots, hitting him center mass. The guy cried out and fell.

"One shooter down," he said to Wade, wishing he had comms with the others so they knew what was going on.

"I saw two more moving northeast."

Swiveling around, Ryan waved to signal the others and Jackson signaled back. They were ready. He faced forward again, searching through his scope for another target. He and Wade began firing again, laying down covering fire so the rest of their group could move.

"We're clear," Cam called out a minute later.

Ryan's heart rate eased and when he looked back there was no one left behind the wall. Candace was now out of sight behind solid cover with Erin to treat her wound, and Dev and Maya were both armed as well. She was in good hands, and as safe as he could make her for the moment.

Now he and the guys had to hunt down the rest of these bastards before anyone else got hurt.

He signaled to Cam and Jackson, hiding behind the end of a short brick wall that separated the patio from the garden, then resumed firing to keep the shooters at bay and give the PJs time to join him and Wade.

Thirty seconds later, Cam and Jackson reached them, rifles to their shoulders and ready to rock.

"Two more shooters moving to the northeast," he told them. "We'll go in pairs. Wade and I'll take the right, you two take the left."

"Roger that," Jackson murmured, eye to his scope.

He and Wade peeled off and started across the north lawn while Cam and Jackson covered them. They stopped behind a decorative rock formation in the middle of the grass and covered the other guys, then kept leapfrogging their way toward where the shooters had been.



       
         
       
        

The one Ryan had hit was gone, but there was a blood trail for them to follow, though it was hard to see with just his scope to aid them in the darkness.

Either the shooter was still mobile or someone else was dragging him. No matter what, he couldn't have gone far.

Ducking around the tree he was hiding behind, Ryan jerked back when a bullet struck the trunk, sending up a hail of splinters.

Wade immediately fired from Ryan's left. "Got him."

Good. Two down. "See anyone else?"

"Nope."

"Anything?" he called out to Cam and Jackson.

"Negative," Cam answered.

There could be more than two remaining shooters out here, but if they were lucky, maybe not.

Then, in the distance, came the sound of an engine roaring to life. He eased around the tree trunk and scanned the terrain with his scope. A flash of movement caught his attention.

Zeroing in on it, he saw someone driving away on an ATV. "One target on an ATV moving northwest. Can't get a clear shot through the trees."

"I see him," Wade muttered. "No shot though."

And it wasn't like they could catch up to him on foot either. Dammit.

"Contact, ten o'clock," Jackson said to their left.

Ryan swung the barrel of his weapon toward the new target and caught sight of a man running between the trees. He was cradling his arm, seemed to be struggling. "I got him. Cover me."

Stepping out from behind the relative protection of the tree, he rushed forward. Behind him he could hear Wade following. On silent feet he moved over the short-cut grass and into the trees, knowing the others had his back.

He lost sight of the target for a moment, then the wounded man burst out from behind a stand of trees. He stumbled, went down on one knee, and it was the break Ryan needed.

Ryan raced straight at him. "Drop your weapon and put your fucking hands up!"

The man grabbed his weapon and whipped around, trying to raise it in time to get a shot off.

Ryan's hands were rock steady, the pain barely noticeable now as he aimed the barrel of his rifle at the target and fired.

The man shouted and dropped to his back, his weapon lying on the ground. Ryan's boots pounded over the carpet of fallen leaves as he ran for the man. When he reached the man he kicked the fallen rifle away, aiming his own at the guy at point blank range.

The shooter had half turned onto his side, his breathing ragged and uneven. "Don't … don't kill me," he rasped out, grimacing as he struggled to bring his hands up.

Wade moved in like a deadly shadow to search him for weapons, then grabbed the guy by the front of his camo fatigues and shook him once. "Who the fuck are you and why did you attack us?" he growled. 

"Or … orders," the man said, voice weak.