Never Surrender(21)

"Mother fucker."

Jaw clenched, he slung his weapon across his back and began climbing up the metal rungs of the ladder anchored into the concrete wall. Near the top he paused. "Shane, how we looking up there?" he murmured into the mic.

"All clear. You guys coming up?"

"Affirmative." Without the adrenaline masking the pain, his arm was now aching like a bitch. He grimaced as he climbed his way to the top, and by the time he got there he was covered in sweat. Biting back a groan, he crawled over the edge of the opening and stayed on one knee to catch his breath.

A solid hand landed on his left shoulder. "You good?" Cam.

"Yeah. Just need a second."

"I got movement outside the tunnel entrance," Shane reported, voice sharp. "Single heat signature, lost it in the trees to the southeast-"

The rest of what he said was lost under the roar of blood in Ryan's ears.

He was already dropping to his stomach, rolling behind a slight knoll to take cover. As soon as he was in place he aimed at the far tree line, and a bullet punched into the metal hatch two feet in front of him with a loud ping. 

"Fucker," Cam snarled under his breath, flat on his belly beside Ryan.

"You guys got him?" Declan said over their comms, still inside the tunnel.

Ryan lay unmoving, eye to his scope, every muscle tense as he scanned those trees. "I got nothing. Shane?"

"Moving around to get another look."

"Ruby-"

"She's good."

Was it Coventry out there shooting at them sniper-style? Or was it another of March's men? "Any other heat signatures?"

"Negative, just the one."

For now, anyway. Ryan eased the barrel of his weapon farther to the right.

A flash of movement caught his attention through the trees. "I got him. Hundred-and-twenty yards, two o'clock."

"You got a shot?" Wade said, inside the tunnel with the others.

"Negative. We're gonna have to flush the bastard out," he muttered.

"Roger that," Declan answered. "Shane, you cover the left flank. Ryan, you and Cam take the right and we'll come up and take the middle."

"Wilco." The right side of his undershirt was stiff with blood. More of it pooled warm against his ribs. Sooner you get this bastard, the sooner you can get that plugged again.

"Ready?" Cam whispered.

"Yeah. I'll cover you."

Cam shot up and ran to the right while Ryan watched the trees for more movement. Another shot rang out. Cam cursed but kept running. "To my left," he reported, dropping behind the cover of a big boulder.

Ryan used his left arm to push to his knees, waited for Cam's soft go before racing after him. No more shots echoed in the silence, but Ryan glimpsed a tiny shift in the underbrush ahead and to the left as he ran. "I got him." Dropping onto one knee, he took aim, fired. Then he waited.

"I see him," Shane reported. "To the left of your position."

Ryan eased the barrel of his weapon to the left, consciously slowing his heart rate. Come on, asshole. Move.

A branch swayed in his night vision goggles. He aimed at it and fired.

"You winged him, but he's not down," Shane said. "I can't get a clear shot, but he's moving deeper into the woods now."

Not for long.

With Cam backing him up, Ryan raced across the open space and into the trees, just in time to see someone stumbling ahead of them about forty yards in the distance. He and Cam both fired at the same time. The man grunted and toppled over, disappearing from view.

"He's down and not moving," Shane confirmed. "You're clear."

Ryan lowered his rifle, staying close on Cam's heels as his teammate ran for the body. Breathing hard, covered in sweat, Ryan followed him to where the man's corpse was sprawled out on the forest floor. One bullet had gone through the base of his neck, severing his spinal column. The other had hit him in the upper back.

The man was lying on his stomach, eyes open, no movement in his torso. Ryan knelt down, took off his left glove and checked the pulse, just to confirm. "Dead." He rose to his feet and slipped his right hand into his pocket to give his aching arm a rest.

The pain eased a mere fraction. He rubbed his left hand over his face, suddenly exhausted. God, what a night. Now that this was over, all he wanted to do was get back to Candace and go lie down with her in their room, hold her as close as he could. Unfortunately it would be a while before he could do that.

MacKenzie came up a minute later and looked down at the body. "That's Coventry."



       
         
       
        

Ryan relaxed. So the immediate threat had been neutralized. Together they walked out of the trees to find Jackson and Wade guarding March.

"How's that patch job holding up, Went?" Cam asked, sticking a penlight in his mouth to have a look.

"Not too well."

"Nope," Cam confirmed around the light, and started pulling fresh bandages out of the kit he'd brought with him from the helo.

Ryan hissed in a breath when his buddy peeled the bloody bandage away from the wound to put another QuikClot one over it. His eyes watered at the cruel burn. Dammit, that hurt. "You know what, Sandberg?"

One hand gripping their prisoner's upper arm, Wade looked over at him.

"I'm never coming to another wedding of yours. Ever. So next time, don't bother inviting me."

"Yeah, and not Jackson or me either," said Cam, pressing hard on the bandage to slow the bleeding. Ryan bit back a curse.

Wade grinned, his teeth flashing white in the pale moonlight. "Guess it's a good thing I'm only doing this once then, huh?"

Yeah, a damn good thing. Especially since Erin was a total sweetheart.

Declan requested the pilots to move in to extract them and grabbed March by his bound wrists to shove him forward and down the hill. Jackson stepped closer to Ryan, aiming the beam of the flashlight at him.

A flurry of movement to the left caught his attention as Shane and Ruby appeared out of the trees. Shane hustled over to his brother and shoved March to his knees.

"Anyone got their phone handy so they can get this on video?" Declan asked, aiming a flashlight into the prisoner's face.

"Right here," Ryan answered, reaching his left hand into one of his vest pockets to fish out his phone. "Smile pretty," he said to March, then hit record and nodded at Declan to begin.

"Is that him?" Ruby demanded in a pissed-off tone as she made her way up the hill. The years of smoking unfiltered cigarettes didn't seem to have affected her lung capacity any. She was storming toward them at a pretty impressive clip for someone her age.

"Uh, yes ma'am," Jackson answered when no one else did.

Ryan looked up from his phone's screen as Ruby stormed straight for March. The man's head came up and even from where he stood, Ryan could see the guy's eyes widen in alarm.

"Whoa," he said to Cam, who was still poking and prodding at the wound. Suddenly the pain in Ryan's arm wasn't so bad anymore. Now he was even more glad he'd brought his phone with him.

Not even bothering to fight the grin spreading across his face, Ryan stood back and kept recording, eagerly waiting for the show to start. 





Chapter Thirteen



The moment she heard the rotors, Candace got up off the chair she'd been sitting on inside the lobby and ran out onto the north lawn. Maya, Dev, and Erin followed, along with the cops and Feds they'd already spoken to.

She held her breath as the outline of the helo came into view. They'd had zero updates since Ryan and the others had left, and she'd spent the past ninety-some-odd minutes worrying that something had gone wrong. They'd gone in there with no backup, and with her grandmother of all people in tow.

She winced as she shifted the sling Erin had made for her out of a bed sheet to minimize the strain on her shoulder blade, eyes glued to the helo. Was everyone okay? Did they get March?

The Blackhawk circled overhead then came in to land on the far side of the lawn. Moments later, shadowy shapes began to climb out of the interior. The first one was escorting another person. Someone wearing a hood.

The Feds near her took off running toward them, and she realized it was Declan MacKenzie with a prisoner. March?

She looked past them to the helo, recognizing her grandma's petite form as someone led her across the lawn, her short white hair whipping in the rotor wash. The worry eased a little, but not completely as she searched for Ryan.

Two more men hopped out, then her heart did a painful somersault in her chest when Ryan's tall, familiar form finally jumped out of the helo.

Without waiting, she raced for him. He ran toward her, caught her with his good arm and dragged her close, his hand locked around the back of her head as he pressed her cheek to his chest. "I'm good, baby, I'm okay."

"You swear?" she asked, squeezing him for all she was worth with her right arm.

"I swear. How are you?" He pulled back to study her, his hand solid around the back of her neck.

"Relieved," she answered, tipping her face up to kiss him, clutching at the back of his tac vest because she couldn't make herself let him go yet. "They wouldn't tell us shit about what was going on. Was that March?"

"Yeah."

She looked over her shoulder to see the Feds hauling him off to a waiting vehicle, MacKenzie with them. She faced her husband. "Are you still bleeding?"