Code Name: Ghost (A Warrior's Challenge 1) (28 page)

She stopped, but didn’t turn around. “If
you’re talking about Greg, he works with JTF.”

“I know who he works for, Kayla. That’s not
what I asked.” Her stance stiffened, and it fanned a jealous fire
in the pit of his stomach.

“We’ve known each other for a long
time.”

The words shot right out of his jealous
mouth before he could put the brakes on. “Do you love him?”

Jerking around, she said, “Commander, that’s
none of your business,” She paused, looking out into the barren
desert. “He’s someone I trust. He’s a good friend.”

Another jab of jealousy shot through him.
Was it because her words made it sound like she didn’t trust him?
“With benefits,” he shot back.

Kayla’s hands flew to her hips, a sure sign
he’d ticked her off.

He swallowed deeply. “I promised him nothing
would happen to you tonight.” His gaze settled on her lips, and her
cheeks flushed.

She took a small step then stopped herself,
her expression strained. “No…he…”

He waited holding his breath. Please, God,
finish your sentence, and tell me you don’t love Lapierre, he
thought. Her lips parted, but the words didn’t come. Taking the
steps separating them, he drew her tight. “Tell me you don’t love
him.” She stared up at him, searching his eyes, silent for too
long. “Is he the reason you came to us?” She didn’t answer, gazing
at him with that haunted look he’d seen before. He released his
grip on her, and the chill in his heart made him back away. “You
belong with us now, Kayla.”

“I don’t
belong
to anyone,” she
whispered.

* * * *

The sharp explosions from the rockets
blasting into the hillside behind them covered their backs with
sand and jagged stones. Dust clogged her lungs and the fast thump
of her heart kept her adrenaline pumping hard. Squirming through
the sand on her belly, she kept up. When the men ran, she ran. When
they hit the ground, she did the same.

Her headset activated with the teams combat
chatter, enabling her to ready herself for the next move. Without
her years of experience, she would never have been able to follow,
but it was simply like adding the third dimension—reality.

For hours, they worked their way to their
target, a set of caves on the north side of a headland. She
protected her handheld equipment, courtesy of the U.S. government.
Bigger than an iPod but smaller than a notebook, its capabilities
stopped just short of making her breakfast. The technological top
of the line in plotting, data and transmittal capabilities with
light touch accuracy, it was years ahead of anything she’d used
before.

They only had a few hundred yards to go
before they reached the caves.

Smothered again, the Commander shoved her
under him when a rocket launched grenade landed on the ground not
more than a hundred feet from them, throwing up rocks and leaving a
pit in the earth. She had more bruises from him than she did from
anything else.

“Lieutenant Gibson?”

“Go ahead, Snow White.”

“Last quadrant. Two hundred meters to reach
the cave entrance,” she said.

“Is there an exit?” he asked.

“Yes, I think I can get us through.”

“You think?” Gibson blasted back at her as
he would at any other team member who didn’t give him an answer he
liked.

“The last satellite image was taken a week
ago. The tunnel could be blocked by now, there’s no way to know for
sure.”

“Commander?” Cobbs questioned.

“They don’t want us in there, that means
we’re going in. Squads one and four lead off,” the Commander
ordered.

“Good copy,” Cobbs replied, and began
calling out orders to the men.

The teams had been split into four groups.
They were in tac force three. The mountain they approached held a
maze of tunnels and small caverns. Once they reached the target
she’d have to get them in and out, but they weren’t going to exit
the same way.

She had no idea who the enemy was, what they
looked like or how many there were, but there was enough to keep
them occupied, lobbing firepower at them every few seconds.

“Mace, Mctavish, clear a path,” Thane
ordered.

“I have to be in front,” she choked out. The
grit in her teeth was bad enough, but it lodged in her throat
making it hard to speak.

“Here.” He shoved a canister in her hand.
“Spit out the first mouthful and then drink.”

The mouthful of water mixed with the grit,
turning it to mud sloshing around her mouth. She spit, then let the
clean water slide down her throat, sweeping grains of sand with it.
Lying on her back, she quickly touched the screen of the glorified
GPS, bringing up the maps of the caverns memorizing the secondary
route if the first one was blocked. What concerned her was if they
were all blocked. She heard an aircraft approach.

“Eyes open, Kayla. It’s gonna be close,
bright and loud,” he whispered in her ear, his arms covering her
head.

The compression blast radiated through both
of them as Thane shielded her. Hot and sweaty, their cheeks rubbed
together. The ground vibrated under her back as bombs struck the
ground, clearing out the enemy.

The Commander grabbed her and wrenched her
to her feet. “Stay behind me.”

The aircraft let go a second wave over the
area where the enemy fire came from. In staggered lines they
slipped through the night. It had become eerily quiet by the time
the first squad made it to the face of the mountain.

“Snow White, it’s your show now,” Gibson
said.

“The entrance bears zero-four-zero. Twenty
meters in, there’s a fork, go right,” she said, keeping up with the
Commander as they ran to meet up with the first group.

“In front of me,” Thane ordered.

She darted in front of him, falling in line
behind one of the other men.

The SEAL turned toward her. “Whatever you
do, don’t shoot me in the ass.”

“You’d deserve it, Mctavish,” she snapped
back, recognizing his voice.

Silently they made their way through the
cavern, the walls tight on either side. The larger men had to lean
over to avoid the ragged, hewn ceiling.

Mctavish’s hand flew up, and the Commander
gripped her to stop her from moving forward.

They’d reached the right fork, pitched in
complete darkness, her other senses heightened. The cold wall
scratched her fingertips as she ran them along it to keep her
bearings. The silence increased the thumping of her pulse and the
sound of her own breath.

“Clear,” someone uttered in the headset.

She followed the plot on her GPS. “Twenty
meters and then take the tunnel to the left,” she said quietly.

Approaching, every man’s foot fell with
purpose and wariness.

“There’s two lefts, Snow White,” Gibson
said. “Which one?”

She dropped her gaze to the slim unit in her
hands. There had to be a mistake. There was only one showing on her
map.

“Well?”

“Standby.”

“What’s wrong?” Thane said beside her,
looking down at the device she held.

“I think one’s a decoy,” she whispered back.
“I need to go up there. This device is pinpoint accurate. I should
be able to tell when I get there.”

“I’ll take it up. You stay here,” the
Commander said, reaching for it.

“No.” She slipped past Mctavish before he
could stop her. Reaching the front of the line and Lieutenant
Gibson, she stopped in front of the first access. It wasn’t exact,
and cold air brushed against her cheeks. She moved ahead four
paces. This was it. She pointed at the second opening. Gibson
nodded.

Two more turns and they were there, whatever
they were there for. No one had told her why or what, they were
looking for. A heavy canvas dropped from the ceiling, blocking
their view. The Lieutenant pushed her against the wall and motioned
for her to stay. She nodded. The next few seconds were like
slipping into a hellish dream of sound without sight.

The canvas was yanked, and the men poured in
shouting. Weapon fire cut through the dank air, and she gulped back
the fear. The second squad behind them raced past her, including
the Commander. One quick glance was all she had, but she’d never
seen him look like that before, cold, fierce,
calculating—frightening. The sounds of men dying met her ears.

Feet on rocky ground from the tunnel they’d
traversed, approached. She almost sensed them before she heard
them. They weren’t speaking English and they were coming quickly.
Her hand went to the pistol, and she pulled it from its holster.
The cool smooth angle of metal caressed her fingers as she caressed
the trigger guard. Sweat pooled in her palm, and down her back.

They passed her, not seeing her in the niche
in the rock wall. The first three men carried something, weapons,
large ones. She didn’t think, she just aimed, and at point blank
range shot them one after the other. Five men fell to the
ground.

“What’s this?” she yelled out. Thane and
Mctavish appeared at the entryway.

“Kayla? What the…oh, fuck. Out!” the
Commander stormed, looking at the cylindrical tube on the ground.
“Grab and go.” He yanked her from the wall. “Get us out of here,
Kayla.”

Only catching a glimpse of the display
window, a red timer counted down: less than two minutes.

“Which way?” Mctavish voiced in her ear.

“Left,” she said, breaking into a run.
“Fifty meters and then right.” She darted in front of Mctavish,
they had no time for a mistake. The rest of the men followed. She’d
clocked the detonation on her handheld device. “Fifty seconds, run
faster.” The GPS beeped as they reached the next turn, and she
veered down it, almost blind, only the small light on her device to
see by. The next turn was in ten meters.

One more turn.

She veered left and ran as if their lives
depended on it, and they did.

She lunged from the exit. Five Taliban
soldiers pointing rifles at her brought her feet to a sharp halt.
She’d put a few seconds’ distance between her and the Commander.
“We have unfriendly company at the exit,” she choked out, waiting
for the first bullet to tear into her body. Something hard hit her
helmet, and in the next second, something heavy fell over top of
her and buried her into the sand, knocking the air from her
lungs.

* * * *

Thane rounded the last corner when he heard
Kayla in his headset and saw her crumple to her knees. Like a
quarterback, he threw himself over her, pulling his weapons at the
same time and firing behind them where more of the Taliban soldiers
stood above the cave entrance. Rounds ricocheted from every angle
as the rest of the team exited firing on the Taliban in front of
them.

The last bullet cut above their heads, and
then a mighty explosion shook the ground. A blast of heat erupted
from the tunnel, washing over them as debris pelted down on top of
them.

Kayla’s body lay still. Terror gripped him
as he rolled her over.

“Ditz, call for extraction.” He drew her
into his arms. “Kayla, talk to me. Please, God talk to me.” She
wasn’t moving. The rest of the team surrounded them, coming to a
scuffling stop. Caleb’s hands slid over her body, prodding her,
checking for blood. Warm liquid slid down her cheek. Blood? No, a
tear—his. “Kayla,” he barked, his voice breaking.

Kayla’s eyes blinked open to his
command.

Mace gripped her hand tightly. “Kayla, talk
to us.”

She fumbled to reach for the belt around her
chin, and Mace undid it for her, removing the helmet weighing her
head back. Her hand slid to her skull, pressing against it.

“Come on, Kayla-girl. Tell the reaper he can
kiss your ass. You’re staying with us,” Fox said, kneeling down
beside them.

“Look at this,” Stitch said, turning her
helmet so they could see.

“Holy shit,” Mace breathed.

Kayla closed her eyes again, and he squeezed
her. A sound he didn’t recognize came from his own throat, but he
choked it back. “Oh, sweet Jesus.” He curled her delicate body to
his chest. Cold, he was so damn cold. “Don’t you fucking dare leave
me here without you, Kayla.”

“How bad is it?” Cobbs said, kneeling
down.

Stitch interjected, “It’s a concussion.
Commander, give her room to breathe.”

Ignoring Stitch, Thane rose with her in his
arms, but she started to squirm, forcing her limbs to move. “I can
walk,” she said weakly.

Carefully he placed her on her feet, and she
staggered like a drunken sailor.

“Easy, Kayla,” Mace’s hands steadied
her.

The Commander leaned over, searching her
eyes. “Kayla, look at me. Look at me, baby. That’s it. Breathe.”
Her legs wobbled and she grabbed him to stop herself from toppling
over.

“No rest for the wicked or the beautiful,”
Mctavish said to her. “Good job, Snow White. I stand
corrected.”

Pressing her palm to her head, she moaned.
“
Tabernac
.”

Mctavish chuckled. “Even I know that word.”
He squeezed her shoulder. “I guess Canadian women are responsible
for saving our ass. At least today,” Mctavish whispered in her
ear.

“You guys are friggin’ insane.” She inhaled
a deep breath, wincing at the same time.

The men chuckled. All except Thane.

“All in a day’s work Kayla-girl,” Fox said,
brushing her down.

“You’re underpaid.” She squeezed her eyes
shut, swaying.

“No, Kayla open your eyes,” the Commander
demanded.

“I just need a second to close my eyes,” she
slurred. “Quit pestering me.”

He gave her a tight squeeze “A SEAL doesn’t
sleep.”

“I’m not a SEAL, as you’ve pointed out Mr.
High and Mighty.”

For the first time, her giving him lip was
all he wanted to hear. “No, but your little heart is as brave as
one.” He hoisted her into his arms and carried her toward the
vehicles coming to a dusty stop in front of them. Nuzzling her ear,
he whispered, “I’d hold your hand and walk straight into the gates
of hell if it meant keeping you.”