Cruz: Scifi Alien Invasion Romance (Hell Squad Book 2) (2 page)

Marcus was nearby, alert for anything that might crop up, and murmuring to the team’s communications officer through his comms device. He was a hell of a team leader, always had a plan B when shit hit…which it always did. Hell Squad got the best missions.

In his own earpiece, Cruz heard their comms officer, Elle, laugh at something Marcus said. Cruz almost smiled. She did a hell of a job providing their intel…and she was also officially the love of Marcus’ life. Cruz shook his head. He’d watched the two of them dance around their feelings for months. He would never have guessed slim, classy Elle—former society girl—and rough, tough, battle-hardened Marcus Steele would be a match made in heaven. But they fit.

The team’s sniper walked past Cruz, followed by Hell Squad’s female team member. For once, Claudia and Shaw weren’t bickering. A minor miracle. They were both quiet and focused.

“So, we gonna whip some raptor butt?”

The voice from beside him made Cruz roll his eyes. “Kid, you want to keep your voice down.”

A clearing throat. “Right.”

Sam Jenkins was on a trial run to fill the empty slot on Hell Squad. The best soldiers were already on the squads, so the pickings were slim for replacements. As far as Cruz could tell, Sam was young, eager, but with limited experience. He’d been in the United Coalition Military Academy when the invasion had hit. His shininess would either wear off real quick and he’d quit, or he’d get himself killed.

Cruz glanced at Gabe, who was just a little behind them. He had a way of moving that was spooky and completely silent. He could disappear into shadows in the blink of an eye. His brother had been almost as good.

Jesus, Zeke
. Whenever Cruz thought of their fallen teammate, he felt a flood of anger. But even that flash of emotion faded quickly. Consumed by the growing deadness inside that he couldn’t seem to shake.

Death. Destruction. Blood and fighting.

Sometimes, he couldn’t remember what he was fighting for anymore.

Something tingled along Cruz’s senses. He slowed, turning his head to study the surrounding buildings. Nothing moved. Even the air was still.

He stopped and turned in a slow circle.

Marcus held up a closed fist. The team halted.

“Cruz?” Marcus murmured.

Cruz couldn’t see or hear anything that should have set off his internal alarm. “I don’t know,
amigo
.” But something was wrong.

“Marcus?” Elle’s voice. “We’ve lost the drone feed. I can’t see you guys or what’s around you.”

As Marcus cursed, Cruz’s gut cramped. Yeah, something was really off.

Then he heard a noise. Cruz spun, and straight ahead, speeding toward them, was a slim figure in black. Her black hair flew out behind her and he saw the tip of her crossbow over her shoulder.

Santha
. Everything in him flared to life.

Her sleek, black bike was electric and made no sound. Perfect for sneaking around the city.

As she got closer, he saw her face, watched her wave one arm at them madly.

Shit
. “Everyone, take cover!” he yelled.

Seconds later, raptors streamed out of a building ahead. Their weapons made a distinctive noise as they fired. Dark-green ooze splattered the road in front of the team. It sizzled and hissed as it ate through the asphalt.

He knew the damned stuff burned and paralyzed. He ducked in behind an abandoned car.
Madre de dios
, another thirty seconds and they would have walked right into the raptor cluster fuck.

Looked like the aliens had fully recovered their communications and were out for some payback.

Hell Squad dived for cover. Cruz watched Santha coax more speed from her bike. Even with the gunfire, she rode straight, heading for him.

She skidded the bike in a tight turn and came to a stop beside him. “Ambush. Had to warn you.”

With a nod, he sprung to his feet and leaped on the back of bike.

She swiveled. “What the hell are—?”

“Ride.”

She did. They raced through the raptors. Cruz aimed his carbine and pulled out his secondary weapon, a smaller laser pistol. He fired both weapons, taking down any raptor in range.

Santha turned the bike again and Cruz held on his with knees. They moved through the aliens again and Cruz kept firing. His team members were firing as well.

He and Santha did another loop. She anticipated his needs, slowing down, speeding up, tuning to avoid the raptor gunfire. Even in the middle of hell, he took a second to appreciate her lean body pressed back against him.

Then he saw a huge raptor, over seven feet tall, dragging Sam across the ground by his ankle. The young soldier was struggling and had lost his weapon.

Dammit.
“Slow down!”

She did and Cruz leaped off the bike.

He unloaded his carbine into the raptor. It took a rain of laser fire, but the giant raptor finally tumbled to the ground like a felled tree.

Sam lay writhing, his right leg bent at an odd angle. Cruz yanked the kid up and hefted Sam over his shoulder. The kid probably weighed more than Cruz, but the slim-line exoskeleton in Cruz’s armor helped him lift heavy loads. He ran for cover.

Behind an overturned minivan, he set Sam down. The kid was moaning, his eyes wide and jittery. “T-thanks, Cruz.”

Claudia appeared. “He okay?”

“Leg’s broken.”

“I’ll take a look.”

The team didn’t have a field medic, but they all had basic training. As Claudia splinted Sam’s leg, Cruz ducked out of cover to check on Santha.

She was still on the bike, riding toward the remaining raptors. She held something in her hand.

He frowned, and then, when he realized what it was, he grinned. Damn, she was his kind of woman, a queen among warriors.

She tossed the grenade into a group of raptors then made a tight turn on the bike. She rode back, standing up to make a small jump over some rubble. Behind her, the grenade exploded, flames reaching into the sky. The screams and grunts of wounded and dying raptors filled the air.

“They’re retreating.” Marcus’ gravelly voice came through Cruz’s earpiece.

The last of the raptors slipped away through the ruins in full retreat. Warily, gun up, Cruz walked into the middle of the street.

Santha stopped her bike with a skid. The rest of Hell Squad came out of cover.

“Thanks for the warning and the help,” Marcus said.

She nodded. “You should get going. Their usual MO is to come in with a larger force, and a pack of canids.”

Cruz grimaced. He hated canids. The alien hunting dogs were vicious and relentless.

Marcus cursed. “We were supposed to check for some survivors our drones spotted in a school about a block from here.”

Santha shook her head. “They left three days ago. Don’t know where they are now.”

Marcus nodded. “Thanks.” He touched his ear. “Elle, can you send a Hawk our way and have the doc meet us back at base? Jenkins is injured.” Marcus glanced at his team. “Hell Squad, let’s move out. Gabe, carry Sam.”

The armor’s exoskeleton meant that carrying a team member, even for several hours, wasn’t hard, but Cruz knew Gabe probably didn’t need the help of the exoskeleton.

Cruz stepped close to Santha. “Come with us.”

Another shake of her head.

He moved closer until his body was just a whisper from hers. He smelled her—sweat and a fragrant woody scent. “Come back to base. There’s a place for you there.”

“I’m not leaving.”

Dammit.
Cruz barely resisted the urge to kick something. He hated the idea of her out here, alone. “Why not?”

Her green eyes flashed. “I have work to do.”

He leaned closer and saw her stiffen. “Don’t you get lonely?” he asked quietly.

“You think being with a bunch of strangers will help with that?” She tilted her head. “You’re with people all the time and you’re still lonely.”

Cruz felt his muscles tense. He stepped back. “What are you going to do?”

She revved the bike. “Keep fighting.”

With frustration like a noose around his neck, he forced himself to nod. “Don’t get yourself killed.”

She flashed him a smile. The first he’d ever seen from her. “Sure thing, soldier.”

She gunned the bike and shot away.

Cruz watched her disappear from sight. Yeah, she was right. Even surrounded by his team, he was lonely as hell.

Chapter Two

Cruz gripped the side of the Hawk as the four rotors swiveled and it began its descent.

They lowered through a circular opening, covered by retracting doors that blended into the surrounding forest. General Holmes, the head honcho, worked damn hard to keep the base a secret from the raptors.

As soon as the Hawk’s rotors stopped spinning, Cruz leaped off. He was tired and smelled like sweat and raptor blood. He scowled. He’d have to make do with a cold shower, though, since hot water was only available in the morning. The geek squad were working on squeezing more power out of the high-tech solar power system, but when it came to powering the base, hot water was the lowest priority.

A few military personnel were bustling around the landing pads—mostly maintenance teams, logistics staff and pilots. Everyone wore a mix of uniforms blended with civilian clothes. Most arms of the United Coalition military had been decimated in the alien invasion. Whatever soldiers had survived had been cobbled together into the squads.

Even Hell Squad was a motley mix. They had UC Marines, like himself and Marcus, and the others were a mix of UC Army, Navy and SAS. But what they’d been before didn’t really matter anymore. Now they were just Hell Squad, being sent to do the dirtiest, bloodiest fighting, again and again.

Once more, that nagging, empty feeling hit him. He unfastened his chest armor, pulled it off and slung it over his shoulder. The world was fucked. Nothing would ever be the same. It felt like they weren’t doing much more than nipping at the raptors’ heels, but even if they did fight them off—and that was a big if in his opinion—there would be so much rebuilding to do. Too much.

A headache started behind his left eye.

“Who’s hurt this time?” Dr. Emerson Green bustled forward, her lab coat streaming behind her and her blonde hair swinging in a blunt cut that hit her jawline. Two medics waited with an iono-stretcher floating off the ground behind her.

“New recruit,” Cruz said. “Sam.”

“I take it he didn’t make the cut.” She waved at her medics to get Sam on the stretcher. Her gaze scanned the Hawk, running over each member of the team. Cruz saw the way her gaze stopped on the still and silent Gabe.

Yeah, they were all worried about Gabe. Since his twin brother had died, the usually quiet, intense man had become even more withdrawn. What Cruz didn’t like most was the habit Gabe had of disappearing for periods of time with no explanation. He was worried Gabe was a ticking bomb…and Cruz didn’t want Gabe, or anyone else, hurt if he happened to go off.

A slim figure came out of one of the tunnel entrances leading off the landing pads. She was running, her dark-brown hair flowing behind her. Her gaze zeroed in on Marcus and a smile lit up her pretty face. She launched herself at their team leader.

He caught her with one arm, yanked her up to his chest and slammed his mouth down on hers.

Elle Milton certainly wasn’t the same person she’d been before the attack. A former society party girl, she was now Hell Squad’s comms officer and she was damn good at it. She was also crazy in love with big, tough, scarred Marcus.

Watching them made Cruz’s melancholy deepen. He was damned happy for his friend. If anyone deserved someone who looked at him like Elle did, it was Marcus. But watching the obvious connection between the two cut through Cruz like a combat knife. He pinched the bridge of his nose. Damn, he needed a good night’s sleep.

Claudia nudged him with her shoulder. “Gabe and I are heading to the rec room for a beer.” She shot a sharp look at the team’s sniper. “And Shaw invited himself along to be annoying. Wanna join us?”

Cruz shook his head. “Rain check?”

“Roger that.” Claudia sauntered away and shot a glance back over her shoulder. “Hey, your badass girl saved our butts again. We owe her.”

His badass girl
. Cruz fought a scowl. “Yeah.”

He took the tunnel to his quarters. He was nearly there when Lainey, one of the base’s schoolteachers, popped up beside him. He’d flirted with her a few times at the regular Friday-night parties. She was short, with dangerous curves and an open face. Pretty, fresh, and not afraid to show her interest.

“Hey, Cruz.”

“Lainey.”

She smiled, fiddling with her strawberry-blonde hair. “Would you like join me for dinner? A few of the other teachers are meeting in the dining room.”

Cruz waited for the hit of heat. The stir of his cock.

Nothing
. “Just got in from a mission. Not up for it tonight.”

She leaned into him, her breast rubbing against his arm. “We could have a private party, then.”

He should be all over it. Pounding his frustration out between Lainey’s creamy thighs would be better than brooding. And it would feel a hell of a lot better, too.

But a long, slim body was the one that popped into his head. Dominated his thoughts. He didn’t want the lovely Lainey.

He wanted Santha Kade.

“Sorry, Lainey.”

The woman’s mouth tipped downward, and she shrugged. “Okay. Catch you later, Cruz.”

Since the invasion, in this small enclave of humanity, attitudes to sex had changed dramatically. It was seen as a way to reaffirm life, to feel a connection when so many had lost their loved ones. And he’d been more than happy to partake at first.

But as he’d started to feel more disconnected, he’d begun to push the offers away. The last few months, drumming up interest in a woman had become too much work.

Until Santha had slammed a crossbow bolt into a canid intent on tearing him apart.

She’d saved Hell Squad more than once. She was out there, fighting the aliens. Alone.

Cruz slammed into his quarters, yanked off the rest of his armor and clothes and hit the shower. After the very cold water had washed away the filth, he nabbed a bottle of homebrewed beer from his mini-fridge and sat in the dark, nursing the bottle. He knew he should get out and shake off this dark mood, but right now, he didn’t have it in him.