Forged in Ash (47 page)

“
Tei’yoonoh’o.
” Pure contempt throbbed in the word.

And then suddenly Wolf frowned. Going very still, he cocked his head, as though he were listening to something.

Zane turned to Rawls, who was still standing there, staring down at their dead hostage. “Don’t beat yourself up. Nobody could have saved him.”

Stiffness claimed Rawls’s lean frame and Cosky knew he was thinking that Kait could have.

Zane slapped Rawls’s shoulder and froze, his hand clamping down.

Cosky recognized the fixed, rigid expression.

Jesus Christ, unbelievable. The bastard was having another one of his visions.

“Ah hell,” Rawls said. He glanced at Cosky and worked up a poor excuse of a smile. “Still, I suppose it’s my turn in the headlights.”

Yeah, right—Cosky swore. Chances were Rawls wasn’t the only one in the line of fire. Wolf’s strange behavior suddenly came to mind. He glanced over at their host as Zane shuddered and dropped his hand.

Wolf was still standing there, unusually still, a distant look on his face.

“What did you see?” Cosky swung to Zane, urgency stirring.

Something was about to go down. He was sure of it. To have two men equipped with a sense of
knowing
, and both hitting on something at the exact same time. Yeah, that wasn’t a coincidence.

Suddenly, Wolf shook himself; spinning, he grabbed Jillian around the waist and half carried her across the room. “Everyone out of the house,” he said, as he threw open the door. “Out. Everyone.” His voice rose to a shout. “Kait.
Move.
”

The last time Wolf had ordered Kait to vacate a house, the condo had exploded.

His adrenaline spiking, Cosky caught Kait’s shoulder and pushed her toward the door. “Move. Move. Move.”

Spurred by the urgency in Wolf and Cosky’s voices, Amy grabbed the scientist’s elbow and propelled her forward. Cosky and Rawls brought up the rear. They sounded like a herd of bison as they raced across the porch and down the stairs. The staircase shuddered beneath their speed and combined weight.

“Head for the trees,” Wolf yelled, gesturing toward the blue-black sphere arching into the night sky directly across from the kitchen porch.

“The vehicles are—” Mac shouted.

“The trees,” Wolf roared.

For the first time ever, Cosky heard frustration in the deep baritone. Rage.

Faintly, in the distance came an eerie
whop-whop-whop.

Cosky’s breath caught. The sound was intimately familiar.

“Fuck,” Mac breathed. He reached out and shoved Amy forward. “Run, damn it. Run.”

The
whop-whop-whop
grew louder as they raced for the trees.

When the scientist stumbled over the uneven ground, Rawls swooped down and caught her around the waist, slinging her over his shoulder.

By the time they reached the sheltering branches of the forest, the sound of the blades beating the air echoed through the valley.

They crouched beneath the pine boughs just past the tree line and watched the sky.

“How many?” Amy asked, scanning the tops of the trees. She held a gun in a two-handed professional grip.

“One.” Mac reached behind him and pulled a gun from beneath the belt at the small of his back.

Cosky, Zane, and Rawls did the same.

The clicking
snick
of clips being ejected and inserted filled the air.

“How did they find us?” Kait asked, her face a creamy blur as she knelt beside Cosky, her cheek almost resting on the bark of the tree trunk.

Good question. The bird had shown up on the tail of the Seattle crew.

They’ll find you. Sooner than you think.

Pachico’s dying words whispered through his mind.

“You guys scanned him, right?” Cosky asked, already knowing what their answer would be. Of course they’d checked him for trackers. This wasn’t the first party they’d been invited to.

“What the fuck do you think?” Mac snapped, sounding insulted. He shifted on the mat of pine needles beneath the shadow of a massive pine and glanced toward the circular driveway in front of the cabin. “We need the damn cars.”

The trees surrounding them blocked the moonlight—which shielded them but affected their own vision.

“Forget the cars,” Wolf snapped, stroking a soothing hand down Jillian’s shaking back as the helicopter broke into the space overhead.

Cosky hissed as the bird dropped down. It was a Huey.

He hadn’t seen a Huey in forever. His first few training jumps had been off a Huey’s deck, but soon after, they’d been pulled from commission.

“If it’s full,” Cosky said tightly, “we’re looking at fifteen pairs of boots on the ground.”

A spitting, hissing sound broke over the night, followed by an arch of light, and the cabin exploded.

Wolf didn’t make a sound. But his body went rigid.

“Oh, Wolf,” Kait said in an anguished voice. She reached for his shoulder, but he stood stiff and silent beneath her touch.

Another arch of light and the cars exploded.

A damn good thing they hadn’t headed for the cars.

“We’re screwed,” Zane said grimly. As they watched, the bird was set down and a swarm of men hit the ground, their bodies dark against the hissing, spitting orange flames clawing at the dark sky behind them.

“We should fall back into the woods. Use the trees for cover.” Amy’s voice never lost its calm rationality.

“It’s too dangerous,” Cosky said, glancing at the pitch-black forest behind them. The trees were ghostly shadows lurking in the darkness. “There’s no light. We’ll be tripping over everything, which will lead them right to us. If they have night gear, we’ll be sitting ducks.”

The moon was hidden behind a bank of clouds. What little light filtered down from the sky didn’t penetrate the forest canopy.

“We’ve got eight boots on the ground,” Wolf said. “And they’ve got night vision devices.”

Shit.

Grim silence fell.

They watched the team fan out, their dark bodies clearly visible against the backdrop of the writhing, flickering flames. They were obviously searching the perimeter of the burning cabin for survivors. The building site was ringed by trees. Maybe they wouldn’t bother searching past the cleared area, which meant a lot of area to cover.

“Our best bet’s to take cover in the trees,” Wolf said in a whisper. “Few men are trained to look up. It will give us an advantage if they come this way.”

Cosky looked up, scanning the trees surrounding them. There were several with lower branches that could be used for climbing.

The cabin was fully engulfed, the flames scratching at the dark sky. The roar, as the fire consumed the cabin, was growing louder and more urgent with each second of life.

“We need to move now,” Cosky said. “The fire will mask the sound of branches breaking.”

“Wait until the last man is past the first tree,” Mac whispered. “Take out the target closest to you and then move out.”

Cosky and Zane exchanged disgusted looks, like they needed a lesson in the basics. And whether Mac wanted to believe it or not, Wolf and Amy were hardly amateurs.

He clasped Kait beneath the elbow and lifted her to her feet. They split into teams—male and female. Kait and Cosky, Rawls and the scientist, Mac and Amy, Jillian and Wolf. Zane scaled the tree by himself.

With Kait’s shapely ass climbing carefully above him, Cosky followed her up the tree. The bark was rough in places against his hands. Sticky in others. When they found branches sturdy enough to perch in, they settled down and waited.

Through the tree trunks they watched the fire climb higher and higher, until it seemed to rail at the night in a frenzy.

The insertion team regrouped in the clearing, beyond the chopper’s blade. They huddled together, obviously discussing something. Cosky urged them to return to the Huey. Instead, they turned, fanning out again and heading directly toward the stand of trees they’d taken refuge in.

Son of a bitch.

They could not catch a break today. One of the bastards must have seen something. A flash of movement, a swath of clothes.

As still as possible, and far too aware of Kait’s equally still body above him, Cosky waited. The preinsertion tension felt different this time. Denser. Deeper. More edgy. With Kait’s life hanging above him, there was so much more riding on the success of this particular operation.

Kait didn’t move a muscle, didn’t make a sound as the first arm of the insertion formation passed silently beneath them with assault rifles cradled in their arms. Cosky held his breath, urging them to continue on. If they looked up, the game was over.

But Wolf had been right. The bastards obviously hadn’t been trained, nor had enough experience to suspect danger raining down from above. He counted the targets off as they ghosted beneath.

Four. Five. Six. Seven.

Their formation was fairly tight, which put all eight of them within range of his team above them. They’d definitely seen something to send them so tightly grouped into this neck of the woods.

But it was the mark of tadpoles. It left the entire insertion team vulnerable at once.

Of course, just how vulnerable they were depended on how accurate the shooting was from above. As soon as the shots sounded, those bastards would know where they’d taken cover. If they didn’t kill every damn last one of them almost immediately, they’d regroup and target the trees. If that happened, Cosky and his team would be facing heavy casualties.

Cosky sighted on the eighth target. The asshole was still too far out and moving cautiously, his rifle sweeping from side to side. As long as he kept that horizontal sweeping going, they were fine. But if the bastard looked up…yeah, best not to go there.

Come on. Come on.

When the Tango passed beneath his branch, he held his breath.
Kait must have held hers too, because he didn’t hear anything above him. At least he didn’t have to worry about her freaking out and getting them all killed.

Respect touched him. She had the nerves of a SEAL.

Which was saying a hell of a lot.

He waited until the Tango had cleared his tree by a dozen steps or so, steadied his aim, and gently pulled the trigger. His target hit the ground instantly.

The shot ruptured the silence and echoed through the trees. Their quarry turned and sighted up, but it was already too late. On the heels of his shot, five more rang out and the Tangos up front went down. And stayed down. Unmoving.

The two middle—unlucky bastards—spun, their heads and rifles rising.

They’d finally figured out the danger was lurking above. But Cosky had already lined up his second shot. He took down the man closest to him, and shifted his aim toward the last Tango.

Before he had a chance to squeeze the trigger, a volley of shots rang out and the bastard lurched to the left and crumpled.

His heart in overdrive, a cold sweat slicking his back and shoulders, Cosky waited. The trees remained silent. They waited some more. When nothing stirred, Cosky glanced up at Kait, held his palm up in the age-old
wait here
signal, and as silently as possible eased himself down from the tree. If a previously unidentified Tango still lurked, Cosky would be a bull’s-eye in a shooting rink.

But they needed those night vision devices.

Not to mention the assault rifles.

He caught sight of Mac, Zane, and Rawls as their boots hit the ground, and headed for his target in a crouched run.

They quickly ransacked the bodies, stripping off the night vision
devices and assault rifles. Cosky was about to rise when shots broke out from the far right.

As he hit the ground and rolled behind the nearest tree, he heard the solid
thunk, thunk
of someone taking hits.

His heart levitated up his throat. His temperature spiked. Blood pounding furiously through his veins, he glanced up the tree he’d stashed Kait in, instinctively finding the white blur of her face.

She’d crouched down almost flat on the branch, making herself as small as possible.

Relief exploded through him. She was alive.

Thank Christ.

But someone had taken a couple of rounds.

Who?

And Kait was still exposed. A sitting duck. All the women were sitting ducks.

Praying that she’d remain still and silent in her perch above, Cosky scanned the woods around him. He couldn’t see the shooter. But he’d fired at them after they’d descended from the trees. With luck, the bastard’s focus was on the ground.

Holstering the Glock behind his belt, he jerked on the night vision device, and picked up the assault rifle. He scanned the silent forest. He couldn’t see shit with the tree in his way. On the other hand, the damn thing was currently the only thing standing between him and the business end of an assault rifle.

He listened intently, but the forest stood silent.

He couldn’t see his team.

Fuck this. He needed some solid intel.

He chanced a quick glance around the trunk and spotted Zane and Mac behind trees to his front left and two still figures on the ground close to the tree Rawls had climbed down.

To his far left, a couple of rounds rattled off and the bark next to his head splintered.

Cosky ducked back as Zane and Mac opened fire in the direction the shots had come from, but it was doubtful their shots connected. The bastard was using the trees for cover.

He was the closest to Rawls’s still body.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

Let him be alive.

Chapter Twenty-One

C
OSKY LOCKED THE
surge of fear down and forced himself to think. To get to his buddy, he needed someone to provide cover. From the sounds of things, they only had the one shooter left. The bastard already knew Cosky’s position. So shouting wasn’t going to give that shit away.

“Cover,” he yelled.

The second Zane and Mac laid into the bastard to their left, spraying the trees to keep him busy and caged, Cosky darted out. Keeping as low as possible to the ground, he reached Rawls’s body as Zane and Mac hammered away at the tree their shooter had ducked behind.