Lost in Shadows (18 page)

“You miss this, don’t you?” she asked. 

While she was with the FBI, her main goal during operations was to prepare so well that the need for violence was minimal. KC had never drawn her gun in the line of fire or killed anyone until last month when she went up against The Preacher’s men in order to save Chase. He had returned the favor by saving her life and together, with Lucky’s help, they had saved Chase’s hometown.

“The killing?” he answered. “No. But there’s more to Black side ops than killing.”

She gave a small smile at his use of the Marine terminology. Force Recon’s Green side ops were dangerous but considered routine for the elite group. Black side operations were the ones they trained for, lived for. “Black as in action, engaging an enemy directly, right?”

He finished stowing his spare clips for his Heckler-Koch MP-5, tried to suppress his smile and failed. “Something like that.”

She lifted a hand to caress his cheek. “You, my dear husband-to-be, are an adrenalin junkie.”

His smile widened into a grin as he took her hand and kissed her palm. He didn’t let go once he lowered it to rest between them. “Takes one to know one, my dear wife-to-be.”

KC’s chuckle echoed over their headsets. They sat in silence, the vibrations of the blades slicing through the clouds and the powerful engine lulling Chase into sleep. KC looked over at his peaceful countenance and swallowed hard against the knot of anxiety that filled her throat, the faces of the men she had killed last month racing through her mind. 

Together they could get through anything, she reminded herself, the words repeating in time with the
thrump
of the blades overhead.

Vinnie used the binoculars to follow Lucky’s progress through the trees and onto the limestone outcropping that would put him in position to fire on The Preacher. The guards near the cabin didn’t act as if they noticed anything wrong. They seemed fatigued and frustrated, their weapons sagging in their hands. 

They took turns, one plowing through the snow while the other watched from the relative comfort of the cabin porch. 

Probably getting cold, she thought, looking at their water-logged clothes. They looked like more city boys, Eddie Bauer parkas over cargo pants and duck boots—okay for a day tramping through the woods, but hardly attire designed to weather a nor’easter.

Their guns were scary enough, though. They both had large semi-automatics holstered at their hips and carried what looked like small machine guns.

She lowered the binoculars. Took a deep breath. Show time.

Vinnie leaned the computer against the base of the tree at the edge of the clearing, in perfect line of fire for Lucky. She moved as far away as she could and still trust her accuracy, lit and threw the roadside flare so that it landed near the computer. It sputtered, then burned with a brilliance easily spotted through the scant cover. 

She turned and fled into the woods, sending a quick prayer for Lucky’s safety and success as she moved onto the next phase of the operation. A few moments later, the men shouted as they waded through the snow to investigate the flare. She didn’t look back, kept on moving.

Lucky had his Glock sighted and ready to go. He had removed the bullets from his back up piece, a Baby Glock, and now had a grand total of eleven bullets loaded into the larger semi-automatic. 

The flare lit up the shadows beneath the trees directly across from his position. He glanced at the two guards, willing them to notice as well.

Finally, one of them sent up a shout, scouring the woods with his weapon at the ready as if he expected a battalion of Marines to converge on their position. The other ran inside the cabin, emerged with both The Preacher and the guy Lucky had stolen the computer from in the first place. Come on, he urged them.

One of the guards actually stepped out toward the clearing, but The Preacher quickly called him back. If this was going to work, Lucky needed them grouped together as far from shelter as possible. He guessed The Preacher realized that as well. Man was no idiot.

Computer Guy returned inside and reappeared carrying some binoculars. He remained on the safety of the porch as he scanned the area around the flare. 

Lucky ducked down behind the rocks that sheltered him, waited for a minute before slowly raising his head again. 

One of the guards was covering Computer Guy as they broke through the snow, heading toward the laptop in slow motion. The second guard covered them both from the porch. The Preacher was nowhere to be seen.

All right, at least he would get two out of the five, even the odds a bit. Lucky waited for them to move into range. Then he changed his mind, decided to take the loner close to cover first. If he got him, he could move onto the others, hopefully before they made it to the trees.

Lucky pivoted, aimed at the man on the porch and fired twice in succession. The roar of the Glock sounded like thunder in the quiet wilderness. 

The man on the porch stumbled back, then regrouped and began firing at the trees. Lucky turned his attention to Computer Guy and the other guard. The guard was fast, had made it into the trees, but Computer Guy was still stumbling in the snow, waving his gun around but not firing.

Lucky took him down with one shot. The other two were both firing now. He was in danger in getting caught in their cross fire if the second guard continued to move through the woods to out flank him.

Lucky only had a few seconds left, he could hear the second man thrashing through the trees, but couldn’t see him in the shadows. He concentrated his fire on the man on the porch, this time the man went down and stayed down.

Six shots left. Bullets slammed into the stone beside him. Time to get the hell out of Dodge.

The sound of gunfire screamed through the air just as Vinnie made it to the rear of the cabin. She watched the helicopter pilot leap from his cockpit, gun raised, searching for an enemy to shoot.

Not me, she thought, willing herself into a smaller target as she flattened herself behind a fallen log. You can’t see me, I’m just a shadow—it was the same technique she used when following animals in the woods. A reverse kind of hide and seek, pretend to be invisible and silent and you were.

Lucky’s distraction helped as well. She waited until the pilot’s back was turned to her, his attention focused on the front of the house, and lit the fuse on another of Lucky’s surprises. She heaved the incendiary device, its magnesium fuse burning brightly, as far as she could toward the guard. 

Before it hit the ground, she was creeping in the opposite direction, making her way around to the other side of the helicopter. Lucky said she had to get to the fuel tank if she wanted to be certain that it would be permanently damaged.

She inched to the edge of the trees, still a good twenty feet from the helicopter, nothing between her and it except virgin snow. Where was the explosion from her tiny bomb? She dared a glance, saw the fuse had sputtered out in the snow, but the pilot was nowhere to be seen. The sound of gunfire stopped. 

The forest grew ominously quiet once more. She tried to ignore the fact that the silence might signal Lucky’s death and prepared herself for her sprint across the open ground.

Just as she started, she heard voices from the front of the helicopter. She froze, hopelessly exposed, but further movement through the snow would make too much noise. All or nothing, she told herself and continued lunging through the thigh high snow to the fuel tank. 

Vinnie almost made it before The Preacher stepped out from the front of the craft, aiming a very large gun at her.

CHAPTER 26

“We’re about five out,” the pilot alerted them. 

Chase came awake instantly, feeling refreshed after his short nap. KC still held his hand, and he gave hers a squeeze. She turned and smiled at him, then released his hand to prepare herself.

He was worried for her safety, more so than he might have worried about a fellow Marine’s—not because KC was any less competent to handle a firefight, he knew first hand that wasn’t the case—but because she mattered more to him than any of the men he had ever led into battle. 

Sad thing for a leader to admit. He would have gladly traded places with any of his squad who had died during that ambush in Afghanistan, but being willing to die for a fellow soldier was different than being willing to do anything in his power for the woman beside him.

Including treat her as a partner, an equal in all things, even sharing the danger. No one said he had to like it, though. 

KC remained unhurried and unflustered as she arranged her gear and chambered a round in her MP-5 as easily as other women checked their lipstick. 

Despite his deep-seated fear that something might happen to her, he also felt better with her at his side. A strange certainty that with KC there, nothing truly bad could ever happen to either of them, that their love would see them clear of anything and everything. Even death.

“Looks like a firefight down there,” the pilot’s voice interrupted his thoughts. “I count seven total.”

“One of those is ours,” Chase said. Three against six, he and KC had faced worse odds and come out on top. “Can you put us down? Or should we rope out?”

“Think I can put you in the clearing—” The helicopter swerved abruptly as bullets ricocheted off it. 

Chase and KC both reached for the door handle simultaneously. KC grabbed it, nodded at him to take position to return fire. She yanked the door open and Chase crouched in it, scanning the terrain for potential targets.

“We’re going to have company in a minute,” the pilot said. “The Ranger’s heating up.”

The pilot skimmed the treetops, circling as Chase spotted a man running across the clearing. 

“Lucky,” he told KC, pointing to the figure. 

“Looks like we made it to the party just on time,” she said, nodding toward the downed man in the center of the clearing. She knelt on one knee beside Chase, her MP-5 raised as she scanned the area with her scope.

Another barrage of bullets came from the trees as they passed over the clearing. Lucky stopped and returned fire, even as the pilot jerked them skyward once more.

“Really wish you guys would take care of that SOB,” the pilot shouted into the radio.

Chase had other worries. Lucky was playing hero. He watched as his friend forsook the cover of the cabin and returned to the clearing, trying to draw the fire of their sniper so that they could zero in on the unfriendly’s position.

“Damn fool,” he muttered as he switched to full auto and opened up on the muzzle flashes barely perceptible through the tree branches. “Didn’t come all this way to take home a body bag.”

KC’s weapon echoed his sentiments.