SEALs of Honor: Shadow (5 page)

He nodded. “Yes,” he whispered. “Need to get the rope out of sight. Kevin is back at the main trunk.”

She caught sight of her brother, carefully gained her footing and made her way over to him. Shadow, his hands busy pulling up his rope, looped it properly then stuffed it in his pack. He was surprised to see both Kevin and Arianna had backpacks with them. It was good but it had taken a presence of mind he hadn’t expected.

He approached and with an arm around both of them he explained who he was and what they were going to do next.

Neither said a word until he was done. Then Kevin reached out and grabbed his hand, whispered in a hard to understand guttural voice, “Thank you.”

S
EALs. Oh thank
God. Even though she was still out in the middle of the wilderness with the terrorists down below holding her family captive, having SEALs here was a game changer. A big one. Still, they were a long way from being safe. Too early to celebrate. And then there was her father…

“The guard just checked on us. So our disappearance might not be noticed for a while, I don’t know how often they will check.”

“Right. Let’s get you out of here,” Shadow said.

Kevin froze. “Daddy?”

“We’re going after them but that’s for us to do. Not you.”

“Do you want us to stay here until you come back?” she asked, looking around. They had to be a good thirty feet up in the air. They couldn’t be seen from the ground and they were out of the rain. “This works. We’re hidden and safe. We can settle on these big limbs until you get back.”

“No, we should get further away. Stray bullets and all that.”

She studied his lean face as he searched and assessed the area below them. His radio buzzed several times as the men communicated plans with each other. Suddenly there was some activity down below. Two men came out of the house and converged on the one guard who’d come back around again on his next pass. Raised voices and agitated movements said something bad had happened, but she had no idea what. She watched the SEAL as he studied what was going on.

Then a light came on in her bedroom.

“Shit.”

That had been their window of escape. “How did they know?” she muttered in a low voice.

“It doesn’t matter. They probably are checking on a regular basis anyway or maybe they saw something…” He surged forward to watch the men scurry out of the house and spread wide. “This is a good thing.”

Immediately there were several pings and the one man deepest in the woods went down without a sound. From where she sat she could see another soldier in heavy combat gear step out from behind a tree and though the terrorists were big, this man was huge. He approached the terrorist from behind, and she didn’t see what happened next but she could imagine. The SEAL shifted the man’s body until it was hidden in the bush. So simple. So easy. For him.

They had a perfect view in front and below where they perched, but for the tree branches, couldn’t see in other directions at all. So she had no idea what else was happening with the other men that had been inside. Surely they wouldn’t have all come out on the one side of the house. That made no sense. But then maybe they had more men than she knew about. There were sounds of a powerful engine arriving. She glanced at her rescuer. “Is that yours?”

He shook his head. “Sounds like reinforcements to move you to a new location.”

“Glad we’re out of there then,” she said with feeling. But there wasn’t the same joy for their parents. She watched as both were escorted out of the cabin. Relieved to see both walking, although bent over and holding onto each other as they were prodded into the new truck, she was also dismayed to see so many new soldiers exiting out the back of the vehicle. This was not good. It appeared they’d brought another eight, possibly ten men. Why would they need so many? And these were dressed in the same khakis again. That made them easier to spot and easy to tell apart from the SEALs. Then again she couldn’t see the SEALs. She had no idea where they were or how many were here. She glanced over at the man at her side, but he was studying three men sneaking up on a clump of brush to the side. She wondered what they thought could possibly be there when the SEAL beside her did a quick tie of the rope around the branch he stood on and dropped.

As in straight down.

On top of the first man and wiped out the second before a SEAL hidden in the bushes took out the third.

“Wow,” she whispered.

Kevin beamed at her. “Yeah, he’s awesome.”

She’d never seen anything like it. Who could unless they did this kind of training? It was not something she ever wanted to experience again but the way this man moved, so graceful and yet wild, untamed. And he was so damn silent.

Looking down below them again she studied the ground looking for
her
SEAL. And couldn’t find him. She shifted to glance at other areas through the trees but there was no sign of him. She wished she’d asked his name.

“Where did he go?” she asked Kevin in a hoarse voice.

He stared down below. “I don’t know. He just…disappeared.”

With no incentive to leave the safety of their hiding place, the two hunkered down to wait. They watched the ground intently believing that their rescuer might return any moment. But nothing happened for at least an hour and by then she’d started to worry. What if he couldn’t come back for them? He was only one man. Big and strong and obviously damn capable, but still, just a flesh and blood human like all the dead men down below.

Not that she could see any of them.

The vehicles were still parked outside the house, and their parents were still seated inside the back of the newest one. She studied the truck. It was a foolish thought but what if she could get into the driver’s side… Could she drive out and get them to safety?

Had any of the men gone to guard inside the vehicle with her dad and Linda? Not likely as they weren’t a threat anymore. Did the terrorists even understand that there was a bigger threat than themselves around here? Were they looking for her and her brother? Or were they going to assume the worst. Without the bodies of their fallen comrades that should throw them into confusion as to exactly what had happened. She’d rewound the SEAL’s rope so no one else would know they were up here but as she stared at it, still tied to the limb they were sitting on, she couldn’t help but wonder if there was something more she could do. More she
should
do.

Kevin made an odd gurgling sound. She studied his face, fatigue had bleached the color from his skin. Did he need his medicine? The shocks had happened so fast they had to be hard for him to deal with. She wasn’t even sure what all his medications were for as his mother handled all that. But although he was looking tired, what he needed more than anything was to know he was safe and to see his parents again.

She didn’t know about the last one. She hoped they’d survive but was loathe to put Kevin in any danger. They were safe here. They needed to stay.

And that rope in her arms could stay right there too.

*

“How are the
kids?”

Shadow stared at Swede. “The boy is a kid but the daughter is twenty–five. Nothing kiddish about her.”

Swede’s huge grin split his face. Typical. Always a smile no matter what. But when you needed him, he was all business. He was a good man to have at your back. They all were. Cooper slid over to join them, Markus and Evan at his side.

“The senator and his wife are in the truck. No guards.”

“Do we know that for sure?” Markus motioned in a low voice. “I can’t see leaving the prisoners without a guard.”

“Unless there are no prisoners,” Evan said in a sarcastic tone. “A sleight of hand maybe?”

Shadow frowned. Why would they do that? The senator needed medical aid and wasn’t likely in any shape to escape so they didn’t need guards, but surely the terrorists had figured out that they were under attack by now. And stealing the truck was also a possibility.

He shifted position to get a better view of the confab raging inside the kitchen. He said, “All the hostages are outside. The terrorists are inside. We need to go in and take them down now.”

Mason’s voice came over the radio, low and clear. They were going in.

Shadow muttered back, “Is someone guarding the senator?” A short time later, Mason came back. “Two guards down. They were assigned to guard the truck.”

Shadow confirmed he’d grab the truck with the senator and slipped between the trees. He was concerned that someone hidden was going to be looking out for the victims. But there were no drivers inside and no passengers. So just the senator and his wife. Unless there was a gunman hidden inside waiting. He took several steps forward until an odd sound registered. He stepped back and was tackled from behind.

He spun and grabbed and twisted his attacker to the ground and realized his hands were grabbing soft flesh, soft material, and there was nothing enemy like about the beautiful worried face beneath him. Arianna.

He reared back in shock, his mind trying to process what she was doing, when she whispered, “You can’t touch the truck. We saw someone plant a device underneath. Looked like dynamite.” Her voice was hoarse but defiant.

He didn’t know what to say. He quickly withdrew and dragged her with him back into hiding. “Tell me again exactly what you saw,” he said. His mind struggled at the idea that she’d left her brother up in the tree to come and save him. He had never expected such a thing and didn’t know what to do with the information now.

She quickly related what she’d seen and her gut decision to drop down and save him. He stared at her again. “And your brother?”

“He’s safe,” she whispered, “He was in agreement.”

He wanted to ask why but knew he couldn’t. She explained anyway. “We couldn’t let you be killed when you’d saved us. Besides we need you to help save our parents.” Her grin flashed.

“It’s my job to save,” he said in low tones, turning his gaze to search their surroundings while he tried to process the information.

“And it’s my job to save you when I could. Anyone would have in the same situation,” she retorted. “You’re welcome by the way.”

And damn if she didn’t reach up and kiss him.

Once again thunderstruck by her actions, his hand instinctively slapped his cheek where she’d kissed him. And he blinked at her in shock.

She grinned and reached up and kissed his other cheek.

He lifted his other hand to slap his other cheek then narrowed his gaze as he realized how silly he looked.

Then she pulled his head down and laid one on him. He couldn’t help but respond. She demanded a response. One he couldn’t hold back.

“Harrumph.”

She broke away and spun to stare up. As in way up. Swede. Her gaze widened and she plastered back against Shadow. Shadow knew there’d be no end to ribbing now. He glared at the huge smirking Swede who was flanked by a wildly grinning Cooper. Behind were Markus and Evan with grins on their faces as well. Everyone at base had heard about their group’s love matches. Hell, they were likely the laughing stock of SEALs everywhere. Unless you were jealous…

Several guys had asked to join their ranks on the next mission. Half joking but some were very serious. The type of work they did, it was tough on relationships and now that so many of his friends had seemed to find a magic formula the other guys wanted in.

“Thank you very much for saving my dear friend, Shadow here,” Swede said in a gentle voice. “Don’t mind him if his manners are a little rusty.” And that smile of his that melted hearts everywhere appeared to melt Arianna’s too. Still lying flat against him, she held out her hand and said, “At least now I know his name.”

She twisted to grin up at Shadow. “And it’s okay if his manners are a little rusty. His skills in other areas obviously…aren’t.”

And damn it, heat rose to this face. He had no idea who this woman was but he was…interested…intrigued. Hell, he was…no, he refused to admit it. Attraction was one thing. But this…whatever this was…had to be something else again.

Cooper stepped behind Shadow and chanted, “Another one bites the dust.”