Tangled Pursuit (42 page)

He nodded, taking it from her and drinking from it as he continued on watch.

Dara slowly sat down, crossing her legs, her elbows on her thighs, grateful for the momentary rest. Her hair had come undone in the firefight and she needed to get it captured and tamed into a ponytail.

“Here,” Matt offered. “Let me.” He gathered up her hair and took a rubber band he had in one of his pockets, quickly fashioning a ponytail out of it. He picked up the dark green scarf from around her shoulders. “I need you to wear this on like a headdress,” he explained. “Your blonde hair will stand out in this country and a sharp-eyed tracker will spot you in a split second.”

“Okay,” Dara said, handing the scarf to him. In a matter of moments, Matt had created what she would call a “sheik-like headdress” around her head, completely covering her hair up. “Camouflage. Right?”

He nodded. “Yes.” He knelt on one knee, intently staring at her. “How are you holding up, Dara?”

“Okay,” she lied, remembering her promise to be more like Callie, strong and self-sufficient. She rubbed her knees. “When the van wrecked, it threw me over the seat. My knees hit first.”

“Any injury? Or are they just bruised?” he asked, watching her slender hand move across her right knee.

“Bruised.” Dara looked around and then back at him. “How much trouble are we in?” She knew he wasn’t telling her everything because she’d worry, but she had to know. “Matt? Don’t lie to me. I want the truth.”

He smiled briefly and caressed her cheek. “I’ll never lie to you, Dara. It’s not in my DNA.” Dragging in a breath, he drank more water and then snapped the mouthpiece closed on the water tube. His gaze was restless, and his hearing was keyed for the smallest sound that was abnormal for this area. Animals always listed for what was out of place. He followed the same instinctual reaction.

“We need to keep on the move. Once the Taliban doesn’t find us by searching that grove of trees, they’re going to pull out their trackers and start looking for our footprints. We were in mud back there,” he told her, holding her gaze. “There was no way for me to erase them. They’re going to track us. The good news is, once we hit this rocky slope it’ll be a lot tougher for them to pick up our trail. No one can track on rocks, so we’re buying ourselves time. There’s a pass at nine thousand feet up there,” and he pointed toward the rugged peaks above them. “We’re going to get through that pass and down on the other side of it. I’ve worked this area a lot in the past and I know it well. There are thousands of caves up at the higher elevations. What I want to do is find a place to hide, one with an egress point in case we’re compromised by the enemy.”

She nodded, digesting all of it. “What about Bagram and being picked up?”

“Right now? My radio isn’t working. I have to get higher for a clear, unimpeded channel between us and Bagram for it to work. That means, once we hit the pass, I can call them and hopefully, they’ll hear me. But it’s not guaranteed. That’s why I’m relying on Beau to make that call to the base. He’s on flat, level ground with no mountains to obstruct the radio signal.”

Her brows fell. “Then . . . we’re on our own?”

“Yes,” he murmured. “Dara, you have me. I’ll get us out of this. I know you’re scared. Anyone would be. But trust me.”

“I do,” she whispered, choking on sudden emotion, the adrenaline beginning to leave her system. Dara knew she’d crash soon and become a shaky, emotional mess. “I worry about Callie.”

“Beau is in his element. He’ll get Callie into those low hills and disappear in them with her. He’ll have good radio contact with Bagram.” He caressed her cheek. “If anything, once they dodge the Taliban contingent, they’ll easily get picked up by our people long before we do.”

“Thank God,” she whispered, pressing her hand against her heart.

“We need to go,” Matt urged her gently. “Are you ready? We’ve got another two thousand feet to climb. I’m going to take us into this wadi nearby. It’s a thousand-foot-long ravine, and it will hide us from Taliban eyes better than being out on this slope looking for brush to hide behind.”

“Okay,” she said. Her knees and hips were cranky and protested. Dara slowly stood up, with Matt holding her elbow to steady her. She gazed up at him. “You don’t look winded or tired like me.” She saw his lips curve ruefully a little.

“Sweetheart, this is what I’ve been doing for a living since I was eighteen. That’s nine years.” And then his voice grew warm and thick. “And I think last night you saw what good athletic condition my body’s in? Right?”

Dara’s fear receded over his teasing. The warmth in Matt’s lion gold eyes moved through her like heat, melting the coldness inside her. “There is no doubt that you have a beautiful, hard male body, Matt Culver.”

His smile simmered as he leaned down, kissing her brow. “Think of me as a mountain goat. Your mountain goat.”

She laughed a little. “No way. In my eyes and heart you’re a fierce male guardian lion.” Remembering his middle name was Aslan, lion in Turkish, he fit that role, and Dara knew Matt would do everything he could to keep her safe. She saw the warrior now, felt his palpable protection surrounding her, making her feel safe even when it was anything but.

“My mother named me well,” Matt agreed, picking up his M-4 and snapping it to his chest harness. He rearranged the heavy straps of his ruck over his shoulders. “I need to ask her someday if she had a vision about me before I was born. Did she see a lion and then decided to name me Aslan?”

“She must be psychic,” Dara agreed, sliding her fingers around his web belt.

“We’ll get a chance to ask her that,” he told her, meaning it.

Her fear retreated as she felt Matt’s confidence that they’d get through this. It was as if he were feeding it invisibly to her, and Dara was grateful. She’d never been in such a place or predicament like this in her life. It was alien landscape to her. And it was deadly. She didn’t want to die.

Her heart cringed thinking of Callie dying, or Matt or Beau. This overwhelming possibility was now settling around her, and Dara was grateful for Matt’s ability to lift her spirits, even though they were running for their lives.

Thunder rumbled above them and Dara jerked a looked up toward the sound. The gray and black clouds that had gathered earlier were now racing down the slope in their direction.

“We’re either going to get rain, sleet or snow,” Matt warned her as he turned his head in her direction. “Keep your one glove on. And pull your parka hood up. Is your jacket rainproof?”

Dara nodded, quickly doing as he instructed.

Matt craned his neck, looking behind them, gazing down the steep slope below. His gaze shifted to her. “Actually, this weather is good. It’s in our favor. Any tracks we’ve made will be washed out if the Taliban is anywhere near us. Ready?”

The Books of Delos

Title:
Last Chance
(FREE Prequel)

Publish Date: July 15, 2015

Learn more at:
delos.lindsaymckenna.com/last-chance

Title:
Nowhere to Hide

Publish Date: October 13, 2015

Learn more at:
delos.lindsaymckenna.com/nowhere-to-hide

Title:
Tangled Pursuit

Publish Date: November 11, 2015

Learn more at:
delos.lindsaymckenna.com/tangled-pursuit

Title:
Forged in Fire

Publish Date: December 3, 2015

Learn more at:
delos.lindsaymckenna.com/forged-in-fire

Title:
Broken Dreams

Publish Date: January 2, 2016

Learn more at:
delos.lindsaymckenna.com/broken-dreams

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