Total pages in book: 42
Estimated words: 39161 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 196(@200wpm)___ 157(@250wpm)___ 131(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 39161 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 196(@200wpm)___ 157(@250wpm)___ 131(@300wpm)
Holly’s group had been headed toward a small village about six hours south of Rodadero. Which was bad. With the heavy traffic from Rodadero and Santa Marta to the U.S., there had been increased drug traffic south of Rodadero. The whole general area was considered very high-risk for traveling. ExFil had been hired to extract more than one goodwill mission.
“Have they reached their destination?” Razor was native to the area. He studied the screen from our end same as Mechanic did back at the Osprey. “See if you can zoom in. There’s a dirt road in that area they should be following to the village. It’s been a couple years, but that road is in exactly the wrong spot if they want to live.”
“Yeah.” I snagged a weapons vest and shrugged into it before checking my sidearm. “Bettin’ they’ve been stopped.” My vest had several extra clips as well as some grenades. “How far are we from her, Razor?”
He shrugged. “We can get there in the Badger in less than five. They’ll hear us, but as long as they’ve been stopped, that might be a good thing.”
I gave him a crisp nod. “Let’s move. Mechanic, have Iron and Tank ready in case we come back hot.”
“We expectin’ trouble, Jax?” Razor spoke softly, raising an eyebrow.
“With Holly?” One side of my lip curled up in a half grin. “Always.” I was trying to lighten the mood, but the truth was, my insides were screaming at me to get to her. I wasn’t as seasoned as some of the guys in Black Reign, but I’d done my time with Special Teams. The most important lesson I learned was to always trust my instincts. It had saved my life more than once. Now, I was counting on it to save Holly’s.
The ride took less than five minutes. Even before we got there, we could hear gunshots. Normally, Razor would have stopped before we got too close so we could scout the situation, but that wasn’t happening.
Without prompting from me Razor hit the accelerator hard, and we charged through the forest until we burst onto the road. Razor managed to maneuver the vehicle to a skidding halt between the small group of people and gunmen. We were practically on top of them, and even though we weren’t expecting to take fire and hadn’t put the roof on the Light Utility Vehicle, I was glad for the bulletproof glass on the door of the Badger.
I stood and fired over the window, taking down two hostiles. Razor got another one and the rest fled.
“We may have to ditch some ordinance.” I spoke through my throat mike to Mechanic, back at the Osprey. “Got at least ten civilians still alive.”
“Copy that. Dump it, then destroy it on your way out. It’ll have the added effect of takin’ out their road.”
“If you do that, you’ll cut off the village from supply trucks.” That was one of the women in the group. “We should leave.”
“I can’t fit all of you in this vehicle unless I drop equipment in the back. If I do that, I can’t let the locals take that equipment. My only option is to destroy it where I drop it.” I tried to be patient, but I needed to get Holly and get the fuck outta here.
“Can’t you drop it somewhere else?”
“Look, lady,” I snapped. “Either I dump the shit and destroy it, or I leave you here. Don’t care which. But if you stay, they will come back and they will kill you. Eventually.” I dismissed the woman as I scanned the group until I found Holly.
The lady protested or something. I dismissed her, but her voice was like a buzzing gnat in my subconscious. The only thing that mattered right now was Holly.
She sat huddled with her friend against the side of a large rock. Both women looked terrified. Blood streaked down Holly’s temple and she looked a little dazed. Her gaze locked on mine, and she let go of her friend and shoved herself to her feet, half running, half stumbling toward me. When she threw herself at me, I caught her with one arm, my pistol in the other as I tracked the area for threats.
“Jax! Oh, God! Jax!”
“I’ve got you, baby. Gonna keep you safe. But you’re gonna have to let me go so I can dump some stuff to make room for everyone. OK?”
She stiffened, then shoved herself away from me. “I’ll h-help.” She clasped her hands behind her back and took a couple steps backward, a not-so-subtle retreat. “What has to go?”
“Everything, honey. Anything in the back of this vehicle needs to be offloaded.” I hated not being able to comfort her like I knew she needed, but we didn’t have a lot of time. And if worse came to worst, I’d grab Holly and take off. I would not hesitate to leave every single person in the fucking group behind if it put Holly in unreasonable danger. If that happened, she’d never forgive me. Or herself.