Maverick rolled, coming up ready to fire. Rifle to his shoulder he squinted through the night’s unfavorable mixture of wind and snow. Not really seeing a damn thing other than the orange ball illuminate when the vehicle sailed by the proximity point.
He could make out the bodies of the other four with him. Hondo, Ghost, Merlin, and their driver, Dez. The prisoner they’d used as a decoy for Jayde’s body went up with the vehicle.
He sure as fuck wasn’t getting his deposit back from the rental company. Wiping the wetness from his eyes he waited as they hunkered down beside him, also weapons at the ready.
“Ready to move?”
While the question wasn’t directed at Dez per say, that’s who he meant it for. He had no doubt the others were ready to strike out and head off to hunt these fuckers down. But this was different now. They had to keep this woman safe as well. And she wasn’t just anyone, it was Jeb’s wife and one of their group.
“I know your first response will be hell no, but hear me out. Let me go back along the road. I can stay on that and head up the drive when I get to it. This way you four can go do what you do best.”
“Hell no.” Hondo.
“Fuck that.” Merlin.
“No way.” He added his own comment to the mix. “I’m not having your husband try to kick my ass for leaving you alone out here.”
“I grew up here in this state. I know winter. I can do this. Look, guys. Hunt these fuckers down and do what you do that I’m not ever supposed to know about. Find the ass who has the signal jammer so we can call for a helicopter and get Jayde out of here. I don’t want to be in the way, I refuse. I’m going back up the road. Alone.”
She zipped her jacket all the way up and tightened the hood.
“I can’t let you go alone,” he stated. A sentiment he knew the others were in complete agreement with.
“What was your job?”
He furrowed his brow. “What?”
“When you were deployed. What was your job?”
“Sniper.”
“Which means you didn’t follow women around. We’re wasting time. make it safe for us to save our friend. I’ll be fine.” She squeezed his arm and shuffled off vanishing into the wind, snow, and darkness.
The burning SUV was fading due to the weather.
“Who’s going?”
“On it.” Ghost bumped fists with them both and struck out after Dezarae. One of them would be going in that direction anyway, so they may as well stick with her. They were glad she’d come along, she’d rigged something to give her a heads-up on the edge of the proximity. But she’d not trusted telling them how it would sound and had insisted on coming.
“I’m sure they will be coming from all directions.” Merlin opened the bag at his side which held more explosives.
“Did you think he had it in him?” Maverick figured where the lodge was and where he needed to get to. He and Merlin would be together part of the way.
“Nope. I thought he was a lot of bluster each time I saw him in there. And while he was active, we didn’t have a lot to do with him.” He dug into his bag. “Although, I never would have believed that I would be going up against a man who wanted to be one of us. In more ways than one. I know he tried to get into Tungsten as well. More than once.”
“Scott has to hate this. He never like the man to begin with and now to find out he’s the one behind all of this. That man is going to die.” He flexed his fingers around his rifle once more.
He bumped fists with Merlin.
“Time to make it rain.”
In the fading light, he watched his teammate nod before he headed off in his own direction. Merlin still served but he had and always would be one of the Megalodon Team. No matter who he was with now.
He thought about Dezarae as he moved in his direction. Ernst would keep her safe. She was brave, he wasn’t going to take that from her and he knew she was doing what she believed she had to do in order to help out. He didn’t begrudge her anything. In fact it was quite the opposite. He appreciated her wanting to help and to lend her expertise to leave them free to focus on other things.
Yes, Merlin was their explosives guy and fucker could build a bomb out of anything but her vehicle knowledge put theirs to shame. They were good, she was better and they needed to do everything they could to get through this. They were family and by god they would get through this as one.
Without losing anyone.
He sent up another prayer to the Great Spirit that He would continue to watch over Jayde and keep her alive with them.
Part of the reason they allowed Dez to come along also was he knew she needed to focus on something and feel like she was doing something instead of lurking over Osten and Lex as they worked feverishly to keep her alive.
He ducked his head and picked up his speed, looking to take down as many of these fuckers as he could. Like I said to Merlin, time to make it rain.
A determined set to his features, he thought about the man who was behind all of this. “You made the mistake of thinking you could get the upper hand on us, Chet. You wanted a fucking chance, you should have leveled the building with a goddamn RPG. You made the mistake of thinking you could do this to us in your timeframe. You were wrong. It’s time for you to see just why there’s so many fucking legends about the Megalodon Team.”
αβ
Osten hated this. The wife of one of his best friends lay on a motherfucking stainless-steel kitchen table. She was no longer breathing on her own. He had to do it for her. Well, he had been doing it for her. Right now, Tempest worked the disposable BVM resuscitator. Lex needed him to help stabilize her in another way.
Her shirt had long since been cut out of the way, he could see the scar from her C-section that had happened for the birth of her and Tyson’s second child.
He yelled at himself, he had to keep his head in the game. This wasn’t a time for reminiscing or allowing other thoughts to take precedence. He was a medic and a damn good one. Right now, this surgeon on the other side from him, needed his best work and sole attention. He couldn’t think of her as Jayde, she was just another faceless body he needed to save.
There would be time for memories later. He reached for more gauze, using his elbow to brush the bloody ones away from him, allowing them to plop on the floor. Adding to the ever-growing pile.
αβ
Something wasn’t right. Whatever it was, it wasn’t simply off it was flat out wrong. Weak. Unable to call out to her husband.
Tyson?
Where was he? She wanted to see him. Fear sprung up inside her and spread away from her in waves, like an out of control wildfire, consuming anything and everything in its path. Growing larger and stronger with each passing second.
Her world was gray. And fuzzy. Growing weaker and fainter the longer she stood there, looking around.
There wasn’t any of that heat he gave to her. Being around her husband meant she wasn’t ever cold. Even when they weren’t seeing eye to eye, she never got cold. His love for her wrapped her in a blanket. Right now, she was freezing.
Nothing appeared remotely familiar to her.
Some dark gray fog shifted and took on the shape of her father’s face. His disapproving one, that’s she’d been faced with almost her entire life. The one that made her feel less than a person and no matter what she did, there wasn’t any way she would be able to make him proud.
It didn’t make sense; she and her father had begun again after she’d married Tyson. The grandkids brought them closer, it wasn’t perfect by any means, definitely a work in progress, yet she’d not seen the look from him in a while.
Why now?
What had she done wrong? How pathetic that one small look like that reverted her back to the subdued child she’d always been.
She was tired. So tired. And she hurt.
“Tyson?” she called his name. As loud as she could but to her own ears it sounded barely over a whisper.
Wind howled through the bare trees she’d not noticed before, increasing her chill. Even the image in the misty fog vanished and she found herself all alone once more. The branches rubbing against each other sounded like icy claws on the window, scratching and digging into the glass. Spider legs, carrying those disgusting and freaky creatures closer to her, desperate to get her.
She didn’t want to see it. Not any of it. There was a reason she’d never watched horror movies, that was her fear. Correction, this was her fear. Dying alone in a cold, desolate place.
Sinking into herself, she closed her eyes, not wanting to see them running to her. The last time it happened, Tyson saved her. She had to pray he wouldn’t let her down.
αβ
A new chill slithered up his back. Had he gone about this wrong? Had he miscalculated? No, that wasn’t the problem. He had this planned out to the very end, he hadn’t left things to chance.
They would surprise them. Move in and kill off all the men but Scott and Tyson. They would be the last ones to die. He was the only one who was allowed to kill those two. The rest, they could do with as they will, women including.
The only exception was Jayde. He had been going to take her with him but as she’d already been shot and killed. There went that twinge of guilt once more but as he chugged through the deep snow, it vanished. She was the only one he would have saved. The rest, could all go to hell.
He may even save Tyson for last now.
“SitRep,” he demanded.
“Can’t see them,” Maria, a cold hearted venomous bitch of a mercenary stated. “The snow and wind have picked up too much. I barely make out the fire in the main lodge. Haven’t heard from Darwin either.”
Her significant other who had been up to the lodge already. He slowed his forward momentum, mind racing as he stared through the blinding snow to the darkened lodge. He didn’t give a flying fuck if Darwin was dead. He annoyed him anyway. But the man should have checked in by now.
The two times he tried to raise the man came back failed. His unease grew. Shaking it off, he reminded himself that the weather was creating havoc on their comms. Even Maria had come in static filled.
“Keep moving,” he barked.
As he continued on he counted the number of replies that had come to him. There were five of his twelve men missing. Or women. Ten minutes later none but two checked in with him.
“You need to come in,” the man said. “We have their boss.”
Behind his mask, a grin lifted his lips. Yes, that’s what he’d wanted to hear. Scott being captured was important. The others wouldn’t risk his life.
“Don’t kill him, I’m on my way.”