Page 126 of Dangerous Mission

But the thought grips me, twisting my insides until I’m forced to step back, doubled over. Bile scorches up my esophagus. My stomach heaves as the forest floor spinsbelow me.

I let the nausea wash over me before vomiting into the mud.

Truck rounds the hood and stops next to me, his muddy boots in my field of view. “No keys here?”

I spit on the ground, wiping my hand on the back of my wrist, appreciating that he’s not handling me with kid gloves. “Affirmative.”

He stalks away and seconds later I hear the muted sound of shattering glass. Truck muffled the sound, and the rest was covered almost completely by the drumming rain that’s washing every goddamned thing clean.

Once I’ve thrown up everything in my system, I get on the tablet again, looking at terrain features as he passes me the gear.

“I found the NVGs, thermal system, plus comms gear. I’m calling Beast to tell him to search the road before reporting here.”

“Copy.”

“Come on. If she’s out here, we’ll get her back.”

The forest sounds grow as we leave the wreck behind. Wet leaves, rivulets of water, mud. Dense undergrowth. It’s a goddamned tracking nightmare. The thermal imaging will be almost useless.

Truck’s conversation with Beast comes through my in mouth-bone conduction speaker.

Ignoring them, I tune in, going deep to a place that I haven’t been in over a year. The part of me that tracked and killed in the worst places in the world. Truck has the same skills.

If anyone can find her, it’s us.

I’m coming for you and we’re getting the hell out of this country on the first plane I can find.

“Got her tracks,” Truck mutters in my comms gear as he crouches.

Yes. Sweet relief loosens my clenched fist.

I scrub my hand over my face. “What do you see?”

He swings his hand over a small area. It’s there. One print. Small, exactly Aria’s size. Nothing else.

The sight cuts through me.

Truck tips his chin. “Take her trail. I’ll keep looking for the other.”

Presuming there’s another.

Fuck. Something about this is off.

In my coms gear, Truck’s voice is a rumble. “Maybe someone picked up the abductor on the road. He could have called for help.”

“Or maybe something ate him.”

He chuckles. “Or that.”

I don’t laugh. I keep moving, slowly scanning for the fading footprints.

The forest closes in. Suffocating. The rain is a constant barrage, falling through the thick canopy at an impossible rate.

Fuck rain.

Fuck the mud and goddamned flooded caves.

After I get out of here, I’m taking a year to live in the desert. We’re taking a year. Because Aria’s going to be with me. Griff can bite my goddamned ass. She’s my future.

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