Page 72 of Tactical Lies

Maybe a little more than a flesh wound but nothing that was going to hamper him.

Hell, even a life-threatening injury wasn't going to stop him from doing whatever it took to protect his girl.

Because once again Becca was his.

As far as he was concerned, there had never been a time when she wasn't, but for her things were different.

It had taken courage for her to put her trust in him again after he’d already decimated that trust once before, and it was a gift he would never squander.

Which meant whoever was out there had to die.

He wasn't sure how many of them there were, but after hitting the ground when the bullet striking his shoulder had him overbalancing in the wet and slippery grassy mud, he’d then used the dark to his advantage and slipped away into the trees. His plan had been to watch and set himself up in a position where he could pick them off as they approached the cabin. Of course, without night vision goggles, it wouldn't be easy, but it wasn't completely pitch black out there, and all he would need was a glimpse to make sure he hit his targets.

They needed one alive.

The chances that a random person was out there targeting them, going to this amount of trouble, was virtually non-existent.

Whoever was there had to have been sent by the people intent on silencing him and his family. Apparently, there had been four men involved, one of whom was Tarek Mahmoud. He was already dead, killed himself because he feared his co-conspirators so deeply. That left three men unidentified.

Three men with enough power to orchestrate attack after attack on his family and the people they loved.

Their last lead had also gone up in smoke while one of the men who had been involved had decided taking his own life was better than letting these men get their hands on him.

Another chance at intel couldn’t slip through their fingers.

If they wanted to finally get ahead, get a name, something they could use, they needed information. Having Cassandra’s DNA hadn't led them to her biological father but the men who had come after him and Becca at the cabin tonight might.

Just then, he spotted three shadows moving through the darkness close to where he’d tucked himself away. From what he could see, and it wasn't a lot, they didn't appear to be wearing NVGs.

Probably why he was still standing.

Not only did that substantially level the playing field, but it also told him these weren't highly trained men. Like the gang from Cambodia, these men were likely to be bloodthirsty and dangerous, but without the skill and training he’d gone through to become a SEAL they weren't going to have enough to measure up.

Numbers meant something but they didn't mean everything.

Unless there was an entire army of them, they wouldn't mean enough.

Another group of three men moved toward the group closer to him.

Six to one.

Connor liked those odds.

Especially with Becca tucked safely away in the cabin.

He was sure the men were coming up with a plan to find him, disable him, either by killing him or injuring him enough they could tie him up and either abduct him or force him to watch them torture Becca.

Not going to happen.

Only then the unthinkable did happen.

Light danced inside the cabin, spilling out through the windows.

There wasn't a chance in hell the six men didn't notice it.

Stay inside, Becca, please, moonlight. I need you to be safe.

While he hadn't had a front-row seat to her rape when they were in college, he’d been there for the aftermath. Through months of surgeries and therapy. He’d gotten a glimpse of what it would have been like to be there when she’d been hurt in Cambodia. Becca had been hit a few times and almost raped.

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