Page 91 of Tactical Lies

Arms locked around his neck, dragging him backward.

He was throbbing all over because the man he’d been beating had gotten in a few hits of his own, but none of it was enough to disable him.

Ramming his elbows backward into the man’s stomach, shoving the air from his lungs, he slammed his head backward at the same time, and was rewarded with a pained yelp that told him he’d just broken the other man’s nose.

Taking advantage of his momentary distraction, he broke free of the man’s hold and slammed his fist into his assailant’s neck, dropping him instantly.

The man he’d been beating on was still down, dead possibly, at the least disabled, and no longer a threat. That still left two other men in the cabin somewhere.

As much as it was helping him, the dark was still a hindrance, he could see shadowy figures moving about but it was more instincts than anything else that had him throwing himself sideways right before a bevy of bullets rained down on the spot he’d just been standing in.

Keeping low, he circled the cabin to where the shots had been fired from and heard muted whispers as the remaining two men obviously tried to figure out a plan where they didn't wind up dead along with everyone else.

Not happening.

None of them were leaving there alive.

“Where is he?” one man muttered.

“Has to be here somewhere,” the other said.

“How did he take down Smoke and Roller so quickly?” the other asked.

“He’s a SEAL, thinks he’s better than us,” the other replied.

“Heisbetter than us,” the first said, a thread of fear in his voice.

“No, he’s not. Find the girl. We get the woman then we control the man.”

Please be somewhere safe, moonlight.

As the two men shifted further away from him, Connor aimed for the closest one and pounced.

With the dark obscuring a clear view of anything, although he was able to deliver a blow to the man’s head it wasn't enough to take him down, and he spun, raising his weapon.

Aiming for the man’s arm, he grabbed his wrist and elbow and yanked both in the opposite directions, hearing the satisfying sound of bone snapping as the man howled in agony, the weapon clattering to the wooden floor, skidding off into the dark.

As Connor was about to finish him off, two shadowy figures moving toward him stopped him in his tracks.

“I wouldn't do that if I was you,” the man who had been so confident that he had what it took to destroy Connor despite his superior training said in a sing-song voice. “Not unless you want me to blow the brains out of her pretty little head.”

Despite the dark, he could make out Becca’s much smaller frame angled in front of the man’s larger one. He could also make out the outline of a weapon held pressed against her temple.

One shot was all it would take to end Becca’s life.

To snatch her away from him and if that happened, he would much rather join her in death than live out the rest of his life without her.

Because he had no other choice he froze, holding himself perfectly still so that the man who had Becca in his grasp would see that he was complying and removing himself as a threat.

“Kill them, Connor. Go for the gun,” Becca shouted, her voice so brave, so strong despite the fact there was a gun to her head, that his heart swelled with love for her.

“He can't, beautiful,” the other man taunted. “He moves, you die.”

“I don’t care. So long as you die too then it’s worth it,” Becca spat back. “Besides, he already took down three of you. You really think he can't take down you as well?”

“Not if he wants to keep you breathing he won't,” the man told her. “Deakin, you okay, man?”

A groan was the only response the man whose arm he’d just broken gave, but now he knew at least one of the other men in the room were still alive. He doubted that the man he’d struck in the neck was, and the man he’d been beating he’d give a fifty-fifty chance of still breathing.

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