Page 41 of Lucky Charm
Putting those type of vulnerable Cinderella thoughts away, she realized that after this dangerous, adrenaline surging situation was over, she’d likely wouldn’t see Hunt again any time soon – separate deployments, separate jobs, separate commands, separate responsibilities. That depressed her, and she turned her head to look over Carter’s shoulder and watch Baxter move instead. That view was less fraught with perilous thoughts and fragile emotions.
∞∞∞∞∞
Hunt’s subconscious heard the scuff of footfall before his conscious mind acknowledged the threat. He dropped Quaid to the ground and moved left. Quaid groaned loudly but was aware enough to immediately assess the situation. He rolled to the side of the path, taking one of the attackers with him.
Hunt’s attention shifted to the other two men who came at him from opposite sides. From the corner of his eye, he saw Carter shift Doc, putting her back to a rock outcropping and covering her with his body. One less thing to worry about.
Hunt pivoted and let his years of training take over. They were young but knew enough about knife fighting to be dangerous. They came at him with slashing blades. The older one took the lead on one side. The second one tried to flank him.Unfortunately, they picked the wrong guy for that strategy. He had to kill them, and dammit, wouldn’t you know Cait was in viewing distance.
The first one fell with a punch in the throat and struggled to draw air. Hunt cut his throat and stepped out of the spray of blood in one motion. Fueled by revenge and anger when he saw what happened to his partner, the other man made an uncontrolled swipe at him.
Hunt’s vest stopped the forward progress. Using sheer brute muscles, he knocked the knife away. The boy pulled a grenade from his pocket, but Hunt kicked it from his hand and punched him, then cut his throat, too. He turned, barely winded.
Quaid had successfully dispatched the older man. The attacker’s neck rested at an odd angle, his eyes glazed with death.
On the bad side, Quaid’s side was again covered in blood.
“Father and sons?” Quaid panted from the exertion and the pain.
“No way to know.” Hunt picked up his weapon, carefully wiping the snow away with his gloves.
“Those two dead?”
Hunt looked them over again. “Yep.”
Quaid shook his head. “Do we leave them? If anyone comes this way, they’ll know we were here.”
Hunt knelt by him and lowered his voice, surprised at the vulnerability he was feeling. “I don’t want Cait seeing them either.”
Quaid glanced up the hill where Baxter and Carter still had her in a protective ring. “You think she doesn’t know you kill people?”
Hunt stifled an exasperated sigh. “Intellectually, I’m sure she does. In reality, she’s a healer. Up front and personal with death is something she knows, but not when I’ve delivered the punishment. Let’s move them a distance away. With any luck, we’ll be out of here in a couple of hours and it won’t matter.”
“We haven’t had much luck so far.” Quaid dropped back, his groan in conflict with the bite in this tone.
“Noted.” Conflicted, Hunt rose to move away. “You’re hurt again.”
Quaid looked at his front. “Well, shit.”
“Yeah, Doc better check you.” Hunt glanced up the trail and found Cait unmoved, tucked in behind Carter.
Quaid tried to stifle a groan and didn’t succeed. “Good news, I am fully awake now. I’ll hang off your back with a gun in my hand. Next time it won’t be a question. I’ll shoot first, and we can keep moving.”
Hunt ignored the sarcasm, fully willing to hand the man a gun to cover his back. At least it wouldn’t be him Cait would see kill someone. Might be the first time he’d ever thought about the cost of killing. He hated the indecision on something that was his job description. “Alpha Six, assist,” he spoke quietly in his mic.
Baxter slipped away from Cait and Carter and slid across the terrain to Hunt’s side. “What ya need, LT? God, these two are kids. Fuck.”
“Find a spot off this trail where we can dump these three. Don’t want to leave them out in the open for anyone to find. Make it fast.”
“Think I have the perfect spot.” He bent and slung the older man over his shoulder. “Might as well take this one now.”
“Doc see anything?”
“She knows we had a confrontation. She’s worried about Quaid, but Carter has her contained.”
“The Marine here is going to need her, but let’s get these three out of here first.”
“Get me up to Carter,” Quaid bit out. The CIA man tried to sit and failed. “I might be hurt worse than I thought.” He sank back to the slushy ground.
