Page 42 of A SEAL's Protection
Marcus rolls his shoulder and grimaces, but there’s no sharp intake of breath. The pain has lessened.
“Good as new.”
He tries a thin smile, and it makes my chest ache. “Now I need to check the perimeter.”
He picks the gun up off the ground and puts it back in my hands. “Watch my back.”
I hold the gun up, scanning the area as I’ve seen him do.
“You need to rest.”
He shakes his head, as stubborn as I am. “Protect your samples,” he rasps out. “I’ll protect you.”
He leans forward and presses his lips against mine. Then he’s gone into the undergrowth.
I press my fingertips to my lips, and my heart thunders as I watch him disappear into the trees.
Only then do I remember my samples and realize I’ve left them exposed.
19
MARCUS
Afew feet into the tree line, I find flattened undergrowth and a backpack. The perps squatted here waiting for us. They must have known we’d need to climb the rope, and they waited here in ambush.
My shoulder throbs, but it’s a manageable pain. I’ll get it seen to when we get back, but for now I compartmentalize it, pushing the ache down.
I track further into the forest, but there are no signs of anyone else. My shoulder throbs with a dull ache, but I push it aside and focus on the mission. I don’t like to leave Allegra alone for long, so I do a quick circuit and loop back to the rocks.
I find her clutching her backpack to her chest, watching the man who attacked us. He’s exactly where I left him, lying on his stomach, tied up, with a bullet in his ass.
I crouch before the perp, and he rolls his head to look at me. Blood trickles down his forehead, but it’s a small cut. He’s injured, but he won’t die out here.
“Who sent you?” I know the answer, but I want to hear it from his lips.
The man rolls his eyes to focus on me, and there’s a different kind of pain in his expression.
“My brother…” His voice is croaky, parched.
I frown. “What do you mean?”
“You shot my brother.”
His eyes dart toward the other side of the ravine, and realization hits. “That was your brother on the other side?”
He nods. That makes sense. He lunged at me to stop the shot. It wasn’t personal; it was family. If he’d waited, he might have gotten a better opportunity to take me down.
I peer over the edge of the cliff. On the rocks below is the mangled body of the man who went over. He won’t be moving again.
Across the ravine, a crimson trail of blood leads into the undergrowth. But there’s no body.
I go back to the perp and crouch next to him. “Tell me who sent you, and I’ll tell you about your brother.”
The man eyes me warily. “I don’t know who sent us. It was a contract. We took the contract. You don’t ask questions in my line of work.”
By his fighting skills, my guess is he was military once. Spat out by the military and into the life of a man paid to harm, threaten, and intimidate.
“A mercenary,” I spit out.
