Page 15 of Rescue Me (Tempting SEALs 6.10)

“Be careful,” she mouthed.

The raucous sounds of the jungle closed in on her, as did the oppressive darkness. She’d outgrown her fear of the bogyman in her closet long before her tenth birthday, but this darkness scared the bejesus out of her. The dangers here were very real. And imminent.

Crouched uncomfortably in the thick, inky darkness, Elizabeth waited, her heartbeat sounding like thunder in her ears, her jaw clenched to prevent crying out every time something crawled over her bare hands, or some creepy critter brushed her face. She tried not to imagine what that was sitting lightly on her cheek, or what the weight was on the instep of her right boot. She bit off the scream that surged up her throat as a bird shot out of a nearby shrub as if catapulted. Dragging in a shuddering breath, she held it until her heart settled down. She was dammed if she’d have a freaking heart attack because a bird flew past her.

Better than thinking about men tracking her with guns, mile-long centipedes, poisonous ants, poisonous frogs and, of course, a multitude of poisonous snakes.

The only thing she had between herself and all those dangers was Sam Pelton. The thought was so wrongly comforting.

FIVE MEN. CAMO. NVGS. AK-47s. Well trained. Cautious. And definitely tracking their missing doctor. There was no other reason for their presence. No nearby villages to pillage, and Sam doubted they were hunting for bushmeat. Thadiwe was too sophisticated to eat the local flora and fauna, and the compound was miles from anywhere. No. It was Beth that Thadiwe’s soldiers hunted.

Damn it to hell. He’d miscalculated, and they’d discovered her absence, and the hidden Jeep, hours before Sam thought they would. Removing the KA-BAR from his tac belt with his left hand, Sam circled around, slipped in behind them. Matching his steps to the man bringing up the rear, he maneuvered up close. With no warning he brought his forearm around and beneath the guy’s chin. Pulling him back and off balance, Sam struck directly up, into the man’s kidneys. It was a quick, silent death, the pain so intense the man couldn’t scream before he died. Sam caught the soldier as he soundlessly collapsed against him, and lowered the body quietly into the bushes.

Sam wiped the bloodied knife on the man’s shirt. One down, four to go.

Killing the soldier had taken all of three seconds. Didn’t bother Sam right then, but later he’d remember why he’d gotten out of combat and into the training side. But for now he had absolutely no compunction killing as many people as it took to keep Beth safe.

He took the second and third guys out the same coldly efficient way as he’d done the first. The fourth and fifth might have been slow on the uptake, but the second they realized that they were under attack they got with the program and both rushed Sam at once.

Good. No weapons fired to draw the attention of any other hunters. The first guy came at him in a flurry of well-trained arms and legs. Sam blocked the first blow with his forearm, then swiveled to kick out at number two, who had come in from the side, his AK-47 raised to fire. Kicking out, Sam got rid of both man and weapon. The second guy

went flying, striking a tree trunk with a hollow thud that set off a flock of birds in a screeching flutter of wings, ghostly through the NVGs. A group of chimps shot out of the lower branches, screaming annoyance as they swung from branch to branch.

Bending his arm, Sam used a chopping motion from the elbow, his entire body weight behind the edge-of-the-hand blow to the first guy’s throat as he came at him full tilt. His hand made a satisfying connection just below the enemy’s Adam’s apple. The guy gagged and dropped.

The other soldier was already up on his feet and charging back for more. With a feral smile Sam sidestepped the punch to the jaw, grabbing his opponent’s wrist with one hand, and pulled him off balance. With the other hand he yanked off the guy’s NVGs, then melted into the high bushes to his right. The man came blindly after him. Sam stayed dead still.

The man turned in a circle, scared now, babbling God only knew what. Sam came up on him from behind, wrapping his left arm around the guy’s neck, bearing down on his throat in a Japanese stranglehold. One arm across his throat, the other on his shoulders, his palm on the back of the man’s head. Pulling him backwards, Sam pressed the guy’s head forward.

The guy tried to grab his balls with his free hand. The LockOut suit gave him no handhold.

Sam straightened and gripped the front and back of the guy’s head, then gave a quick twist. It had been a while since he’d last heard a neck breaking at such close quarters. He hadn’t missed the sound. Sam tossed him aside as he heard a loud scream of fear. The scream was cut off mid-note.

Beth.

ELIZABETH FLUNG HERSELF INTO Sam’s arms the moment he came through the trees. It was barely light, but she could see him well enough, and God, was she happy to do so. “Oh, Jesus, Jesus,” she said hoarsely into his throat, her heart pounding so hard she was sure he must hear it. “I’m sorry, Sam. This giant pig-like something came at me, and scared the living crap out of me. I promised myself I wouldn’t scream like a girl and distract you no matter what, but it ran right into me before I even knew it was there … Sorry, I’m babbling.”

She looked up at his face. He’d removed the night-vision goggles, and they’d left a red mark across the bridge of his blade of a nose. He was several days past a shave, and the dark shadow on his jaw made him look wicked and disreputable. The sheen on the front of his black bodysuit Elizabeth easily identified as blood. She stepped back, her gaze tracking across his body for signs of injury.

“Are you—?” The matte black bodysuit hugged his muscular torso so that she could see the sharp definition of his taut pecs and cut abs, and the long length of his muscular legs, and the bulge, somehow flattened, large, and protected by something. She pictured his penis tucked neatly inside. Her body tightened and her nipples ached.

“Am I?”

Her gaze shot up to his face, and her cheeks felt warm. “Hurt. Are you hurt?”

“I teach advanced survival skills to highly trained counterterrorist operatives for a living. I’m excellent. Thanks for asking.” He grinned, a flash of white teeth in his tanned face. “Did your run-in with the pig give you any nicks or cuts?”

“I scared him as much as he scared me,” she muttered, searching his face. She didn’t need to ask him if he’d taken care of whomever had been following them. Seeing Sam in his warrior gear, knife belted to his thigh, the big gun, his dark hair damp with sweat, his eyes glittering as if he had a fever… .

Good grief, if he’d looked like this back home, she would have jumped his bones at the first opportunity. She gave him a more assessing look. “How did they catch up with us so fast?”

“Obviously someone went to your room to check on you after I cut the generator. They’ll send more soldiers when those guys don’t check in.” He picked up the big gun and his pack. “We need to make tracks,” he said, threading his arms through the straps. “Easier now that it’s getting light. Drink some water as we walk.” He handed her the canteen, and Elizabeth sipped enough water to moisturize her dry mouth.

“How many men were there?”

“Only five.”

Only five. Sam didn’t seem to be concerned that those men might still be following them, so Elizabeth presumed they were incapacitated. In this part of the world that could only mean dead.

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