Page 73 of Rescue Me (Tempting SEALs 6.10)

“They’re definitely searching for someone,” Elena stated flatly, as aware of Seth’s hard body pressed against her back and his warm breath beating against her cheek as she was of the potential danger. “We’re not due out of here until later this afternoon so …”

“So it’s not the park department rescue chopper,” Seth concluded, and pulled her back tighter against him and further from view. “And it’s sure as hell not a guided tour.”

Elena shivered and tried to make herself smaller. “Which means …”

“Which means,” he said, steadying her by wrapping his arms tightly around her, “that this particular bird is not flying friendly skies. Gotta be old man Devine. Him and the boys must have had a prearranged check-in time.”

“Can you tell how many people are inside?”

His jaw pressed tightly against her temple as he squinted against a sun that glinted off the silver and white engine housing. “I’m seeing two heads.”

“Devine and the pilot. So he hasn’t picked up the boys yet.”

“No place to set down the bird around here. Besides, Devine’s probably so pissed at them for letting us get away, he’s most likely given orders for them to scour the area on foot and find us or else.”

“So Jake and Benny could show up any time, too,” Elena concluded, feeling suddenly like they were about to be flattened between two slices of bread in a bad-guy sandwich.

“They’re pulling out.”

She followed the direction of Seth’s gaze, then watched with a tentative sense of relief when the chopper did a one-eighty and resumed its search in a slow crawl up the length of the river.

“Another bullet dodged,” he said and gave her shoulders a squeeze.

“But for how long? We can’t hide from them forever.”

Seth rose slowly and helped her to her feet. “Even if we could, we wouldn’t.”

His jaw was set as hard as the canyon walls when Elena turned to face him. Her heart flipped like a trout in shallow water even before she asked, “We wouldn’t hide? Like there’s an alternative?”

“The alternative is the unexpected. They’ll expect us to hide. So we’ll do the opposite. We’re going on the hunt instead.”

“The hunt,” she repeated, unable to hide the trepidation in her voice. “For help?” she suggested, thinking, hoping, he was figuring on the possibility of a boatload of rafters or something.

“There’s no help coming, Elena. We’re going on the hunt for the hunters,” he said with a resolute determination that made her blood run cold.

Oh God.

“Okay, um, would now be a good time to point out that they have guns and a helicopter and that you took a really bad rap on your head?”

He managed to look like he was in total control of all of his senses—which he obviously wasn’t. “But we have the element of surprise on our side.”

“Element of surprise,” she repeated, practically choking on her skepticism. “Surprises are for birthday parties … and … and … EPT results. Surprises are not for a drug lord with a vendetta.”

He actually grinned. “Don’t worry. It’ll be fine.”

Yeah. And she was the Easter bunny.

They were going to die.

EIGHT

“I KNOW THIS PART of the Canyon,” Seth told Elena after the chopper disappeared, resuming its search upriver and around a bend. “There’s only one place near here big enough for the bird to set down. Only one place close enough for Devine to rendezvous with Jake and Benny in this area.”

He led her to a spot on the bank where soft dry sand gave way to wet. Using a stick, he scratched out a rough map.

“We’re here.” He pointed to the map with the sharp end of the stick. “The chopper came from here.” He indicated a winding path through the canyon. “We last saw Jake and Benny here—about a half mile upstream.”

When she nodded, he continued. “While cell towers can’t catch a signal, they’ve probably got radios or SAT phones that work here in the bottom of the Canyon. So they’re talking now and Devine knows where we parted ways with the boys. He’s not stupid so he’ll figure the river took us downstream—just like it did. So he’s probably ordered Jake and Benny to scour the area ahead of where we went in while the chopper heads upriver just in case we doubled back.”

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