Page 80 of Rescue Me (Tempting SEALs 6.10)

Jake and Benny, looking battered and bruised and horrified by the site of the downed chopper, scrambled down the far bank … and directly toward the deadfall trap Seth had set.

The only problem was, Seth wasn’t anywhere near the rope to trigger it.

Strike that. It wasn’t the only problem. Jake was firing wildly toward the spot on the cliff where Elena was as good as a sitting duck.

Seth didn’t hesitate. He sighted down the barrel—cursed when his vision went fuzzy—and did his damnedest to get a bead on Jake.

He squeezed off a round, then watched as the two men dove behind a boulder and started wildly firing their pistols.

“Not so brave when the odds even up a bit, are you, assholes?” he muttered and, rising, laid down another burst of fire to cover himself as he ran back toward the crash site with the hope of gaining a tactical advantage on the two men pinned down behind the boulder.

“Elena?” he yelled, for the first time close enough to check on her.

“I’m okay!” she yelled back.

If relief had been any sweeter, he’d have overdosed on it. Since he was already dizzy from the damn rap his head had taken, he couldn’t afford another hit to his equilibrium.

“Stay put,” he ordered. “Me and the boys will have this settled in no time, right, boys?” he yelled across the narrow expanse of river that was linked by the sandbar.

“Fuck you!”

Jake. He recognized the voice. Just like he recognized the sound of his ammo as .45s. Another few rounds flew past him.

“You boys need to work on your attitude,” Seth yelled, his tone scolding and intentionally irritating as hell. And, he hoped, not giving away that he felt himself fading.

“I’ll give you attitude, pig. You killed my old man!”

Jake wasn’t just mad, he was bawling. Any closer to the edge and he’d make a major mistake. Like charging Seth. Which was exactly what he wanted Jake to do. So he goaded him some more.

“Now see, you’re just not looking at this right, Jakie boy. I did you a favor. You can be the man now. The man he never let you be.”

“You shut up about him! You shut the fuck up about him! This is your fault! Yours! And you’re dead because of it! Dead, you hear me?”

“Now, Jake. You keep forgetting, we were minding our own business. You’re the ones who came looking for trouble. Well, you found it. In case you haven’t figured it out, you can’t hit shit with those handguns at this range. On the other hand, this M-16 can take you out like a bad prom date. Now, come on out, fellas, before you force me to do something I really don’t want to do—which is waste perfectly good ammo on the likes of you.”

Silence.

Spots before his eyes.

Shit.

Seth shook his head. Hurt like hell, but his vision cleared. Just in time to see a shadow move then loom over him from behind.

He spun around … and felt his jaw crack when a booted foot slammed into his face. Then all he saw was black.

WHEN SETH CAME TO, pain raged through his swollen jaw, stabbed him behind his eyes and at the back of his head. Clyde Devine stood over him, a 1911A pistol pointed dead center at his chest.

Devine was soaking wet, breathing hard; blood trickled down his temple. Murder fired in eyes as gray as the hair falling out of a gnarled ponytail. Pain furrowed brows etched deep with age and hard living.

On her knees in front of Devine, Elena was silent, her face grimacing in pain as Devine’s fist twisted in her hair and jerked her head back hard.

“She goes first,” Clyde said, a lethal calmness in his tone that echoed with evil. “She’s going slow and screaming. And you’re not goin’ to be able to do a damn thing about it but watch her beg and watch her bleed.”

SETH DIDN’T HAVE TO fake weakness. His ears rang. He fought back the urge to vomit, certain that if he did, he’d probably choke to death. His jaw was so swollen he couldn’t open his mouth. Broken, he suspected. Along with a couple of teeth.

But he wasn’t dead. He couldn’t be. Because if he let these bastards get him, then Elena was as good as dead too.

So he stayed on his feet, tripping and stumbling as Devine marched him toward Jake and Benny, who had come out from behind their hidey-hole and were carefully picking their way down the steep and craggy cliff face.

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