The Colonel's Man (14 page)

He saw movement outside and easily picked off the sneaky bastard with well placed rounds to the chest. The high velocity of the bullets sent his quarry twirling like a little tornado before collapsing to the ground. The thermal scope showed no more movement.

“One down, south.” He called out.

Jason caught Arita’s gaze as if it were planned. He laughed in spite of their situation. “You know we should be reasonable and at least give them a chance to surrender.”

She lifted an eyebrow, but broke the look to fire off another volley. Screams rent the air. “It would be only fair. After all, there aren’t that many of them. It hardly seems sporting, now does it?”

“Yeah. We’re professional soldiers. It’ll be like a courtesy. And then we wouldn’t need to waste any more ammo.” He caught two more flankers and put them in the ground with precise fire.

The sandstorm wasn’t going to last forever. Those bastards wouldn’t be able to get reinforcements until it was over and they wouldn’t be able advance either. Unfortunately the same could be said for the three of them. They were covered on the three sides that mattered and once the storm blew over, the bad guys outside would have enough visibility and manpower to storm the building and take them out. Or worse…

He had been captured before. Three months in a hell hole being tortured for information with all means possible used against him. The physical part had been pretty bad but the psychological had been worse. Alone, cut off and disavowed…a man couldn’t be any more vulnerable at any other time.

But he remembered the moment he first laid eyes on Arita. She was a fighter and he knew she would take down as many of them as she could if it ever came to that. But she could still be taken. What had happened to her in the warehouse that first day they met could have gotten a lot worse had things gone differently. He had been on some rescue missions himself. He’d seen what could happen. He didn’t want that happening to her.

It was a stupid thing to be thinking about considering that she was a professional soldier and one of the best but…she was more to him than that. He looked at her as she opened fire with her rifle. They had fought together. He had seen her at her most vulnerable and he wanted to be nowhere else but at her side, holding her, making it all better. His better judgment always went out the window where she was concerned. Drew saw it and he knew it but Jason didn’t care. Arita had become as important to him as breathing, as important to him as living.

He loved her.

The realization stunned him. Rocked him to his core. He was in love. Him, Jason Scott, player extraordinaire. Master of the quick chat up and one night stand. But as soon as he’d seen her, tied to that pipe in a filthy warehouse and covered in blood and bruises, that had been it. He’d been hers and ever would be.

“Jason…
Jason.
Snap out of it!” she yelled, motioning to the window. Jason shook his head and lined up the two hostiles trying to storm the building. Two sharp retorts from his rifle and they hit the ground, scarlet staining the dirt.

“Shit, I’m low on ammo.” The comm crackled in his ear as she spoke to him and Drew. “Round count, how much have you two got?”

“One and a half mags.”
Jason heard Drew pause followed by two shots before he spoke again.
“Still full load for my sidearm, three mags.Two grenades.”

Jason shrugged carelessly. “Last mag. Three for the sidearm. One grenade and all our demo charges.”

Saying it was bad was like saying the sun was a little toasty.

“Shit,” she muttered, looking out at the surroundings speculatively. He knew what she was thinking. Could almost see her mind turning over as she tried to work a plan to get them out of here. There wasn’t one. He knew that and she did. But she tried anyway.

“We drop to the ground floor, shoot our way out and make a break for it—”

“Even with the storm, they’d still spot us with all the fire we’d be dishing out. We’d be dead before we make it past their perimeter.”

Jason unslung his rifle from his shoulder and pulled out his sidearm. “South and east are buildings crawling with foot-mobiles. That’s a death trap if I’ve ever seen one. West is open desert and plain suicide. North’s pretty much the only way to go. They’re not fully entrenched yet and mostly in the open themselves.”

He sighed as he leaned against the wall. “Problem is that if they do get reinforcements, they will be coming from that side and that machine gun and grenade launcher is a cause for concern.”

Arita shook her head, checking her pistol. Her full lips were compressed, the look in her eyes hard.

“It’s the only option. We’re more mobile and more motivated. We need to punch through the north side if we have any chance of getting out of here.”
Alive.
She didn’t add the last word. Didn’t need to. They were both thinking it.

Shoving the sidearm back into her holster, she checked the knife the other side, making sure it pulled free cleanly. The hallmarks of a soldier about to run the gauntlet. His gut twisted with fear for her as she looked up. Her gaze was clear and direct. Honest.

“Jason…about us.”

He managed a tired smile. “We know it’s a really bad situation when we finally talk about the white elephant in the room isn’t it?” With a remarkably upbeat voice, he called over the comms to Drew. “Hey buddy, you’ve got the north well covered there?”

“All good. I’ve got a bead on anyone coming this way.”

“Sounds good man.”

His gaze turned to Arita and his eyes lowered to the crude dressing on her thigh. “You’ve got excellent timing you know that? Right when it’s most inconvenient…”

Irritation flared in her eyes for a second. “We can not talk about it, if you prefer.”

“You know I do Arita.” He sobered, amusement gone. “For a long time I’ve been thinking of what I’d be able to say, maybe something smart and witty but romantic. Unfortunately that part of my brain seems to take a vacation every time I try to do that. There was so much I wanted to tell you but words failed me. Then it was never the right time until this damned mission came up.”

Her eyes sparkled with suspicious moisture but he held her gaze anyway, trying to put everything he couldn’t say into his eyes.

“I’m not good at this stuff either,” she admitted, her voice soft. Time slowed, an eternity from one moment to the next as he just looked at her, knowing full well that this could be their last conversation. Dropping her gaze, she twisted the bracelet off her wrist, one she’d worn in and out of uniform since he’d known her, and held it out.

Jason appreciated the rustic appeal of the beautiful bracelet as he took it in his hands. It was old and was probably an heirloom as he took note of the intricate painstaking engravings in the coppery brown metal. There were words engraved in a script that he didn’t quite understand but as he touched them, the way it seemed to matter to her, he was struck by the meaning of this gift. He slipped the bracelet over his wrist and then he felt as if the courage to say the words he wanted to say came over him. He had known what to say all along.

“I love you.”

“You’ll make me cry,” she accused, dashing at her eyes with the back of a hand. Even that simple movement fascinated him, as he stored everything, every little detail and imprinted it on his memory.

He was looking at her intently, lovingly trying to memorize everything about her. From the way her eyes sparkled and her whole face lit up when she smiled to the gentle ridges on her face that she didn’t care for but he thought were delicately beautiful. She looked like she meant business now, a warrior at home on the battlefield but he also tried to remember the way she had been when it had just been the two of them. He remembered the way she gave him everything and held nothing back.

“Come on, we need to get out of here.”

She stood up, holding her hand out to help him up. The softness in her eyes, and the resignation almost did him in. She hauled him to his feet, and he responded by pulling her into his arms.

It wasn’t the most romantic of embraces, not with them both holding weaponry, but he didn’t care. Gently he rubbed his nose against hers, not caring that they were in the middle of a war zone. Her gaze locked with his and she smiled softly.

“I love you too.”

“Aww… I love you too guys. Does this mean I get a kiss too?”
Drew tried not to laugh over the comms.

“Sure buddy. You can kiss my ass later.” Jason retorted but the smile wouldn’t leave his face.

She was so beautiful.

His heart ached from all the love he had for her and now that she loved him too, his heart ached with the pain of a different kind. He held her face in his hands, looked into her eyes and kissed her. One last time.

“That will slow you down.” He looked down to her thigh and smiled. “I’d think you’d be stubborn to try but then again you were always a stubborn cow.”

“You wouldn’t have it any other way.” She clung for a moment, then stepped away. Ever the warrior, ever the one in charge. “Come on, let’s get this out of the way and tonight we’ll be dining in the hall of the spirits.”

It was the first time she’d made an overt reference to her religion, something Jason barely had time to think on as they moved through the building to Drew’s location.

His position was good. The other soldier had a good overwatch position over the northern side and if needed, he could cover the stairwell leading down to the street. Jason wasn’t about to let Arita do what he knew she was going to do. He didn’t care what happened to him anymore as long as she was safe. And if this was the way to make sure she and Drew got out of this then he had nothing more to ask for. He had been blessed with the chance to have loved her and to be loved by her in return. His own resignation felt calm, not at all like the chilling panic he had thought.

As Arita went to Drew to see what the situation was, Jason flicked the fire selector switch on his rifle to full auto, took his one last look of her then headed down the stairs. Her bellow behind him didn’t stop him as he reached the ground floor and took a deep breath. Now or never.

Time slowed to a crawl as he stepped out of cover. Instantly the air around him was live with fire, bullets and energy bolts zipping past him in a dizzying array as he calmly selected his targets and fired. They went down, one after the other, not one of them managing to land one on him. It wouldn’t last, he knew that, but he didn’t care. If he could clear enough, then it gave Drew and Arita a chance.

The wind shifted and turned in his favor. As it blasted from behind him, it now struck the defenders in the face. A stroke of luck. Firing off the last round in his rifle, he quickly switched to his sidearm and blasted away. Lobbing a grenade over the wall, a spectacular explosion prefaced his next attack as he came out of cover.

His enemies were firing wildly now, unable to see anything. Tracers arched overhead as the machine gun let loose. He didn’t have a clean shot; the bastards had picked a good position behind a solid roadway embankment. He had no more grenades but he still had his demo charge. If he could take them all out in one go, Drew and Arita could break out and head to the secondary landing zone.

He waited for them to reload and when the break came, Jason set the timers, broke out of cover and tossed the bag.

Score. The bag hit dead center and blew within a second. The explosion lit the sky with flame, its accompanying roar like that of some mythical dragon. The sound broke the bubble surrounding him, near deafening him as he ducked and headed for cover. He paused, mid-step, as a hostile rolled out of cover and raised his weapon. He was out of ammo, out of time, and out of luck. Everything slammed back into place between one heartbeat and the next. Time sped up and he sprinted for cover.

He didn’t make it.

It felt familiar, the shock of the powerful blows, the numbness then the searing heat. The pain would come later. Everything seemed to slow, even the way the ground came up to meet him. A rifle was just beyond his reach. He crawled but every movement felt like he was running a marathon. He felt tired and the tiredness came in waves with the beat of his slowing heart.

His hand curled around the grip. With the last of his energy he turned and pulled the trigger as his enemy came into his sights. Both weapons fired at the same time. Then it was over.

*

“What the fuck?
Jason!
”

The scream was ripped from Arita as she turned, and caught sight of Jason running from cover below them. Adrenaline and fear galvanized her as she turned towards the door and the stairs beyond to go after him but Drew was too quick for her. A solid, male arm wrapped around her waist, hauling her off the floor as she kicked and screamed at him.

“Let me go, damn you!”

“Cut it out dammit!” Drew barked. “You go after him and you’re both toast. Get on your weapon and help me cover him!” He released her abruptly as he ran back to his rifle and opened fire into the street, keeping Jason covered as best as he could.

Shame hit her at the same time heat licked her cheeks. She called herself a soldier, yet forgot all her training at the first hint that the man she loved was in danger? Spirits, she needed to get her head in the right place.

She had two mags left herself. Drew was right: Jason needed cover more. She found herself a good perch and tracked Jason through her scope. He moved with deliberate purpose, a man on a mission as he dodged weapons fire on his charge down the road. He moved fast and yet without diminishing his lethal precision. Every shot hit where it counted, no movements wasted.