Breaking Away (Delta Force Strong #3) - Elle James Page 0,24
over the driver’s shoulder.
Rucker, in the front passenger seat frowned. “I don’t know, but I’m going to find out.” He glanced over his shoulder as he pushed open his door. “Comm on?”
“Roger,” Mac said.
The others responded in kind.
Rucker dropped down from the van and walked at a determined clip alongside the standing vehicles, disappearing withing seconds.
Mac held his breath, a bad feeling making his gut knot. Thankfully, he was on the side of the van with the sliding door. If something threatened them, he’d be out on the street with Kylie in less than a heartbeat.
“Damn,” Rucker said into Mac’s ear.
“What?” Mac shot back, his gut screaming for him to reach for the doorhandle.
“Got a checkpoint up here…manned by our trusty men in black. On my way back. Get the hell out of the van and go.”
Before Rucker completed his sentence, Mac had the sliding door open and he was out on the pavement, dragging Kylie out with him.
“What?” she asked, her gaze shooting the direction Rucker had gone.
The other members of his team climbed out behind them.
Mac, holding onto Kylie’s hand, turned back the direction from which they’d come and walked fast, putting as much distance as possible between them and the checkpoint.
“They spotted me,” Rucker said. “Run!”
Mac’s hand tightened on Kylie’s as he took off, pushing past pedestrians and cyclists, attempting to get around the parking lot of vehicles in the street.
As if they were swimming upstream, Mac waded through the throngs of humanity, trying to get Kylie to someplace safer.
Ahead, he heard the sound of shouts and a woman’s scream.
The crowd of people on the sidewalk parted.
Half a dozen men in the black uniform worn by Ahktar’s Taliban soldiers appeared, shoving people out of the way, waving their AK-47s and shooting as they stormed through the crowd.
“Got more trouble from the other end of this wagon train,” Mac reported. “Heading east off the main drag.”
“We’ve got your back,” Dash said. He and Blade stopped at the corners of the buildings flanking the road Mac turned onto.
He leaned down to speak into Kylie’s ear. “We need to move out sharply. You up to it?”
She laughed. “Do I have a choice?” Picking up the pace, she broke into a sprint.
Mac had to hurry to keep up with her.
They ran a long block and cut back north.
“Keep going,” Dash urged. “We’re behind you, trying to stay out of sight of our friends.’
“Sorry, guys,” Rucker’s voice cut into Dash’s report. “I’ve been spotted. I’ll try to lead them away. Problem is, now they know we’re out here.”
Mac’s grip tightened on Kylie’s hand.
“I’m going with Rucker,” Dash said into the radio. “Someone has to cover his ass.”
“What am I missing?” Kylie asked, looking up at Mac’s face as they moved through the streets.
“Rucker was spotted. The Taliban now knows we’re close,” Mac said. “Dash is dropping back to cover for Rucker. It’s you, me, Josh and Blade.” He glanced back as Blade brought up the rear of their small group.
Blade said something to Josh. The two moved faster to catch up to Mac and Kylie.
“Shit, Mac,” Blade huffed. “We’ve got a tail of four guys in black.”
“Gotta move faster,” Mac said.
Kylie was breathing hard. She’d started to slow her pace, but he gripped her elbow and helped her to go faster.
He dared to look back at the men trailing Blade and Josh. They were raising their rifles to their shoulders. If Mac didn’t get Kylie out of the line of fire, she might be hit.
He rounded the next corner at a sprint and came to a skidding halt.
A dozen men were dropping down from a truck, each carrying a rifle.
A shout went up, and they rushed toward Mac and Kylie.
Josh and Blade raced around the corner, running into Mac and Kylie, sending them lurching forward.
The Taliban encircled them before Mac could do anything to stop them or get away.
“We’ve been surrounded,” Mac whispered into his mic, holding up his hands as a dozen rifles pointed at Kylie, Mac, Josh and Blade. “We have no choice. Surrender or die.”
“Calling in the rest of the team,” Rucker said. “We’ll find you. Just do us a favor and stay alive until we do.”
“Roger,” Mac said without moving his lips.
At that moment, one of the men in black grabbed the radio earbud from Mac’s ear, threw it on the ground and stomped on the device. He jerked his head toward the others. The men searched Kylie, Josh and Blade, finding the earbud in Blade’s ear and