Breaking Away (Delta Force Strong #3) - Elle James Page 0,30

Now that they’d been given a second chance, she’d be damned if it was taken away.

“Which way is south?” she asked.

The man glanced up at the star-studded sky, so pure and neutral to the human situation. “I will show you.”

Kylie frowned. “Can you make it?”

He nodded. “I have to. If I stay, they will kill me in the morning.”

“Why?” she asked. “What did you do?”

“I am a teacher. I dared to teach young girls how to read and write.”

“Bastards,” Kylie muttered. She slipped her arm around the teacher’s waist and draped his over her shoulder. “We have to move fast. They will soon learn of my escape.”

Together, they moved through the dark village, trying to keep hidden in the shadows of the low, crudely built huts.

Shouts sounded behind them. An engine roared to life, and headlights blinked on somewhere in the midst of the structures.

As they came to the edge of the village, Musa stopped and removed his arm from around her shoulders. “I am too slow. You must go on without me.”

“No way,” Kylie said. “You’ve come this far, you have to go the distance to make sure I don’t get lost.”

He shook his head. “I can create a diversion. It will give you time to get away.”

Kylie stared up at the man, the starlight shining down on his kind eyes. “I can’t let you sacrifice yourself. You deserve to live as much or more than I do.” She squared her shoulders. “We leave this village together or not at all.”

Musa’s lips curled upward in a tight smile. “You may be sentencing yourself to death.”

“I’ll take that chance. I’m not leaving you with them.” She picked up the pace, hauling him along with her as fast as she could go with his weight bearing down on her.

As they left the little village, they had to cross an open stretch of ground that left them vulnerable. If the vehicle they’d revved up reached the edge of the village before Kylie and Musa reached cover, their escape would be short-lived.

The Taliban could recapture them or just shoot them in the back. Either way, they’d be dead by morning.

With that in mind, Kylie pushed on when her exhaustion threatened to slow her down.

Running was hard enough alone. With a wounded, beaten man, it was exponentially difficult. Twice they stumbled and almost fell.

“You should leave me,” Musa said. “I will continue by myself.”

“No,” Kylie said through gritted teeth, her lungs and muscles burning with the effort. If they could make it just a little farther, they could hide in the hills, making their way south in more rugged, yet protected terrain.

Kylie had to stop to catch her breath. A glance over her shoulder made her blood run cold and her pulse ratchet up. A vehicle left the village, heading their way.

In the light from the stars above, she could see it was a truck loaded with men. Each man held a rifle in the air, shouting as the truck raced toward them.

“Run,” Kylie whispered. “Run!”

She tightened her hold on Musa and half-dragged, half-carried the man toward the hillside south of the village.

“Just a few…more…feet,” she gritted out.

She could hear the truck rumbling across the dirt road behind her, the men on board firing their weapons. Whether they were shooting at them or into the air, Kylie couldn’t say. She wasn’t looking at them. She focused on the hills in front of her, knowing that even if she and Musa reached them before the men in the back of that truck, they still had to climb.

Though her strength waned, she couldn’t give up now. They’d come too far. Ahktar wouldn’t let her live after killing his brother. He’d make her die a slow painful death.

Hell, she’d rather be shot and killed in her attempt to escape than captured and tortured to death. Ahktar’s reputation scared her more than she cared to admit. If she only had a smidgen of a chance to escape, she wasn’t going to waste it.

“Come on, Musa,” she said, breathing hard, her lungs feeling as if they would explode with as much air as she was forcing through them.

Then they were climbing, up and away from the road. She thought she couldn’t catch her breath on the flat ground. Now she was moving on a prayer, her body almost played out, her back aching from taking the bulk of Musa’s weight.

Kylie didn’t stop, she couldn’t not now. She had to get away from these men before she could get back