Delta Force Rescue - Elle James Page 0,35

whine or bark.

After several minutes staring at the monitor, Rafe was joined by Briana, pulling her robe around her. “Anything?”

“An elk and her baby.” He pointed to the red-rimmed image.

Briana laughed. “Better them than the bear.” She handed him his jeans. “Come on, let’s go for a walk. Lucy needs some exercise.”

They spent the day wandering over the hills, returning to the cabin before the sun sank below the ridgeline. They fed Lucy, ate dinner and settled in to read books Sadie and Hank had left on a shelf beside the canned goods.

When it was time for bed, they made love until late in the night. Sometime later, Lucy whined at the door to be let out. Rafe dressed in jeans, boots and his jacket, tucked his handgun into his pocket and checked the monitor for any blinking lights. The infrared display showed nothing amiss. He snapped the lead on Lucy’s collar and let himself out through the door. “Lock it behind me,” he said.

Briana locked the door behind him and shivered in the cool mountain air. She pulled on a pair of leggings and a T-shirt, and then slipped her feet into her shoes and wandered over to the surveillance monitor. An alert went off, and one of the screens blinked red.

Her pulse leaped as she studied the monitor. In the blinking square, she could see the infrared image of Rafe and Lucy walking near the edge of the clearing. She smiled as they stopped to let the dog sniff at every little thing on the ground.

Lucy had seemed to settle in with them, glad for the attention and love she’d missed with the passing of her previous owner.

As Briana watched, Lucy braced herself, lowered her head and bared her teeth.

At the same time, another alarm went off on the surveillance system. Briana expected it to be from the camera closest to the one near Rafe and Lucy as they crossed into its sector.

However, the screen that lit up wasn’t from the cameras closest to Rafe and Lucy. It was from a camera on the back side of the cabin.

Briana leaned closer to the monitor, studying the image. At first, she didn’t see anything, but then a white silhouette pushed up from the ground and moved toward the cabin. Another white silhouette rose up and followed the first. They were hunkered over, and when they straightened, Briana could tell they were people, and they were carrying guns. A third alarm went off and another screen blinked with a red outline. More men emerged from the trees, running toward the cabin.

Her heart leaped into her throat. She had to warn Rafe before they reached him and Lucy.

Briana reached for her pistol, slammed the magazine into the handle and ran for the door.

Chapter 9

As soon as Lucy took up a defensive stance and growled, Rafe stiffened, yanked his gun out of his jacket and started back toward the cabin.

Before he reached it, headlights blinked on, and vehicles raced up the drive and through the trees, heading directly for him and Lucy.

He ran, but he wasn’t going to make it to the cabin. Not before the vehicles reached him first. He prayed Briana would stay in the cabin with the door locked and call Hank on the satellite phone. Hank wouldn’t get there in time to help, but he might catch up to them before they disappeared with Briana.

When he realized he wouldn’t reach the cabin in time, he released Lucy’s lead and told the dog, “Go, Lucy!”

The dog ran into the woods.

Rafe turned, braced his handgun in his palms and fired at the headlights and the tires, hoping to slow the lead vehicle.

A dark Jeep with its top off barreled toward him.

Rafe fired in the direction of the driver, but the vehicle didn’t slow. At the last minute, Rafe threw himself to the side, hit the ground, rolled and came up on his feet. Another Jeep raced up to him. A man leaned out the side of the vehicle and hit Rafe in the side of the head with a baseball bat.

Pain knifed through his head, and Rafe fell to his knees, the gun slipping from his hand. Another man leaped out of the vehicle and ran toward him with a club like what the policemen carry. When he cocked his arm to hit Rafe with it, a flash of black and white leaped out of the tree line.

Lucy grabbed the man’s arm before he could swing it at Rafe and