Derek need your help getting him out of here. They didn’t sign up for this.”
Angelo glanced over his shoulder, prepared to argue some more, but Ivy was already running across the rocky ground to where Derek and Butler were trying to get Carter up on his feet. Angelo dropped his magazine to the ground, loaded his last fresh thirty-rounder, and flipped to full auto, then threw a quick glance at Tanner. He returned Angelo’s look, eyes flashing red as hell and claws flexing.
“You know, you’re not so bad.” Angelo wasn’t sure Tanner could even understand him when he was in beast mode like this, but he grinned at the man anyway as he added, “For a Ranger.”
Angelo made his ammo last as long as he could. When the bolt of his M4 locked back on an empty magazine, he dropped the weapon and pulled out his knife, then jumped to his feet. But before he could get in a jab, gunfire erupted from somewhere to his right. Tanner growled and crouched, clearly intending to launch himself at the hybrids.
Shit. What the hell was he doing?
Angelo sheathed his knife and jumped on Tanner’s back, trying to keep him out of the line of fire, but all it did was freak out the ex-Ranger. Angelo ducked as Tanner reached back and tried to take off his face with those daggers that passed for claws. He’d be damned if he’d let go, though. More copper-jacketed rounds were coming their way. Landon’s slow-ass help had finally gotten there. No way was he going to let Tanner die now.
More bullets zipped over their heads, taking out most of the remaining hybrids. The few who hadn’t gone down ran for cover in the jungle.
Beneath Angelo, Tanner roared. One second the ex-Ranger was wiggling under Angelo’s grip, the next he was tossing Angelo over his shoulder. Angelo hit the ground hard, pain shooting up his back and lancing through his skull. He opened his eyes just in time to see Tanner jump over him and tear off into the jungle in hot pursuit of the hybrids who’d escaped.
Double shit.
“Tanner, no!” Ivy shouted.
But it was no good. Tanner was way too far gone to come back.
Angelo closed his eyes and didn’t open them again until he heard boots thumping in his direction. He blinked. Landon and Ivy were standing above him, concern on their faces. Angelo pushed himself up into a sitting position with a groan.
“About frigging time you showed up,” he said. “I thought maybe you stopped for breakfast or something.”
Landon reached down and helped him up. “Sorry about that. It took a lot longer to get here than I thought. You okay?”
“Yeah,” Angelo said.
Well, except for the concussion. His head was still spinning.
Ivy punched Angelo in the shoulder—hard. The thump made him stagger back a step, which was a good thing, since she probably would have poked out his eye with the finger she was pointing at him.
“Don’t you ever do anything that stupid again,” she said. “No matter what Landon tells you, or doesn’t tell you, to do! You could have gotten yourself killed.”
Ivy gave Landon a hard look, then touched the rings on the necklace she wore hidden under her shirt before turning and running back to where everyone else was clustered around Carter over by the rock wall.
“What the hell was that about?” Landon asked.
Angelo opened his mouth to tell Landon that Ivy obviously didn’t appreciate his chivalrous attempt to sacrifice himself for her, or the fact that Landon had put him up to it, but a roar from one of the buildings reminded him that their work wasn’t done.
“You didn’t find Declan?” he asked, picking up his M4 and falling into step beside Landon.
Landon flipped him a magazine, which he caught and smoothly loaded on the run. “Never got a chance. Had to come save your ass, remember?”
“Well, let’s hope you didn’t lose one friend trying to save another,” Angelo said.
It wasn’t hard to figure out where Declan was. If the growling and snarls didn’t give it away, the big-ass hole in the side of the building did.
Angelo swore. What the hell kind of fight had the bear shifter gotten himself into?
Kendra darted across the room to see if she could get a shot lined up at Marcus and almost got crushed between him and Declan and the wall. She stifled a scream and quickly darted behind a filing cabinet. Throwing the barrel of her rifle on top of it, she sighted