Forged in Smoke (Red-Hot SEALs #3)(64)
True—he was using a different contractor, one who’d provided his own team, but it wouldn’t hurt to remind the man of the results from the first skirmish with this group.
Or what the consequences would be if it happened again.
* * *
Chapter Thirteen
* * *
CLEARLY, LACK OF oxygen hadn’t damaged Faith’s mind.
Torn between relief and rankling irritation, Rawls blew out a frustrated breath. She’d awakened with her intellect fully intact, along with her stubborn refusal to consider anything that didn’t fit neatly into her scientific mindset.
The discovery that Kait had completely healed her—sweet Jesus, even retrieved her from the dead—had kicked off a full-blown chorus of hallelujah in his head. The euphoria had lasted right up until Faith opened her mouth to contradict everything he’d told her. It was the first time in his life he’d wanted to kiss a woman and shake her simultaneously.
A steady glow appeared ahead, intensifying the closer they got. Cosky and Kait melted into the brilliance.
Looks like they’d officially reached the rendezvous point.
“Hot damn.” A transparent shape slipped past him and approached the hub at full-speed ahead.
Just . . . perfect . . .
Rawls scowled.
His ghost—as Faith insisted on calling it—had returned immediately after the healing. It had been remarkably docile since its reappearance. Holding its tongue and antics in check. Of course, Rawls hadn’t taken any chances. He’d removed the ammunition from the SCAR PD assault weapon and the Glock 17. Pachico might have succeeded in manipulating the rifle, but he’d find it a lot more challenging removing the rounds from Rawls’s pocket and inserting them into the guns.
Erring on the same side of caution, he’d hung way back from Cosky too. Effectively creating a lengthy barricade between his transparent troll and his teammate, or rather his teammate’s weaponry.
At least for the time being.
Dread building, he paused, watching as Pachico abruptly stopped as well. The time had come to admit to his hitchhiker and warn everyone. Now that Pachico had mastered the ability to lift and point weapons, it was only a matter of time before he figured out how to compress the trigger. Trapped, as they were, in such a small space, someone was bound to pay the price.
Frustration swelled, a thick clout of tension in his chest. Yet avoiding the hub was a false hope. If he didn’t show up, his teammates would come looking for him. Likely Kait and Beth too. As much as he’d tried to avoid it, to protect everyone, his mere presence would place everyone in immediate danger.
Even more maddening was the fact that they wouldn’t believe him any more than Faith had. At least until the first shot was fired.
His best bet was to drop Faith off, and get the hell out of there. Return to his original plan of avoiding everyone in favor of lurking in the woods. But to do that, he needed to pass through that cave. It was the only passage to the outside world now that all access points behind him had been blown.
He stared at the radiant cavern and the shadowy figures drifting around within. Knowing his teammates and company protocol, the damn place would be bristling with weapons. A virtual treasure trove to a disgruntled ghost.
Swearing beneath his breath so as not to awake Faith, who’d taken to dozing against his chest, he backed up, dragging Pachico away from that shiny beacon of peril.
It made more sense to let his buddies come to him. It would be easier to monitor a couple of weapons rather than dozens of them. He would explain the situation to Zane and Cosky—maybe Mac—and let them explain it to the rest.
Jude stepped into the mouth of the cave, his big body blocking the spill of light, his silhouette a hulking, menacing shadow.
Wolf and Jude shared similar ancestry. Did that mean he’d be as open to the possibility of ghosts as his gruff commanding officer?
“Goddamn you,” Pachico yelled as he stumbled backward. “How about you stop being a f*cking jackass, and I’ll leave your girlfriend alone?”
Faith stirred, her head lifting.
Jude’s hand went to his chest. Suddenly he stepped out of the cavern and headed toward Rawls.
“I’m serious, you f*cking shithead. Don’t think I won’t—”
Pachico abruptly disappeared.
What the . . . ?
Rawls froze, scanning the tunnel ahead. No, it hadn’t been a trick of his beleaguered imagination. The bastard really was gone. And the dematerialization had been sudden too, without any of the normal triggers.
Except . . . his mind flashed back to that moment at the stream with Wolf. Pachico had blinked out then too.
He turned his head and stared at Jude, who was rapidly approaching. What the f*ck? Did the Arapaho nation possess some secret weapon that jettisoned ghosts?
“What’s wrong?” Faith asked, her voice thick and sleepy and sexy as hell. “You look angry.” She turned her head, following his gaze to Jude, and stiffened slightly in his arms. “You can put me down now.”
When her demand penetrated his mind, Rawls’s arms instinctively tightened. The most absurd fear had struck at the thought of letting her go, as though the only thing anchoring her to life was the strength of his arms. Which was ridiculous—her heart had been beating on its own when he’d picked her up.