Heated Pursuit (Alpha Security #1)(73)

Furious didn’t begin to describe how Rafe had felt when he and the team returned to the Mocoron base to find Collins and Penny gone and Logan just coming out of a foggy stupor. Murderous maybe, not simply furious.

The only thing that had kept Rafe from flattening the former sniper to the ground a second time was that Logan was beating himself up good enough for the both of them—and that he’d had the foresight to place a GPS tracker on Collins when the bastard hadn’t been looking.

Thanks to Logan’s quick thinking, the team was able to follow Collins’s and Penny’s footsteps, despite their three-hour head start. Three f*cking hours. A lot of shit could happen in that amount of time, but Rafe couldn’t let his mind drift in that direction. He was going to get Penny back—safely—and nothing and no one could help the f*cking bastards who got in his way.

No one had ever believed in him like she did. No one had ever challenged his thoughts and beliefs, or his actions, like she did. A five-foot-two-inch temperamental sprite single-handedly made him realize that everything he thought he didn’t want or wasn’t worthy of was his for the asking—and that he deserved it.

And then he walked the f*ck away.

He was a moron. An idiot. If he didn’t get his ass kicked on this op, he’d have one of the guys punt him so damn hard their boots would bruise his f*cking tonsils. And then he’d tell Penny that he loved her so much that when he pictured her not in his life, he damn near had a panic attack.

He didn’t just love her. He was in love with her, hard and deep, and for the first time in his life that didn’t scare the f*ck out of him. What did scare him shitless was the thought of losing her…of being too late.

Yeah, he didn’t deserve just a beating. He deserved a fifty-caliber bullet to the ass.

Every minute they waited for the go signal, the more Rafe’s nerves went apeshit. “Stone, I need to get in that building right the f*ck now.”

“We’ll get you there, brother. I promise,” Stone said over the comm link. “SEAL-one, you ready?”

Vince’s voice rumbled through the mic. “All’s primed and hot. T minus five for some fireworks, kids. Hold onto your boots.”

With the clock ticking down, everyone verified their positions and points of entry. Rafe’s muscles tensed, ready to get his woman back where she belonged. With him.

As the ground shook with the first ka-boom, monkeys shrieked into the night. Gun aimed, Rafe took his first step toward the bunker, then his second. When two men jumped in front of him, putting themselves between him and the woman he loved, he fired off his first rounds.

*



Every shake of the walls pierced a new round of blood-curdling screams through Penny’s eardrums. “It’s okay! It’s the cavalry, ladies. Ayuda. Help.”

Penny prayed she hadn’t just lied. Panic hovered at the ready, just below her seemingly cool fa?ade, but she held it at bay. Barely. There was no way in hell she’d desecrate Rafe’s name or the entire team’s sacrifice by turning into a blubbering mess now.

Either Marco really pissed someone off or by some miracle, the guys survived. Thinking of Rafe, Penny’s heart shuddered. Common sense told her there wasn’t any way he lived through the blast, but her heart and her gut disagreed. If anyone could defy the odds, it was him. But regardless if he was behind the thunderous chaos happening outside the compound or not, Penny wasn’t going to let him down.

The walls shook again, this time swaying the flickering lights above their heads. Penny was too focused on toning down the new wave of screams to notice that behind her, the locked door groaned open.

“Penn,” Rachel whispered in warning.

Penny spun around, instinctively shifting in front of Rachel and the girls, and prepared to do whatever she needed to do to keep them from more harm. But it wasn’t Marco. Carlotta, wide-eyed and frantic, stood in the open doorway while she stole quick glances over her shoulder. “Come. Now.”

Penny stayed in position in front of Rachel, mildly surprised the other woman had finally come out of her drug stupor. “Come where? How do I know you’re not leading us into a trap?”

“You don’t.”

Penny shoved away all the emotional what-ifs and concentrated on logistics. Staying meant imprisonment, Marco, and quite possibly a life worse than death. If they ran, they at least had a shot of escape. Heck, she survived the jungle one time already. A second time would be easier, right?

Another thundering boom dusted ceiling plaster onto their heads and solidified her decision.

“Give me your hands.” Carlotta produced a knife from the small of her back and gestured to the plastic ties still wrapped around Penny’s wrists.

Sweat peppered Carlotta’s forehead and her hands shook as she freed Penny from the restraints. Some people would’ve said she looked nervous, but knowing where the brunette had been, Penny recognized it for what it was—withdrawal.

“This way.” Carlotta ushered them out of the room.

Gunfire, alternating between high-pitched pops and rolling tap-tap-taps, grew louder the farther down the hall they ran.

“Hurry.” Carlotta stopped in front of a scanner. Lifting her shaking hand to the screen, it denied her entry twice.

“Here. Let me,” Penny offered, gently holding her hand still in front of the scanner.