Master No (Masters and Mercenaries, #9)(99)

“We have to get you back to the car,” he said, his voice low. “I understand there are two. You’re going to drive as fast and as far away from here as possible. We’ll take the other one. Is that understood?”

Well, he was right back in Dom mode. She couldn’t take that from him. Not now. “I have a patient.”

“No. You don’t. She’s dead.” Ten’s voice had gone cold. “Erin’s right. That was a headshot. The Chinese don’t miss. We have to leave now.”

Theo moved back, his eyes never leaving the targets. “I can’t leave her body. We don’t leave men behind.”

“Cut the na?ve bullshit, Taggart,” Ten said. “If you take a step out from behind that wall, we’re all dead. Des proved that. This is a clusterf*ck situation and I assure you that we leave men behind when they’re corpses and getting them back would produce more corpses. You’ve been in charge up until now. I’m back and we f*cking retreat. Do you understand me?”

Theo’s face was ghostly in the moonlight, lines forming that hadn’t been there only moments before. He aged right in front of her. “Yes, sir. This is my fault, sir.”

“There’s time for recriminations later. Let’s get our people to safety now.” Ten sounded so much more solid. His hand found hers, fingers curling around tightly as though he was scared to let her go. “Markovic, we’re leaving.”

The Russian stood, his face turning smooth and bland. “Yes, sir.”

What was it going to take for the man to leave his teammate behind? Worse. She was fairly certain the two were lovers.

Ten moved out. “Stay behind me.”

“Can you walk?” Theo asked, moving to the front. “Brody, take our six.”

“I’ll make it and if I don’t, you better leave me the f*ck behind and get Faith the hell out of here. We’re going to have a long talk about bringing her on this clusterf*ck of an operation,” Ten shot back.

“Why wouldn’t you be able to walk?” Faith followed behind, shuffling to match their cautious movements. He looked grim and he wasn’t wearing shoes. She wasn’t sure why he was in scrubs, but she couldn’t see any wounds on his body.

“Later, Doc. Move now or your father’s men are going to cut us all down. They won’t be able to tell who you are. They’ll put a bullet in you with the rest of us. And watch your back. Your sister is still in that building.” He glanced to the storage building, his eyes on the door as they passed it. The lock looked like it had been blown and there wasn’t a handle anymore, but the big door had swung shut.

She clung to his hand. “I can handle it.”

“Keep your head down,” Ten commanded. “I think we got most of them, but I promise reinforcements are on the way. We need to move and quickly. You’re lucky you came up the back or they would have torn you apart.”

“They’ve got a sniper somewhere,” Brody shouted out. “That shot at Des didn’t come from the ground.”

“He’s likely on the roof of the main house. It’s well within range and if I had planned a meeting with MSS, I damn well would have had cover. It would have been easy to switch positions and start picking us off,” Ten explained. “Where are the vehicles?”

“Erin had me park on the side of the building,” Faith explained.

“Good girl. More cover.” Ten hunched over, obviously trying to make his tall body into a smaller target.

“Tennessee, I’m so sorry. I didn’t know about the handoff. I didn’t think about snipers or any of this,” Theo said.

Ten was obviously not in the mood for apologies. “No. You were thinking about being the hero in front of your girl and showing big brother that you can handle yourself. Expect to be scrubbing the floors at McKay-Taggart with your f*cking tongue after this.”

“Ten, he was trying to save you.” They had all been trying to save him.

Theo shook his head. “Don’t. He’s right. I f*cked up and now Des is dead.”

“Suck it up, buttercup,” Ten shot back. “You can deal with the ramifications of your decision making when we’re all off this f*cking island. The op is over. We get the hell out. I’m not losing anyone else. Am I understood?”

He tugged Faith along. He wasn’t moving with his normal grace. Something was wrong. He seemed to force his limbs to go where he wanted them to go. Then she felt his arm spasm, his fingers tightening on hers and jerking. He immediately let go and cursed under his breath.

“I’m going to need someone else to take the front. I can’t move fast enough,” Ten admitted.

“What’s wrong?” Faith watched as a muscle in his face jumped.

“Later, Doc.” He nodded to Theo, who moved ahead of him. Ten put a hand on the younger man’s arm. “If I fall, you leave me. That’s an order. You get her out of here. You get them all out of here. I am not worth this. Do you understand me?”

Theo nodded and then moved ahead. Gunfire splattered around them and the lights came back on suddenly.

“Shit,” Ten said as he hit the ground. “Down.” He turned back to her. “The shooters are behind the front wall, but they’ll figure out that we’re retreating so they will come over that wall and enter the compound. I want you to stay low and close to me.”