Hot Zone (Elite Force #2)(28)
Author: Catherine Mann

Shit. He cut the morbid thoughts off short. Morose garbage never saved anybody and it wasn’t going to find Franco for him.

Although if Franco was off kicking up his heels, playing house with the Bailey chick and her nephew…

Yeah right. The chances of that happening were next to nil. The only thing Franco avoided more than commitment was kids.

He sprinted past his lopsided quarters, the cottage still hanging out on the edge of the cliff at pretty much the same scary-ass angle as before. Stopping at the next house, a yellow and green little place with porches all the way around, he tugged his camo top smooth again. The door was covered with plywood over where a glass panel must have been. He knocked hard, twice.

Footsteps echoed from inside, along with a couple of deep barks. The door swung open and Liam almost swallowed his tongue. Rachel wore skimpy gray cotton shorts and a T-shirt without a bra.

He had more serious things to think about than how her ni**les strained against well-worn cotton and how her brown hair tumbled around her shoulders as if calling to his hands.

“Major?” She reached down, her hand falling to rest on her dog’s head without her even looking to see that he’d slid into place beside her.

Liam cleared his throat and thoughts. “I’m sorry to bother you. I know sleep is scarce—”

“Understatement—”

“Right. Sorry. Honest to God, I am. But one of my team members, the one you found, he’s gone missing, along with the woman and child he rescued.”

“I’m not sure I understand.” She blinked fast, her brown eyes still fuzzy with sleep and exhaustion.

“He went to visit her and the little boy at the hospital.” Liam braced a hand against the door frame. “They all three vanished. Franco was supposed to be back hours ago. He’s an edgy worker in the field, but he is always, always there.”

She stepped outside, her dog staying at her side as she closed the door on the house full of sleeping rescue workers. “No one saw them leave?”

“It’s not like the facility had working surveillance cameras. The nurse doesn’t actually remember them checking out, just thinks they did.” He wondered why it was so easy to come to her, to bring his problems to her doorstep.

He might be halfway in love with this hot woman, but that didn’t mean he intended to need her on some level deeper than the search. “Something’s off. I can sense it. Maybe I’m overreacting, but my guy wouldn’t let his team down. And since the last place anyone saw them was at the hospital, I was hoping your dog—”

“Disco.” The dog nuzzled her hand.

“Since Disco found them before, we could set him on their scent again at the hospital. Maybe he can give us some clue as to which way they went. I know it’s a lot to ask and your resources are needed out there. But so are Franco’s, and if we can get you both out there again…”

“Time’s wasting and I need to throw on some real clothes. You can have Disco and me for one hour. Period.” She grabbed the knob behind her. “Do you have a ride or are we walking to the hospital?”

***

Joggling Joshua on her hip, Amelia struggled to keep her balance while Hugh scavenged as much as he could from the van before the vehicle blew up. Smoke billowed from the crumpled hood. The leaning palm tree’s roots snaked up from the ground like tentacles from the underworld to claim the two criminals inside the van.

She kept her eyes off the front seat, where Oliver and Tandi’s bodies lay. Tandi stared lifelessly. Oliver slumped unconscious, his hands now bound. Amelia squeezed her eyes shut, still woozy from smacking her head against the side of the van, not to mention being knocked unconscious earlier. The swirl of nausea told her she probably had a concussion, but complaining wouldn’t achieve anything. They needed to move, to get back to civilization. She refused to slow them down.

Grunting impatiently, Joshua wriggled and fussed and she rocked faster, shush-shush-shushing him. It was obvious he just wanted down to run. But he didn’t have shoes and there were rocks and prickly vines and God only knew how much wildlife on the ground. He was probably hungry too, and his diaper was soggy. No wonder he was cranky.

She wanted to cry and scream too. For days. While eating ice cream in a hot bubble bath. Then curling up to sleep beside Hugh while her body recharged from this nightmare.

But she didn’t have that luxury.

Survival was paramount right now, right along with making sure she didn’t fall on her face. She braced her feet farther apart to keep from toppling over and making things harder for Hugh. It was her fault he was in this mess. How many times would he have to come to her rescue? She might not be able to get out of this on her own, but she would be damned before she let him bear the full burden.

Hugh reached into the van.

“Please be careful, Hugh.” The words fell from her mouth before she could stop them. “The smoke looks like it’s getting worse.”

“Got my eye on it.” He hauled Oliver’s unconscious body out and dumped him against the rotting log. “Let me know if he so much as twitches. I’m taking the weapons, anything that could be of use to us… or that he might use against us. We need them.”

“We need you alive,” she gasped, determined to be a help, but still scared out of her mind. Usually when she faced criminals, she had a bailiff or a couple of city cops with her, not to mention handcuffs or bars for the person who might want to use her as leverage in an escape.

Who else might try to find them now?

They were in the middle of nowhere in a lawless country, with no means of transportation and only however many water bottles they could carry. “Tell me what you need for me to do.”

God, she hoped he had some tricks up his sleeve with that military training because she was way out of her element. She hadn’t even been a Girl Scout.

Hugh’s big body leaned deeper inside. “Just let me know if you see flames.”

Flames? Oh God.

He pitched another knife on top of his growing arsenal. He jogged around to the back of the van, stuck his head inside, and pulled out a crate of bottled juice.

Hugh pried open the lid with his bare hands and a hefty grunt. “We’ll drink our fill now, then take as much juice and water as we can carry.”

“I really think we should go. Now.” She leaned to pluck out a bottle.

“The time is well invested pulling together as much as we can in survival gear,” he said, his voice steely calm and cool, as if they hadn’t almost died a few minutes ago. “If the van wasn’t about to blow, I could set up a lot more.”