Night Game (GhostWalkers #3)(62)
Author: Christine Feehan

“You okay?” Kadan asked. “I brought a medic kit.”

“Flame needs it. Alligator attack. It broke her arm, but she fought it off. We’ve got three men left here. One’s a definite shielder. I’m using low-frequency sound waves to keep them sick and disoriented so they don’t have a lot of fight in them. They just want to get the hell out, We need someone alive so we can follow them back to who ever is running them.”

They kept on the move, covering ground as fast as possible. “You’re certain these men aren’t part of Jack Norton’s team?”

Gator shook his head. “Jack’s team works mainly NCIS when they aren’t running ops. These men are more like mercenaries. I’d met one of them. His name was Rick Fielding. He took the test in the same group I did. I don’t know who they work for, but they aren’t very pleasant. And the dead one threatened Flame.”

Kadan shot him a quick glance. “No wonder he’s dead.”

The GhostWalkers spread out across the small island, several feet between them as they began to stalk their prey. The men ahead of them would have no choice but to keep moving or turn and fight. They wanted to regroup. And they didn’t want to take on a skilled army no matter how small it was. Gator continued to pulse low-frequency waves in front of them, not hard enough to kill, but to make the men sick.

“They’re splitting up,” Tucker announced, pointing to tracks. “Can you hear them, Gator?”

Gator shook his head. “Their shielder is strong. He’s been very resistant to the sound waves. I figured they’d split up. It’s the only chance they really have for any of them to get out.” With the sound waves coming at them, they knew if they split up, they had a better chance to elude the pulsing waves Gator was sending at them.

Ian indicated he was climbing He slung his rifle around his neck and went for the tallest cypress tree in their vicinity. As he climbed, Tucker, Kadan, and Gator looked over the tracks carefully.

“That’s the shielder,” Kadan said, indicating a path to their right. “He’s moving fast.” For the first time there was a note of worry in his voice. “He’s locked on and is hunting.”

Gator felt a sudden cold chill go down his spine “Flame’s back there.” He indicated the other side of the island. “I’ll take the medic kit to her.”

The sound of rifle fire reverberated through the swamp. Birds rose shrieking their annoyance. Ian joined them on the ground. “Knew one of them would get the clever idea of lying back to wait for us. He was sitting in a tree a few hundred yards from here.” He nudged Tucker. “Must have not liked your looks. He had his sights set for you. Guess I saved your life.”

Tucker gave a derisive snort. “Guess you’re full of yourself. Bullets bounce off me. I’ve got my superman shirt on today.”

“Is that where my shirt went? You thief. I been looking for it ever since I did laundry.” Even as they wrangled back and forth good-naturedly, they were scanning the ground for more tracks.

Kadan dropped down to examine a footprint. It was small and right over the top of it was the shielder’s print.

“There’s blood here, Gator, and it isn’t from one of their team,” Kadan announced.

Gator crouched down to touch the smears of blood on the leaves. “She left me. Damn her for this. She left me.”

The earth vibrated beneath their feet and shook the smaller puddles of water gathered in several depressions, drawing his attention. He sucked in his breath and fought back the need to express his anger and growing fear. Already the trees around him were shaking. He drew in a hard breath. “One of them is tracking her. When I catch up with her, I’m going to shake that woman until her teeth rattle.”

That’ll help,” Ian agreed. “Betcha that will get you a lot a points. Where’d you ever get the rep for being charming?”

Gator flashed him a single warning look. His stomach churned with alarm for Flame. She was on the move and she was losing too much blood. He had held on to his control every moment of the hunt, yet now he felt wounded, a terrible hole torn through his gut and he wasn’t so certain he could hold back the intense emotions crowding in, all conflicting with each other. “I’m not letting her go.” He made the announcement between his teeth.

Ian shrugged his broad shoulders. “No one expected you to, bro.”

“She expected me to.”

‘She doesn’t know what a stubborn son of a bitch you are.” Tucker pointed out.

“Let’s go get her,” Kadan said.

CHAPTER 13

Flame sat in the mud with her back against the tree, breathing through the pain shooting down her arm. “Rat bastard alligator. I don’t care if you were just looking for a meal. I should have made a purse out of you.” She glanced down at her muddy boots. “And shoes. Real alligator leather shoes too.”

Her arm hurt like a son of a bitch, but that wasn’t the reason tears burned behind her eyes and her throat felt clogged. She was leaving New Orleans and Raoul Fontenot. It wasn’t safe for her to stay. She wouldn’t be able to find poor Joy Chiasson or avenge Burrell’s murder. And there would be no making love to Raoul Fontenot. She closed her eyes briefly, regret pouring through her. She’d never wanted a man the way she wanted him. Just the simple sound of his Cajun drawl made her body hot. She even liked his swearing.

Flame groaned. She was a lost cause. Raoul was a dream, a life out of her reach and she wasn’t going to die for something she knew she couldn’t have. Whitney was too close. She could smell him. He had locked on to her presence and he was sending in the troops to retrieve her.

Raoul had never been her enemy and he would try to protect her. After spending time with him she felt she could only do the right thing for both of them. As long as she was around he would be torn between the people he loved and her. He believed in the GhostWalkers – and maybe he even had reason to-but she would never be comfortable with them.

Gator wanted and deserved a home and family, a woman to take home to his grandmother, one who would produce babies he could put in her arms. That woman could never be Flame. If she stayed he would need to defend her and no matter what his dreams of family, he would never leave her. That was the kind of man he was. Flame gritted her teeth and forced herself into a standing position, holding on to a tree trunk to steady herself. Waves of dizziness washed over her. She fought back the feeling and looked around her, trying to get her bearings and pick the safest way back to the frontage road. She couldn’t get in Raoul’s path. He was bound to use low frequency sound waves and they would affect her in the same way they would their enemies.