She fisted her hands and spoke in a furious snarl. “You got a leak in your group. They knew you were coming. He’s blowing up the house to get rid of evidence and take out your team, probably so he won’t face any of you again. That’s it for a news brief.”
She turned to leave.
He had to alert his team. No reason to keep radio silence now.
As he cast a fast glance at Cyclops, who was definitely dead, he warned the team, “Exit now!I repeat,exit now!No extraction. Package not here. Structure wired to blow in less than ninety seconds.” He turned back to the woman, expecting to see her climbing the stairs.
She was nowhere in sight.
What the ever-loving hell?
Sam raced across the room and climbed the steps two at a time. He paused at the top and snatched the door open. Nothing had been disturbed. She hadn’t come this way.
The shoes were still there.
Shit. Covering the mic for his comm, he shouted, “Hey you! This is the only way out.”
Maybe. Or maybe she knew another way.
He wasted precious seconds.
Nitro’s quiet voice, the one that came out when he was deep in a mission, spoke in his ear. “What the fuck, Cuz? Over.”
“They knew we were coming. When we entered, we tripped a signal to remotely trigger a bomb. Over.” Sam gave the room one more look, shook his head, and got busy getting his ass out.
“From what intel? Over.” Sharp noises coming through with Nitro’s voice meant he was knocking things out of the way. He would not leave until his entire team was out.
Sam scrambled through the ballroom and headed for the stairs to the main kitchen. That was the quickest way he knew to reach the ground floor. “More in debrief, but I believe the intel is sound. Over.”
How many seconds had passed already? Sam couldn’t waste time checking his watch.
Nitro said, “I’ll wait at our insert point. Over.”
Heaving breaths as he pumped his legs, Sam said, “I won’t make it that far. Get out. See you at the meet point. Over and out.”
A deep curse vibrated Sam’s headset.
Where had the hot crazy woman gone?
He couldn’t help someone who didn’t want to be saved but leaving without her twisted his insides.
He’d never leave a female in trouble.
Sam lunged down the last four steps to reach the kitchen and grabbed the doorframe to swing himself around toward the dining room. Every second counted. A quick slide and his boots had traction again. Running into the dining room, he looked left at the huge windows and ran that way, unloading the HK in a constant blast as he did.
The window burst open with glass flying everywhere.
His legs felt heavy as lead. That was his body’s psychological reaction to expecting a bomb to blow him to pieces at any second.
He leaped through the shattered window, catching jagged pieces across his arms. His body was big and muscled but slamming the ground with no way to break his fall hurt. He rolled, got up, and forced his legs to move again.
Reaching up to pull his NVG back in place, he grinned. Hot damn. He’d made it out in—
The bomb exploded.
Pressure from the blast sent his body flying forward, flipping around in the dark. The back of his head slammed something hard, coldcocking him.
His body hit water with a splash.
