Gabe: Scifi Alien Invasion Romance (Hell Squad Book 3) (7 page)

A door slammed and raptor fire tore through the space.

The team dived for cover, returning fire at the same time. Green raptor poison splattered on the rubber floors, sizzling as it ate through it.

Gabe tackled Emerson around the waist. They hit the ground and he covered her body with his.

“Gabe, stay with the doc.” Marcus crawled up beside them. “We’ll chase these fuckers down.” He yelled an order at the team, and in a precision move, they were up, running in a zig-zag pattern and firing at the far end of the room.

Suddenly a large door on the opposite wall opened, letting light in, and the shadows of retreating raptors could be seen running into another stairwell. Hell Squad reached the door and seconds later, followed them out.

Silence fell.

That was what combat was like. All hell breaking lose one minute, silence the next.

Hands pushed at his chest. “Can’t…breathe.”

Shit
. He rolled off her and helped her sit. “You okay?”

“Yes.” She looked around, her face hardening. “They’re gone. Those poor people being subjected to God only knows what—”

“We’ll find them.”

She nodded but they both knew the reality. The longer it took, the more humans who’d be dead or suffering.

“I’m going to take a look around,” she said.

He nodded, watching as she wandered around, crouching every now and then to study where the tanks had been. She walked past gym equipment—weight benches, treadmills and bikes—stacked against the far wall.

Gabe clutched his weapon. With his enhanced hearing, he could hear the team’s carbine fire echoing in the stairwell. He also heard the faint guttural shouts of raptors. His fingers tightened on his weapon.

He wanted to be with them. He wanted to be killing raptors. Zeke would have laughed and told him to learn a bit of patience.

A stab of pain in the chest. Yeah, well, Zeke wasn’t here.

A giant boom echoed up the stairwell, along with the shouts from Hell Squad.

Gabe tensed. His hands clenched on his weapon.

Emerson gasped. “Do they need help?”

He could hear the team firing, and heard their shouts through the earpiece. There were more raptors than they’d anticipated. He heard Shaw swearing. A raptor projectile had winged him.

“Gabe, go.”

“No.”

“I have a weapon.” She flashed the little pistol on her hip. “And besides, there’s not much shadows can do to hurt me.”

He stood there, undecided. More than anything, he wanted to be down there tearing into aliens.

Emerson turned her back to him, studying the broken raptor glass. She pulled out a small camera. “I promise, I’ll wait here.”

Another boom and more shouts. “Okay. Stay near the stairwell doorway. You see anything strange, you hide.”

“Go.”

Gabe rushed into the stairwell. He ran as fast as he could, his boots pounding on the stairs.

He rounded a landing and saw the squad in the lobby below. Marcus and Cruz were fighting hand to hand with several large raptors, their combat knives glinting. Shaw and Claudia were pinned down, hiding behind the reception desk. He didn’t see Reed.

A raptor leaped at Gabe and he swung the carbine around. The fucker was too close, so Gabe swung the butt of his gun and slammed it into the alien’s face. As the raptor stumbled back, Gabe unloaded laser fire into the alien’s chest.

Gabe lifted his carbine and strode into the aliens. He let his rage loose and fought.

Soon, the raptors lay dead around them.

“Thanks for the help,
amigo
,” Cruz said, swiping an arm across his brow.

“What the fuck are you doing down here?” Marcus said.

“I heard it wasn’t going well. Emerson sent me down.”

Marcus snorted. “Sure. Wasn’t like you were jonesing for an alien kill.”

Gabe stayed quiet, Marcus’ words hitting a little close to home. Now the raptors were dead, he was anxious to get back to Emerson.

They marched back up the stairs and stepped in the gym.

Gabe frowned. Where was Emerson? There was no sign of her. His heart knocked in his chest.

“Doc?” Marcus said with a frown.

A growl echoed through the darkness.

“Fuck.” Shaw swung his rifle up. “I hate canids.”

The alien hunting dog slunk out of the shadows. It had tough scales, a razor-sharp row of spikes along its back and teeth that would make a megalodon proud. The canid’s eyes glowed hellish red.

And its teeth were coated in blood.

No
. Gabe strode forward, his mind emptying of everything except two phrases.
Find Emerson. Kill the alien.

He fired, holding his finger down on the trigger. The canid danced out of range, its muscles bunching to attack.
Yeah, come on
. Gabe yanked out his gladius combat knife and leaped to meet the animal.

They slammed together. He felt teeth and claws sinking into his armor. But with every ounce of his enhanced strength, he shoved the knife into the canid over and over again. Side. Neck. Chest. Sometimes the skin was so tough he had to work it hard, sawing the knife in.

The canid made a final, high-pitched yowl before it died.

Gabe was up, striding to where he’d last seen Emerson. “Doc? Emerson!” If that thing had hurt her… He clamped down on the thought. He yelled her name again.

If she was dead…no, she couldn’t be dead.

“Over here.”

The sound of her voice washed over him and made him feel weak for a second. He rushed to the back wall.

He looked up. A built-in climbing wall rose from the floor up into the darkness above. Emerson perched half-way up it, clinging precariously to the handholds. And there was someone with her.

Gabe stood beneath Emerson, not remembering moving. “Let go.”

She didn’t hesitate. She let go and dropped into his arms.

“You’re okay? It didn’t touch you?” He saw streaks of blood on her armor and his hands tightened.

“It’s not mine. I’m okay. It got my backpack and it attacked Jason here.”

Gabe didn’t look away from her beautiful face. She was alive. And unharmed.

“Ah, this is Jason.”

She gestured to the man who’d shakily climbed down to join them. He was shaking, his skin pale and sheened with perspiration and blood.

“He managed to escape the raptors and hide so they couldn’t find him. He saw the tanks, saw the raptors taking them out of here.”

The man, in his early thirties, nodded.

Gabe turned back to Emerson, and finished looking her over.

“I’m okay,” she said again, her face softening.

“No thanks to you, Jackson.”

Gabe looked up. Marcus was wearing his “I’m pissed and you’ll pay for it” face.

“You were told to stay here and protect her. You left her unguarded. She could have died…because of you.”

Gabe closed his eyes for a second, his arms tightening on her warm weight.
Fuck
. Marcus was right. Things could have been very different and he could have been carrying her dead body back to the Hawk.

Just like he’d had to do with Zeke.

“I told him to go,” she said. “You guys needed help.”

“You aren’t his leader,” Marcus said darkly. “He had orders and he knows better.”

Gabe set her down.

Marcus scraped a hand over his helmet. “You need to take some time and get yourself together, Gabe. Since Zeke died…you’re taking risks you never would have taken before, just so you can spill some raptor blood.”

Each word was like a laser blast to Gabe’s skin. He straightened but didn’t say anything. What the fuck could he say? It was all true.

“You almost got the doc killed—”

“Marcus—”

Marcus didn’t let Emerson say another word. He chopped a hand through the air. “Don’t defend him. This is my squad. I deal with it my way.”

Emerson closed her mouth.

“You almost got her killed. Not the raptors,
you
.”

The word hit Gabe like raptor projectiles. “Am I off the team?”

Marcus half turned and cursed. “No. But you’re off offensive missions for now. You’ll be on base patrol and training new recruits.”

Which Marcus knew he hated. But Gabe figured it was far less than he deserved.

He felt like things were just spinning out of control. That the darkness inside was pulling him under.

An image of Emerson dead, her blue eyes unseeing, her skin covered in blood, made him feel sick.

His fault. All his fault.

Chapter Seven

As soon as the quadcopter landed back at base, Emerson called out to her waiting medical techs. They stood with a hovering iono-stretcher, and in moments they had Jason loaded.

“Get him settled. I’ll be in the infirmary in a moment.”

The man and the woman nodded and headed off.

Emerson glanced around the landing pads and spotted Hell Squad making their way out.

“Gabe.”

He paused and turned, reluctance stamped all over him. His face was set in stone. “Not now, Emerson.”

“Look, about what happened—”

“Don’t want to talk about it,” he bit off, his gray eyes stormy.

A flash of anger whipped through her. She set her hands on her hips. “You
need
to talk. You never talk.”

He leaned down so no one else could hear him. “When I’m making you come, you don’t need me to talk.”

She narrowed her eyes. “Don’t be crude. I want you to talk to me. Share the load. I can see you’re holding stuff in, and it’s hurting you.”

He straightened. “Don’t want to talk about it.”

“Damn obstinate man,” she muttered. “I’m good enough to sleep with but not to talk to, to share anything with. Is that it?” God, saying those words out loud hurt.

His jaw hardened. “Emerson—”

She shook her head. “You can’t have it both ways, Gabe. Share with me, or stay away.”

Something flashed in his eyes. “An ultimatum?”

Her stomach cramped. She’d never wanted it to come to this. She’d stayed quiet so long because she hadn’t wanted to scare him away.

But that had been selfish of her. He needed help.

“Funny, you wanted me to share, spill all my demons, but who do you share with, Emerson?”

She went very still. “I don’t know what—”

“You think I can’t see you’re fucked-up, too? What the raptors did to you, what you deal with and see every day in the infirmary. I know it leaves a mark. You still get nightmares?”

She looked away. “I’m fine.”

“No, you just bury it under your work.”

“I think we’re done here,” she said frostily.

His gray gaze ran over her face, like he was memorizing her features. “Yeah, I guess we are.” He turned and stalked away.

Emerson felt herself waver, like she’d taken a punch to the stomach. So…this was the end. No more midnight visits. No more little gifts. No more Gabe.

She took a second, then pulled in a long breath. She needed to get to the infirmary and give Jason a thorough health check. That was all she could think about right now.

She moved on autopilot, stripping out of her armor and heading to the infirmary. Her domain.

Soon, she was helping settle a freshly showered and fed Jason back into the pillows on his infirmary bed.

“Your heart rate is a little fast, Jason.” Emerson frowned at the scanner. Not a surprise, really, considering what the guy had been through.

“I’m okay.”

Everything else looked normal. He was still pale and sweaty, but he probably just needed some rest. “Look, you get some sleep. If you need anything, just let me know.”

Emerson had just stepped back when the infirmary door opened. Elle’s pretty face appeared. “Hey, Doc.”

“Hi, Elle.”

“I’m here to drag you off to the Friday Night gathering.”

Emerson screwed up her nose. At the end of each week, a bunch of the base’s residents packed the large rec room off the dining hall. People drank, blew off some steam, found someone to cuddle up to for the night. Tonight, she was definitely not in the mood. “I can’t tonight. Besides, you know I never enjoy them.”

No, even with her lab coat off, everyone saw a doctor. She got peppered with so many questions and requests, and it was never relaxing for her.

“I know. I have a plan.” Elle smiled. “We’ll sit with Hell Squad and they’ll scare off anyone coming to ask you about strange rashes or bad backs.”

Sitting with Hell Squad. Sitting with Gabe.

“You’re…leaving me?” Jason’s anxious voice broke through her thoughts.

He looked even paler, rubbing his hand across his mouth. With some rest, a few more meals and some sunlight, she suspected they’d find a handsome man under there.

“Everything’s fine, Jason.”

Elle’s face turned serious. “You’ve been under a lot of stress, Emerson. You recently went through a bad situation, and had a near miss today—”

When Jason grabbed Emerson’s hand, gripping hard enough to hurt, she was startled.

“Don’t go.”

“Jason,” she soothed. “I’m not going anywhere.” She gently disengaged his hand and looked at Elle. “I can’t, Elle…I just can’t.”

It appeared something in her tone registered with the other woman. Elle eyed her with speculation. “Okay. Another time.”

After Elle had left, Emerson plumped Jason’s pillows. “I’ll be right over there in the office. And I promise I’ll come back and check on you before I head to bed.”

He licked his lips. “You promise?”

She nodded and smiled. “Get some rest.”

Once she was back in her office, she sank wearily into her chair. She stared at her desk. There was no polished stone sitting on the shiny surface, no pretty flower gracing on her files, no shiny piece of fruit by her tablet. It was just her and her work.

She bit her lip, fighting back the choking loneliness. This would pass. She’d survived a long time without Gabe Jackson. She could do it again.

***

“Come into Dr. Emerson Green’s House of Healing.” Emerson waved Santha into the exam room. “I’ll try not to stick you with too many shots.”

Santha grimaced and pulled herself up on the table. Her resignation was like a wet blanket hanging over her. “That’s not particularly comforting, Doc.”