The Betrayed Series: Ultimate Omnibus Collection With EXCLUSIVE Post-Shiva Short Story (105 page)

The bitch who had hounded them across a couple of continents didn’t make her bones playing it subtle. He’d best figure out their—

The back wall of the temple exploded inward. He twisted, holding his fire so as not to hit one of the women, ready to take down the attackers as soon as he had a chance, but he never got that opportunity.

Ducked down, two men grabbed Rebecca and Bunny, jerking them to their feet, creating human shields, then pulled them out the ragged hole.

Guess Brandt just got to see their major play in action.

“Hold the temple as long as you can, then fall back to our rally point,” Brandt shouted. As much as he wanted to take Lopez and Harvish with him, their best chance of getting the women back was to keep the Disciples’ forces split.

Which meant keeping their own force split. Which meant that they didn’t have two snipers in place at the
back
of the temple. Which meant Brandt was going out there.

Alone.

* * *

Rebecca bit the hand holding her. The man yelled, releasing his grip, then backhanded her. She stumbled sideways running into a “man,” shattering the salt figure.

Bunny fought as well, struggling against her kidnapper.

Taking a handful of salt, Rebecca threw it into the eyes of her assailant. He bellowed, kicking at her. She threw herself to the side, narrowly avoiding the blow. Bunny and she were not going to win this war. Not weaponless.

No, all they needed to do was buy some time for Brandt to come charging out here to save the day.

Right?

As she crawled on hands and knees, grinding the salty earth into her palms, she certainly hoped so. Then a glint caught her eye. Ignoring the man yelling at her, pawing at her feet, trying to recapture her, she looked up.

The barrel of a gun poked out of the tower above them. Her head snapped toward the temple just as Brandt’s gun muzzle flashed, firing, scattering the kidnappers as he charged the gap in the wall.

“No!” Rebecca screamed, but the sound of her desperate warning was lost as the sniper fired from above, hitting Brandt square in the chest, then again and again. The impact blew him back, out of sight. “Brandt!”

Long fingernails dug into her hair, pulling Rebecca up against a woman’s cheek. “If you do not want that to happen to you, I suggest you come with me,
quietly
.”

Rebecca though did anything but go quietly. Clawing with her own fingernails, she dug into the flesh holding her. Then the muzzle of a gun pressed up against Rebecca’s temple.

“I said
quietly
,” the woman hissed as blood dripped down from her hand onto Rebecca’s face.

Even though it would be suicide, Rebecca still wanted to struggle. To fight. To scream her anguish, but she had no doubt the Disciple would shoot. Rebecca let herself go slack, pulling in the pain and fear. Balling it up, preparing to unleash it when the moment came.

Which happened to be within a heartbeat.

Another shot echoed, kicking up salt at her captor’s feet. The woman danced back, releasing Rebecca. As another shot drove the woman away, Rebecca used all that adrenaline she’d stored and leapt across the distance between her and Bunny. Grabbing the younger woman’s hand, she tugged Bunny forward.

“Where are we going?” Bunny choked out.

“Anywhere but here,” Rebecca answered, scrambling to get to cover as shots peppered the area.

That had to be Davidson providing cover. But did it really matter with Brandt down? More than likely dead?

Even though her heart might want to stop beating, her legs were still working, getting as far away from the shooting gallery as they could carry her.

* * *

From his peripheral vision, Davidson watched Rebecca and Bunny duck into an alley. Safe from the sniper. Davidson quickly scanned his kill zone, as meager as it was, but he didn’t have a hell of a lot of time to set up.

Once he’d realized the sniper wasn’t out front, there was only one logical place for him to be set up. The back of the temple. But getting down from that tower and finding a new perch turned out to be a little harder with a slug in your side.

Davidson could feel the blood oozing through the makeshift wrap around his waist.

No matter. He was up here, and now that the ground was secured, he needed to turn his attention to the sniper. Davidson swung his rifle back to its neutral position, centered on the sniper’s tower.

Not waiting for a perfect kill shot, Davidson fired at the only thing he could. The sniper’s rifle. The metal barrel skidded over at impact, then got jerked out of sight.

That’s right
, Davidson thought.
You’ve got some competition.

* * *

Brandt tried to breathe again, and was met with the same searing pain. The double bulletproof vest had taken the shots, but they still did some serious damage. Lights flashing over his eyes, Brandt clenched his jaw. He was not going to pass out.
Again.

But he had to get some fucking oxygen to his brain. Trying to avoid moving the two broken ribs, Brandt pulled in air between his teeth like he was sucking from a straw. Slow but steady. Keep those sharp ends of the fractures from puncturing his lung. Because really what could be better than a pneumothorax right about now.

“Brandt!” Lopez yelled again.

Feebly, Brandt waved him off. He just needed oxygen. And some oxycodone, but he’d take the oxygen.

Then he would get up and take off after Rebecca. He’d seen her streak past the breach in the wall, but couldn’t do a damned thing about it.

Fucking butch up, Brandt.

Sucking in more air, protecting his ribs with his arm, Brandt rolled to his side. See? He was halfway up. Okay, only a quarter up, but progress. And those crazy lights weren’t buzzing around in front of his vision.

Using his good arm, Brandt braced his upper body as he pulled his legs into a crouch. It hurt like fucking hell, but he would take the progress. Panting low and fast, Brandt prepped for the pain that was sure to come.

On the tenth breath he lurched upward. Unable to hold in a scream, Brandt found his feet. For a second. He fell heavily to the side. The wall the only thing stopping him from hitting the floor again.

But hey, he was vertical. Nearly blinded by those damned sparkly light blobs that insisted on blocking his vision, but vertical.

Now to get moving…

As the room lurched first to the side and then up and down, maybe he better take another ten breaths before putting one foot in front of the other.

* * *

Rebecca ran, wiping the tears from her eyes, hauling Bunny behind her. The world was a blur of white. The compact floodlights the Disciples had posted around the temple left very little room for shadows, or cover.

She felt any moment a bullet could fly out of nowhere and strike her down. Which wasn’t her imagination running wild. No matter how far she got from the temple, Rebecca was pretty damned sure that sniper could get her. Get both of them.

Bunny was nothing more than a rack of sobs on the move.

That had been
Rebecca’s
ex-fiancé back there. If anyone should be a wreck it should be her. But they just didn’t have the luxury of Rebecca losing her mind in grief. Even if she wanted to, she could hear Brandt’s voice loud in her mind.

Get your ass far away. Hide. Let us do our job.

Rebecca stumbled as she choked back a sob. Would she ever have that voice yelling at her again? For real?

Bullets peppered the wall next to her. Rebecca dove toward a cart in the road and rolled underneath of it. Bunny stood frozen though as the shots struck all around, creating a halo that outlined her frame. It wouldn’t be long until one hit her. Rebecca gathered her courage to dart out and somehow drag the woman to safety when a figure hurled himself in front of Bunny.

He took three shots to the back as he blocked Bunny with his body, pulling her down. The two hit the ground hard.

“That fucking
hurts
,” Brandt gasped as he looked over to Rebecca.

Brandt was alive!

How she wanted to rush across those few feet and hug him. But those few feet were deadly. And if the shooter repositioned at all, he’d be able to pick them all off.

Rebecca looked up to the towers surrounding them.

Where the heck was Davidson?

* * *

Davidson held pressure on his wound as he climbed the last of the stairs. Was it the blood loss or were the towers really getting taller? As much as he’d dreaded it, he’d had to reposition. The sniper had pulled up stakes, which meant Davidson had to do so as well.

Hefting his rifle up onto the window’s ledge, Davidson surveyed this new territory. They had moved deeper into the city, farther away from the SUV, farther away from the only known exit.

This however was the direction Rebecca had run off. Not exactly strategic, but Davidson couldn’t blame her. Without a weapon, he’d probably have run off in any direction that got him away from the sniper as well.

Luckily he was far from defenseless.

A noise drew his attention back toward the temple. A man burst from the doors, rushing down the stairs. Davidson took only a moment to confirm it wasn’t one of their men and took his shot. The man was dead before he hit the bottom of the steps.

Another figure rushed out of the temple. Davidson pulled up short as he made out Lopez. Harvish wasn’t far behind. They must have taken care of the rest of the Disciples’ assault team. When they hit the main street, they turned left, heading in the direction of the SUV.

No, no, no. Rebecca and Brandt went the other way. But how could Lopez know that?

Davidson shot…right at Lopez’s feet. The corporal skidded to a halt, raising his weapon, looking for the shooter. Davidson shot again, this time at his other foot. The corporal put his hand over his brow, trying to look up into the bright lights near Davidson’s nest.

This time Davidson shot farther down the road, at a steep enough angle to kick up plenty of dust. Lopez took a tentative step in that direction. Davidson shot again, even more down the road, guiding them toward Brandt and Rebecca.

Lopez picked up speed, following the trail as Harvish lagged behind. The guy’s sleeve was saturated in blood, and it looked like he’d taken a pretty good blow to the head. None of that mattered though as Davidson swung his scope toward the other side of the city where the sniper was holed up. In the labyrinth of streets, the rest of the Disciples rushed toward Brandt and Rebecca’s location.

He swung the scope back to check on Lopez’s progress. Davidson shot at the corner of a building to indicate they should turn right. Which Lopez did with Harvish limping to catch up.

Swinging back, Davidson watched the Disciples gain speed, hurling headlong toward the rest of the trapped team. There was no way Lopez and especially Harvish would make it in time.

Gulping back despair, Davidson brought his scope around to the sniper’s new perch. It was way, way, way outside Davidson’s range. The man had picked wisely too. There were several other objects between Davidson and the nest. No way he could knock the gun from the sniper’s grip.

No, Davidson was going to have to get
inventive
.

CHAPTER 25

══════════════════

Gomorrah, Jordan

11:58 p.m. GMT

Brandt shielded Bunny as best he could with five cracked ribs. He should get her up and out of there, but he just didn’t have it in him. He barely had getting his diaphragm to move up and down, let alone running faster than a sniper could fire.

Looking across the kill zone, Brandt’s eyes locked eyes with Rebecca. He tried to hide the pain. He tried to hide just how tapped he was. But this was Rebecca. Of course she saw it. She saw it all.

Her eyes brimmed with tears. She knew he’d stay and protect Bunny until he didn’t have breath left in him. Just as he knew Rebecca would try to do something about it.

“No,” he whispered. He wanted to shout, but the best he could do was a harsh whisper.

“Get ready,” she answered with a sad grin.

With her fingers she started counting down. Five. Four. Three. Brandt had no idea what she was doing or what he was supposed to be ready for. He was usually the on the other side of the countdown.

Two.

One.

With a heave, Rebecca put her back into the bottom of the cart and pushed forward. To Brandt’s amazement the wheels rolled forward. Slowly and only about an inch, but the damned thing was on the move! Every inch Rebecca moved the cart, the closer it was to Brandt and Bunny. They wouldn’t have to run to safety. Safety was coming to them.

The sniper, however, wasn’t taking this development lying down. He began shooting at the cart. Then as the forward movement began crumbling the wheels, the sniper took full advantage of it, shooting at the spokes.

A shadow passed in front of them. Rebecca had gotten the cart close enough to provide cover. Brandt shoved Bunny forward. The woman crab-walked the short distance, diving under the cart as one of the wheels collapsed, tilting the cart. There was barely enough room under it for the women to lay flat.

Which was probably just as well. Brandt didn’t think he could get off his belly if he wanted to. Army-crawling, he made his painful way to join Rebecca. Once he was secured underneath, Bunny tried to help Rebecca move the cart, but it was a nonstarter. With one wheel completely damaged and another crumbling before their eyes, they weren’t going anywhere fast.

The shots came more and more rapidly as the sniper now concentrated on blowing huge chunks of the cart away at a time. Methodically the sniper was destroying their cover.

“How can he shoot that fast?” Bunny asked, her hands over her ears.

“He isn’t,” Rebecca stated, pointing back across the city to the temple.

Brandt followed her gaze, but even once he found the huge bull god statue rising far above the temple, he didn’t understand what she meant. Then he saw it. A piece flew off the side of Moloch’s hip. And another. As a matter of fact, a large chunk of the guy’s side was missing.

But to what effect? Did Davidson just feel the need for some target practice?