The Betrayed Series: Ultimate Omnibus Collection With EXCLUSIVE Post-Shiva Short Story (129 page)

“Close the door!” Lopez yelled.

“He’s not in yet,” Rebecca responded, still tugging up with all her might.

“Do it!” Lopez shouted.

She had no idea what he had in mind, but it was probably incredibly stupid. And dangerous. So with one hand still on Levont’s belt, she used the other one to bring the door as closed as she could under the bizarre circumstances.

Lopez tilted the helicopter precariously thirty degrees to the right. The blades chewed up branches, sending wooden shrapnel everywhere, but especially at the mercenary. Levont grit his teeth as his own leg took some of the damage.

Still, the guy would not let go. As a matter of fact, he was climbing up Levont, trying to make it into the chopper. Rebecca gripped the chopper door, then threw her weight into it. The metal hit the guy in the head, knocking him back. He lost his traction on Levont’s tuxedo pant leg and slid down to his shoe.

With one good kick, Levont freed himself of the mercenary.

Now half as light, the point man easily made it into the helicopter. Once inside, Rebecca slammed the door shut.

Despite a bleeding arm and half a dozen scratches, Levont beamed. “Off. The. Hook.”

Then bullets flew as Lopez banked them away from the forest. The bulk of mercenaries had clearly returned.

“Thor!” Vakasa cried, pointing to two men approaching.

Thor?

Hell no, that was Brandt—and Talli—running across the clearing!

Only, Lopez had to climb higher and higher and push the chopper faster and faster to avoid the storm of shots coming from the forest.

* * *

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

They were too late. The helicopter had been forced to take off as the rest of the mercenaries arrived.

“Retreat,” Brandt ordered.

Talli obeyed, backing into the jungle, laying down what cover fire he could while clearly still trying to conserve ammo. The only lucky break they had gotten was that the Disciples were way too busy worrying about the helicopter getting away than chasing them down.

Lopez’s chopper, with a hail of bullets chasing it, sailed overhead. Pressed against the glass was Rebecca’s face. She was
alive
.

He wouldn’t be much longer if he stood there all doe-eyed. Heading back into the jungle, Brandt tried to think like Lopez. Which kind of made his head hurt. They didn’t have a third staging area. What were they thinking? From now on, they needed about five of them.

Retreating outside the range of the mercenaries’ guns, Brandt studied the enemy. There were still eight of them, not including their leader. So storming the second helicopter wasn’t an option. Besides, he wasn’t much of a chopper pilot, and he wasn’t about to risk it to Talli.

Most of the mercenaries loaded quickly into the chopper, leaving only a few on the ground to provide protection for their launch.

Which, it turned out, was going to be a while. The pilot had tried to start the helicopter when smoke plumed out the engine. Brandt took a moment to feel just a little satisfied. Lopez didn’t have any C4, so he did the next best thing to prevent the other chopper from taking off.

Good old-fashioned sabotage.

The only problem? Now that the enemy didn’t have a quick pursuit to care about, they all turned their attention to the jungle.

Time to hightail it.

But where?

“Any thoughts on where Lopez is heading?” Brandt asked as he crept deeper into the jungle.

“You are asking me?” Talli asked.

True. The two men couldn’t be more diametrically opposed.

Great. Time to play “Where in the World is Lopez?”

Not his favorite game.

* * *

“We’ve got to circle back,” Rebecca demanded.

“Can’t, darlin’,” Lopez answered, swerving the chopper under the canopy, avoiding the tree trunks. Which was about as difficult as it sounded. Chunks of bark flew all around them. It was like flying through a wood chipper.

Rebecca hissed out a breath, trying to regain her composure. It was just a little hard to do after flying over your husband-to-be, abandoning him to the Disciples. But she knew, after everything Lopez had done, that he couldn’t possibly be leaving Brandt and Talli behind.

She took another breath before asking, “So you have a plan?”

“Duh,” Lopez said, ducking his head as they mowed through a palm tree, its leaves smacking the windshield.

She counted to ten before speaking. “Do you care to share?”

“Isn’t it obvious?”

“
No
!” Rebecca just couldn’t help it.

Lopez only smiled, though. “If you’ve only got two staging areas and one is compromised, what do you do?”

“Go to the other,” Levont answered from behind her.

Vakasa kneeled next to the large man as he prepped ropes and riggings. It seemed like he was getting ready to pull the men into the chopper from the ground. But what if the men weren’t there to pull?

“That’s great and all, but does Brandt know this?” she asked.

Lopez made a face. “Um, he better, or we are so screwed.”

* * *

Brandt glanced over his shoulder to Talli, who was having a hard time keeping up. He’d twisted his ankle or something. For a guy with not the best aim in the world, you would think he would keep the klutziness to a minimum. Clearly, Talli was a contrarian.

At full speed, were they even going in the right direction? Brandt was operating on gut instinct alone, returning to their last rally point. Would Lopez think to double back? The man did have a fairly linear—make that acceleration-oriented—mind.

Still, it was their best shot.

He broke through a particularly stalwart pair of branches and stumbled into the clearing around the hut. Although, it wasn’t exactly clear any longer. And the hut wasn’t exactly a hut, either. The Disciples had torn it down to nearly its last thatch. Leaves, pots, and snake parts littered the ground.

“Incoming!” Talli yelled, limping over to the right.

Sure enough, a speeding helicopter swooped and dodged trees, making its way to them. A most welcome sight. Only, one slight problem. They weren’t slowing down. Or landing.

“We better take this at a run,” Brandt suggested as the helicopter’s door opened. Talli tried, he really did, but he was never going to make it on his own. So as the chopper sped toward them, Brandt fell back, throwing Talli’s arm over his shoulder, urging him along.

The helicopter flew overhead, pausing only briefly to hover over them.

Levont reached out a bloody arm to help Talli up.

“Why can’t you land?” Brandt yelled over the rotor wash.

“Giraffe!” Levont shouted back.

Giraffe? What the hell did—

Then Brandt saw them. Giraffes. Tall, lanky, and apparently pissed, coming right at them.

Giving Talli’s ass one good shove, Brandt got his sniper in the chopper, then running, keeping up with the now traveling helicopter, Brandt got a foot onto the strut. Hauling himself up, he dove into the chopper just as the door was slammed closed by a tree.

Then giraffes were all around them. Their long necks rocking back and forth as they ran. One took a swipe at the struts, nearly knocking the helicopter ten feet off course.

“I swear I didn’t challenge them to anything,” Lopez yelled from the front of the chopper.

Brandt was about to answer when Rebecca was suddenly in his arms. He hugged her fiercely, then pulled her away, enough to look into her eyes.

“Don’t you ever follow me again,” Brandt said, but joy danced in her eyes. Brandt would have kissed her, except for, you know, the giraffes.

* * *

Rebecca grabbed hold of a seat as the helicopter rocked when it was hit by another giraffe.

“Why are there so many freaking animals?” Lopez demanded.

Nursing his ankle, Talli answered, “We are smack dab in the middle of a wildlife reserve.”

“Still…” Lopez exhaled. “And is somebody filming this?”

Rebecca plunked her forehead against Brandt’s extremely stained white shirt. For a moment, amongst all the chaos, she just let his chest lift her forehead, then lower it as he breathed in and out. His heartbeat pounded against his breastbone, creating a beautiful symphony. He put a hand on the back of her head, stroking her hair. She felt his lips brush the top of her head.

Brandt was not just alive, but safe too. Well, as safe as any of them as Lopez struggled to keep them somewhat aloft. Rebecca barely noticed. Instead, she took in the moment. Then the little girl threw herself at Brandt, wrapping her little arms around his leg.

“Thor!”

Yes, Vakasa’s dark-haired, green-eyed Thor was Brandt. There must be a story there, but they certainly didn’t have time to tell it, as Lopez yelled, “Hold on!”

When Lopez told you to secure yourself, you
secured
yourself.

Brandt grabbed Rebecca and Vakasa, lowering them to the floor as he grabbed hold of the base of a seat. Lopez hit the thrust, taking them up. Up through the thick jungle canopy. Huge fronds whacked the chopper, tousling its path. The rotors ground, screaming their complaint, but still, they ascended.

Until, finally, they popped out of the forest, streaking upward. It was like they’d escaped the earth’s atmosphere and hurled into space as stars twinkled in the sky. Then Lopez stabilized their speed and ascent.

They hovered over the forest. The huge hole they’d cut in the canopy was already closing as branches unfolded, spreading a leaf bandage over the jungle.

“There!” Talli shouted, pointing to the other helicopter whose rotors began turning.

She laid her cheek against Brandt’s chest.

His words rumbled against her ear. “I thought you sabotaged it?”

“Wait for it,” Lopez said, skimming them over the canopy, heading north.

* * *

Brandt waited, with Rebecca safely stowed in his embrace, as the mercenaries loaded into the chopper even as it lifted off. The chopper that was supposed to be inoperable. Like, not able to lift off.

“Lopez…”

As their own helicopter gained altitude, Lopez scoffed. “Kind of the point of ‘wait for it’ is to
wait
.”

Even after the other chopper had lifted off completely and swung around to give chase, Lopez still kept smiling. There was waiting, and then there was being stupid. Suddenly, the Disciples’ rotors lurched, spinning erratically. The chopper dipped and spun as the pilot tried to get the vehicle under control.

“I knew they would comb the helo looking for other sabotage points, so I taped some rocks deep within the gear box.”

“I don’t get it,” Rebecca said, tilting her chin up to look at Brandt. Her tear-streaked, mud-caked features should have been on the cover of
Vogue
.

Levont answered as Talli tended to his arm wound. “The heat and vibration of the liftoff loosened the tape, releasing the rocks into the gear box.”

“I figured, why just incapacitate the chopper when I might be able to take out the whole crew?” Lopez boasted, not inaccurately, as the Disciples’ helicopter limped its way over the forest. Clearly trying to find a place to land.

If Brandt weren’t holding Rebecca so close, he might have hugged the corporal. Vakasa loosened her grip from his leg to look around.

She asked in a mishmash of Russian, Hebrew, and possibly Incan. Brandt took her to mean, “Where is Scarecrow?”
Davidson.

Good question.

“Lopez?”

Again, the corporal scoffed. “Why do think we’re not halfway to Rwanda?”

As the Disciples’ helicopter zigged and zagged its way west, losing altitude, then shooting up the next second, Lopez maneuvered his way back to the clearing. A hand waved from the trees. For once, they had a sniper in the perch and didn’t have to use him.

Brandt moved Rebecca and the girl over to make room to open the chopper’s door.

One team member left to rescue and they were the
hell
out of Africa.

Davidson emerged from the canopy as Lopez brought them alongside the tree line. Winds buffeted them a bit, but the sniper would only have a few feet to jump and be home free.

Brandt reached out his hand. “Nice to see you, Private.”

A smile flashed as Davidson secured his rifle. He took in a few breaths, then launched himself. Everything was going great—the helicopter’s stability, Davdison’s trajectory, everything.

Until it wasn’t.

* * *

Pain lanced Davidson’s neck as warm blood gushed from a bullet wound. The force knocked him back and down. His fingers desperately sought the helicopter’s struts, but his hand instinctively pulled back to clutch the bleeding wound. And his weak hand couldn’t support his weight.

Brandt clutched at his sleeve, but he could never pull him up in time and, all the while he tried, gave the Disciples’ sniper all the time in the world to deliver a fatal blow to the chopper.

“Take two,” Davidson said before he let go.

The sergeant refused to release his sleeve until bullets pinged off the chopper.

“Fuck,” Brandt blurted, then let gravity do the rest.

Davidson crashed into the canopy, the leaves and thick stems breaking his fall. He only fell through three layers of trees before a he caught a branch under one arm. One hand staunching the bleeding, Davidson’s other hand helped him climb up onto the branch.

When would he learn that the Disciples’ sniper had the patience of literally a saint? And worse, he was smart. Why show your hand until you could go for the checkmate shot? The other sniper knew he couldn’t take out the team until he took out Davidson. So he had laid in wait. Tempering his urgency with his desire to eliminate his competition. Patiently staying his hand until the kill shot.

And another half inch and it would have been a fatal injury.

Davidson pulled his palm away from his neck and gently probed the wound. The bullet had taken a small chunk out of his flesh but missed the jugular. Which didn’t mean it wasn’t bleeding like a
mother
.

Ripping the hem from his jacket, he packed the wound and tied a band as tight as he could without cutting off blood flow to his brain.

Now to figure out a way to get back on that helicopter without getting them all shot.