fired at the man who had shot him, just as the gunman made a move to turn and hightail it to another location. The man dropped his weapon and did a face plant in the rubble and didn’t move.
Emerson made a low dash to Gardiner to see to his injuries and hurried to field dress the bullet wound on his leg. Condor raced to reach them and dropped in beside them. The SEAL shook his head. “I told you I had a bad feeling about this.”
Yeah, Condor had and once they got here, Emerson had too. Sure, Emerson had smelled Smith’s stress when he had signed them up for the job. It was a stressful mission, but now Emerson was thinking Smith wasn’t as stressed out about the case of them rescuing the children as he was of the members of the team returning to hunt him down if any should survive.
The insurgents were still shooting in their direction and Emerson and Condor were hunkered down, saving their rounds until they could take shots that counted.
“Smith sold us out,” Condor said.
“Yeah,” Gardiner ground out. “I’ll kill him.”
Emerson nodded. He hated to think that of another cougar, but it did happen. Anything for money—or revenge. He couldn’t think of a reason for Smith to go after them for revenge though. Emerson had no idea what Smith’s finances looked like.
The last mission they’d worked with Smith on was to rescue American college students in South America, and they pulled that off without a hitch. This time, Condor swore Smith had looked shifty-eyed when he told them about the mission.
“I’ll kill that SOB,” Condor said.
“Agreed.” Emerson felt the same way and would do something about it as soon as he could. “We need to get out of here and reach the pick-up zone—a new one though. We’re not going to beat this firepower, I don’t think.”
“Gardiner’s wounded,” Condor said, as if that was a reason to kill everyone who was out to get them.
“He’ll live,” Emerson said, hoping he was right. But they needed to regroup. If Smith was behind the ambush, he needed to be the one they took out—permanently.
“Robertson got hit when I took out the one sniper.” Condor motioned to a broken section of wall. “I checked on him and bandaged him up. It’s a shoulder wound.” Condor let out his breath. “I got to get back to potential wife number six,” he said as if that decided it.
The women Condor dated were always potential wives. Emerson swore Condor would never settle down. He was too easily bored. This is what he lived for. Fighting, killing, freeing hostages, the adventure, the grittiness. Settling down with a she-wolf wasn’t really in the plans for now.
After this for Emerson? He wanted something else out of life. He didn’t want to give up his life so that someone could get rich by it. This was his last mission.
Another burst of gunfire from the other ranger and from the ones shooting at them stole Emerson and Condor’s attention.
Kline wasn’t too far away, but they couldn’t see him now. Most of the heat was on him though. Emerson couldn’t give up, trying to get his men out of this situation no matter what. “I’m going behind these suckers and you draw their fire.”
“Go for it.” Condor got ready to shoot the insurgent who was trying to hit him.
Emerson moved low around the piled-up rubble and finally reached a vantage point where he could see a nest of three shooters. He lobbed a grenade into their hiding place, and it went off, killing all three men.
Emerson continued around to the other side of the building and saw a man raise up to take aim at Kline down below. Emerson fired a shot and killed the man, but another shot Kline, who was concentrating on two other men who were shooting at him.
Emerson raced through the rubble to get to the other men and killed two, Condor taking out a third, but then Condor went to Kline’s aid.
Two more shooters were climbing through the rubble, trying to get a better vantage point to shoot at Kline and Condor. Emerson couldn’t get a good shot at the gunmen. Damn it. But as soon as one raised up to shoot Condor, Emerson took the man out. The second one targeted Emerson and hit him in the arm. Emerson ducked back behind some pilings.
He’d seen at least three more shooters, could hear them coming for him, and he was ready