Authors: Paige Tyler
guys are gone. Please, Clayne.”
His only answer was a low growl.
Tears welled in her eyes. “Fine. I’ll go myself.”
Ivy pushed herself to her feet—and swayed. She quickly put her hand on the wall to steady herself.
Clayne swore and caught her arm. “You’re not going anywhere. Shit, Ivy. You can’t even stand up.” He
gently but firmly pushed her back down. “I’ll go rescue your boyfriend, okay? Just stay here.”
She wanted to tell him Landon didn’t need rescuing, just backup, but was afraid Clayne wouldn’t go if
she did. She caught his hand. “Thank you.”
He grunted and was gone.
Ivy leaned back against the wall and flexed her legs, trying to pump the drugs out of her system.
Regardless of what she’d said about the bad guys being gone, something told her this wasn’t over yet. She
needed to be ready.
***
Stutmeir and his men had more of a head start than Landon thought. By the time he and Angelo got to
the tunnel under the lodge, the ex-Stasi was nowhere in sight. He heard him, though. The bastard was
running for his life up ahead. It wasn’t going to do him any good. Landon would track him down to the
ends of the earth and back.
Light filled the tunnel about a hundred yards in front of him, and Landon ripped off his NVGs. Outside,
he found himself in the forest on the back side of the mountain ridge behind the lodge. Figuring Stutmeir
and his crew had chosen the quickest path of escape, Landon ran down the only trail he saw as fast as he
could, Angelo at his heels.
His gut told him he should slow down in case there was a trap waiting for him and Angelo, but if he
did, he might never catch up to Stutmeir. He’d never wanted to kill someone so much in his life. Not the
father who’d beat him, his sister, and his mother. Not the men who’d ambushed Jayson and left him for
dead. Not every terrorist who wanted to destroy the United States.
No, this went way beyond any of that.
The sound of raised voices ahead made Landon stop in his tracks. He held his hand up, signaling for
Angelo to do the same.
“Dissention in the ranks?” Angelo wondered.
“Sounds like it.”
He couldn’t make out everything the men were saying, but they were definitely arguing. It sounded as if
some of the men wanted to go back to the lodge and fight.
Landon looked around, then motioned to Angelo to leave the trail and swing through the forest. If
Stutmeir and his men talked for another thirty seconds, he and Angelo would be able to flank them and take
them by surprise.
He and Angelo worked their way through the thick fir trees until they were twenty yards from
Stutmeir’s group. Giving Angelo a nod, Landon stood up, aimed, and started shooting. Angelo did the
same.
Landon wanted to take out Stutmeir with the first burst, but there were a half dozen men between them.
Make that a half dozen shifters. The creatures didn’t go down any easier now than they did before. After
getting over their initial shock of Landon and Angelo’s surprise attack, the hybrid shifters bounded through
the trees like enraged beasts.
He didn’t want to run, but he and Angelo had no choice but to retreat. They took turns covering each
other as they fell back one tree at a time. Landon swore as the forest behind them disappeared and the sky
opened up. They were headed straight toward a cliff. Hadn’t he done this same thing last night? This time,
he wasn’t going over without one hell of a fight.
He and Angelo pumped round after round into the hybrids. They put down a few, but not enough to
make a difference. Stutmeir was safely in the background standing next to a man with a scratched-up face.
Over the gunfire, Landon heard the pounding of footsteps behind him. He spun around, prepared to put
down whoever it was, only to pull up when he recognized Buchanan. The shifter slid across an open patch
of ground like a runner sliding into home plate to cover the last few feet between him and Landon, gun
blazing as he fired at the hybrids.
Landon glanced at him as he shoved another magazine into his M4. “Why the fuck did you leave Ivy?”
Buchanan drilled a hybrid that had gotten too close before glaring at him. “Because she begged me to
come save your sorry ass. I told her it wasn’t necessary, that you were this great Special Forces warrior and
could handle yourself. Apparently I was wrong and she was right. Looks like I showed up just in time to
keep you from jumping off a cliff. What the fuck is that about? You’re ugly and all, but I didn’t think you
were the suicidal type.”
“Not suicidal,” Angelo said in between shooting at the hybrids who were jumping from tree to rock,
getting closer with every second. “Just low on other options. Landon probably won’t say it, but thanks for
showing up.”
Buchanan grunted. “Not only is he ugly, but he’s an ungrateful bastard, too.”
Even with Buchanan’s added fire power, they were still outnumbered. It didn’t help when Stutmeir and
his men spread out and fired on the three of them from multiple directions.
“Jumping off the cliff is starting to sound better than I thought,” Buchanan admitted.
Landon opened his mouth to agree when he heard Griffen’s voice in his earpiece. “We’re almost to your
location, Captain. Sorry it took us so long. We got turned around in those passageways under the lodge.
We’re coming toward you from the trail. If you can move right some, further along that cliff line, we can
get them in a crossfire.”
“Copy that.”
Landon moved to the right. So did Angelo and Buchanan. To Stutmeir and his men, it probably looked
as if they were in panic mode and doing anything to avoid going over the edge of the cliff.
If Griffen and his other men didn’t get into place soon, Stutmeir was going to get his wish.
That’s when Griffen, Deray, and Marks opened fire on Stutmeir from the left. Stutmeir might have those
hard-to-kill hybrids on his side, but Landon now had something he didn’t—superior positioning. Stutmeir
and his men were sitting at the two o’clock position and were taking fire from both the twelve o’clock and
the four o’clock positions. They couldn’t turn to face one threat without leaving their flank totally exposed.
The loss of tactical advantage took them completely by surprise. Within seconds of the first few men going
down, the others retreated.
Landon immediately closed the distance between him and the hybrids. Out of the corner of his eye, he
saw Buchanan and Angelo doing the same. It was dangerous for all of them to move right into the line of
fire that Griffen, Deray, and Marks were laying down, but his team had done this countless times before. He
trusted his men to adjust their shot line as he moved closer.
Stutmeir shouted for his men to stand fast, regroup, and counterattack, but they weren’t listening. One
second they were standing strong, the next second they were running in every direction.
“Go after them,” Landon ordered. “Stutmeir is mine, but I don’t want any of his hybrids making it out
of here, either. Take them alive if they’ll let you, but don’t let them escape. And make sure those damn
doctors don’t get away, either. They did some things to Ivy that I plan to make them pay for.”
Buchanan took off with a blood-chilling howl, and Landon knew the shifter wouldn’t be bringing any
hybrids back alive.
Landon looked for Stutmeir and saw him and the scar-faced man running for the tunnel leading back to
the lodge. Evil bastards probably thought if they made it to the vehicles out front they could get away. They
weren’t going to get that far. Stutmeir was going to pay for what he’d done to Ivy—Landon was going to
make sure of that.
Chapter 17
Someone was coming. Ivy felt it. In retrospect, maybe sending Clayne after Landon had been foolish,
but she cared more about Landon’s safety than her own. Even drugged, she could handle whoever was
headed this way.
She dragged herself to her feet, forcing her muscles to work even though they were doing their best to
ignore her. She’d been drugged so many times in the last few hours it felt as if she was wrapped up in thick,
wool blankets.
She looked over at Mickens and Zarina as she shook out her legs and swung her arms. The medic had
given Diaz and Tredeau drugs for the pain and was now rigging IVs at the same time he was applying
pressure dressings to the wounds. He moved with quick and efficient motions, a man completely tuned in
to his task. Zarina was at his side, helping as much as she could.
Kendra was over by the gate, her back to them and her weapon at the ready, acting as if she was the
lone protector for their makeshift MASH unit. Maybe she was. Zarina didn’t know which end of a gun the
bullets came out of while Mickens would be occupied with his injured charges. And Ivy was certainly still
too wobbly to be much help.
But whoever was coming this way was getting closer.
She opened her mouth to warn Kendra, Mickens, and Zarina, but four hybrids hurtled around the wall
before she could get the words out.
The creatures skidded to a halt, surprise on their faces. They recovered from their shock fast enough
and lifted their weapons.
Kendra spun around and dropped to one knee, shooting the hybrid nearest to her. It caught the three
men with him off guard, and they turned their weapons on her, forgetting about Mickens, Zarina, and Ivy.
Ivy gritted her teeth and forced herself to move. Her legs weren’t as strong as they normally were, and
the dull pain in her thigh slowed her down a bit, but she still managed a good leap.
She extended her claws as she flew through the air, raking them down one hybrid’s face and chest,
knocking him to the ground. He howled as her nails sunk to the bone, taking a large amount of flesh with
them.
Ivy straddled his chest, swinging her clawed hands like sickles. Around her, she heard gunfire, but it
seemed far away and unimportant. She was starting to zone out. Again. It would have been so easy to give
in to her animal nature and let it take over, but she pulled herself back from the brink before it was too late.
She came back to herself to see that the hybrid underneath her was dead. Beside her on the ground was
another hybrid, his body full of bullet holes.
Ivy sprang to her feet and spun around.
Zarina was shielding Diaz and Tredeau with her body while Mickens stood between a snarling hybrid
and his wounded teammates. He might have been a medic, but he was Special Forces through and through,
his face a mask of grit and determination as he pulled the trigger. If the hybrid was going to get to his
friends, they’d have to go through his dead body first. The shifter withstood a half dozen rounds of
ammunition before he finally fell.
Off to the left, Kendra was putting the final shots through the last hybrid’s chest. When the creature hit
the ground, Kendra stepped forward and put one more round in its head.
Ivy gaped. Kendra had never done anything to make her think she was a cold and efficient killer.
Clearly, the DCO was using her in the wrong capacity.
Mickens walked up to admire Kendra’s handiwork. “Damn, girl. Are you an animal, too?”
She lowered her weapon and gave him a smile. “Only in bed.”
Ivy almost laughed when Mickens’s jaw dropped. She looked at Zarina and the two wounded soldiers
to make sure they hadn’t gotten hit in the barrage of gunfire when a scent on the breeze distracted her. It
was faint but unmistakable.
Jeff
.
He was close by, and he was running. He was…prey.
Her feet moved in his direction.
“Ivy?” Kendra called. “Where are you going?”
Ivy didn’t answer. She couldn’t. She felt herself slipping into the feline zone, felt that uncontrollable
urge to let go and allow her animal to come out and play—and hunt. This time there was no way she could
stop it.
“Ivy!”
She turned and ran toward Jeff’s scent. Every other thought in her head disappeared, leaving only one
—find the man who had tormented her and kill him.
***
glimpse of the ex-Stasi again. It didn’t help that the scar-faced man ran in a different direction, confusing
the trail and making it tough to figure out which set of tracks belonged to Stutmeir. Luckily, Landon picked
the right one.
Instead of going deeper into the forest, Stutmeir led him into a clearing. Strewn with small boulders, it
made for dangerous footing, and Landon had to scramble to keep from falling as he ran across the slope.
He raised his gun, aiming it at Stutmeir, but the German had already disappeared into the forest again.
Landon ran after him. He was halfway across the clearing when he heard the sound of rocks falling
above him. He’d just fallen for the oldest trick in the book. Stutmeir had doubled back and gotten into
position above Landon on the slope so he could ambush him.