Page 28 of Seal of Honor
“Yeah, ‘cuz I’ve had so much time to run wild.” He laughed, but it wasn’t a pleasant sound, even to his own ears. “Forget that I’m a little busy trying to save your brother. Never mind that I spent the past year trying to save my foot, then my job. And every year before that, I was too busy trying to be the best damn SEAL I could be. So, no, I don’t ever cut loose.”
“What about when you were a child?”
She asked it so casually, he didn’t think twice about answering. “Same goes. I went to a military academy.”
Audrey gave him a look so full of—Jesus Christ, was that pity? He ground his back teeth and reached into the glove box for an extra ammo clip, then jammed it into the side pocket of his cargos. She had no reason to pity him. He’d had a good life and liked it just fine the way it was. Or at least he did. He still wasn’t sure how he felt about the new course he’d taken in the past twelve hours, but that didn’t rate her pity.
Up ahead, a shout of alarm drew his attention, and what he saw made his heart drop into his gut. Eight guerrillas with AK47s were going from car to car, yanking people out, lining them alongside the road with their hands on their heads, while another two rifled through each empty vehicle.
A raid.
Great. Just great. Should’ve known this would happen.
Murphy’s fucking Law.
“What’s going on?”
He ignored Audrey’s question and bent over to unlace his left boot with one hand while he dug for his cell phone with the other.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“You might wanna grab your gun now.”
She blinked and, if he wasn’t mistaken, some of the color drained out of her face. “W-what?”
“The gun I gave you back at base. You might need it.”
“You mean to… shoot? No.” She shook her head. “I’m not shooting anyone. I don’t shoot people.”
Gabe lifted his attention from his boot to stare at her. “You don’t shoot people? So what was all that shit about not being a southern belle and shooting what you aim at?”
“I aim at paper targets! Shooting is a hobby. A sport. Something I did for fun with my dad.” She waved a trembling hand at the guerrillas. “I’m not like them. I don’t kill.”
“If you don’t kill them first, they are sure as hell going to slaughter you without a second thought.”
“I don’t kill,” she repeated. “Maybe we can talk to them.”
“And afterwards we can all hold hands and sing Lean On Me. Christ, what world do you live in?”
“One where violence breeds violence.”
“Yeah, that’s exactly right.” He jerked a thumb at the guerrilla soldiers methodically making their way down the line of cars. “But when violence is the only language your enemies know, you gotta learn to speak it, too.”
Jaw set at a stubborn angle, Audrey vehemently shook her head. “I won’t kill anyone.”
Figured he’d end up in the middle of a raid with a peace-loving, flower-sniffing hippie.
“Then make yourself useful and keep watch,” he gritted out between his teeth and made sure his phone was on silent mode before sliding it down into his boot. With his boot laced, it was all but invisible, and if the guerrillas patted him down, it would go unnoticed. If they made him strip, then he might have some issues.
One of the cars up ahead contained a family, and the guerrillas were no gentler with the two little boys than they were with the adults. The kids’ mother cried out as one guerrilla shoved the older boy hard enough that he hit his head on a tree stump and went limp.
“Oh my God,” Audrey whispered. Her hand covered her mouth in shock even as she reached for the door. “We have to?—”
“Stay here.” He caught her arm. “It’ll be bad enough for us once they realize we’re American.”
And when they saw that he was armed. But he couldn’t hide his firearm in his boot. The SIG was a veritable death sentence for him, and all but useless against all those AKs. It wasn’t so unusual for him to be outnumbered and outgunned—for a SEAL, it was just another day in the life, what he was trained for. In theory, he should be able to take three or four out before they got him, but that wasn’t a theory he particularly wanted to test when Audrey’s life was at risk, too. What would happen to her after they killed him? He shuddered to think.
She struggled against his hold. “But the boy?—”
