Page 38 of Her Wicked Hero

“Let Alice go,” Zed said.

“You have no leverage,” Raymond laughed as the man named Rogers came out from behind the cabin with his rifle cradled in his arm.

Whap. Whap.

“What the fuck?” Raymond cried as he looked up. A Seahawk helicopter was clearly visible. Still too far away to lay down fire. Zed pretended to trip. He went down on both knees.

“Get up, you useless piece of shit.”

Marcia went limp and rolled onto the ground. What a good little actress.

“What’s wrong with her?”

“What isn’t wrong with her?” Zed shot back. He pretended to scoop her up and slipped again.

“Quit fucking playing around!”

Zed stood up with Marcia in his arms. Dirt flew up as he heard the gunshots from the helicopter. Screams came from every cabin and from Alice. Marcia lay limp in his arms, he looked down for just a second to make sure she wasn’t really unconscious and saw a small smile playing on her mouth.

“I’m going to kill her. Blow her head away. I’m going to enjoy it too, if you don’t move your ass and put Lesley into the helicopter, right fucking now.” Zed looked up and saw Raymond moving backward, dragging Alice by the neck to the helicopter. Rogers had his rifle trained on him and Marcia. He finally saw the fifth guy come out from behind Alice’s house, he had a small man by the hair who must have been Ahmed, Alice’s husband.

“Move it SEAL-boy, get Lesley onto the helicopter, she’s our payday.”

“I’ll get us to the helicopter,” Zed said loudly. He needed to get information to Dex. “Just don’t let your other two men shoot any more of the civilians.”

More shots from the Navy helicopter fired into the ground. Rogers lifted his gun and shot into the middle cabin, he shot low where there was more of a chance of a kill shot.

“Get her onto our helicopter now, or the next bullets go into the host and hostess.”

The rotors of the Mi Helicopter started up, and it mixed with the wind of the Seahawk helicopter as it came down really low. Rogers who didn’t have a hostage was shot in the head by someone in the Seahawk.

Yay for their side.

Alice and Ahmed were both being dragged back toward the helicopter. A rope dropped down from the Seahawk. Zed saw the man holding Ahmed move his gun away from the man’s head and point to the man rappelling from the helicopter, and Zed dropped Marcia, falling on top of her as he shot the bogey before the bad guy could get off a shot.

“Bastard,” Raymond yelled.

Zed jolted as he felt a bullet slam into his neck.

Please, God, say nothing hit Marcia. Please, God. Please, God. Please, God.

He thought he heard Marcia yelling his name.

8

“Hold still.” Someone was pushing him down.

“Got to get to her,” Zed punched out with his left fist and felt a satisfying crunch.

“Dammit, how in the hell is he even conscious? Hold him down so I can get some morphine into him.”

“Where is she?” Zed croaked out. His head, neck, and right arm felt like they were on fire, and he couldn’t see anything, but where was Marcia?

“I’m here. Zed, I’m here.” Why did she sound so far away?

He tried to move his right arm again, and when that didn’t work, he tried to pull his legs in, so he could kick out.

“Watch it! Strap him down.”