Cover of Darkness by Kaylea Cross Read Free Book Online

moving toward the open desert, where the helo would extract them two and a half miles to the southeast. He shifted Bryn's weight and leaned forward to keep his balance against the full-fledged sandstorm blowing up around them. The inclement weather was sudden and unexpected, since sandstorm season was usually in the spring. Not that Mother Nature seemed to give a damn, because within a few minutes, visibility dropped by a third.
    Another quarter mile out, Dec knew there was no way a chopper could get to them in these conditions. He stopped the team behind the relative protection of a sand dune and set Bryn down, handing her over to one of his men for more water, and used the radio to contact the command center.
    Yelling over the wind, he arranged for the helo to pick them up at the secondary extraction point near the caves in another six hours, by which time the ops center expected the weather to improve enough.
    They started out again, this time Spencer carrying Bryn, with Dec on point. It took them nearly two hours to cover four 51

    Cover of Darkness
    by Kaylea Cross
    more miles, and by then visibility was almost zero, sand blasting their faces and bodies. Since it was impossible to navigate, let alone breathe, Dec finally called a halt.
    Digging their way into the sand, the team made a makeshift shelter and hunkered down to weather the worst of the storm. He caught a glimpse of Bryn trying to help secure the canvas tent and was about to bark an order for someone to protect her from the stinging sand when one of the men took hold of her arm and ushered her inside. Spencer set about starting an IV line in the father's arm, but the old man protested.
    "My...daughter first," he said clearly, and so Spence went to work on Bryn.
    They'd laid her down in the middle of their makeshift tent, an exhausted, fragile-looking thing surrounded by a wall of special ops soldiers. Despite her lank hair, bruised looking eyes and cracked lips, she remained beautiful.
    Spencer pushed the IV needle into her vein and she winced, but didn't make a sound. Little nicks covered her arm, probably from flying debris in the explosion at the embassy. Spence checked her over and cleaned her up, dabbing on antibiotic ointment and covering some of the deepest cuts with bandages. She flinched and gasped when he used a pair of tweezers to dig a sliver of glass out of her, and Dec had to stop himself from stroking a hand over her hair. When the third piece of glass came out she jerked and bit her lip, and he finally reached out to hold her hand, offering what little comfort he could.
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    Cover of Darkness
    by Kaylea Cross
    As his fingers closed around hers, she looked up into his face with those dark, mysterious eyes and smiled her gratitude, then closed them. Something twisted deep in his chest. He had the sudden urge to pick her up and hold her, promise to never let anyone hurt her again. It was totally bizarre and unprofessional of him to even think it, but then he'd never been in this situation before, not in all the time he'd been in the Teams.
    He glanced away from her delicate, ashen face to find every member of the team staring at her. The air in their shelter practically hummed with protective male energy. It was good in a way, Declan reflected, so long as it didn't distract anyone from doing their job. It meant they were still capable of sympathy and the desire to protect the weak, even underneath all their discipline and testosterone.
    But Jesus, look at them. Eight bad ass Navy SEALs sitting around fussing over an injured woman, one sliding a folded blanket under her head and another tucking one around her like they were a bunch of goddamn nursemaids. This op was already one for the books, and it wasn't near over.
    They gave her more water, then Spencer took a cloth and washed her face and neck. Her long, thick lashes fluttered and she sighed in relief before dropping off into an exhausted sleep.
    "You got that lip stuff?" Dec asked Spence.
    The