The Heart of a Mercenary by White Loreth Anne

Author:White, Loreth Anne [White, Loreth Anne]
Format: epub
Tags: Suspense
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2010-03-15T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

13:39 Alpha. Blacklands.

Tuesday, September 23

Sweat dampened Sarah’s torso as she edged away from the protective cover of the jungle and out into the clearing, toward their clothes drying over a bush. The heat of the sun was violent on her head; her palms were moist.

She kept her back to the clothes and faced the wall of green foliage, squinting against the white-hot glare, searching for a sign of movement, anything that might show her where the men were.

A twig exploded with a crack. She gasped, jerked around to the source of the sound, waited. Nothing moved. Blood thudded in her ears. She tightened her grip on the gun, curling her finger around the trigger. She tried to swallow. She stared at the shades of green in the forest fringe, trying to separate one dark shape from another. Another crack and a rustle sounded, to her right this time. She spun to face it. Oh God, how many were there? She was surrounded. She was a sitting duck in the clearing. Where was Hunter?

She heard another sound to her left. She swallowed her scream and spun around just as a massive soldier materialized at the edge of the trees.

Her heart stopped.

How long had he been standing there? How long had he been watching her from mere yards away? Her breath congealed in her throat. She couldn’t move. Time warped in the heat, and sound slowed to the consistency of glue. Mesmerized, Sarah stared at the man’s face.

His skin was glistening ebony, his cheekbones impossibly high. He wore a maroon beret cocked at an angle over his shining brow. But it was his eyes that held her. The whites of the soldier’s eyes were almost yellow against his dark skin. And they were looking straight at her.

He moved slightly, and she noticed his sleeves were rolled up high against gleaming black biceps. He wore a red armband. His hands were massive. They held a rifle, just like the one in her own hands, and it was aimed right at her. Sarah stared at the muzzle of his gun. Why couldn’t she make herself move? Why was everything happening so slowly? Why hadn’t he killed her?

He took a step toward her. Sound coalesced into a dull, ringing buzz in her ears, and her vision narrowed to a tunnel of blurred color until all she could see was the end of the rifle aimed at her. Where was Hunter?

“Shoot to kill, Sarah…or they will kill you first.” But she couldn’t make herself move.

Then a noise, a strange sound, like one animal attacking another, caused the man to jerk his head and his gun to his left. He raised his rifle, aimed at the source of the sound.

The sudden movement snapped Sarah back to life. Hunter! Oh God, the man was going to shoot Hunter! Sarah didn’t think. She pointed the assault rifle out from waist level, closed her eyes and squeezed the trigger.

It all happened at once, in strangely slow time. Her gun exploded, kicking back into her stomach.

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