Two Cowboys in Her Crosshairs [Hellfire Ranch] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) Read Online Free PDF Page A

yelled and leapt to the side. Sand and rock bit into his face. Gunfire split the night, and bullets rained down around him.
    Jake elbowed his way to a large rock and peered over the top. Bright white bursts came from the top row of caves in both sides of the canyon wall.
    “Shit,” he muttered. A quick count came up to at least twenty active enemy weapons.
    His unit scrambled around him, returning fire and seeking refuge behind the meager boulders and dunes. Jake took aim at one of the caves and was gratified to see a man in robes fall from the hole to land on the ground below.
    Additional shots rang out as they battled for dominance. Jake called into his com for status reports from his people. Only about half checked in.
    He had to get them out of there.
    “Sarge, help.” Briggs’s southern-tinged voice pitched high and loud to his right. Jake saw the young man slumped against a boulder. Yu was laid out on the ground next to him, squeezing off shots.
    “Get your head down, Briggs,” he shouted.
    More gunfire echoed, and Briggs jerked forward then toppled over.
    Yu shrieked and backed away then stood and sprayed the area in front of him. He was cut down as Jake watched.
    “Damn it, no!”
    He half rose, and the rock blasted another chip into his flak jacket. Boone yanked him down.
    Jake inhaled a deep, calming breath. He still had eleven people out there to get to safety. “Hellfire Battalion,” he shouted into the com. “Fall back.”
    Fischer briefly appeared at an outcropping twenty feet in front of where Briggs and Yu had been sprawled before they disappeared under a hail of bullets.
    Another huge wave of gunfire swept over the area, kicking up dust, gravel, and screams. He couldn’t tell their ammo from the insurgents’ or who was yelling. All the sounds melded into one deafening shriek.
    Then the air went silent. Jake lifted up gingerly and scanned the area.
    Fischer was crumpled and still on the ground. Another body lay motionless beside him, but Jake couldn’t tell who it was.
    Jake stood and ran to them. A single shot rang out, but this one came from above him. He whirled and saw Olivia sprawled at the top of the cliff wall. She shot again. He looked down to where the insurgents had been. Seven bodies littered the sand.
    Boone loped next to him. He reached for Fischer’s neck. “He’s alive. Knocked out maybe. We need to get him to the truck.”
    Jake nodded. “Get him by the boots.”
    Crouched low and moving as fast as they dared, they carried the unconscious Fischer to the truck and put him inside. Mayers immediately started working on him.
    More gunfire came from Olivia’s perch. Jake checked the canyon below and saw another three bodies on the ground though they were closer than the others had been.
    They were running out of time. “We need to get the hell out of here,” he said to Boone.
    “Olivia and Masters are doing a good job of holding them off. Let’s go find the others.”
    Together they scoured the landscape, sticking to the shadows where they could. They picked up an injured Williams and deposited him in the truck then returned. They found Quade Aldren and Taggart Cain behind a small outcropping of rocks. Aldren sat on Cain’s back with the butt of his rifle against the other man’s neck.
    Jake blinked at the sight. “What the hell?”
    “This idiot ran out of ammo and wanted to charge them,” Aldren explained. “I’m trying to keep him from dying, but all he can do is cuss me out.”
    “You’d better run when I get up, Aldren, because I’m going to kick your fucking ass.”
    “Shut up,” Jake snapped. “We need to get out of here. There are too many of them. Have you seen anyone else?” he asked Quade.
    “Bransom is dead,” he said flatly. “Don’t know about anyone else.”
    “Get off of him,” Jake said.
    Quade stood slowly, and Cain shook him off like he was a three-week-old kitten. He grabbed the man’s rifle and tried to storm forward. Boone caught him