Page 48 of Impossible Rapids
“Okay,” she whispered back, the fear evident in her voice.
He took her hand and quickly led her behind the tents and around the rocky outcropping. It wasn’t a full-on cave but a good safe space in the rock wall with the river running deep on the other side. The only way somebody could get to her was through Shawn and his guards, or scaling the rock. They’d keep an eye on that option.
He rushed over to Cash and Brylee’s tent. He didn’t want to make any noise, but he wasn’t about to unzip the newlyweds’ tent. The zipper slid up, surprising him, and Cash peered out. “What?”
“I don’t know. Something. Put Brylee around the rocky outcropping with Julie.”
Cash only nodded.
Shawn straightened, gripping his pistol tightly and praying. Something was coming. Something bad. He had to protect Julie.
He catalogued their strengths. Cash was a retired Green Beret Captain; he’d served with Grayson. Hays was a Navy SEAL Lieutenant. Paul was retired Air Force Reconnaissance and worked with Aiden Porter; he’d know how to fight and Jagger had relayed how he’d protected Belinda in Kauai. Theo had been recruited by Chad from Dallas PD. Shawn had sparred with him and seen him shoot with a rifle and a pistol. He was good but he’d never seen him in a battle situation. Brett was on loan from Aiden Porter as well, a retired Army Ranger.
Shawn had no idea if it was the eight men they were pitted against or something from nature. The other men had been far too stoic and unsmiling. With a team of executives, he’d assume they’d be more personable. Why had only Pierce spoken besides the captain’s short commands? Were they French Foreign Legion like the shooter at the mansion?
Suddenly he saw it—shadows filtering through the trees. They needed cover.
“Move,” he whispered.
They all darted as quickly and quietly as they could around the rocky outcropping and in front of Brylee and Julie.
“Shawn?” Julie whispered.
Automatic rifles discharged before he could reassure her. Their tents were shredded within moments.
Shawn and the rest of the men used the rock wall and some boulders as cover and immediately started firing back, using the muzzle flash as targets.
The men who’d been sitting at the campfire across the way rushed across the space, shooting from a better angle as the men in the trees covered them. Shawn took one down and Cash the other. They didn’t move, but the hailstorm from the trees didn’t slow.
“Cover me,” Hays called over the bullets discharging and pinging destructively against the rock.
Shawn wanted to protest—Hays had been shot in the arm not that long ago—but Hays didn’t give him a chance. He slung his rifle over his back, eased father around the rock, toward the river and away from any exposure to bullets, and started climbing the rock face. Paul followed.
Shawn took careful shots with his pistol. The extra magazine was in his pocket, but he didn’t have accessible reloads after that was gone.
Cash and Brett eased in close to Shawn to return fire until Hays and Paul could reach the top of the rock formation and hopefully have an angle to take the men out. Consistent firing in coordinated waves from the trees kept the men on the ground from effectively returning fire.
Loud retorts sounded from above them. The resistance in the trees faded and then died. They waited, but … nothing.
Shawn breathed a sigh of relief and an internal prayer of thanks, then glanced back at Julie. She and Brylee clung to each other’s hands, backs pressed into the wall.
“You’re all right?” he asked.
“Yes.”
Shawn nodded. “Cash. Stay with them while Brett and I do a sweep.”
“Absolutely not, sir,” Brett said.
Shawn looked around. Brett had barely spoken a full sentence to him.
“With all respect, sir, and that respect just went up again tonight, you are not the bodyguard any longer. You’re the boss, the person we’re protecting and the obvious target. We will all stay right here until Lieutenant West and Braven return and then two of your trained bodyguards will go do a sweep while the other two stay with you, Captain Trapper, and the ladies.”
Shawn blinked at him. “Well … all right.”
Would he ever get used to the ‘boss’ role? He’d been the loner, the nobody, the soldier, and the bodyguard. He was comfortable with those roles.
All was quiet. No shots came from the forest. Brett and Theo stood guard as Cash eased back to wrap his arms around Brylee and Shawn found himself following Cash’s example. He wrapped an arm around Julie, wondering if he should take that liberty.