Hot Zone (Elite Force 2)

The victory had been swift, but incomplete.

Jocelyn had escaped before they arrived. In fact, the whole compound had been deserted. However they’d managed to apprehend some refugees from the property. They’d hauled in Jocelyn’s “nieces”—Courtney and Erin—although it was clear now that they weren’t actually relatives. The two women and a number of other guards had been driving away in a caravan of vehicles with ten children.

Ten. Not eleven.

He hooked his arm out the open window while the Humvee driver coordinated his route with the truck ahead. Hugh barely registered what they were saying, his thoughts scattered as hell even as he kept his eyes on the dusty city in the distance. Had he miscounted the number of kids? He didn’t think so, but it was possible. His surveillance of the beach cottage had been late at night from a distance. He could have counted one baby twice.

But if he hadn’t?

That meant Jocelyn was out there somewhere with a vulnerable child at a time when lawlessness was rampant. There simply weren’t enough security forces available to search for her. They’d been lucky to shut down the home base of the smuggling operation.

He just hated loose ends. Hated that there was a chance justice might never be served for heaven only knew how many children had been shuttled through her illegal organization.

Now he needed to find Amelia and let her know what happened. And yeah, he needed to see her. To reassure himself that she and Joshua were safely with their family.

It had been scary as hell having her and the kid vulnerable on his watch. Yet it hadn’t flipped him out the way it would have a couple of years ago. He would never be whole, but then again, maybe he wasn’t walking the same tightrope he used to—a razor’s edge between himself and danger.

And he had Amelia to thank for that. She’d reminded him that he mattered and his efforts mattered. Whereas before, he’d been throwing himself into hellish situations as much to tempt fate as to save people. He wouldn’t rest easy until they were on an airplane to the States.

And then?

Would he contact her in the “real” world? Ask her out in a regular kind of way? It wasn’t as if she lived on the other side of the universe. Only a few hours apart.

The ground shook under his feet. Exhaustion or another aftershock? Just the Jeep stuttering along a rippled stretch of land leading to the airstrip. He was supposed to meet McCabe here—which was code for the major figuring out if he could trust Hugh back in the field.

The line of vehicles stopped one after the other. The temporary base that had been set up shortly after the earthquake had grown since he’d seen it last—more tents, portable hangars, more parked aircraft, and definitely more personnel. The suspects and children would be held here until local authorities sorted through the kidnapping mess.

At least this place was on the outskirts of the devastation, a tent city of sorts constructed on open land. Uprooted trees and buckled earth were the only signs of the recent earthquake.

He vaulted out of the Humvee, scanning for McCabe—but looking for Amelia. She and Joshua had been brought here to reunite with her brother and sister-in-law.

Amelia was here.

His pulse ramped at just the thought of seeing her. God, he was turning into a sap. He was even pumped about seeing the kid—

Except the child would be with his parents now. As life should be. Still, his feet slowed and he wasn’t sure why. He should be relieved to have Amelia to himself, to talk to her, to figure out where they would take things next.

The ground vibrated under his feet. Aftershock or airplane taking off? He scanned the dirt runway, already moving to the most open space, away from anything that could collapse on top of him. And where the hell was Amelia?

Shit.

It had to be an aftershock. He hoped. Because the alternative sucked.

The ground steadied. He waited. Still steady. Exhaling, he shrugged a kink out of his neck just as McCabe stepped from around a tent. The major stalled in his tracks. He grabbed the tent pole, paling.

Hugh strode toward him. “You okay, sir?”

“Yeah…” He straightened slowly, his camos crusty and his eyes red rimmed, no doubt from round-the-clock shifts. “Just damn glad to see you alive.”

McCabe hauled him in for a hug, thumping him between the shoulder blades, and Hugh had to admit he was choked up too.

“There were times it was touch-and-go.” He pulled away, but wasn’t in any hurry to be under shelter. The wide-open spaces looked better and safer all the time. “This place has turned into such a lawless mess since the quake.”

“And every time the earth starts shaking again—like a few seconds ago—people go a little batty.”

“Understandable.” Hugh thought back to that time underground with Amelia, how she’d held it together in spite of how often it had seemed the building would collapse the rest of the way on top of her.

“Last report puts the count at seventeen aftershocks since the original earthquake, with more undoubtedly to come.” Squinting into the sun, McCabe stared out toward the ocean. “At least they canceled the tsunami warning.”