Free Operation Summer Storm by Karlene Blakemore-Mowle Page A

was something he had already forgotten. Fine. It didn’t mean a thing to her, either.
    They walked for an hour, stopping only long enough to take a drink but it would be another two hours before they took their first real break. Summer noticed no one else took the opportunity to sit down but she wasn’t about to pass up the chance to rest her tired feet. She found the water bottle strapped to the outside of the pack and took a drink.
    “We have to make it further up into the mountains before daybreak. Think you can manage?” Del asked, coming to squat down on his haunches beside her.
    “I’ll manage,” she said, hoping she sounded confident. Now if she could only convince her legs to keep walking, she’d be fine. She got to her feet as the men started to move and found Tate standing above her, looking down at her with a foreboding frown plastered across his rugged face.
    “You didn’t think this was going to be a Sunday stroll did you?” he asked with a distinct chill in his voice.
    She was hot, tired and cranky and he’d picked the wrong time to give her grief. “Yes, as a matter of fact, that’s exactly what I thought,” she snapped back at him. What was his problem?
    He raised an eyebrow sending her an ‘I-told-you-so-look’ but Summer cut him off before he could voice anything else that would drive her to inflict grievous bodily harm upon him.
    “Look, none of us are in a wonderful situation here, okay? But if you don’t get off my back...” she stopped mid-sentence and tried to come up with a threat, horrible enough to intimidate a mercenary, then realized she couldn’t so she chose to go on the attack from a different angle. “By the way, next time you feel an urge to maul me again…don’t.”
    “Maul you?” he scoffed. “Honey, if you don’t know the difference between a kiss, and a maul—maybe it’s about time someone showed you,” he shot back.
    Summer’s heart thumped at the thought of him repeating the earlier kiss and snapped, “Just get my sister back. If you can’t control yourself, then stay the hell away from me.”
    His eyes flashed a dangerous warning. “This is why you should have stayed at home,” he snarled and brushed past her to take the lead once more.
    She resisted the immature urge to stick her foot out as he went past and trip him. Having him injured would not be conducive to getting her sister back. The anger he’d managed to stir within her though, did give her the momentum to keep going.
    It was still dark but Summer could make out streaks against the sky every now and then as she passed beneath a break in the foliage. The further they walked though, the thicker the canopy become. She had no idea how long they’d been walking but it felt like days. Her legs were tired and her clothes were stuck to her as the increasing humidity sapped at her strength. Her shoulders hurt as the straps of her pack rubbed sensitive skin with every bounce in her step.
    Stumbling over an exposed root, Summer braced herself against the truck of a nearby tree and closed her eyes. She hated Cambodia. With each clumsy fall and slip onto her butt, her loathing increased. Tate had been right—she couldn’t keep up and now she’d have to face the angry scowl of irritation he saved just for her. When she opened her eyes, she saw him look back and stop. Stifling a small groan, she pushed herself away from the tree and met him as he walked back down the line toward her.
    “We’ll stop for a rest,” he told her as he reached her.
    “I’m fine,” Summer said but wished she wasn’t puffing quite so heavy as she spoke.
    “Don’t be stubborn. You need a break, so we’ll take one,” he said overruling her objection firmly.
    “Stubborn? Me?”
    Frustrated and feeling miserably inadequate, she swiped at the trail of sweat that trickled down her face and stung her eyes, sitting there feeling sorry for herself. She knew she was holding them up.
    Del stopped and held out a piece of cloth