Free Her Baby's Bodyguard by Ingrid Weaver Page A

that color of blue.”
    “Are you sure, ma’am?” Tyler asked.
    “Yes! So are all their vehicles. Burian likes to be noticed. It feeds his ego.”
    Tyler sat back so he could prop his elbow on his bent knee and took aim. Firing on Russian troops, on Russian soil, would raise the profile of the mission past any chance of deniability. It could trigger an international crisis. Defending themselves against Burian Ryazan’s private army was another matter entirely.
    Light flashed from a point midway between the chopper’s landing skids. The road behind erupted in plumes of slush and muddy dirt. Tyler returned fire, but the helicopter lifted out of range. The baby startled and began to wail.
    “Eva, get behind me and stay down!” Jack ordered.
    Instead of obeying him, she threw herself across his chest.
    She was shielding the child, he realized. Damn, she was some woman. He wrapped his arm around her back and rolled over to reverse their positions. Once again, he ended up on his hands and knees on top of her. “Looks like we can forget about stealth, Duncan,” he shouted over Katya’s cries. He twisted his head to keep an eye on their pursuers. “You want to ask for a little help here?”
    “I’m already on it, Jack.” Duncan activated his transmitter and reported their situation in a few terse sentences.
    “He’s coming in for another run,” Tyler warned, readying a pair of grenades.
    An explosion rocked the truck. Eva screamed and clutched Jack’s arms as slush and rock chips pelted the canvas. Tyler’s second grenade exploded before it hit the road, putting out a shock wave that popped Jack’s ears. “Dammit, junior, we’ve got a baby here,” he yelled. “That’s too risky.”
    “You got a better idea, Jack?”
    The helicopter veered aside, then roared overhead. Jack gathered Eva closer, feeling the baby kicking between them, and braced himself. The canvas roof of the truck wouldn’t slow bullets the way the metal sides would. Depending on the ammunition the complex equipped their guards with, his body might not be enough protection for Eva and her child, but it was the best he could do.
    Yet the pain he’d anticipated didn’t come. The helicopter went past the truck’s unprotected roof and fired at the road in front of them.
    “We’re on our own, guys,” Duncan said, pulling off his headphones. “They’re sticking to the timetable. No evac until tonight.”
    Jack lifted his head to stare at him. “Say again?”
    “You know the drill, Jack. They’ve got no choice. We’re in too deep to risk a daylight flight. If they were identified they would compromise the operation.”
    Jack swallowed the rest of what he wanted to say. Duncan was right. Every man on the team accepted the risks when they went out. More often than not, Eagle Squadron did end up on their own. He swore and looked at Tyler. “Hey, junior. What’s the chances of you bringing down that chopper without frying us in the meantime?”
    “I could bring them down with a rock if they got close enough, but they’re keeping their distance. It looks as if they’re not even trying to hit us.”
    “They’re not,” Jack said. “They’re only trying to stop us.”
    “Why?”
    Jack looked from one man to the other. “They know we have Eva and Ryazan’s baby in this truck,” he said. “He wants them back alive.”
    Eva dug her fingers into his arms. “It’s Katya he wants, not me.”
    Jack focused on Eva. Her hat had come off. Her hair fanned around her head in a halo of platinum. It was an irrelevant detail. He didn’t know why he noticed it. Other than it looked all wrong against the bark and rust flecks of the truck bed. It was as pale as her baby’s. It was as soft as a whisper where it flowed over his wrists.
    Her expression wasn’t soft, though. It was as fierce as a warrior’s. She lifted her head from the floor to bring her face closer to his and spoke through her clenched teeth. “You can’t let him take her.