Free SEALs of Honor: Mason by Dale Mayer Page A

Good-bye jaunt in the back woods. Hello more scary helicopter ride and more military.
    The military she’d take any day. Now getting back into another helicopter – so not.
    Her stomach knotted at the reminder of her free-fall the last time. It would be good to go back in, just like falling off a bike. You had to get back on again immediately.
    This was a whole different story. She’d do the bike thing any day. The helicopter, however… She took one deep breath, then another deep breath. The third one almost felt natural.
    Until she noticed the driver keeping a careful eye on the road. She knew Mason wouldn’t have let her leave if he didn’t think it was safe to do so. But what if they were being followed? What if someone had tracked them to the house and was waiting to make their move.
    Mason really shouldn’t have let her leave alone. She hated that she only felt safe with him beside her. It was understandable after what she’d been through but…that was going to be difficult in the future.
    Damn it, her mind was back on Mason again. And that long lovely expanse of bare skin she’d woken up to. She’d always been a morning person. To think he’d been there in her bed, and she didn’t have the right to touch. She could have persuaded him…maybe, but she didn’t want a ten minute bounce in bed. She wanted to get to know him. Yeah right. She wanted to jump his bones. But she couldn’t have handled rejection this morning, and he would have turned her down.
    With a groan she leaned her head back, determined to forget the man. And that wicked kiss he’d laid on her.
    “You all right, ma’am?” Cooper asked her, concern written on his face.
    She mustered up a bright smile. They were all lovely men. “I’m fine. Just not looking forward to going on another helicopter.”
    “You’ll be fine.”
    Right. She was pretty damn sure she’d been told that right before the last helicopter blew up. But there was no point in bringing that up again.
    “I’m sure I will.”
    The second man pointed at something in his rearview mirror. He had some kind of phone in his hand, but it looked big, odd. More like a GPS unit but with other capabilities. Interesting. She loved technology. She and Harry had both been big on computers growing up.
    Now she wished she had something in her hands. She had no phone, or purse, so no ID. She felt cut off from the world.
    Especially without Mason.
    Then her world exploded.
    The first shot shattered the rear window and punctured a hole right through the front windshield.
    She screamed and leaned over. That was when she realized Johann’s blood was all over the front dash. And Cooper was swearing a blue streak.
    Oh no. Oh crap. Oh Lord. Please not again. She unbuckled her seatbelt and hit the floor.
    “Hang on,” Cooper yelled at her.
    But the SUV was zigging and zagging so severely across the road as the driver tried to avoid letting the shooter get a clean shot at him that it was damn near impossible to hang on. She leaned forward over the center console where the passenger was slumped and checked if he was breathing. She hadn’t seen where he’d been shot, but she didn’t need to look twice.
    Except…he held a gun in his hand. She reached forward and pulled it free. It was covered in…yeah, she didn’t want to know. She wiped off as much as she could but kept being knocked over with Cooper’s evasive maneuvers. She tried to pull herself up enough to look out the back window.
    “Stay down,” Cooper snapped.
    The SUV lurched to the side, taking her with it. Damn it. She crawled to the back of the vehicle, sat up, her head hidden by the rear corner of the big machine. But now she had a clear view out the busted rearview window.
    Her gaze narrowed as she realized something else.
    She had a clear shot.
    Of a man leaning out of the window getting ready to take another shot.
    She lifted the pistol. Checking that the safety was off, and using all the techniques she’d applied many