Manu (Hell Squad #16) Read online

  Kate’s fingers dug into Manu’s skin. “I know now that wasn’t as easy as you made it look.”

  He sighed. “No.”

  “Will you talk to me about it some more?” she asked quietly.

  He didn’t say anything for a moment and she thought he wasn’t going to. Disappointment trickled through her.

  His fingers tightened on her. “Yeah.”

  She smiled, so many emotions clogging her throat. “Okay.” She wished she’d been with him, been there to hold him.

  “After something like that happens to you, you have to alter your view of yourself and who you are,” he said. “Before, I was an ex-mercenary, a big brother, a berserker. It’s hard when all that ends in a blink of an eye.”

  “You’re still all those things,” she insisted.

  “I know. But I’m different, too. I had to rewrite my view of myself. Not better or worse, just different. Now I’m an ex-mercenary, a big brother, an ex-berserker, and head of the firing range and armory for the Enclave.”

  “You’re a pretty amazing man, Manu Rahia.”

  He smiled. “How about you show me how amazing?”

  “Again? I have twenty minutes until my shift starts—”

  He shifted, rolling her beneath him. “Then you’d better be quick.”

  His body relaxed and blood still humming, Manu stepped out into the sunshine. He felt happy. Even when his prosthetic foot caught on a rock and he had to catch himself, he smiled.

  Kate was one step ahead of him, and damn, she looked good in her armor.

  He loved that only he got to see under all her various types of armor. The physical and the emotional. She must have felt his gaze on her, because she glanced back at him. When her gaze met his, her cheeks went pink, and he grinned, knowing just what she was thinking about. She smiled back, and damn if he didn’t feel like he’d won the damned lottery.

  “I want to check out the mine site from last night,” she said.

  He nodded, and they walked quietly toward the patch of ground. In the distance, he saw the berserkers. They surrounded the small figure of Selena who was doing her thing to find the landmines. Tane was one step behind the woman, looking pissed off.

  “So, Tane and Selena?” Kate said.

  Manu grunted. “No idea what is going on there.”

  “Then you’re blind.”

  He wasn’t blind. He just wasn’t sure he wanted his brother falling for an alien woman with strange, powerful abilities. But that was a concern for another time.

  As they approached the crater, he felt the growing tension pumping off Kate. He gripped the nape of her neck reassuringly. He knew she was reliving every moment of the attack the night before. She’d checked in on Kendra, but the woman had been sleeping. He knew Kate was taking it hard.

  Manu waited for his own memories to surface, but they were strangely silent.

  The mine remnants had been removed. Kate skidded down the side of the hole, looking around the bottom of the crater.

  “How are they digging these in here?” she said. “Even digging a small tunnel takes time.”

  “They must have some sort of tech that does it for them.”

  She carefully prodded the dirt around her feet with her boot. And a second later, some of the dirt fell inward, tumbling away like a small waterfall.

  She’d uncovered a tunnel buried in the ground below.

  Manu frowned. “Kate.”

  But she was already crouching by the hole and leaning her head into it to look around. He watched as she pulled a flashlight off her belt and flicked it on.

  “It looks intact,” she said. “It’s big enough for a man to crawl through.”

  “It’s too dangerous,” he said.

  “We need to stop them, Manu. I’m damn well going to make sure that no one else gets hurt.”

  “Fuck.” He wasted no time skidding down into the crater, ignoring the ache in his leg. Then he touched his ear. “Enclave, we found a small, intact tunnel beneath the explosion site.”

  “Okay, Manu,” Indy replied. “What’s your plan?”

  He looked at Kate. She nodded.

  Manu sighed. “We’ll follow it, as long as it’s safe.”

  “Acknowledged. We’ll likely lose signal with you, so be careful.”

  “Give us thirty minutes. If we’re not back by then, send out the cavalry.” He glanced across the field to his old squad.

  “You got it, Manu. Stay safe.”

  “Sure thing, gorgeous.”

  When he looked up, Kate closed the comm line and raised a brow. “Gorgeous?”

  He smiled, liking the edge to her voice. “Indy is like a sister to me.”

  “But she’s not your sister. She’s a beautiful, vibrant woman.”

  The edge had deepened, and he yanked Kate close. “And I happen to like tough, serious women with a hidden side of wild.”

  He leaned down and nipped her lips. She tried to pull away, but he held her close.

  “You still feel me, Kate?”

  “What?”

  “Between your legs.”

  “Manu.”

  “Oh, my God, you guys.” Indy’s excited voice came across the comm line. “I don’t know what you guys are talking about, but you know, I have a drone on you. Saw that kiss. You guys are hot together.”

  Kate groaned and touched her earpiece. “Heading into the tunnel now, Indy.” She gave Manu a scorching look, then turned and dropped down into the tunnel.

  Manu followed her. He would have preferred to be in the lead, but he knew she’d fight him on it. Still, it was no hardship to crawl behind and watch her ass.

  An ass he’d touched, kissed, and clenched in his hands. Shit. He didn’t need a hard-on right now.

  She aimed the light ahead and they crawled along the narrow tunnel. It was uncomfortable crawling on his knee, but he ignored it.

  “Tunnel is still intact,” she called back.

  It was a tight fit. Not for Kate, but Manu’s shoulders brushed the edges of the tunnel. It smelled like ripe earth, and the roots of grass and various plants dangled beside them.

  Lucky he wasn’t claustrophobic.

  As they continued onward, the tunnel widened, and soon opened up enough that they could stand.

  He moved up beside Kate, cradling his carbine.

  “This part of the tunnel looks older,” he said.

  She flashed the light around, studying the walls. “You’re right. This has been dug into rock, and it looks like it’s been here a while. I think we’re inside one of the neighboring coal mines.”

  He nodded, and they continued down the wider tunnel. He could imagine mine workers moving through here on their way to dig up more coal.

  A dark, bulky shadow loomed ahead. He tensed, then quickly relaxed when he realized they were crates.

  For a second, he thought it was abandoned gear from when the mine had been active. But as they got closer, his gut clenched. The crates were made of bone.

  “Fuck,” he muttered.

  “Gizzida.” Kate moved to the nearest one and nudged the lid aside.

  The crate was filled with Gizzida landmines.

  “Holy hell,” Manu growled. “Look at all those damn things.”

  Kate cursed. “We have to stop them.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Kate’s fury was incandescent. The aliens were attacking them right under their fucking noses. She barely stopped herself from kicking the crates of landmines.

  “Let’s keep looking around,” Manu said, a frown on his face.

  She looked at her watch. “We only have another fifteen minutes left before we need to check in.”

  “We’ll be quick.”

  They continued down the tunnel, passing several shadowed side tunnels, with more crates of landmines stacked against the walls. So many. Too many. “Manu, we have to get back and report in.”

  He grunted, and she took that as agreement.

  Frustration chewed on her. She wanted to t
ake action. She wanted to do something. But she forced herself to turn around. The general and Niko needed to know what was going on.

  They headed back the way they’d come. She didn’t relish the thought of wiggling back through the small tunnel, but the quicker they got back, the quicker they could come up with a plan to deal with the raptors and their damn landmines.

  A harsh, scraping sound caught her ear and she stilled.

  Manu paused, his head cocked. He lifted his carbine. He’d heard it, too.

  Shit, should she turn her flashlight off? She stared at a tunnel that speared off to their left. It was small and dark. She squinted, trying to see through the thick blackness.

  Suddenly, a group of raptors burst out of the darkness.

  Shit. Kate whipped her carbine up and fired.

  Manu was firing too, laser fire lighting up the dark cavern, casting wild shadows on the walls. A raptor leaped at Kate and his big, scaly body slammed into her.

  Dammit. They hit the ground and the alien’s heavy weight knocked the wind out of her. Her carbine flew out of her hands. Fighting to draw a breath, she scrambled for the Gladius attached to her belt. She yanked the combat knife out and stabbed it into the raptor’s side.

  He grunted and she stabbed again, thanking her lucky stars that the exoskeleton built into her armor gave her extra strength. The raptor flopped on her, lifeless, and with a grunt, she heaved his weight off.

  When she leaped to her feet, she took in the fight before her. Two raptors were attacking Manu, fighting hand to hand.

  He was ducking and weaving, and getting in several good blows. She watched one raptor’s head snap back from Manu’s punch.

  The other rushed forward with a guttural grunt, and Manu went down on one knee, slamming a fist into the gut of the second raptor. The raptor stumbled back into the first one, and they both staggered.

  Kate spotted the light on her carbine on the ground, snatched her weapon up and took aim. A few well-placed shots, and both raptors slumped to the floor.

  “Let’s go,” she called out.

  Manu jumped up.

  Suddenly, she heard a strange clicking sound. They spun, pressed close together, both staring down their scopes.

  A nightmare appeared at the end of the tunnel. A huge, spider-like creature with six legs and a glowing red belly. The creature almost filled the entire tunnel.

  A creeper.

  She’d heard all about these damn creatures. They had huge, sucking mouths that could swallow a human whole. They then kept their victim in their bellies, where they injected them with alien DNA and turned them into raptors.

  She started firing. Manu reached over his shoulder and pulled off a large shotgun. He lifted the weapon as the creeper rushed forward. It raised its two front legs. One leg crashed down close to Kate, knocking the carbine out of her hands. The weapon skidded across the dirt-packed floor, and when the creeper reared again, its leg smashed down, destroying her weapon with a crunch of metal. The flashlight was still functioning, illuminating the creeper in a beam of white light.

  Wicked-sharp legs reared again.

  “Kate! Move.”

  She rolled out of the way. The boom of a shotgun reverberated off the walls and the creeper screeched, pulling back. One of its legs was dangling at an odd angle.

  Kate rolled to her feet and pulled the elite carbine Manu had given her off her shoulder. Despite being wounded, the creeper wasn’t done, and it skittered in again. Kate moved closer to Manu and they fired together. The whine of her carbine mingled with the boom of the shotgun.

  The creeper’s belly exploded and red-orange goo splattered all over them. The creeper collapsed and, grimacing, Kate lifted her arm, swiping it across her face. Ugh.

  Threat eradicated, she looked up at Manu, and he grinned at her. He had a streak of red gunk on his cheek. She smiled back.

  Another skittering sound. Her gut hardened.

  “Fuck,” Manu muttered.

  It was lighter than the sound of the creeper, but she doubted it meant things were better.

  She turned, aiming her light toward the shadowed end of the tunnel. Dozens of active landmines skittered toward them on tiny legs.

  Hell. She started firing again. Manu joined in, muttering more curses. But there were hundreds of the damn things.

  The laser cartridge on her carbine blinked out. Dammit. She quickly switched it to projectile mode, unloading thermo bullets into the mines.

  Very quickly, Kate and Manu were surrounded. They had nowhere to go. Shit.

  “Drop your weapons.” The English words were said in a deep, guttural voice.

  Her head jerked up. Double shit. Several raptors were striding toward them, weapons aimed. She quickly glanced at Manu and saw that his face had gone hard.

  The lead raptor had a red-leather bandolier over his scaled chest, and she guessed that denoted some sort of rank. He nodded at one of his raptors, and the alien stepped forward, the bombs moving to clear room for him. He aimed his poison-filled weapon at Kate’s head, red eyes burning into hers.

  Manu lowered his shotgun and, chest tight, Kate did the same. She let her modified carbine drop to the ground.

  More bombs danced out of the way as another raptor strode forward. Kate opened her mouth to speak, but the raptor moved, landing a vicious blow to Manu’s head.

  It was so sudden.

  “Hey!” she cried out.

  Manu staggered sideways and hit the ground hard. He was out cold. She moved to help him, but sharp claws gripped the back of her neck, stopping her.

  The raptor who’d hit Manu leaned down, grabbed the back of his armor, and started dragging him down the tunnel.

  Anger burned through Kate, hot and molten. She lifted her head to blast the raptors, but a large, scaled fist was coming right at her head.

  Pain exploded and blackness swallowed her.

  Manu came to with his head throbbing. Wincing, he took stock. He was sitting slumped against a hard wall. Low, red lighting glowed all around him.

  Something warm brushed his cheek.

  “Thank God.”

  He opened his eyes to see Kate watching him, stroking his cheek.

  When his vision came fully into focus, he could see her cheek was swollen and smudged with dried blood. Fury exploded inside him. Whoever had hit her would pay.

  Focus, Rahia. He realized they were sitting in a large cavern, and he heard raptors talking close by. A lot of raptors. He couldn’t damn well take them all down.

  Suddenly, he realized that his weapons were gone. Carbine gone. Shotgun gone. Knife gone.

  “You okay?” he murmured.

  She nodded. “I’ve been more worried about you. Damn raptor clobbered you really hard.”

  “I have a pretty hard head.”

  A faint smile crossed her face, and his gaze dropped to her lips. Damn, even in the worst of circumstances, looking at her mouth still made him think about sex.

  Manu looked over her shoulder. A group of raptors sat around a small fire, eating. He watched one lift a leg of meat and tear into it with sharp teeth.

  Scanning their surroundings, he saw they were in some sort of large, open area underground. The ceiling was rocky, but the walls were covered in some sort of concrete. Hulking mining equipment was parked off to one side, glowing dully in the red lights the aliens had set up to illuminate the tunnels.

  “We need to get out of here,” he said.

  She nodded, then she pointed.

  That’s when he saw an entire wall full of crates loaded with landmines. Except these bombs were far bigger than the ones they’d been defusing so far. Fucking hell.

  “Small ones were a test,” he mused.

  She nodded. “They’re planning to attack the Enclave.”

  “Options?”

  Her luscious mouth moved into a flat line. “Limited.”

  He looked again at the group of raptors and saw that the only way out of the room was on the other side of them. Kate was rig
ht. They only had shitty options. He looked back at her bruised face.

  “We need to set some of the bombs off.”

  Her eyes went wide. “What?”

  “Cause a mess, and in the chaos, we can escape.”

  “Shit.” She scraped a hand through her tangled hair. He could see that she was thinking. “Shit.”

  He nodded. “I know it’s not the greatest plan.”

  “It’s all we have.” She straightened her shoulders. “We’ll make it work.” Then she leaned over and kissed him. “Just don’t get yourself killed. That would really piss me off.”

  “I really don’t want to piss you off.” He smiled. “Think I must be growing on you.”

  She smiled. “Maybe.”

  “Let’s do it.”

  The raptors weren’t paying them any attention. Together, they both moved into a crouch and snuck slowly along the wall. They reached the first box of mines, and Manu stuck his hand in, and pulled one out. He pried open the side of the bomb and activated it. Little legs unfurled, wiggling.

  He handed it to her and grabbed another one.

  “Ready?” he asked.

  She pulled in a deep breath, lifting her bomb. She nodded.

  “Three, two, one.” They both tossed the bombs toward the raptors.

  Clunk. Clunk.

  Out of the corner of his eye, Manu saw one raptor leap to his feet. Rasping shouts echoed through the cavern. Then the first bomb exploded.

  Screams and grunts filled the air and Manu grabbed Kate’s arm.

  “Go, go!” he urged her.

  They jumped up and sprinted, sticking close to the wall. Suddenly, poison splattered the rock wall just behind them. Clearly, some raptors had survived the blasts.

  A raptor jumped in front of them. Manu aimed a kick into the alien. He grabbed the raptor’s scaly arms, swinging him around. After a quick scuffle, Manu managed to yank the alien’s weapon off him. He spun it around and fired at close range.

  The raptor fell backward, but there were more shouts of alarm. Another group of raptors was rushing toward them.

  He took a second to glance over at Kate. She was wrestling with another raptor. They spun in an unwieldy circle, and a second later, she and her opponent slammed into a stack of landmine crates.