Delta Force Defender. Carol Ericson

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       Prologue

      A bug scuttled across his face, but Major Rex Denver didn’t move one coiled, aching muscle. Twenty feet below him at the bottom of the hill, an army ranger team thrashed through the bushes, their voices loud and penetrating in the dead of the Afghan night.

      Rex clenched his jaw as if willing the rangers to do the same. Didn’t they realize this mountainous area was crawling with the enemy?

      His eye twitched. To those rangers, Major Rex Denver was the enemy.

      He didn’t blame those boys for being out here searching for him. Hell, he’d be out here hunting down a traitor to his country, too.

      He resettled his rifle and rested his finger on the trigger, not that he’d ever use it against any branch of the US Military. If the rangers found him, he’d go peacefully—but they’d never find him.

      He’d started as a ranger himself, and after twenty years in Delta Force, leading his own team, he’d honed his skills at subterfuge and escape to perfection. They wouldn’t catch him, but he’d die before he allowed the enemy that roamed these hills to catch those rangers.

      One of the rangers yelled out. “Come out, come out, wherever you are.”

      Rex rolled his eyes. If that soldier was on his team, the wrath of hell would come down on him for that behavior. Rex had to bring the hammer down on Cam Sutton, one of the younger Delta team members, more than a few times for reckless behavior.

      Someone issued a whispered reprimand from out of the darkness.

      The young soldier answered back. “I don’t care, sir, this is wrong. Major Denver’s no traitor.”

      Rex believed he had the loyalty of most of the soldiers who knew his reputation, but the evidence against him was overwhelming. Why him? He and his Delta Force team must’ve stumbled on something big for someone to take them out of the picture. And he hoped to have a long time to figure it out.

      A twig cracked to his right, and Rex’s gaze darted toward the sound. Something glinted in the thick foliage. He flipped his night-vision goggles over his eyes and picked out the man crouched in the shadows, his focus on the team of rangers below.

      Adrenaline flooded his body, and his heart hammered in his chest. Were there more? He scanned the area beyond the stealthy intruder. If this interloper wasn’t solo, his companions weren’t within striking distance of the rangers...at least not yet and not before the rangers could respond with their own firepower.

      If Rex took out the enemy, he couldn’t do it quietly. And once he made his position known, the rangers would swarm the mountainside and capture him.

      He cranked his head around slowly, eyeing the steep drop-off behind him. He’d seen worse.

      Rex popped up from his hiding place, and in the same motion he took the shot. It took just one. The enemy combatant pitched forward, his gun shooting impotently into the sky above him.

      The rangers came to life as they fanned out and charged the hill.

      Rex clutched his weapon to his chest, and rolled off the edge of the cliff into the dark unknown.