Breaking Away Read online

  Breaking Away

  Delta Force Strong Book #3

  Elle James

  Twisted Page Inc

  Contents

  Breaking Away

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  SEAL’s Honor

  Chapter 1

  About the Author

  Also by Elle James

  Breaking Away

  DELTA FORCE STRONG BOOK #3

  New York Times & USA Today

  Bestselling Author

  * * *

  ELLE JAMES

  Copyright © 2020 by Elle James

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  © date Twisted Page Inc. All rights reserved.

  ISBN EBOOK: 978-1-62695-339-0

  ISBN PRINT: 978-1-62695-377-2

  Dedicated to my editor Delilah Devlin, my proofreaders and my dogs, Bandit and Charli, who almost didn’t let me make this happen. Love you all!

  Elle James

  Author’s Note

  Enjoy other military books by Elle James

  * * *

  Delta Force Strong

  Ivy’s Delta (Delta Force 3 Crossover)

  Breaking Silence (#1)

  Breaking Rules (#2)

  Breaking Away (#3)

  Breaking Free (#4) coming soon

  Breaking Hearts (#5) coming soon

  Visit ellejames.com for titles and release dates

  For hot cowboys, visit her alter ego Myla Jackson at mylajackson.com

  and join Elle James's Newsletter at

  https://ellejames.com/contact/

  Chapter 1

  “This is Kylie Adams reporting to you from the Logar Province of Afghanistan where Taliban forces have attacked an Afghan security outpost in a town only forty kilometers from the capital city of Kabul.” Kylie squatted behind the remaining wall of what had once been a school in the province, talking in low, clear tones into the microphone, while staring into the video camera.

  An explosion rocked the earth nearby, shaking dust loose from the jagged wall.

  “Did you get that?” Kylie asked, glancing upward.

  “Yeah. Can we get out of here before the battle comes to us?” Josh Bolton, her young cameraman, cringed every time a mortar exploded nearby.

  Kylie straightened and looked over the broken wall. “I want to get a little closer to the actual security building to show the damage.

  “Ma’am.” Sergeant Garcia, the Army Ranger assigned to escort her through the battle, pressed a hand to her shoulder. “You need to get down. Those are live rounds exploding, and those guns going off are using real bullets.”

  Kylie fought to keep from rolling her eyes. Just because she was a female on a battlefield, didn’t mean she was an idiot. She knew the risks and didn’t mind taking them to get the stories she had built her reputation on.

  Because she was in excellent shape and so good at being right down in the action, showing the human side of the conflict, she had earned a spot working with the Army Rangers while they were on maneuvers. She was sure it didn’t hurt that she was giving the U.S. Army Rangers some positive press on their war against terrorists.

  The current mission was to extract an Afghan informant whose cover had been blown. The U.S. owed him protection, and the man had vital information about the location of one of the Taliban leaders notorious for kidnapping women and children and selling them into the sex trade.

  She was going to be there for that extraction, if she had to low-crawl to the next location.

  “What? Seriously? Fuck!” Garcia said behind her.

  Kylie ducked below the wall and looked back at the soldier.

  The man who’d told her to get down touched his hand to his helmet and tilted his head slightly. “Roger. Will do.” His focus aimed at her, his lips thinning into a grim line. “Time to bug out. The point men are being overrun by bogeys. We have to get you out of here, before they get to us.”

  “But we haven’t gotten to Faaid, your informant.”

  “It’s my job to make sure you’re safe. Besides, they didn’t find him where he said he’d be. More than likely, he left when he saw it was getting hot.” He jerked his head. “We need to move quickly.”

  Garcia herded her and Josh back the way they’d come, zigzagging through the rubble of a bombed-out village.

  Shouts sounded behind them.

  She heard the soldier curse behind her, and then he yelled, “Run!”

  Kylie’s pulse jumped. She took off, scrambling over crumbled walls, piles of brick and rubble, followed by her cameraman.

  “We can’t outrun them,” her soldier said. “Make a left. We’ll find a place to hole up until they pass.”

  Kylie jagged left onto a street she could actually run down without tripping over stones and brick. The buildings on either side were damaged, and appeared unoccupied, but they were fairly intact.

  “On your left! That door,” Sergeant Garcia barked. “Get inside.”

  Josh burst through the door into the building.

  Kylie blew through behind him.

  Shots rang out in the street.

  Her heart in her throat, Kylie spun to check for the good sergeant.

  She was about to go out and look for him when he fell across the threshold and tried to drag himself inside.

  Kylie’s heart leaped into her throat. The man had been shot in the arm and leg. He wasn’t moving fast, and he couldn’t hold the rifle that fell through the door with him.

  “Help him,” Kylie shouted to her cameraman.

  Between Josh and Kylie, they dragged Sergeant Garcia into the building and slammed the door.

  “They’re coming,” the sergeant said through gritted teeth. “I. Can’t. Shoot.” He grimaced as he pressed his good hand to the wound in his leg.

  “We need to apply pressure to these wounds,” Kylie said to her cameraman.

  “You apply pressure, I’ll shoot anyone coming through the door.” Josh pulled off his T-shirt. “Use this.”

  “Bullshit.” Kylie shoved the shirt back at him. “I’m a better shot, and you know it.” She took the soldier’s rifle from him. “Drag him back behind that wall. I’ll take care of anyone coming through the door.

  Josh hesitated.

  She gave him a fierce frown. “You know I’m right. I grew up in Texas. I learned to fire a gun before I learned how to comb my hair.” She pointed to the back of the building. “Go. Now.”

  Josh jumped and snagged Garcia’s good hand. “Hold on tight.”

  The sergeant groaned as Josh dragged him across the floor into the back of the building, out of sight.

  Kylie grabbed the soldier’s weapon, ejected the magazine to check for rounds and slammed it back in. She had enough left to do some damage. Question was, did she have enough rounds to protect them from an army of Taliban fighters, if there were more than a few?

  She found a wall to hide behind for cover and lay down in a prone position, elbows on the floor, the weapon resting lightly in her hands, her finger on the trigger guard. She sighted down the barrel at the entrance to the building and waited. With each measured breath, she calmed her wildly beating heart and focused on defending her cameraman and the soldier who’d been tasked to protect her.

  “Holy shit,” Josh called out.


  Kylie’s heartrate spiked. “What?”

  “We’ve got company back here.”

  “What do you mean?” she called out as quietly as she could. “And hold it down. We don’t want to give away our location.

  Josh poked his head around the corner. “Faaid.”

  “What about him?”

  “He’s back here, hiding behind a pile of boxes.”

  “What?” Kylie glanced over her shoulder. Not like she could see into the back of the building, but seriously. The man the Rangers had been tasked with extracting was hiding in the back of an abandoned building.

  He probably hadn’t trusted the Americans to get him out alive and figured on getting himself out.

  Until the village had been overrun by a contingent of Taliban.

  A noise outside the building brought Kylie’s attention back to the entrance. “Shhh,” she said as loudly as she dared, hoping that Josh had heard her, but the people outside hadn’t.

  Footsteps pounded on the ground on the other side of the front wall. They passed.

  Kylie started to let out a sigh when more feet pounded the ground outside and stopped.

  Her breath lodged in her throat. The finger hovering over the trigger guard slipped onto the cool metal trigger.

  She drew in a slow, steadying breath and waited, remembering her hunter education class in high school. Be sure of what you’re shooting at before you pull the trigger.

  The people on the other side of the door could be friendly forces.

  Then again…they could be members of the Taliban. They were searching for Faaid, along with the Army Rangers. While the Rangers wanted to get him out alive, the Taliban wanted to eliminate him.

  If they knew he was inside the building where Kylie, Josh and Sergeant Garcia were located, they wouldn’t hesitate to storm in, take what they wanted and kill anyone who got in their way.

  Where were the other soldiers? Had the Taliban killed them? Holy shit. Were they on their own?

  The door slammed open.

  Kylie’s heart leaped into her throat. She swallowed hard to keep from letting loose a startled scream. Though her heart pounded against her ribs, she kept her hands and arms steady, her eyes trained on the man walking through the door.

  Dressed all in black with a black turban, he wasn’t one of their guys. He carried an AK-47 at the ready.

  A noise sounded from the rear of the building, like someone kicked a stone or dropped something on the hard floor.

  Kylie winced as if she’d been stung by a bee.

  The man at the door swung his rifle in Kylie’s direction and fired a burst of bullets, hitting the wall above her head.

  Apparently, he hadn’t had the same shoot-don’t-shoot training Kylie had. He was of the philosophy of shoot first, pick through the bodies later.

  And he was headed her way.

  Kylie trained her sights on him.

  The man let loose another burst of bullets.

  Kyle winced as debris from the wall rained down on her head.

  If he got past her, he’d kill the others. Kylie aimed for his left chest and squeezed the trigger.

  One round to the heart, and the man went down.

  “Kylie?” Josh’s voice called out. “You all right?”

  “I’m good,” she said. More footsteps pounded in the street outside the building heading their way. “But I don’t know for how long.” She sighted her weapon on the open door.

  A shadow raced past it, and then a man in black dove through, rolled to his feet and came up shooting.

  Most of Kylie’s shooting experience had been with stationary targets. She aimed and fired, but the man moved so fast, Kylie missed her first shot.

  The man turned toward her, his AK-47 aimed at her position.

  Kylie fired again, hitting him in the chest as he pulled his trigger.

  His bullet hit just above her head, showering dust and pieces of wall down on her.

  Another man raced through the door with a machinegun and started firing indiscriminately.

  Kylie pulled back behind her wall and lay as low to the ground as possible until the man ceased firing.

  Then she poked her head and the barrel of her rifle out and fired at the man.

  At the last second, he moved, and the bullet hit his arm, but not badly enough to keep him from setting off another burst of gunfire, getting closer to Kylie’s location.

  She ducked back and lay flat against the floor

  She couldn’t come out long enough to fire again, the man kept shooting short bursts.

  Shouts sounded outside, and the sound of men running worried Kylie. She would run out of bullets soon, if she got another chance to fire.

  The gunfire ceased, and the clang of metal hitting the floor told her the Taliban shooter was changing magazines.

  If she hoped to get this guy, she needed to do it while he was vulnerable, reloading his gun.

  Kylie leaned around the corner and aimed her rifle.

  The shooter slammed another magazine into the machinegun.

  Before he could raise it to fire, Kylie launched a bullet into the man’s heart.

  Four men ran through the door, all wearing the same black outfits and black turbans as the other two Kylie had nailed.

  She’d been lucky the first three times. The men had come in separately. How was she going to shoot four in a row?

  She aimed, fired and missed the first guy.

  The Taliban men all hit the ground, making it hard for her to aim at them.

  Slowly, they moved forward, inching their way toward her.

  Kylie’s pulse pounded in her ears. She couldn’t let the fact that there were four against one get inside her head and mess with her. She had to protect Josh, Sergeant Garcia and Faaid. They were depending on her.

  One of the men fired at her, hitting so close to her head, she could almost feel the buzz of the bullet zipping past her ear.

  She ducked back behind the wall for a moment, dragged in a deep breath and whipped back around the corner, her rifle aiming at the last position of the closest combatant.

  He wasn’t there. The Taliban soldier stood over her, his AK-47 pointing down at her face.

  Kylie gasped. She didn’t have time to jerk her weapon up to kill the man. As she stared up at the barrel of his gun, her life passed before her eyes. The last few years as a war correspondent, before that, falling in love with the one man she’d almost given up her dreams for. He was her only regret.

  Several shots were fired.

  Kylie waited for the pain but felt nothing except for warm blood spraying across her face.

  The man standing over her dropped his weapon, and then collapsed, landing on top of Kylie.

  His weight crushed the air from her lungs. Kylie fought to get out from beneath him, but he was too heavy. Who had shot him? Was there another enemy in the building? She had to get out from under the man and be prepared to protect her team.

  Suddenly, the dead Taliban man flipped over and landed on his back beside Kylie.

  She scrambled to bring her weapon up in her hands and aim at the man who’d saved her life, afraid he’d only saved her because he’d wanted the Taliban soldier to die. For all she knew, he’d want her and her team to die as well.

  Rolling onto her back, she aimed up at a different man staring down at her.

  He held up his hands. “Whoa, little lady. You don’t want to shoot your rescuer. It really destroys the whole superhero image.” He winked and smiled. As he stared at her, his smile slipped. “Kylie?”

  Those rugged good looks were a little more seasoned, but that voice could not be mistaken. Kylie’s heart stuttered. “Mac?”

  “What the hell are you doing out here in enemy territory?” he demanded, his brow descending.

  Even though he’d save her life, she bristled. “For the same reason you are.”

  “You came out here to shoot Taliban insurgents?” Mac shook his head. “I thought you were a journalist.”
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  “I am,” she said, pushing to a sitting position. “Things just got away from us. I had it under control.” She looked away.

  Mac snorted. “Under control when you were about to be shot in the head?”

  She shrugged. “Well, I did…until those last four came bustin’ through.” Kylie sighed. “I guess I should thank you for saving my life.”

  “Don’t sound so disappointed.” He held out his hand. “And you could do a better job of saying thank you.”

  Her lips pressed into a thin line as she laid her hand in his.

  Suddenly, she was yanked onto her feet and into his arms. He kissed her hard, his mouth claiming hers just like he had all those years ago.

  And just like she had every time he’d held her in his arms, she melted against him, her arm circling the back of his neck. She returned the kiss, hungry for him.

  She could have lost herself in him forever.

  “Kylie?” Josh called out. “You okay?”

  Mac held onto her a moment longer, finally releasing her lips, though his arm remained around her waist.

  “I’m okay,” Kylie called out, her voice husky. Safe from the Taliban, but not sure she was safe from heartache.

  “Is it safe to come out?” Josh called out. “Sergeant Garcia needs a medic.”

  “You can come out,” she said and stepped away from Mac.

  His jaw tightened the way it had when she’d walked away from him all those years ago. Yeah, she’d missed him, and the spark was still there on her part. Based on his kiss, he hadn’t forgotten her either.

  The spark was there, but had he forgiven her for choosing her career over him?