Read Online Navy SEAL Noel by Liz Johnson - Free Book Online Page A

sharp, tangy soap she’d smelled earlier enveloped her senses. He jogged toward the building still ringing with the early-morning commotion and ran along the wall. They dodged the square of yellow light on the ground, ducking below the window ledge.
    â€œAre we still going to try to get on a truck?”
    He responded with a curt nod as he stepped into the open alley between two buildings. “If we can make it to the lab and back in time.”
    Jess’s arm was nearly jerked out of its socket before she realized he’d taken off running, his fingers clamped around her wrist. Lights blazed in every window they passed now, and loud voices called to one another. Under the ruckus, Jess heard the sound of heavy, purposeful footsteps marching ever closer.
    At least twenty yards from the lab building, Will jerked her against a wall, her elbow scraping the rough cinder blocks. “What—”
    In a second he had his hand over her mouth, pressing her into the wall so insistently she felt it might give under the pressure. Her chest was already painfully tight from the excitement and running, and his palm blocked any real air she might find. In the darkness she could just make out Will’s wide eyes, just before the elongated shadow of a hefty, overweight man spilled between the buildings. A guard—one she hadn’t seen before.
    Will’s heart thundered against her palm, which she’d flattened against his chest. Pressing a finger to his lips, he took a step toward their visitor.
    Her breath caught, and she clamped her mouth closed, praying for silence.
    â€œRaul!” The voice came from several yards behind the armed guard—another of Juan Carlos’s lackeys on night patrol.
    Jess pressed her back against the wall, trying to disappear into the night, but Will stood in front of her, far too exposed and vulnerable, with only the corner of a building for cover.
    Raul’s shadowy figure turned, waving off his pursuer, who had called out to him, and kept marching right toward Will.

FIVE
    W ill took a deep breath through his nose and let it out, willing his pulse to slow, trying to make every second last an hour. The lights from the barracks cast an eerie, yellow glow into the darkness he’d been counting on to hide their escape. No matter how tightly they clung to the wall, if anyone got close enough to spot them, he and Jess were sitting ducks.
    Five yards away, Raul grunted and scratched his gut. His companion had turned around when Raul waved him off and ambled back toward the courtyard. Raul’s lone shadow moved across the grass path as if he hadn’t even realized Will and Jess were there.
    Will wrinkled his nose as sweat peppered the back of his neck. They were just in the wrong place at the wrong time, and it spelled disaster.
    And he had only two options.
    Fight or run.
    Will could easily take the guy, especially with the element of surprise. But not without blowing his cover as a mild-mannered scientist. And certainly not without drawing plenty of attention.
    Three yards from the corner, the guard must have seen a shadow, because he suddenly shifted his grip on his weapon. He held it tighter, his steps becoming slow and methodical. “Is someone there?”
    Will reached for Jess’s hand and squeezed it. Even in the dim light he could make out the tight line of her lips and the rapid blinking of her eyes.
    No matter what happened, he couldn’t risk leaving her to face these men alone, so his only option was to run.
    He pulled her close and pressed his lips against her ear. “Let’s go.”
    She blinked once, nodded and took off.
    His shoes slipping on the wet grass, Will stayed on her six as they reached a corner.
    â€œTurn.” With a hand at her waist, he steered her into a passageway between more barracks, but a glance over his shoulder revealed that he’d been a fraction of a second too late.
    â€œIs someone there? Stop! I see