Book Tour: Tangled Pursuit by Lindsay McKenna

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Excerpt:

“Just as Wyatt gripped a branch, hauling himself up on shaky legs, the rain

suddenly eased, giving him an instant view of his immediate surroundings. His

eyes widened as he saw a dozen tree trunks that had been snapped off and

were now a pile of giant toothpicks jammed up along the side of the ridge.

“Tal!” he roared, cupping his hands to his mouth. Wyatt didn’t give a

shit about anyone hearing him now. His voice was muted by the thunder and

the continuing gusts of wind. As he surged toward the pile of trees near

their destroyed hide, he looked up.

The entire cliff that had once been above them was gone. Wyatt saw

fifty or so pine trees sticking out at odd angles within the mud avalanche

that had created this wall of debris. Breathing hard, he reached the trees

jammed together on the ridge.

“Tal!” he yelled, starting to climb up on the unstable pile, searching for

her. Oh, God, let her be alive! Wyatt yanked his attention toward the slope.

Their hide had been completely buried beneath a six-foot wall of mud. Thank

God they had gotten out in time, but where the hell was she?

Where are you, Tal?

Slipping on the bark of a trunk, Wyatt fell, skinning his legs as he was

hurled down into the logs. And then he saw her. She was lying, unmoving, one

leg trapped beneath the broken trunk of the smallest tree.

Oh, God! No!

Scrambling, Wyatt leaped over the other two tree trunks, landing on

the soft, muddy ridge.

Wyatt raced around the end of the group of trees, dropping to his

knees next to Tal. Her flesh was colorless, her lips parted, mud splattered

across her body, face, and hair. Instantly, he tore off his gloves, pressing

two fingers against her carotid artery on the side of her slender neck.

There was a pulse!

She was alive! Her pulse was thready and unsteady, and his gaze took

in her leg, trapped beneath the tree. His mouth tightened as he moved

swiftly, trying to lift the trunk off her leg. Even a man as strong as he was

could recognize the superior power of the fallen trunk. He didn’t have a

chance.

Wyatt’s mind raced and he grabbed his sat phone. It wasn’t

waterproof, and he kept it in a huge Ziploc bag to protect it. His hand was

shaking so hard he had trouble dialing the number to connect him with SEAL

HQ at Bagram. When the phone connected, he bent over, protecting it from

the rain, putting it to his ear. The OIC, officer-in-charge, answered. Trying

to keep his voice calm, Wyatt gave his CO a quick picture of what had

happened. “I need a QRF, quick reaction force, and medevac right now,”

Wyatt told him, his voice shaking as he gave him Tal’s present medical

status.

“On its way,” his CO said, his voice grim.

Wyatt gave him their GPS. He knew what would happen. There were

always six SEALs sitting in a CH-47 helicopter idling on the runway at

Bagram, ready to take off. They were a quick reaction force. They’d find two

Apaches—God, he hoped there were two available—that would fly with them

to protect them as they raced to this mountainside. With them would be a

medevac Black Hawk.

He put the sat phone away, returning to digging out the soft mud

beneath Tal’s leg. Wyatt knew it was broken and his mind raced over

horrifying possibilities as he dug. There were two major bones in the lower

leg. There was a major artery, too. If either or both bones were broken, it

could tear into the artery and Tal could bleed out in a matter of minutes and

die.

He dug hard and quickly, mud flying in all directions behind him. Wyatt

measured the length of the tree trunk that had trapped Tal. There was no

way anyone, not even a group of SEALs, could move that log. Tears filled his

eyes as he removed the debris around her leg.

Now Wyatt’s heart dropped. He saw that her right ankle was twisted

outward at an odd angle. Worse, he saw her calf had become swollen. It

meant the artery had been torn. How badly, Wyatt didn’t know, but it wasn’t

good.

The rain began to ease. The thunder was rumbling to the east of the

mountain now. The wind had stopped gusting. Wyatt could smell the earth,

the scent of pines strong around him as he completely exposed Tal’s leg.

Taking his SOF knife, he slit her cammie trouser from her ankle to up above

her knee.

Gently pulling the flaps aside, Wyatt got his first good look at her

injury. The best news was that her skin was scraped and bruised but not

broken. He ran his hand down across her calf, feeling the spongy swelling

caused by blood leaking from the broken artery.

Because Tal was unconscious, he could probe a little more deeply.

Damn! Both her bones were fully fractured, the ends separated from one

another. Why one or both had not ripped through her skin, he’d never know.

But it was a miracle.

Wyatt knew if she’d sustained an open fracture, she could have bled

out quickly, but fortunately, the pressure of the blood swelling inside her

calf was actually slowing down the flow of blood out of her artery and into

the surrounding muscle tissue.

Had Tal been struck in the head by a log and knocked out? He needed

to do a quick head-to-toe exam on her and try to see what other injuries she

might have sustained. Shakily getting to his feet, he looked around, peering

through the light rain for any signs of the enemy. Wyatt doubted there

would be anyone around. But they were in the badlands, and anything could

happen.”