Read Cruz: Scifi Alien Invasion Romance (Hell Squad Book 2) for Free Online Page A

don’t get you back to base…they’ll kill you.”
    Marcus stepped forward. “You two keep Santha as comfortable as possible. Claudia, you bag Santha’s data. Gabe, contact Elle and call in a Hawk for pick up.”
    “There are raptors everywhere,” Gabe said. “It won’t be safe for a Hawk to land.”
    “Roof,” Santha forced out.
    Cruz nodded, hauling her closer. “Right, have them land on the roof. We’ll need to set some flares to guide them in.”
    Gabe nodded and rushed out.
    After that, everything seemed to move at double speed. Shaw pumped Santha full of some sort of sedative that left her feeling like she was floating. She still felt the painful cold, she just didn’t give a crap about it. She curled into Cruz’s warmth, enjoying the way he kept stroking her back.
    “Got everything.” Claudia came back to the living room, two bulging backpacks slung over each shoulder.
    “Hawk’s en route,” Gabe announced. “They want to do a hot extraction. They’ll get close enough for us to jump aboard but won’t land.”
    “That’ll do.” Marcus hefted his carbine. “Hell Squad, let’s hit the roof. Ready to go to hell?”
    “Hell, yeah!” they all responded. “The devil needs an ass-kicking!”
    They headed up the stairs, their boots pounding on the steps. They burst out onto the rooftop.
    Gabe and Marcus hurried to set the laser flares on the edge of the roof. Santha just watched in a daze. It was strange to have spent a year alone, with barely any human contact, and now be surrounded by this intense team of soldiers.
    Marcus touched his ear. “Elle says the Hawk’s almost here.”
    Santha frowned. Illusion systems couldn’t hide lights, and she didn’t see any lights in the sky. They wouldn’t come in with lights blazing for the raptors to see, but it took a damn good pilot with a big set of balls to fly into the city in the dark.
    Sure enough, the dark shape of the quadcopter appeared out of the darkness above them, flying silently, as it ran on a tiny thermonuclear engine and the rotors were shrouded to reduce their noise. The men ignited the laser flares and neon-green light speared upward. The Hawk adjusted course and headed straight for them.
    She watched the Hawk’s rotors tilt and the Hawk descended. About a meter above the roof, it stopped and hovered. Marcus leaped up onto the skids, yanking the door open.
    Cruz handed Santha to Marcus. The rest of the team leaped aboard, moving to positions by the doors, guns raised. Gabe climbed into the seat of a fixed autocannon.
    Cruz settled in a seat and Marcus handed Santha back over. She looked up at Cruz.
    “Why am I in your lap?”
    “I like you there, mi reina .”
    “When I’m not feeling as high as a supersonic jet, I’ll probably be pissed about this.”
    He smiled and damned if that trademark grin of his didn’t make his sexy face even sexier.
    “In case you haven’t realized,” he drawled, “I get turned on when you’re pissed at me.”
    A laugh burst from her. “You’re crazy.”
    Suddenly a shout came from the cockpit and the entire team tensed.
    “Incoming raptor ptero,” the pilot yelled. “Everyone hold on!”
    ***
    Cruz had just finished tightening the safety strap around himself and Santha when the Hawk veered sharply to the left.
    “Ptero?” Santha asked.
    “It’s what we call their ships.”
    The Hawk veered again.
    Shaw slammed into the wall, Claudia was cursing.
    Gabe let loose with the autocannon, sending bursts of green laser fire spitting out into the night.
    Cruz tightened his arms around Santha and craned his neck to see through to the cockpit.
    Finn—Hawk pilot extraordinaire—sat in the pilot’s seat, his hands doing a frantic dance across the controls. Through the cockpit window, Cruz saw the bright-red lights of two raptor pteros. The ships looked like giant pterosaurs, with two large, fixed wings sharpening to a pointed cockpit at front, and a long, tail-like back end.
    Suddenly, Finn threw