He had hated the idea of her going off by herself from the beginning, but he knew she had no choice and had shown a helluva lot of guts to do it. She did it because she loved Nick. Novak understood how a person could love somebody that much, and only too well. Booker’s simplistic plan for extraction didn’t sit well with Novak, either, or anything else about the whole damn stupid scenario. Although he did understand Claire’s reasons, truth was she never should have gotten onto that helo. Nick Black had been right when he had demanded that she be left behind when and if he was ever captured. She was nothing now but the enemy’s prime pawn to use against Nick, human bait, human sacrifice, and they all knew what the bait was for. Even Nick had foreseen that. And soon, Black just might have to watch the woman he loves die in front of his eyes, helpless to do a damn thing about it. As soon as the chopper had flown out of sight, Will grabbed his gear and weapons of choice, a Colt AR 7.62 NATO with a Leupold VX-3 scope, and his personal .45 handgun, a Kimber 1911, and followed John Booker and Jack Holliday out to Black’s silver and black Humvee.
