A Soldier's Heart Read Free Page A

keeping his back to the wall as he inched farther into the dim interior. Kelly followed close behind, taking the other side.
    A movement had Spence bringing up the barrel of his gun, ready to fire. Son of a bitch, it was woman and two small boys. That didn’t mean they weren’t armed. He motioned for them to get down on the ground. The mother put herself between Spence and her kids and held up her hands, her dark eyes pleading with him not to pull the trigger.
    He went with his gut that they offered no threat and kept going. No doubt Nick had picked this house because it offered access to the roof. Spence headed for the staircase, going slowly after leaning in far enough to take a quick look around. All clear. He started up the steps, back to the wall, listening hard for any sign of company.
    Kelly waited until Spence signaled for him to start up the steps while two more men took their positions at the door. It was the same dance they’d all done a hundred times before.
    Where the hell were Leif and Nick? The silence above him was ominous. He kept moving. At the top, he did his prairie dog imitation, sticking his head up long enough to do a three-sixty look.
    The roof was empty. Nick and Leif had moved on, but where? Spence stepped out onto the roof, running low toward the waist-high wall that separated this house from the next one over as the rest of the squad fanned out behind him. Nobody there, either. Spence swung back to check the street below in case they’d already come back down. No dice. The rest of the men were moving up and down the street in a well-trained ballet, covering each other’s asses as they checked one building after another.
    The need to find his friends was riding Spence hard. He headed across the rooftop to climb over the wall to the house that faced the other street. The gunfire was louder now. When Spence reached the street side of the roof, he risked a quick peek over the edge. Just as he did, he spotted a shooter on the roof of the building on the opposite side of the street.
    The guy was too intent on firing at the trucks down below to notice he’d been made. Spence made sure the bastard would never make that mistake again. Moving on, he constantly swept his focus from side to side, back and front. No sign of Leif or Nick. When he reached the next roof, a familiar voice shouting out a warning.
    Spence rushed forward just as another shooter popped up across the street. It was getting on toward sunset, making it harder to see clearly, but the next burst of fire revealed the shooter’s position. Spence pulled the trigger as he ran forward to the edge of the roof.
    Sure enough, Leif had just exited the next building over, running low and trying to keep the truck between him and the enemy. Spence let out a sharp whistle. His friend looked up long enough to acknowledge Spence’s signal and then eased forward. Spence did his best to keep pace from above. He hoped like hell that Leif knew where the sergeant was, because he didn’t see him anywhere.
    Finally, he spotted Nick. The dumbass had broken every damn protocol he’d practically beaten into every man under his command. He was at least two blocks ahead of his nearest backup armed with just his rifle and a sidearm. It looked as if there was at least one man down near a smoldering truck, but it was hard to pick out many details from this distance. To complicate things, there had to be half a dozen or more shooters on the rooftops between Spence and where Nick was pinned down.
    Leif stopped and looked back up at Spence. Using hand signals, he made it clear what he needed Spence to do. God help them both. The distance between this building and the next was within jumping distance, but just barely. And for the time Spence was in the air, he’d make a damn fine target.
    He took off running, hitting the next roof in a controlled roll and came up firing. He kept shooting until he had to reload. Leif had taken cover inside a doorway, but once