Kade’s Worth
Heather Slade
A Butler Ranch Prequel
Kade’s Worth
Copyright © 2020 by Heather Slade
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Also by Heather Slade
BUTLER RANCH
Available Now!
Book One: Brodie
Book Two: Maddox
Book Three: Naughton
Book Four: Mercer
Book Five: Kade
Butler Ranch Boxed Set: Books 1-5 with Bonus Book: Ainsley
K19 SECURITY SOLUTIONS
Available Now!
Book One: Razor
Book Two: Gunner
Book Three: Mistletoe
Book Four: Mantis
K19 Security Solutions Boxed Set: Books 1-4
Book Five: Dutch
Book Six: Striker
Book Seven: Monk
Coming Soon!
Book Eight: Halo
MILITARY INTELLIGENCE SECTION 6
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Book One: Shiver
Book Two: Wilder
Book Three: Pinch
Book Four: Shadow
Military Intelligence Section 6 Boxed Set: Books 1-4
THE INVINCIBLES
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Book One: Decked
Book Two: Edged
Book Three: Grinded
Book Four: Riled
Coming Soon!
Book Five: Smoked
COCKY HERO CLUB NOVELS
Book One: Undercover Agent
Coming Soon!
Book Two: Undercover Saint
Book Three: Undercover Angel
Book Four: Undercover Devil
KB WORLDS EVERYDAY HEROES
Coming Soon!
Book One: Handled
COWBOYS OF CRESTED BUTTE
Available Now!
Book One: Fall for Me
Book Two: Dance with Me
Book Three: Kiss Me Cowboy
Book Four: Stay with Me
Book Five: Win Me Over
Cowboys of Crested Butte Boxed Set: Books 1-5
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
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Brodie
About the Author
Also by Heather Slade
1
It was always a trade-off…whether he wore the restrictive dust goggles that fogged up and made him so sweaty that he couldn’t see through them anyway. Or, suffer the flying sand that would blast into his eyes because his fifty-fifties—night vision goggles—didn’t provide an adequate shield.
After coming within seconds of dying only minutes earlier, sand in his eyes was the last thing Kade should be worried about as he stood at the landing zone with the rest of his element, waiting for extraction.
He scanned the surrounding landscape for signs of any approaching threat during what was—next to the approach on a target—the most vulnerable part of any operation.
“K19-Bravo, this is Tetrus. Over,” he heard through the bone conduction bud in his left ear.
“Tetrus, this is K19-Bravo. Good copy.”
“Two minutes out. Rope me in, Doc.”
“Roger that.” Kade moved his laser first in a circular motion over his head to give the helicopter pilot a general target. Next, he repeated the same motion on the ground to give him the desired touchdown point.
“Impose radio silence. Over,” he said to his element through his mic. In an op like this, strict radio discipline was always exercised to mitigate the inevitable confusion caused by noise, obscured vision, and the stress of quickly loading and accurately accounting for all personnel. Every small unit leader’s nightmare was leaving someone behind.
As he waited for the aircraft to land, he counted the seconds in which its sound progressed from a brassy hum, to a rhythmic rattle, and finally to the thundering rumble and loud slap as it drew closer to the earth.
The hulking image of the helicopter momentarily disappeared and then materialized back out of the billowing dust storm caused by the rotor blades’ “prop wash.” The build-up of static electricity at the rotor tips created the appearance of a dusty, yet luminescent halo hovering over the unwieldy aircraft as it settled to a clumsy stop.
Kade sprung from a kneeling position and sprinted in a crouched posture toward the aft ramp of the aircraft as it lowered like the jaw of a huge great white shark.
Standing at the trailing edge of the ramp, he took an extra step toward its port side and stopped. As each man loaded into the troop compartment, Kade tapped them on the shoulder to obtain an accurate head count.
When the last man loaded, Kade ran in and took his seat next to the crew member manning the MG 240 machine gun in the starboard gun door. Another mirrored his action on the port side.
“Tetrus, this is K19-Bravo, chalk one is up,” he said through the mic, signaling the pilot that all personnel were accounted for and prepared for lift off.
“K19-Bravo, this is Tetrus. Roger that, good copy. Exfil, exfil, exfil.”
The rotary-winged albatross carrying him and his team lurched forward, teetering from side to side as it lifted from the ground—the pitch of the engine noise intensifying in concert with the speed of the main rotor.
As lift and forward speed increased, Kade closed his eyes in anticipation of that brief moment when the air passing through the two open doors would hit his exposed skin, wet with perspiration. The refreshing feeling was fleeting as the radiant heat from the bird’s turbine engines overcame the cooler air, and the furnace-like heat blew through the troop cabin.
Peering through the gun door, Kade looked out at the vast, barren, desert floor and its endless variations of geometric markings, wondering as he had so many times before, what purpose they served and whom might have etched them on the landscape.
He reached up and extinguished the infra-red strobe attached to the top of his ballistic helmet. Soon, the opposition would acquire the technology and the tactical advantage they had now, would be lost. By then, though, men like his father would stay one step ahead, developing things men like Kade had never even dreamed of.
As the helicopter reached cruising altitude, he did a quick equipment check, turning off the small GPS mounted on his left wrist to spare the batteries.
As he did repeatedly during the course of an operation, he checked the selector switch on his M4 with his right thumb to ensure it remained in the safe position. He would keep his weapon hot, though, until they were back on the ground.
He leaned back against the skin of the aircraft and reached for the power switch on his fifty-fifties and turned them off. He rotated the goggles up away from his face, and locked them into position above the forward lip of his helmet.
It took a few seconds for the visual purple in his retinas to adjust to the darkness
