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Shit. He shouldn’t have taken off, but getting the higher ground was always important. Except in this case, where it had only wasted his time.

Jolie and Thea wouldn’t have returned to the kitchen, especially after someone crashed through the door.

He spotted the wetsuit resting over the back of a chair in a room none of them used. Jolie had probably moved it out of the way. She wouldn’t stay in the room where she’d left it, but it might lure in the shooters.

Ford pressed against the wall before peeking fully into the room with his gun ready. No one.

The house appeared quiet around him, but he knew that wasn’t the case. The home was huge. The main floor housed three living spaces, a library, the huge kitchen, the mudroom, a bathroom, and the laundry.

The women hadn’t gone up the stairs, but maybe they’d headed down. Or would they head for another room where they could climb out a window? That would be better than being trapped in the basement.

The shooters wouldn’t know the layout of the house, so they’d have to search room by room. Ford hadn’t studied the rooms enough himself, but there were a few closets in hallways and there were large cupboards beneath the tall shelves in the library and living spaces. If they were empty, the women could hide in there. Why hadn’t he ever looked to see if they were empty? Why hadn’t he checked the house more thoroughly to know all the hidey-holes and escape routes?

Because he’d never expected to have an active shooter situation here.

Thanks to his training, he kept his panic under control and his senses open. If Knox had found an opportunity, he would have hustled the women outside and into a car or the orchard. Unless there were more assholes out that way.

Ford cursed the lack of a sight line from the second floor. He didn’t even know how many assholes to look for.

A squeak alerted Ford to movement toward the middle of the house. Friend or foe?

He squatted to peek around the hallway corner and saw nothing. He moved toward the noise. A few steps later, he heard another squeak. He was closer.

Knox appeared a moment later from the far end of the hallway, his own gun up. If Knox hadn’t made the noise, someone was between them. The only question was if it was the women or the people attacking them.

The library sat along this hallway and as they closed in from both sides, another squeak proved someone was there. He doubted Jolie and Thea would wander the room if they were hiding inside, which meant it was likely the shooters. And they were going down.

With quick hand signals, he and Annie figured out their simple strategy. Ford high and right. Knox low and left.

Neither of them made a sound as they approached the door. Why were the assholes staying inside? It wouldn’t take long to search a room for the cylinder.

With a start, he realized he hadn’t spared Cyril a single thought. His duffle hadn’t been with the wetsuit, or in any of the places he’d seen. It was either where he’d dropped it in the kitchen or Jolie had taken it with her.

A voice inside the room confirmed it wasn’t the women. “We know you’re in there. Come out and we won’t shoot you.”

Damn it. The voice meant there were at least two of them. And it meant they’d spotted some sign showing the women were hiding in the library. Probably in the cupboards Ford had imagined earlier.

If the shooters were focused on the cupboards, they weren’t facing the door.

Good news.

Knox nodded once, and the two of them pushed through the door.

Two men stood across the room, guns aimed at the cupboards.

Ford growled low in his throat. These men had aimed guns at the women and they were going to pay. “Drop the weapons assholes, and you might live.”

Startled, both men whirled and tried to bring their weapons to bear on Ford and Knox. Too late.

He and Annie shot at the same time. The enemies’ guns clattered to the floor, and the men howled in pain. They dropped to their knees and clutched the shoulders of their shooting arms.

Ford cleared the weapons and Knox pulled out zip ties. Something they both carried with them at normal times. A habit they’d picked up in the army and never dropped. Zip ties were handy in all kinds of situations. Because Ford had been diving earlier, the zips were in his jeans, not in the board shorts he wore.

When they’d secured both men with their hands behind their back and their ankles tied together, Ford dragged one to the far side of the room to separate them. The ties would be difficult to break, especially with a bullet in the shoulder, but this way, they couldn’t help each other. Then he grabbed a blanket off the back of a chair and ripped it. The homemade gags wouldn’t be perfect, but they’d give him and Ford a few minutes.

Annie moved to the cupboards and kept his voice soft. “It’s me and Dodge. I’m opening the doors.”

They didn’t know how many assholes there were. No sense in alerting them two of their team were down.