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“Why is it so quiet?”
“Your earbud probably got dislodged when Liam tackled you.”
She felt a hand at her ear and then a slight pressure. Voices and noises exploded. In awe, Aubrey listened as the rescue went down.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Easing the door open, Liam peered inside the room. He jerked back a half second before a bullet would’ve hit him head on. They’d experienced little resistance but this guy in the attic was apparently intent on staying the course. Eve had handled one of the attic shooters quite handily. Now it was Liam’s job to convince this other guy that he didn’t want to go the same route.
“Habla English?”
“Yeah,” a man answered in a distinctly Midwestern accent.
“There’s no way out for you. The house is surrounded.”
“Then I guess we negotiate.”
“Not sure what you’ve got to negotiate with. Looks like we’ve got all the cards.”
“Oh yeah? What about this?”
“Please help me. I don’t want to die.”
Cursing under his breath, Liam took a step back to regroup. The voice had been a woman’s, quivering with terror.
“Okay, you do have some cards. How do you want to play this?”
“Me and the girl walk out of here. Once I’m safe, I’ll let her go.”
Yeah, right.
“What happens if I say no?”
“Easy. I kill the girl.”
“And then I kill you.”
“Maybe so, but you got a dead girl on your hands. I’m assuming that’s not in your plans.”
The guy had a point.
Liam stepped a few feet from the attic entrance and said softly, “Hey, Ash. You close?”
“On the second floor. Did I hear right? He’s got a hostage?”
“Yeah. Can you come up here and keep him busy? I’ve got an idea.”
“On my way.”
Should’ve expected this. The op had gone too smoothly. With the exception of the lookout that Eve had taken care of, they’d experienced almost no resistance. Yeah, a shot here and there but nothing they couldn’t handle. In his experience when something was too easy, there’s trouble brewing. He’d never lost a victim, and he wasn’t about to start now.
Ash came up behind him. “What’s the plan?”
“You keep him talking. I’m going to go at him from the outside.”
“How’s that?”
“There’s a balcony and a window.”