Page 24

Chapter Twenty-Three

The house was a fairly small, U-shaped rambler. Three bedrooms along one side of the U, then this living room, dining room, and a kitchen along the back, with the garage forming the other side of the U. The only places that were occupied were the living room and kitchen.

Simon and I kept watch. Him on the living room, me on the kitchen. We didn’t want to waste any time. This looked like an ideal time to strike.

“What do you think?” Simon’s voice came over the comm.

“I see one gun on the couch, and one gun on the coffee table,” I said. “Both of the men are occupied, one more than the other.”

“Agreed,” Simon concurred.

“I want to keep Maddie in the clear. The garage door connects to the kitchen. If I go in through the kitchen window, she should be able to slip into the garage while you and I engage Grizz and Bishop.”

“Got it. You want me coming in from the bedrooms?” Simon asked.

“Yeah. Use the rear corner bedroom window if you can, then come down the hall to the living room. Once you’re in position, I’ll breach through the kitchen, ensure Maddie made it to the garage. You take the guy eating. Neutralize him fast. I’ll cover the woman and the other one.”

“Copy that. Minimal force?”

“Only if they make us. Fast, quiet, and clean.”

We hadn’t really talked about it, but it just came about naturally that I was leading the op. Simon knew I needed to. He was a good man.

It was less than two minutes when Simon told me he was in position. I tapped on the kitchen window, where Maddie was staring out at the trees. She jerked.

I stood still, and I watched as she squinted. I wasn’t wearing night vision, since the house was lit up like a roman candle, so I knew she could make out my head, if not my face. At least not to begin with. I waited. I knew the exact moment she knew who I was.

Her relief was obvious.

I pointed down, and she immediately dropped out of sight. Damn, she was smart.

I jimmied off the window screen, then tried opening the window.

It was unlocked. Smiling, I opened it up and quickly slipped inside. I dropped down beside her.

She was trembling. Gray. Locked in place. Staring at me, her eyes huge.

Her arms were cut to hell, but from what I could see it was all superficial. I winced when I realized she was wearing one of the crop tops she loved so much. I desperately wanted to pull her into my arms. Turn her around and examine her back to see how much damage was done when she had been dragged through the glass, but we didn’t have time for any of this.

I put my mouth right to her ear.

“You good?” I whispered.

She nodded.

I pointed to the garage door six feet away. There wouldn’t be any cover when she ran from the kitchen to the garage door. “On my command, you run low to the garage. Get in there and close the door until I come for you. You got that?”

I saw her struggle to ask questions, but she didn’t, she just nodded.

“Good.” I smiled in appreciation.

“I’m in position,” Simon said through the comm.

I pointed at my ear, so that Maddie would know someone was talking to me.

“I’m ready,” I responded. “On my count.”

I mouthed to Maddie, “You ready?”

She bit her lip and nodded again.

I held up three fingers. As I counted down, I closed my fingers. “Three. Two. One. Go.”

Maddie fled toward the garage. Not nearly as fast as I would have thought she could. Something was definitely wrong, but I didn’t have time to worry about that. I had a job to do. I burst around the corner and in four long strides, I had my gun pointed at Grizz’s head as Simon tapped Bishop with a sharp elbow to the throat. It was brutal and fast.

Bishop lunged for the pistol again, so Simon slammed the heel of his boot down on the man’s wrist with a sickening crunch. Bishop screamed, but Simon didn’t let up. He flipped the man over with a knee to the ribs and wrenched his good arm behind his back, zip-tying him face-down in mashed potatoes.

The blonde’s head stopped bobbing and Grizz looked up at me with eyes that glittered dangerously. He reached for the gun beside him, but I’d already retrieved it and had it in my left hand.

Grizz turned his head slowly to his right and saw that his partner was incapacitated, and he slowly raised his hands.

Suddenly the blonde whipped around, her hair flying. I couldn’t see her face, only the glint of a knife as it came toward my thigh. I kicked out, and she slammed against the low coffee table in front of the TV. Grizz reared off the sofa toward me, his hands outstretched. Flicking my safety off, I aimed for his shoulder and shot. Blood sprayed as he jerked back, but he stayed standing, then he lunged again.

I sidestepped his lunge, drove my elbow into the back of his neck, and brought him down hard onto the coffee table, splintering the wood beneath his bulk. He rolled and tried to stand, so I wrapped my arm around his throat in a modified rear naked choke and yanked back. He flailed, grabbing at anything, everything.

The man was strong, but I’d spent fifteen years fighting stronger.

With a grunt, I shifted my weight and brought my knee into his side…once, twice, until he went slack. His breath came in wheezes, and his limbs twitched as I shoved him face-down and yanked his arm behind his back.

“Stay down, you hairy fuck,” I growled, zip-tying his wrists before checking his pulse. Alive. Barely.

“Watch out!” Maddie yelled.

I’d already seen the blonde coming at me again, but Simon yanked her back by the hair and subdued her with the contact stun to the side of her throat. She went down in a second.

“Get to the fucking garage!” I yelled at Maddie. If I’d had the time to be pissed, I would have been lava hot.

“These two are contained,” Simon said.

“On your knees,” I growled at Grizz. Hands on your head.”

“Can’t,” he gasped. “My arm won’t work.”

“I’ve got this. Go get Maddie,” Simon ordered.

What sweet words.

I nodded and ran to the garage. When I got there, Maddie was leaning against a work bench. Scratch that, she wasn’t leaning. She was hunched over and trembling. That’s when I saw blood trickling down her side, and the side of her jeans had a dark patch of blood that went from her waist all the way to her knee. How much actual blood had she lost?

“Maddie,” I whispered as I went to her. I went slow, not wanting to scare her.

“Beau,” she moaned, not looking up. Instead, her head fell to the bench.

I was there in an instant, picking her up, then dropping to the floor and holding her close. Every instinct, every atom of my being demanded that I squeeze her tight, wrap her so close that we were one being, but I couldn’t. I didn’t want to cause her pain.

She thrust her head between my shoulder and jaw and shuddered.

“You came,” she whispered. “You saved me.”

“Always, Maddie. I’ll always be here for you, from now on. For the rest of our lives.”

I took out my phone and pressed in Roan’s number.

“You good?” he asked.

“I need a medevac chopper to this address. Maddie’s lost a lot of blood.”

There was a half-second pause. “On it. I’ll call back with status, ASAP.” He hung up.

She wasn’t talking anymore, but I felt her warm breath against my neck.

“Maddie?”

Nothing.

“Maddie, wake up, baby.”

Nothing. I shook her gently.

“Beau?”

“Stay with me, baby.”

“Always. Loves youz,” her words were slurred.

My phone rang. It was Roan.

“The chopper will be there in fifteen.”

“Good.”

“Anything else I can do?” he asked.

“Pray.”