Page 3

Chapter

Three

ALPHABET

I gave it a beat as they headed out, Bones leaving with Gracie wasn’t my favorite.

Especially with the research we still needed to do.

Gallo would break far sooner than he realized.

He’d already provided us with a great deal of data.

Accessing his data servers from offsite was a hell of a lot easier with his biometrics.

Goblin huffed out a sigh as the door closed behind them. I got Bones wanting to talk to Grace. He didn’t trust her. Not fully, but he also didn’t know her. The challenge there was he didn’t want to know her. That was an issue they needed to resolve for themselves.

In choosing to go with him, Grace made a good call. At least, I hoped she had. The friction between the two needed resolution. Cap wouldn’t trust her until he got to know her. His dismissive attitude and coldness would keep her at arms length and she already struggled on so many fronts.

He made for an easy target for her anger, disappointment, worry, and hurt. If I saw it, then I knew he’d seen it too. “Good first step,” I murmured. They needed to find detente.

It hadn’t been ten minutes when the alert sounded that the gate was opening. That was swifter than expected. I tabbed swiftly to the security cameras. The gate was closed. No vehicle. No people.

The yellow light flickered on the pad. That meant the gate was open or opening. The camera said one thing, the screen said another.

We had company. I sent the alert down to Voodoo and Lunchbox before I patted the laptop in apology.

Terminating all external connections, I locked it down.

It had a deadman’s switch in its programming.

Any attempt to decrypt the password and it would auto erase several times until the data was utterly unusable.

One single opportunity to enter the correct passcode or the machine was toast. So either I opened it or it didn’t boot up.

“Komen,” I told Goblin as I rose, and yanked the thumb drive from the computer.

I stowed it into the pocket of his harness.

Afterwards, I closed my laptop with one hand and carried it with me.

Too much glass right here and I wanted a better position to welcome our guests.

Lunchbox was already at the top of the steps as I rounded the corner. Voodoo appeared right behind him. “How many?” Voodoo asked as he checked his weapon.

“At least one full five-man team, and a backup.” I passed them my phone. I’d tied security through it. “They have the gate cams looped. Swipe right, you’ll see the street cam.”

“Got it.” Voodoo eyed it. “Two vehicles. Four motorbikes. Five man team on point and another in reserve. They have a couple keeping watch on the gates.”

He cut his gaze up to me then Lunchbox. We had options.

The bigger question was how did we want to do this?

We’d known an attack would come, it was only a matter of time.

Grace not being in the house helped. I wasn’t a fan of her being where I couldn’t see her during this, but she also wasn’t right in the middle either.

“Bones is going to be pissed,” Lunchbox said, though his wry tone shrugged off any actual emotional weight for the sentiment.

“Luck of the draw,” Voodoo said as he passed my phone back to me. “Third team just arrived, probably for the scoop.”

“I’m starting to think these guys don’t want to take no for an answer.” Lunchbox pressed a hand to his chest. ”It’s almost touching.”

“Well, Lieutenant,” I said as I scanned the screens one last time before tucking it away. “Sixty seconds. What’s our play?”

“Well, they’re knocking, and it would be downright rude to keep them waiting.” Voodoo pursed his lips before he glanced at Goblin.

“Rude can be fun under the right circumstances.” The observation from Lunchbox made me grin.

“So can taking them up on it.” Which was where I leaned at the moment. Frankly, Gallo had information we could use. Getting it out of him wasn’t even that challenging, save for the fact he didn’t seem to really understand what he actually knew. Irritating, rich dick.

A little pop of breaking glass had Voodoo moving as a canister landed on the foyer’s tile floor. He picked it up and lobbed it right back out the broken window. The gas exploded out there, along with a lot of cursing.

“We’ll think about taking them up on their offer,” Voodoo said over his shoulder. “But they need to woo us first.”

“Woo?” Lunchbox snorted, but he raised his gun at a flash of movement from the rear of the house. I drew back a step with Goblin pressed right to my leg and out of sight. He fired three shots rapidly. Two in the chest and one in the head of the man trying to get through the glass door.

I shifted around the corner and fired at the next pair coming up. One in the knee, the other in the head, then back to the downed guy and shot him through the throat.

The spray of blood was going to be messy as hell.

Oh well, so sad.

Moving on.

“Woo,” I picked up the conversation. “Persuade. Seriously, we are not cheap dates. They definitely need to work for it.”

“Somehow,” Lunchbox said in a grimmer tone as the hiss of something burning around the front door carried. “I don’t think they’re that into us .”

No, I didn’t think he was wrong. They wanted Grace.

“Too fucking bad for them.” Voodoo deadpanned. “Let’s make a hole or we’re going to be here longer.”

Agreed.

After that, we didn’t need more words. There was a blast from upstairs. Their teams were hitting from all angles.

Smart.

By unspoken agreement, Lunchbox headed to the second floor while Voodoo and I took position in the hall that let us cover the front and back. “Cover,” I said as the hinges and lock blasted off the front door in rapid succession and it tumbled inwards from the shattered frame.

Goblin snarled next to me as the black garbed team stormed the door in two-by-two formation, alternating high and low. Solid tactics.

Dropping my hand for Goblin to get down, I dropped to one knee and fired. I had fourteen rounds left in the magazine. Despite the heavy garb, they weren’t wearing combat helmets.

Bad planning. I fired right through the head of one and into the midsection of the guy behind him.

The vest took the hit, but the blood and brain spatter had them falling back a step.

Another two bullets into the guy’s knee to bring him down and it created a chokepoint of bodies for them to have to get over.

Four bullets, two bodies. Ten in the mag. Another pair fought their way over and I spent the ammo to take both of them. Eight bullets, four bodies. Seemed a little pricey. Six in the mag.

“Moving,” Voodoo snapped from behind me and I nodded. Goblin still crouched next to me, his whole body facing forward. I checked the phone cams. We still had a few out back and upstairs.

That meant another team had to be incoming. Time to make that hole. I checked the mag then pulled my knife and murmured a command to Goblin. He moved with me as we stalked across the foyer. We intercepted the guy yanking his buddies out of the way.

Bullet to the head would be faster, but I wanted to preserve my ammo. Goblin nailed the guy’s forearm. A stream of curses escaped the man as he released his gun under the pressure of Goblin’s teeth.

The fact he went for his own knife had me intercepting now. He wasn’t stabbing my goddamn dog. I struck at his upper arm, going for the nerves, then against his collarbone, just next to the vest. The slide of the blade digging into the flesh cost the man the use of his left arm.

Another two rapid blows and I cut his carotid, then I thrust the blade through his throat and twisted.

Less than six seconds, his blood pumped out of him in spray.

It coated me and Goblin both. Goblin released him on command and I hauled the guy around and used him as a meat shield as bullets struck the door frame and the body.

Goblin darted to the side at my order, and I fell back to press against the inside of the door with Goblin leaning into my leg. The sound of gunfire peppered the silence along with a splash of displaced water as something hit the pool in the back.

A rush of boots over the paved drive carried. Yep, they really were way too into us. Glancing down at Goblin, I wiped the blade on my jeans. My hand was still slick, but I could make it work.

Upstairs, something exploded. I’d worry more if it were anyone other than Lunchbox up there. Rolling my head from side to side, I used my phone to check the front door cams. Two more teams of five.

There was aggressive and then there were these guys. Touching the comm in my ear, I activated it. “I really think someone should explain consent to these guys.”

“Well, we never have been fond of safe words.” Voodoo’s dry comment made me grin.

“We don’t have a problem with them,” Lunchbox argued. “We just never use them.”

This was also true. “Two more fresh teams are incoming,” I warned them. “We need to make the call now.”

I heard the rip of a pin coming out as I locked my gaze on the screen. I could see the guy and I twisted, using the phone to target so I could literally point and shoot. Man and grenade went down together.

The muffled boom following my safe retreat back inside almost made me laugh.

“Okay, so only one fresh team now. The other is a little scattered.”

Lunchbox actually laughed then. “You’re a comedian.” Not that it sounded like a complaint.

“I’m here all day,” I promised. The other five were being a little more cautious on their approach. Four bullets. Five guys. “It’s about to get sticky. We still good to go?”

A split-second moment of silence cleaved by a harried exhale. “What the fuck,” Voodoo said finally. “Do it.”

“Understood.”

I rolled my head from side to side. “Cover fire incoming,” Lunchbox said and a moment later there was a shattering of glass right before something heavy hit the ground. I went low and covered Goblin as a fresh boom echoed from outside. “Holy shit, that’s a mess.”

“We’re going,” I warned them, then gave Goblin a soft follow command before I climbed over the bodies with him right behind me. I went after the guy closest to us who was struggling to his feet.

He had glass shards embedded in his face. That just wasn’t pretty. I went with the knife slashing his throat open. He was already staggering so it didn’t take much to put him down. Blood sprayed me and Goblin both. We turned to the guy racing toward us and he actually stumbled.

“Not a fan of horror movies?” I asked and the quip felt good cause it made the guy blink. I pistol-whipped him with the gun and he went down. Then the next pair came staggering toward me, gun raised. “Time to go,” I told Goblin. This was our opening. “ Reveiren , Gracie, Bones.”

As much as I wanted him with me, I wanted him and Grace safe more.

He didn’t hesitate, sprinting toward the drive and the road as I used the last four bullets in my magazine to pin the two heading at me.

Goblin was around the corner and out of sight before I used the gun as another projectile and threw it.

It struck the guy on the left right in the face and then there was just one.

I spun the knife in my hand and beckoned. “Let’s go…”