Page 166 of Stand: Part One

“Fuck you, bitch,” the one said and moved to grab his pistol from his leg.

But Camaro was already on him, chomping her teeth down onto his arm and crushing his bones. He screamed as he wrestled with Camaro, dropping the gun to the floor as he tried to push her off him. I kicked the gun away, then whistled for Camaro to back off. The guy instantly clutched his arm, squirming in pain from both his busted legs and arms.

“Did Matthew Rainer send you?” I asked aloud.

And again, they looked confused. But I didn’t get much time to dwell on it as the sound of metal clinked near my foot. Looking down, my heart stopped when I realized it was a fucking grenade.

“Shit!” I shouted, kicking the grenade away and grabbing Camaro by the collar as we vaulted in the opposite direction. But the ensuing explosion was still too close and caused one of the nearby walls to collapse overtop of me. The pressure made it difficult to breathe as the weight of the wall instantly forced me to the ground, my legs and waist pinned under the heavy drywall and shelving.

“Fuck!” I cursed to myself as I tried to push the wall off me. I was a sitting fucking duck under this thing.

Camaro raced to my side, her snout going in all directions as she tried to sniff out the solution to my confinement. Her only option was to whine and bark out her distress.

“Quiet,” I told her, wincing to myself as I tried to wiggle free as much as I could. Grabbing a broken piece of shelf, I wrapped both hands around each end and held it out above my head. “Camaro, bite, pull,” I ordered. Sharp canine teeth bit down onto the wood and pulled the material, yanking left and right until one of my legs finally came loose. “Good girl!” I praised, pulling myself up for more leverage, but my other leg was still trapped. “Fuck,” I muttered as the pain began to build in my leg from the pressure.

More stomping boots in the background had me moving even faster until my eyes caught those boots in my gaze.

Shit.

Reaching down, I managed to pull the pistol from my side and fired two shots at the quickly approaching gunmen. The first one went down, but as I pulled the trigger for another shot, there was nothing but a clicking sound.

Fucking empty.

Fear hit me hard as the remaining four gunmen lifted their rifles and aimed right at my fearless dog just as she lunged for them.

“No!”

40

Secured

The wind whipped through my hair as I rode down the path, Elsie galloping beneath me at a quick and even pace. When the first target appeared between the trees, I raised my Winchester lever-action rifle and fired, the bullet tearing through the little red dot in the center. Keeping focus, Elsie blazed down the path while my attention moved to each appearing target, a single bullet penetrating the bull’s-eye each time.

Runs like these allowed me to clear my head, my body operating on autopilot and muscle memory as I cleared my moving targets one by one. With everything that had happened in the past forty-eight hours, I needed a few moments of clarity, away from the demands of constant chaos.

For the first time in a long time, I did not have all the answers. And it was making me incredibly irritable and murderous.

Still one step ahead of you.

The words taunted me, something most of my enemies did not do. They couldn’t afford that kind of game. They had to be more discreet in their attempts to thwart me, keeping silence to maintain their safety in anonymity. But their identities didn’t remain secret for long, my retribution steadfast and absolute.

But this new adversary was different. They were deliberately trying to provoke me, taking their sweet-ass time with whatever the fuck it was they were trying to accomplish. But the attacks didn’t make sense.

First, they killed the man responsible for attacking us in Rome, then they killed my surveillance team tasked with hunting down Matt. The motives weren’t connecting.

And to top it all off, Jaden and the auction were both attacked on the same night. Had the whole thing just been some elaborate distraction to steal nearly two million dollars from our accounts while no one was looking?

Shifting my aim for the final time, I pulled the trigger, eliminating my last target of the run. I sighed as I pulled on Elsie’s reins, signaling her to slow down.

I just needed to remain patient. One way or another, my enemies always revealed themselves, whether they wanted to or not. And when this one did, they’ll wish they had never even heard of my fucking name.

Elsie trotted into a stop, snorting soundly just as Scott pulled up beside me on Zac, finishing his run of the targets. His energy was wrought with agitation as he pocketed his rifle in the saddle holster, his brow knitted together.

“The point of this exercise is to recalibrate, not antagonize ourselves,” I commented as I slid my rifle into my holster.

Scott shook his head, his eyes still brimming with frustration. “I can’t shake this feeling that we’re missing something bigger. Something right under our nose. It’s driving me nuts,” he muttered, his voice strained with contempt. I nodded in agreement.

Turning our horses around, we slowly made our way down the wide, open path back to the estate.