Chapter 23 Maverick
MAVERICK
I grabbed Payton and hauled her to my side, cupping my hand over the back of her head to shield her from the last of the flying glass fragments.
“How the hell did they find us? The storm should have held them back and covered our tracks.”
Reed shifted forward, gun at the ready, and shot me a perturbed look.
“Jack probably remembered me mentioning this place during one of our missions. It’s not like I kept it a secret from our team.”
Regret carved deep lines in his forehead. “I thought about it the other day, but hoped he had forgotten. Not like the bastard paid any attention when it mattered.”
But he’d overheard one of Reed’s hunting stories and had remembered the exact location of the hunting cabin.
Sounded just like Jack.
Payton huddled against me, her entire body trembling.
I ran my hand up and down her spine. “It’ll be okay.” Somehow. Somehow. I’d make sure of that.
“It wouldn't be hard for him to track down the information.” Tucker ran across the kitchen and grabbed a hunting rifle from the rack near the back door.
“Especially for a man with no morals who wouldn’t think twice about breaking into someone’s confidential files.” Reed eased toward the broken window and attempted to peek around the corner that overlooked the woods.
“Can’t go that way. He has a line of men ready to take us out. Surprised they haven’t taken advantage of the broken window yet.”
My body tensed as my mind went into overdrive.
Why wasn’t he taking advantage?
Why blow out the window but not rush the opening?
I couldn’t make sense of it, and we were running out of time.
“Out the back.” I turned and nudged Payton ahead of me.
Tucker reached the door first since he’d been standing in front of it after taking the rifle off the rack.
He cracked it open and peered out.
“You better give it a look, Reed. You know what you’re looking for.”
Reed slid into the narrow space beside his dad and looked over the top of the older man’s head.
“Nothing.” A quick headshake said Reed felt the same way I did.
Something wasn’t adding up, but we couldn’t stay in the house.
We were sitting ducks here. “We have to make a run for the boat.”
Reed pulled Tucker away from the door. “I’ll go first.”
“Tarron, take Payton’s other side.” She was the only one of us without any kind of training.
And she was the most important person in our lives.
None of us would make it if she was injured or killed because we fucked up the rescue mission.
Tarron moved in beside Payton, and the three of us moved as a unit.
“I’ll watch your backs.” Tucker was the last out of the house, and he closed the door behind us. Years of habit, probably.
I grinned when I noticed, but it quickly fell into disbelief as the cold air stole my breath and a bloom of fire erupted from the dock.
Tarron cursed loud and long as a resounding boom shook the air. Sparks flew upward in a shower of light that rained down over the forest.
Payton shot a wide-eyed look at the sky. Her breaths came short and fast, and she clung to my shirt with both hands.
We stood on the back patio, the whole of Alaska stretched between us and freedom.
“Did you think I wouldn’t find you?” Jack Wilson stepped out of the trees.
The fire backlit his body, creating odd shadows that shielded his face.
He laughed and waved, then slipped into the dark.
I’d never forget his voice, or the arrogance in his stance. I gripped my pistol tighter.
There would be no negotiations, but I didn’t have a clear enough shot to take now that he’d retreated into the trees.
“Did you really think that storm would protect you? That I’d let something as trivial as Mother Nature stand between me and my ransom?”
Jack’s voice came from a distance, the sound distorted by the trees and landscape. “Did you think I wouldn’t remember how Reed raved about this place?”
“Has he been listening to our conversations?” Tarron hissed the question at me, his face twisted into hatred.
“Maybe.” There was technology that would allow him to do that. Which meant he might know all our plans. Shit. I had to think fast.
“Hand her over.” The distortion worsened. He’d cut into the trees in front of us, but his voice came from the far left.
“That’s not going to happen.” I brought Payton even closer to my side. So close her breath brushed my neck and her feet bracketed mine.
Jack’s laughter held death and mayhem. So be it. We all knew how to play that game.
Movement shifted in the firelight. In his arrogance, he had forgotten to keep track of the shadows.
“I hoped you’d say that. I’ve been looking for an excuse to kill you. But you just won’t die. No matter how hard I try to get rid of you, you keep finding a way to live. It’s vexing.”
“Didn’t know you understood words like that.” Tarron taunted.
“Oh, I understand more than you think.” He moved too quickly for a clean shot.
I’d only get one chance, and that would only happen if he moved into the light. I wouldn’t risk shooting blind, though it was so damned tempting that my finger curled around the trigger.
The men he had waiting in front of the cabin stopped me.
We needed a way out that didn’t include a gunfight with an entire band of mercenaries.
“You can’t kill us because you’re a piss poor shot,” Reed taunted with a sneer.
I almost told them to knock it off, but their taunting might be what we needed to pull Jack from the shadows.
Angry men made mistakes.
“No. That’s where you’re wrong, Reed. I’m an excellent shot. Your friend Tarron is the problem. He’s some twisted version of Dr. Frankenstein, always bringing dead men back to life.”
A branch rustled, and I took aim. “Who will save you when the good doctor is dead?”
The shot tore through the air even as his words took hold and understanding dawned.
I’d been prepared for him to shoot at me, which caused me to turn even further to shield Payton.
I waited for the pain. Nothing.
My eyes flared wide when Tarron grunted.
His grip on Payton loosened, and his face fell slack.
“No.” Payton wailed and grabbed for Tarron.
Her fingers found empty air as Tarron fell backward onto the cold wood.
It rattled with the force of his fall, and the explosion of denial that tore from my mouth seared my throat.
Reed opened fire. Bullets sprayed the ground where I thought Jack had been lurking.
“You motherfucking asshole. Stupid cunt.” He bellowed curses loud enough to blister my ears, raging and firing until he emptied the magazine.
He already had another in hand, and he never even looked away as he changed out the mags and prepared to run down the steps.
I grabbed him by the collar and dragged him back.
“Don’t. That’s what he wants. Angry men make mistakes. Don’t play into his game. He wants you down there, on his turf.”
Tarron lay where he’d fallen, and Payton continued to scream.
I hauled her toward the back door with my arm locked around her waist. “Tucker, follow me.”
The steady thud of his steps at my back put a rush of affection for the man I’d just met into play.
I hated to ask him to put himself further at risk, but we had no choice. My fault.
I should have pulled the damned trigger.
The thought of killing anyone in cold blood–even an asshole like Jack Wilson–had put a stop to my trigger finger.
If I’d pushed through, Tarron wouldn’t be dead.
Shit. It hit me all at once.
Grief, ragged and raw, pummeled my chest and stole my breath. How was I going to survive without him?
I’d protected Payton and lost Tarron.
He would say that was a good swap, and while I loved Payton so much that I physically hurt at the thought of her absence, I could not fathom a world where she, Reed, and I survived without Tarron.
Gunfire erupted in a series of sharp barks that hunched my shoulders up near my ears.
I pushed Payton into the house ahead of me, using my body as a shield the best I could.