Chapter Thirty
O’Connor
Iwatch her face go from bleak to stone. She might have been blissfully unaware when I was hiding the truth from her, but now I’m being completely honest, and she is suffering because of it.
From here on out, that’s all I’ll ever be, even if the truth hurts. I can’t lie to her anymore.
“If my calculations are correct, there is at least one more wave of guards that they keep on duty that might be arriving as backup. So, we need to get to the top of this pasture, and we need to move fast.”
“Fast?” She squeaks.
“You have to trust me,” I beg, holding my hand out to her. She stares at it with trepidation, and I know asking for trust is a long shot at this point.
“Get me back to Avery.” Her delicate hand lands in mine, and I squeeze it before looping her arm over my shoulders.
“Up.” I take most of her body weight, leaving her to balance on one foot.
“I can’t do this, Jack,” she gasps, squeezing her eyes shut in pain.
“You can’t do it alone, but I’ve got you,” I assure her, tucking her snugly against my side. I start to move when I feel her attention on the side of my face, and when I look at her, we’re nearly nose-to-nose.
Her eyes are glossy with tears, and so much hurt. Fear. “You promise?”
“I promise, baby,” I whisper insistently, desperate for her trust. “I’ve got you.”
Her eyes squeeze shut, but she nods.
“I’m going to move fast; keep your foot elevated if you can.” My arm brackets around her waist, lifting her easily enough to ruck to the next tree, maintaining some cover.
After about one hundred feet, we’ll be exposed until we get to the top.
“Stay here.” I lean her against the trunk of the tree and step toward the fallen guards. I check their necks for pulse, to ensure they’re dead, and grab one of the radios. Always good to get more intel when you can.
I put the radio in my other ear, picking up on the chatter.
“Two more are coming this way,” I tell Linden. “Then we should get our window to run. Stay low.”
She crouches as best as she can, wincing as she does, and I stand ready with my rifle pointed at the trees.
They know what they’re walking into now, so there is no mad dash to the clearing. These guards are former military, turned private contractors like me… They just chose the wrong team.
No flashlights, which means they have night vision, and that puts me at a slight disadvantage, but I’m used to moving in the dark.
I know how to look into the shadows to see the things that don’t want to be seen.
A figure moves across a break in the trees ahead of us, breaking through the moonlit ground, and I don’t hesitate. I fire my final two shots from my rifle.
Pow! Pow! Thud.
He drops to the ground, and I chuck my rifle off my shoulder because it’s useless to me now, unholstering my sidearm.
It has a laser scope mounted on top, but it’s not nearly as accurate for long-distance shots. That means I’ll have to wait for this next target to get even closer.
I don’t like the thought of anyone getting close to Linden.
She’s shaking like a leaf beside me, and all I want to do is comfort her, but every time my arm brushes hers, she flinches.
She’s terrified, and partly of me.
A bullet ricochets off the tree, spraying bark across my face, but I don’t duck. I fire right back. Pow, pow, pow!
Two in the chest, one in the head.
Linden’s staring at the dropped body with terror-filled eyes, and I can see how rapidly her chest is rising and falling.
“We’re moving.” I don’t wait for Linden’s compliance as I wrap my hand around her arm and haul her over my shoulders.
Her lungs empty as I stand to my feet, and I take off up the hillside.
The second com in my ear doesn’t quiet at any point. A quick op-plan to the next wave of guards tells me that there is a shoot-to-kill order for Linden and her accomplice. And they are to grab Avery if they see her.
The Scotts have no idea what they’ve done. I’m not going to stop until their bodies are drained of life for trying to hurt my girls.
“200 hundred yards,” I breathe, squeezing the back of her thigh so she doesn’t fall. That’s all we have left.
Then I hear it.
“Sights on target.”
“Take them.”
Instantly, Linden’s back hits the grass, and my body flattens on top of her. She gasps for the breath I knocked from her lungs against my ear as I wrap my arms around her head to protect it as dirt explodes beside us.
She screams, flinching against me with nowhere to run.
When two more shots ring out, I brace for a bullet to hit my back, praying my body will keep it from hitting hers, but… Nothing happens.
The ground isn’t disturbed; nothing skims me. These weren’t missed shots.
“I got you covered.”
I raise my head, looking straight up the hill, and to the man in a mask, holding a rifle against my back fence.
I drop my forehead to Linden’s. Thank Christ.
“Are you okay?”
She nods against me. “I dropped your gun.”
“It’s okay. We don’t need it.”
She nods again, stiffly.
“Almost there.” I rise to my feet with a little less apprehension now that I know someone has my six, and pick Linden up this time by cradling her to my chest.
The remaining incline levels out just before my backyard, and I heave a sigh of relief. I did it.
I got her home safe.
Her entire body jerks in my arms as I walk through the backyard, and I see what she’s seeing.
The man who covered us is standing by the back door. All black clothes. White mask.
Another Ghost.
And, behind him, just inside the kitchen, is another.