Chapter Thirteen
Ray McClennan hadn’t expected Liam to be waiting for him inside the house. That much was evident when Liam had slid behind him, gun raised and pressed it to the small of his back.
“Don’t move.” Liam’s voice had been deathly quiet, but he knew Ray heard him loud and clear.
It’s just that the man didn’t care to listen.
He spun around while throwing himself off-balance on purpose. It was a wild move that might have had him dodging a bullet had Liam intended on shooting the man on the spot. There were two reasons why he didn’t want to use a gun if he could help it.
One, he didn’t know exactly where the Bennet family was inside the house, and no matter how great his aim was or how close he was with his target, there was always the possibility that something could go wrong. He didn’t want to chance an accident with Blake, Lola, or the kids close by.
Two, and this was just as strong as a point as the first, Liam didn’t want the men outside to know that their presence was needed. He wanted them to keep standing next to the trees while they thought Ray had everything handled.
A shot going off in the night surely would do the opposite.
So Liam kept his finger away from the trigger and instead dealt with Ray with the length of his arm and elbow.
He used this and his sheer weight as a battering ram. Instead of going forward, however, he smashed into the man’s side and threw him into the laundry room’s wall.
Something cracked, but Liam wasn’t in the position to inspect. He just knew that Ray hadn’t been put out of commission. The man swung his elbow out with undeniable panicked strength. Liam was too close and took the hit to the side of his face.
Pain burst along his cheek.
He didn’t have time for it either.
Using his gun as a fist, he brought its butt against Ray’s shoulder. It was such an odd spot, but the sudden force did wonders. Ray grunted and tried his best to grab the new pain while also trying to dance away from it.
Space bloomed between them, and in that space, Liam was able to see that Ray wasn’t one of the men without a weapon.
He had a gun.
The shot was quick but sloppy. It could have been a kill shot, easy, but Ray was still operating like he had been caught off guard. Instead of a direct chest or head shot, pressure pushed into Liam’s right arm. Liam lost his grip on the gun.
So he kicked it away from both of them on reflex as Ray lunged forward with his left.
Liam’s hand wrapped around Ray’s wrist, and he pulled back with all his might. This time he knew the cracking he heard was the man’s bone.
Ray howled in pain. More importantly, he dropped his gun to the wood floor.
Liam kept going. He brought Ray’s broken wrist and arm with him as he got behind the man put him in a hold. His plan was to use his knee and the hold to put Ray on the floor.
He never could have accounted for what happened next.
A man wearing a rain slicker and a head so bald it shone with the limited light appeared in the back doorway. He was built like the letter T, and although he wasn’t the same height as Liam, he wasn’t far off either.
He also had a gun that he didn’t hesitate to use.
Liam had no room to move once the gunshot split through the air.
Neither did Ray.
Still pinned against Liam’s chest, Ray took the full force of the shot to the chest, and it pushed both men over, Liam hitting the floor hard. The air left his lungs. He struggled to stand and breathe all at once, coughing and trying to pull Ray out of the way at the same time.
He was left unprotected. Vulnerable. An easy target.
He should have remembered Sheriff Trouble was still in the house.
Liam watched in bewildered awe as Blake coolly walked around him and planted herself near his feet. Her arm was raised. Liam realized a beat too late that Blake had a gun.
And she wasn’t waiting for an invitation to use it.
Blake opened fire with a steady hand and even steadier focus.
Liam collected his breath and awe to not waste the attack. He looped his arm around Ray’s waist, then pushed and pulled him around the corner and into the longer main hallway that split the house.
The second he was clear, he yelled back as much to Blake.
She let out the third shot and then was a flurry of motion rounding the corner.
“He ran,” she hurried to say. “No hit.”
“Are you okay?”
Blake nodded. If Liam had more time, he would have really taken the situation in, looked at the woman and her calm, but now everyone outside knew they were needed.
Though, he was hoping the shots had scared them away.
Liam was hauling Ray into the first room to their left when Blake slipped the phone out of his pocket.
The light flashed on at the movement. He could see he was still on the call with Price.
“Price, Ray’s been shot, maybe dead, and Liam looks like he took a bullet to the arm too,” she hurried. “There’s a man in a dark red rain jacket, bald, with a gun. I think I scared him off, but he might come back. The other two are unaccounted for.”
Liam straightened to stand.
He’d been shot in the arm?
“The kids and Lola are locked in my bathroom,” she added. “I’m putting you back in Liam’s pocket and hushing until y’all get here.”
Blake did exactly as she said. She put the phone in Liam’s pocket and set her gun back to ready.
“Can you still fight?” she asked him. Her eyes flashed to his right arm.
That pressure he felt earlier was starting to fill with pain. He guessed Ray’s shot hadn’t just been a graze.
That wasn’t going to stop Liam.
He nodded.
“Take the gun and stand guard in the bedroom. I can handle things out here.”
Blake didn’t like that.
Her voice was steel.
“I’m not leaving you.”
It was such a direct and resolute statement that Liam was momentarily caught off guard. He wanted to combat it in the next, but the sound of footsteps sounded near the back door.
Were they really that brazen to come in despite knowing the people inside were armed?
Then again, hadn’t the bald man shot Ray without hesitation?
Was he coming back with help? Were they about to be caught by three men instead of one?
Blake had her hand wrapped around the gun. She positioned her body to have the best shot at whoever came into view.
It wasn’t a good angle.
It would leave her exposed if she wanted a good shot.
Liam had an idea.
He took his phone out and as low as he possibly could, he whispered out a command.
“Price, make noise.”
The second the words left his mouth, Liam tossed his phone across the hallway and into the bedroom opposite them. There was a faint light in the room, and because of it, he saw the phone hit something that looked like a pillow on the ground.
The soft thud was still enough to alert whoever had come inside.
Then Price started making noise.
Liam placed his hand on Blake’s shoulder. He moved her soundlessly back a few steps. Then his hand dropped to her waist. He adjusted her stance until she was squarely looking into the other room. She didn’t fight him.
The footsteps were in the hallway next to both doors.
Price continued making noise on the other end of the phone. There must have been a sound machine going in that room. It made Price sound even more natural, as if there were people trying to talk in hushed, hurried voices.
Liam hoped it would be enough to draw whoever was in the hallway that way first.
He slid his hand back up to Blake’s shoulder and kept it there.
She didn’t as so much as breathe.
That’s how they were standing when the first man came into view. He wore a baseball cap and jeans. There was no gun in his hand but a slight tremor in the way he slowly moved. Liam squeezed Blake’s shoulder lightly. She continued to be still.
Which was a feat in itself considering the baseball-capped man made a stunning move.
Instead of walking into the room opposite them, he started to walk backward into theirs.
Liam put pressure on Blake’s shoulder with his index and middle fingers. Two quick prods. The man slowly backing up into their space was also using his hands to wordlessly signal. He motioned forward to the room where Price was still doing whatever it was to draw any and all attention.
It seemed the man was going to let his friend do the work of fighting while he backed himself away into a safer space.
Which meant that maybe he really wasn’t armed.
And meant that his friend probably was.
Liam released his hold on Blake and took a step forward. Blake didn’t move a muscle. He wished he could tell her his plan, but there was no time.
They were outnumbered, and he was hurt.
If they didn’t execute the next part of his new plan flawlessly, they could lose their lives. Or, worse, the family hiding in the house could.
But they were also out of any other good options.
So Liam did something he hadn’t done since he was in the Marines.
He decided to trust another soul explicitly, no room for hesitation or second thought.
Just pure, unbridled trust.
Then, and only then, did Liam make his move.
THE MAN SEEMED to have no idea he wasn’t alone. He had even less of an inkling that the wall of strength that was Liam was waiting behind him. Had he walked back even one more step, he would have collided with him. Instead, he stopped within the relative darkness, staring straight ahead.
He was waiting for his friend and his gun to make the first move.
Too bad for them that Blake and Liam had their own plan.
One that happened in a flash.
A new figure entered the space in front of the man. All Blake could see over his shoulder was that it wasn’t the man in the rain jacket. The way he held himself, though, she was almost certain he had a gun in hand.
Liam must have seen it too.
Without a word, he sprung into action and Blake was ready for it.
Liam wrapped his arm and hand around the man in the hat’s mouth and torso and pulled them both down and out of the way. The other man about to move into the nursery heard the commotion.
But it was too late.
Now Blake had a perfect line of sight.
There was no room for errors.
She shot her mark with a perfect score.
The man yowled in pain and crumpled.
Then it was a dance between Blake and Liam.
He left the man in the baseball hat on the floor and took two quick steps to the man she’d just sent to the hardwood. Blake didn’t watch what he did next but instead switched her attention to the man next to her.
“Don’t move,” she ground out, gun aimed down at him. “Understand?”
It probably helped matters that Ray’s unmoving body was next to him.
She saw his head move in what she assumed was agreement.
Liam took his own unknown man and pulled him into the nursery all the way, keeping himself out of the open hallway.
Blake saw the gun in his hand. The man he had by the back of the shirt was still yowling and thrashing around. It didn’t shake Liam one bit.
He met her eye. Shadows danced across his face, but Blake could still see the absolute strength in him.
Now if the bald man appeared, they could outnumber him.
Blake strained to listen for more footsteps. It wasn’t easy. The man she had shot in the leg was still wailing. The man on the ground next to her and Ray, however, was obedient in his silence.
Liam looked like he was about to deal with his captive, but another sound broke through the night around them.
Sirens.
And not just one.
Blake didn’t dare loosen her defense.
She did, however, let out a small exhale.
Backup had finally arrived.