Total pages in book: 113
Estimated words: 105825 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 529(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 105825 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 529(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
“Forty-five,” said Gabriel, his voice tight.
The adrenaline was flowing now, just like it always did when we were about to go into action. But there was something new, too. My heart was slamming against my ribs and I kept glancing down the hall towards where Lorna hid. This time, it wasn’t just a mission.
“Forty-eight,” said Gabriel.
I thought about how this guy had killed Russ, and so nearly killed Danny and Lorna and Cody.
I thought of Jillian and Max, and how I hadn’t been there.
I savagely worked the slide of my assault rifle, putting a round in the chamber. Well, I’m here now. And this Radoslava guy was about to find out how Texans defended the people they love.
“Fifty!” said Gabriel.
The door exploded inwards.
57
LORNA
Gunfire split the air, shockingly loud. I hugged Cody to my chest, clapping my hands over his ears. There were two doors between us and the living room: how loud must it be out there?!
More gunfire. I flinched at every shot. Any one of them could be the one that ended someone’s life. I imagined JD falling to the floor, or Kian, or Cal…all of them were putting their lives on the line for us. And there was nothing we could do to help, we just had to sit here and wait. I suddenly understood a little of what military wives went through.
Then I looked down at my phone. Erin had shown me how to access the cameras she’d put up around the apartment. I could at least check how the fight was going. I logged on and brought up the one in the living room.
The double doors had been blown to pieces and the air was thick with what looked like snow. It took me a moment to realize that it was paper, from the bookshelves, and shreds of furniture upholstery. Our home was being torn apart.
Flashes of gunfire lit up the scene like lightning. I could make out JD and the team, firing towards the doorway. It didn’t look like anyone had gotten inside.
Just to be sure, I cycled through the other cameras. There were none in the bedrooms but Erin had put a few in the hallways. Everything was quiet. I was just about to go back to the living room camera when something caught my eye. What was that?
The door into JD’s bedroom was open and the camera could see inside. Down at the far end of the room, the wall was…it almost looked like it was moving. Shaking. Then a black line appeared. I frowned. Was the camera glitching?
The black line grew steadily longer. I squinted, confused…and then my architect’s brain overlaid the structure of the building over the scene and I realized what I was seeing. My stomach dropped.
I was watching someone cut through the thin, drywall partition at the end of JD’s room with a drywall knife. It was a partition wall because it was only there to block off the disused elevator shaft that ran down to my dad’s office.
My head jerked up and I stared at the bathroom door and the gunfire we could hear outside. The attack at the front door was a decoy. We’d seen four guys arrive in the parking garage and we’d just assumed that all four had come up to the fiftieth floor. But some of them must have stopped on the floor below, broken into my dad’s office and climbed up the old elevator shaft. They were going to cut their way in through JD’s bedroom, walk up behind the team and… Oh God, they’ll kill them all!
The black line had changed direction, now forming two sides of a square. Another minute and they’d be inside.
I called JD. He didn’t answer. Either he’d turned his phone off so it didn’t ring and give away his position, or he couldn’t hear it over the gunfire.
Three sides of the square were cut, now. They’re going to die. All of them are going to die, shot in the back, unless I do something.
I looked down at Cody, my heart ripping in two. I couldn’t leave him.
But I couldn’t let JD and the others die, either. Oh Jesus…
I leaned down and kissed Cody on the head. “I’ll be back in one minute,” I told him, trying not to let my voice shake. Then I passed him to Paige and stood up.
Paige balked when she saw me unlocking the door. “What are you doing?!”
“Take care of Cody,” I told her.
Then I took a deep breath…and slipped out of the door
58
LORNA
I crept out into my bedroom, then quietly opened the door to the hallway and peeked out. All quiet. I was just about to run to the living room to warn JD when I saw a figure emerge from JD’s room. Shit! I was too late!
I ducked back inside my bedroom and pressed myself against the wall, holding my breath. One, two, three sets of footsteps went past. Three of them were sneaking up behind the team. They’d slaughter them unless I could get there first and warn JD. But how? I stared helplessly at my bedroom wall and my weird brain did its thing: I could see the structure of the building, the rectangular rooms and the snaking hallway that connected them. It was no good. The bad guys were ahead of me, blocking the only path.