Killing Time

“Simmons? What the fuck you doing, man?”

“I think he might have hurt himself, guys,” Mike said cheerfully. “But that could just be wishful thinking on my part.”

Bryant appeared at the door in a shot. When he couldn’t see into the dark, he peeked inside, then tentatively walked in. Eva jammed the broken lightbulb into his hand. He dropped his gun and opened his mouth to howl like a coyote—but Taggart was right behind him. He looped the electrical cord over his head from behind, jerked it tight and down. Bryant fell to his knees clawing at the cord. Taggart slammed his knee between his shoulder blades with the force of a Mack truck and drove him face-first into the floor.

Wagoner charged in the door right behind Bryant. “What the—”

Cooper dropped out of the rafters, landed on his shoulders, and rode him all the way to the ground. Wagoner’s head hit the floor with a loud thud, and it was lights out.

“I’ve got to say, I’m impressed as hell.” Mike struggled to his feet. “But I probably could have done it better if I wasn’t on the DL.”

“Still got some work to do on that humility issue, I see.” Taggart made sure both Bryant and Wagoner were well out of commission, then tossed Wagoner’s AR-15 to Mike. He kept Simmons’s shotgun for himself while Cooper confiscated Bryant’s sawed-off.

Taggart tossed Eva a pistol that he lifted from Bryant’s hip holster. “Figure a woman who can handle a lightbulb like that can sure as hell handle a pistol.”

“I’d rather it was a Glock,” she said, chambering a round, “but this’ll do.”

“And so will you,” Taggart said with a grin. “You’ll do just fine. Shall we boogie, boys and girl?”

“Remember,” Mike said. “No shots unless you absolutely have to.”

Cooper took the lead, with Mike and Eva sandwiched between him and Taggart, who was pulling up the rear. When Cooper reached the corner of the building he held up a hand, two fingers extended.

Two guards.

Taggart skirted Mike—who really was in no condition to be contemplating any full-body contact—and snuck a peek around the corner.

“They’re taking a smoke break,” he whispered. “One on the left is mine.”

Cooper nodded and grabbed one end of the electrical cord. Taggart started swinging the other end with the porcelain fixture attached. When he had a good head of steam worked up, he gave Cooper a nod. “Stand by.”

He swung the cord several more times, building up speed, then let it fly. The fixture connected with a thud just behind the guard’s left ear. He dropped like a rock.

Before the second guard could react, Cooper shot out of the shadows and used his end of the cord as a garrote. The man fought, twitched, then finally went still.

Cooper was letting him slide to the ground when the third guard rounded the corner, checking up on his two buddies.

“Hi.” Eva stepped out of the shadows, a big, flirty smile on her face. “I don’t suppose you could give a girl a light.”

In the split second it took him to get past flummoxed to “holy shit,” Mike rammed the butt end of the AR-15 into his stomach. The guy doubled over and got a second hit on the back of his head.

“Well, hell,” Cooper whispered with an approving grin. “Guess we’ll take you out of the dead weight column.”

“Damn straight.” Mike winced at the pain that grabbed him in his ribs. “The motor pool’s this way.”

“Wait.” Eva’s hand on his arm stopped him. “The motor pool?”

He laced his fingers through hers and took off running. “Unless you’ve got a better idea, but I have serious doubts about them giving us the keys to that chopper.”

“Stop.” She planted her feet, dragged him to a halt. “We’re leaving?”

“Yes. We’re leaving.”

“But I thought we’d decided…”

“I’m making an executive decision. Change of plans. I’m not sticking around to give them the chance to plan our execution. Did you see that woman’s eyes? She’s insane. Now come on. We’ve got to go.”

“But what about the guns?” She forced him to look at her. “I thought the plan was to stop the cartel from getting the guns.”

He looked poleaxed. “That was the plan… when we thought Gabe and the BOIs, and ATF and DEA, and the FBI would be charging in with enough firepower to blow this place to kingdom come. But they don’t have a clue what’s going down out here. And in case you’ve forgotten, there are over one hundred of them.” He jabbed a thumb over his shoulder, where special lights had apparently been rigged for tonight’s festivities and glowed from the big outdoor rally that appeared to be staged somewhere in the vicinity of the shooting range. “I’m getting you out of here. We’ll get word to Gabe as soon as we can. He can figure out a way to deal with it later.”

“Later will be too late.”

He stared at her, flabbergasted. “No. I let you do this to me before. I let you shame me into going for the guns. Well, we tried that. And we ended up locked up and almost dead. I’m not falling for it again.”

When she stood her ground, he appealed to Cooper and Taggart. “Help me out here, damn it. Tell her there’s nothing we can do.”

Cooper glanced uncomfortably at Taggart. “He’s probably right.”

“Probably?” Mike swore under his breath. “What is wrong with you? If we don’t get her out of here right now, right this very now, we may not get her out of here alive.”

Taggart compressed his mouth, shrugged. “I don’t think Eva is as concerned about getting herself out as you are.”

Mike glared at him. “Seriously? You’re going to take her side in this?”

“This isn’t about sides,” Eva insisted. “It’s about doing the right thing. If La Linea gets those guns, a lot of innocent people are going to die.”

“For the love of—” Mike dragged a hand through his hair. She was making him crazy. He was not going to lose her. He was not going to—

“Mike… this is bigger than us,” she appealed softly. “Way bigger.”

“I told you not to play the duty and honor card again. All it got me was a less than honorable discharge, my career down the tubes, my life stolen. My friends dead or gone.” He glanced at Taggart and Cooper.

He finally had them back. He couldn’t lose them again. And for the first time in his life, he had a woman worth holding on to. He would not lose her.

Yet if he didn’t stand and fight, he would lose her anyway. As he stood there in the dark, with the PA system ramping up and Lawson’s zealot voice booming across the meadow, he knew he would lose them all again if he insisted on saving them.

Just like he would lose what he’d recovered of himself, if he walked away from this challenge.

“Fuck,” he muttered. “Fine. But if she loses one freaking hair, I’m going to make you all wish you were never born. Especially you,” he told Eva, just before he dragged her against him and kissed her.

“Aw.” Taggart’s teeth glowed white in the dark. “Group hug?”

“I’m in.” Cooper opened his arms.

“Fuck you both,” Mike grumbled. “Let’s just get this done.”

36

“You sure you can make this happen?” Cooper huffed under the weight of almost eighty pounds of coiled det cord as the four of them snuck around the back perimeter of the camp and headed for the mine in the dark.

“Am I sure the sun’s gonna shine tomorrow?” Taggart humped a large canvas bag filled with blocks of C-4