“Don’t move,” one said with a heavy accent.
Cora froze, and her breath caught. Where were Charlie and Daniel?
“Put down the gun and turn around,” he commanded.
Cora bent her knees and slowly dropped the rifle before turning around. There were three of them surrounding her. She couldn’t overpower them. They would either capture her or kill her. Either fate didn’t appeal to her. The glimpses Hannah shared with her were enough to make her want to avoid such a fate.
The one to her right started talking in Spanish to the one in the middle. The one in the middle eyed her up and down and said something back. Cora didn’t like the way they were looking at her. She didn’t understand what they were saying to each other but she knew it couldn’t be good.
“You come with us.” The one in the middle told her.
Like hell she was going anywhere with them. But what could she do? Ortiz was passed out upstairs, and she didn’t want to draw attention to him. She didn’t know where Charlie and Daniel were. She couldn’t hear any gunfire outside, and she didn’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. It meant the fighting was over, but it didn’t tell her who had won.
Tired of waiting for her compliance the men advanced on her. If these men were going to take her, she wasn’t going to make it easy. She couldn’t lead them towards Hannah either. Cora pivoted to the left and was about to lead them towards the kitchen, where she knew there had to be a few weapons she could wield, when three quick shots rang out. Cora screamed out in shock and felt over her person to see if she had been shot. She didn’t feel any pain, nor did she see any blood. She turned back towards the men, but they were lying dead on the ground, and a new group of seven men ran inside. Cora felt her knees buckle when she saw Liam in the front running up to her. He was dressed head to toe in black. Had he just come straight back from his mission? It didn’t matter. He came. He came back to her and not a moment too soon.
“You alright, Amazon?” He asked her, looking her over from head to toe.
“I am now.” She said before leaning forward and kissing him. She had to know he was real. He tasted real. He smelled and was covered in dirt and grime, but she didn’t care. He was alive and here. That was all that mattered to her.
“Where’s Hannah?” A frantic Ben asked her.
“I had her barricade herself in the computer room,” Cora assured him. Without a word to anyone, Ben took off down the stairs to the computer room.
“And why weren’t you down there with her young lady?” Liam tried to sound stern but his relief that she was alive and well was palpable.
“There was an army out there and only three people to protect us. I had to do something.”
“It was fine,” Charlie said behind them. “She at least didn’t hit any of us, so I won’t complain.”
It wasn’t exactly praise but coming from Charlie, it might as well be. She looked over at Charlie confused. Hit any of them? “When did you arrive?” Cora turned back and scowled at Liam.
Liam looked away uncomfortably for a moment. The guys seemed to sense his distress and went off in different directions to secure the house. “We arrived back early yesterday. Bulldog called and told us that an army was headed for the house, so we snuck back and laid out some booby traps and waited in the tree line for them to come.”
Cora was raging mad. She had been worried this whole time he wasn’t going to make it back from his mission to help Charlie and his teammates and here he had been back since yesterday. It wasn’t half as bad as the fear she could have shot him from the roof and had no idea he was down there.
“Cora,” he reached for her, but she stepped away from him. She needed time to think. She thought they were past the secrets. His job secrets were fine. She expected them. But to keep something like this from her? What had been the purpose?
“I need to check on Ortiz. He took a hard fall from the roof when we fell, and he also has a piece of wood lodged in his shoulder.”
The sadness in Liam’s eyes of Cora’s rejection of him quickly turned to anger. “You were on the roof with him? When the explosion happened?”
Cora glared at him. He was angry, good. Maybe if he had informed her he was there on the property she might not have been on the roof trying to protect everyone. “I thought there were only three people guarding the property. I had no idea when you would get back. I had to do something. I thought the roof would be one of the safer places to be.”
There was a
