“Five,” Ryan answered whilepeering through the night scope of his sniper rifle. “Two snipersin the brush on the far side of the meadow, and three on foot.” Hepulled the trigger. There was a pop as the bullet exited thesilencer. “Four.”
Nick chuckled and removed asilencer from his front pant leg pocket. He was screwing it on hishandgun when another pop disrupted the silence.
“Three. They’re on footgone in the building. The snipers are taken care of. You’reup.”
Nick pushed the earbud intohis ear and rolled onto his stomach. “Mario?”
He was peering through athermal scope that detected body heat. This was something thatcould see things that Ryan couldn’t with a night scope. “Three atthe back of the building, inside now like Ryan said. There’sanother big vehicle out of sight in the brush about four hundredyards behind the hanger with what looks like another two—no, threemen. I’m thinking that’s our hijackers. Inside, there’s anotherhalf dozen men, most likely the drop—wait a minute—we got fivebodies piled along the back wall.”
“Dead?”
“Yeah, pretty much. Heatsignature is fading. It looks like twisted sister already took thecoke, but is waiting to surprise daddy.” It was obvious they weretipped off about the shipment way ahead of time. Ryan was rightabout it being an inside job.
Nick backed out of sightand was gone into the darkness with barely a sound.
“I wish I knew how he didthat,” Mario said in awe.
Ryan smirked keeping oneeye peering through the scope.
“And here comes villainnumber two.” Mario spotted Peter’s convoy just coming into sightalong the road.
As soon as the vehiclesstopped, the doors slid open from the inside. The men in the RangeRovers exited and splayed out clearly showing that they werearmed.
“Show’s on,” Ryan murmured.He and Mario stood up and rushed forward. Peter would be ambushedthinking he was meeting his contact for the drop.
They dropped in the grassabout fifty yards off. He pulled out his phone and messaged Peter.Then, Ryan set up his rifle again and Mario picked up hisbinoculars this time. There was enough light from the open hangerdoors that he could see what was going on. “Oh shit. Is that yourgirl?”
Ryan looked through hisscope then dropped his head. “Fuck.”
“How—?”
“She must’ve tried tofollow us. I don’t know what the hell she was thinking.” He peeredthrough his scope again.
Anna’s men had gotten therefirst and taken out Peter’s drop men. He could see birthmarkclearly but didn’t have a clear shot because he was the one withhis fist twisted in Kat’s hair. His other hand held a gun to herhead. Her eyes were wild and searching her father’s men. She waslooking for him. Well, he could see her clearly and she wasterrified.
Peter held up his hand sonone of his men would shoot. Ryan couldn’t hear theconversation.
“Nick, they got Kat,” hesaid softly.
“Copy that. Distractioncoming.”
“Mario.” Ryan’s voice shookbut his finger was steady on the trigger of his rifle.
“I’m on it.” He got to hisfeet and rushed through the darkness toward the hanger. TowardKat.
A few seconds after thatthe vehicle hidden behind the hanger blew up.
That’s all Ryan needed.While everyone else ducked and ran for cover, he was as steady as arock. Birthmark twisted around at the sound as flames burst upthrough the trees behind the hanger. That left himexposed.
Pop.
Down went birthmark. Hewouldn’t be getting up again.
Kat stood there in shocklooking around as men started firing. Then out of nowhere came aman who jumped on her shoving her to the ground. “Stay down!” Hegot up on one knee and started shooting.
She was shaking so bad thatshe doubted she could stand again.
He reached down and grabbedher arm. “Time to move honey. Now!” he half dragged her out of theline of fire. Ryan was covering him from the field. Once around theside of the hanger, Mario shoved Kat behind him andreloaded.
She screamed as another manappeared beside her from out of nowhere. Turned out it was one ofRyan’s men. The one with the icy stare.
“No one’s going to hurtyou,” he said calmly.
“How many left inside?”Mario asked.
“None. The girl isn’tthere.”
Kat stared at him. He meantAnna. “My sister?”
He nodded, but didn’tspeak.
“She wouldn’t be. She’dhave people do her dirty work like when she tried to murder Ryan.”Somehow that made her angry again.
A man came around thecorner, then fell to the ground dead. He was shot just as he liftedhis gun.
The line of fire came fromthe darkness. Ryan. It had to be. She remembered the elite sniperrifle he had in the aluminum case. Well, now she knew what he usedit for.
Suddenly, there was thedeafening sound of helicopters.
Peter and his remaining menjumped in the limo and tore out of there.
“They won’t get far,” Mariosaid.
“He left me.” Not thatKatya expected her father to save her, but seeing the reality ofit, really hit home.
Nick covered his earpiece.Then lifted his head and pointed to the field. “He’s comingin.”
“H-he?” shestammered.
“Ryan.”
She followed Nick’s line ofsight and suddenly saw him. Out of the blackness came a figure allin black with a rifle slung over his shoulder. He was jogging. Shebit her lip. Although she couldn’t see it, she could feel the heatof his anger from where she stood. “Oh oh.”
When he came up to her hejust stared down at her furiously. Then he cupped her head andkissed her hard. She could feel the relief flow throughhim.
He released hersuddenly.
She lifted her hands.“I—”
“Save it. We’ll discussthis later,” he cut her off just as a helicopter zoomed overheadand landed in front of the hanger. He grabbed her upper arm and ledher toward it. “Get in.”
“What? No!”
He shook her. “Dammit Kat,I’m not done here and you are in the line of fire. You could havebeen killed for christsakes! How the hell can I do my job with yourunning around like that? You were supposed to stay
