Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 81504 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 408(@200wpm)___ 326(@250wpm)___ 272(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81504 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 408(@200wpm)___ 326(@250wpm)___ 272(@300wpm)
She nods. I hate that she’s in danger, but I’ll do everything I fucking can to make sure she’s okay.
I’ll have to use the element of surprise.
I step into the hall, gun raised, and shoot on sight. One down, the other two draw their guns, but they’re too slow. I pull the trigger, again and again, two down, when I hear McKenna scream. The motherfucker on the ground has her by the ankles. I throw myself bodily at him, yank him off, and use his own fucking knife to slice his throat. She screams and screams but I don’t stop until he’s lifeless on the ground before me.
The third assailant shoots but misses, and McKenna grabs a gun from a holster of the dead man in front of us. With another scream, she shoots as I do, and we both hit him at the same time.
We’re panting, covered in blood, and we aren’t fucking safe yet. I pull her to her feet. The poor girl’s shaking. The smell of smoke permeates the air as the fire draws nearer. We hear screams and shouts from outside, but have to stay focused.
“Let me get my brothers.” I hold her hand as I slide my thumb along the identification key and the door clicks unlocked.
“It’s Tully!” I shout, so they don’t attack when I open the door. “Tully!”
I open the door and my brothers swarm out, weapons raised. Keenan blinks in surprise to see me and McKenna surrounded by dead bodies and blood.
“Bloody hell,” he mutters. “Jesus Christ, Tully.”
“Get out there!” I shout, waving my gun behind me. “The grounds are on fire and the women and children are at risk. I’ve no idea if there are any more of them here or not.”
Lachlan leaps over the bodies and runs for the exit, Cormac on his heels. Boner stares at me in disbelief, shaking his head, and Keenan follows Lachlan.
“Is this house on fire?” Keenan asks.
“I don’t think so, not yet, but soon.”
“You two,” Keenan says, waving his gun at me and Boner. “Sweep the house and after you’ve done so, get outside with the rest of us.”
I nod. “Yessir.”
He scowls at McKenna. I know what he’s thinking. He doesn’t like that she’s here, vulnerable and at risk, a witness to everything. “Take her with you,” he says through gritted teeth. I take her by the hand.
“You get on her other side,” I tell Boner, waving my pistol at him. “You keep your fucking eye on her and if she gets hurt on your watch, you’re a dead man.”
He looks like he wants to tell me to fuck off, but he nods anyway. “Of course I’ll fucking watch her,” he says. “What do you think I am, a twat?”
“Don’t make me answer that.”
Love him like he’s my brother, but he’s a wild one.
We head to the library first, and quickly sweep it. No one anywhere to be seen.
“What happened?” I ask as we head upstairs to sweep the rest of the house.
“Went to the interrogation room with one of them,” he says. “Lachlan caught him in the garage. Thought he was a spy, but it was a fucking set-up.”
“Why didn’t I see him when you all came out?”
Boner’s eyes swing to McKenna. He doesn’t answer.
The interrogation went that far, then. The body’s already been disposed of.
“As soon as we finished questioning him, we realized the door was locked from the outside. Someone overrode our security system and disabled the inside locks.”
“Mother of God.”
“Aye.”
We fall silent at the top of the stairs, quiet an absolute must now. Christ, how I wish I had a safe place for McKenna.
“You do exactly what I fucking say,” I whisper. “Never been more important to follow my instructions, McKenna.”
She nods her agreement.
We sweep the entire first floor, from the meeting rooms to the dining room, the kitchen and the reception rooms. No one, not even a single servant, is here. It’s eerie. I’ve never seen this home vacant like this.
Same with the second floor. We make it to the third floor, when McKenna freezes.
“What is it, lass?” I whisper as softly as I can in her ear. She points wordlessly. All the doors are shut except one that’s slightly ajar. The utility closet.
Boner nods to me, and the two of us go, creeping silently toward the closet. The carpeted floor beneath our feet makes our steps noiseless as we close the distance.
“On three,” I mouth. I hold up one finger. Two. Three. Boner kicks open the door. McKenna screams and I’m ready to shoot, but there’s no one there. The window’s open, though. I look out to see if anyone has a death sentence and tried to climb out of a three story window, when McKenna screams. “Tully! Watch out!”
I swing around to see someone coming at me from the shadows. McKenna screams and shoots her gun. Pain radiates in my shoulder as I fall to the ground and Boner shoots my assailant dead.