AllFreeNovel
Share Us
His heart felt as if someone had squeezed a meaty fist around it. Shit. The killer had her.
But who was the killer?
Jericho soon thought he had that figured out with the process of elimination when Marco yanked off the balaclava from the other hostage. It was Manson, and she, too, had tape over her mouth. Unlike her brother though, she wasn’t armed, and Jericho could see from her face that she’d been crying.
On the surface, it seemed as if she truly was a hostage, but Jericho wasn’t taking anything at face value. He checked the zip ties on her hands. They were the real deal and had been put on tight. Her wrists were bleeding from where it appeared she’d been struggling to free herself.
“Dad’s doing this,” Jason said, his voice breaking. He was crying now, too.
“Paulie,” Jericho spat out, and he fixed his attention on the man as Paulie yanked off his balaclava.
“I tried to get away from him,” Jason went on. “I bought a car and went to that safe house. But he called me, said he knew where I was, so I ran. Then, I paid somebody to get me a fake ID so my dad wouldn’t be able to find me.”
That explained the cash withdrawals with Travis in the background.
“Damn whiney brats,” Paulie snarled, and while he continued to keep Rachel in a choke hold, he took aim at Jason. “Jason kept dodging me, kept trying to run, but I found the little shitbag, thanks to Travis double-crossing him. Never trust a drug dealer,” he added. “Should have put him and his sister at the top of my hit list instead of just the social workers, judge, jury, and whatnot.”
Marco must have seen what Paulie had in mind because he stooped down and dragged Jason toward him so he could get him out of the way.
Just as Paulie fired.
Jason howled in pain, maybe shot in the leg, but Jericho couldn’t focus on that now. He couldn’t focus on anything but saving Rachel.
“Maverick Ops,” Paulie said like profanity. His tone and expression were mocking. “I outsmarted both of you, and I get to kill the bitch who got my wife dead. Get to kill my worthless brats, too. The only thing left to decide is which one of you dies first.”
“Where’s Sasha?” someone yelled from inside the compound. Woody. He was in the tower.
“She’s safe, and obviously not here,” Paulie answered. “She’s my insurance that you and your cronies don’t interfere, and let me finish what I’ve started. Once I’m done, Sasha will be set free, and Daxton and I will be in the wind.”
“You’ll be dead,” Jericho stated. “By the way, that’s not speculation. That’s a promise.”
Paulie laughed, took aim at Manson and fired. The woman was already trying to scramble away, and the bullet hit her in the arm. Screaming out, she dropped in pain.
Jericho wanted to draw his gun, but he didn’t have a shot. Paulie was staying hunched down behind Rachel, making any lethal force too much of a risk.
“Obviously, my aim was off,” Paulie grumbled. “I was going for Manson’s head. Gotta keep trying until I get it right.”
To Jericho’s surprise, Manson didn’t cower and wait for the worst. “You sonofabitch,” she yelled, and holding her arm, she got up and started charging toward her father.
Paulie smiled because he knew now he had a much easier target.
Jericho fixed that.
He whipped out his slingshot and with the rock already in place, he sent it flying. It sliced across Paulie’s temple, the only spot that was vulnerable.
Paulie cursed, staggered back a step, but it wasn’t nearly enough to loosen his hold on Rachel. Not nearly enough to stop Paulie from shifting to take aim at Jericho.
Yelling at the top of her lungs, Rachel rammed her elbow into Paulie’s gut and then immediately dropped down her weight.
It was enough.
Just enough.
When Paulie tried to grab hold of her, he took his eyes off Jericho. Big mistake. Jericho drew his sidearm and fired three times. All head shots. Any of them fatal. So, yeah, overkill. But Jericho hadn’t wanted to take any chances.
Paulie dropped, his grip melting off Rachel. And what remained of his breath rasped out of his body.
“Call an ambulance,” Jericho said through his earpiece to Ruby as he ran, fast, toward Rachel.
