Keep your shit together, Connor…
Mom couldn’t have anticipated anything like this happening, but she taught all of us how to move through the wilderness silently, how to hunt our prey in such a way that they would never see it coming when we finally released the bow or pulled the trigger.
It takes focus.
It takes calm.
And this hunt is the same as if it were a deer or elk—just a different kind of prey.
The most dangerous type.
My heart that had been beating wildly seems to slow so abruptly that it feels like it almost stops completely. That simple reminder of what Mom taught us was all it took.
Calm.
Focus.
My hand tightens around the shotgun, and I bring it up and look down the sight.
I wait for him to move again.
I wait for him to make that mistake, to expose his position and give me a clean shot.
The moment he does, I fire.
That silence that had been so eerie is shattered instantly by the blast as it tears into him, knocking him onto his back on the ground. Pain explodes in my ears from firing without protection over them. It momentarily deafens me to the world, but there isn’t any time to allow it to stop me.
Before he can react, I race across the space between us. He gasps in pain, scrambling for his weapon that tumbled from his grasp when my shot hit him in the shoulder.
But I get to him before he gets his hands on it…
Standing over him this close, I can see the bulletproof vest and know what I have to do.
I aim above it, where he has no protection, and I fire.
The carnage is instant.
A spray of crimson and gray matter.
I can’t stay here.
I can’t get lost in it. Not when there are others and I’ve just alerted everyone that someone is fighting back.
Movement to my left catches my eye, and I dive to the side as a shot flies by, barely missing me by an inch. I scramble to reload my shotgun and return fire as another assassin barrels toward me.
Now I know to aim high.
And I’ve always had an incredible shot.
I don’t miss.
He crumples to the ground only a few feet away from me.
My heart thunders again in my chest, the earlier calm I managed to find shaken by the blood and gore. I gag this time, struggling to scramble to my feet and race for cover.
I manage to duck behind the barn that stands near Liam’s cabin where he does all his woodworking. Angry voices float out from the open door…
How many of these fuckers are there?
