He opened the door to the upstairs bedroom where he’d been keeping the girl for the past few hours and saw Bennett standing by the window in the empty room, looking out into the darkness.
The girl was nowhere to be seen.
Just then, the toilet flushed in the en suite bathroom.
Lancer addressed Bennett. “How long was she in there?”
“Like two minutes. I checked the bathroom beforehand. Got everything out of there that she could use as a weapon.”
“Good. Eyes on the road. I’m making the call.”
“Got it, boss.”
Lancer heard the water running in the bathroom sink through the door right next to him, and then he pulled out his phone and dialed Hightower at exactly five p.m.
The phone rang once, twice, and then, on the third ring, it was answered.
“That you, Kincaid?”
“Yeah, man. You got the Gray Man?”
“He’s in a car right behind me. I’m heading west on 119, just leaving Boulder. I told him I’ve got a staging area; he thinks we’re heading there now.”
Lancer was pleased but still suspicious. He put the phone on speaker as the door to the bathroom next to him began to open. “Good. I’m going to let you talk to the kid, just so you can—”
Lancer let go of the phone and brought his right arm up to protect his face, just as he was hit hard by something flying down at him. It was the porcelain lid of a toilet tank; it banged his elbow and the side of his head, but his reflexes were good, and he collapsed his legs just at the point of impact, and this had blunted the force. He went all the way down to the floor, clutching his elbow in pain.
—
Andrea Delaney jumped over the boss and ran towards the man standing by the window, who had been looking in the other direction. She yelled wildly as he turned in surprise, and she swung the ten-pound lid again, striking the man on his left shoulder and knocking him off balance. The man extended his right hand to brace himself, but he put it straight through the glass window, slicing his hand in the process.
Andie still held the lid; she turned back around to swing again at the boss back by the bathroom, but as soon as she turned, she found him up and running across the room, closing on her fast. He drew a pistol, but she swung at him anyway, missing.
He grabbed her by her hair, yanked her so hard she dropped the toilet tank lid, and threw her across the floor. She rolled several times, almost all the way back to the bathroom.
When she came to a stop, she looked up through the hair in her eyes and saw him charging towards her, his eyes wild with rage.
“Fuck you!” she shouted.
And then it happened.
A single gunshot cracked outside, somewhere on the property. Then another.
Then came the crashing of glass downstairs.
Another shot came from outside at the front of the cabin.
Andie began to crawl towards the bathroom, but the boss was on the floor behind her; he had hold of her ankle, and he pulled her back.
In the living room, a series of incredibly loud explosions went off, one after another after another after another. It sounded like a war down there, and then the lights of the cabin went out.
Andie kicked at the man who had her; she got him up on the shoulder and his cheek, and she brought her snowboard boot back to stomp down again, but before she did, she heard the click of a pistol, then felt the barrel of a handgun jammed into her stomach.
More shooting came from below. The man who she’d pushed into the glass window staggered past the two on the floor; he held a gun in his hand and blood dripped on Andie’s forehead as he passed.
The boss leaned into her ear. “Your dad just got you fucking killed!”
He began yanking her to her feet, but before they’d gotten all the way up, she heard a scream from the man with the cut wrist, now in the doorway. Andie started to scream herself, then realized she could not breathe.
