Page 86 of Lethal Weakness

After about one hundred feet, we’ll be exposed until we get to the top.

“Stay here.” I lean her against the trunk of the tree and step toward the fallen guards. I check their necks for pulse, to ensure they’re dead, and grab one of the radios. Always good to get more intel when you can.

I put the radio in my other ear, picking up on the chatter.

“Two more are coming this way,” I tell Linden. “Then we should get our window to run. Stay low.”

She crouches as best as she can, wincing as she does, and I stand ready with my rifle pointed at the trees.

They know what they’re walking into now, so there is no mad dash to the clearing. These guards are former military, turned private contractors like me… They just chose the wrong team.

No flashlights, which means they have night vision, and that puts me at a slight disadvantage, but I’m used to moving in the dark.

I know how to look into the shadows to see the things that don’t want to be seen.

A figure moves across a break in the trees ahead of us, breaking through the moonlit ground, and I don’t hesitate. I fire my final two shots from my rifle.

Pow! Pow! Thud.

He drops to the ground, and I chuck my rifle off my shoulder because it’s useless to me now, unholstering my sidearm.

It has a laser scope mounted on top, but it’s not nearly as accurate for long-distance shots. That means I’ll have to wait for this next target to get even closer.

I don’t like the thought of anyone getting close to Linden.

She’s shaking like a leaf beside me, and all I want to do is comfort her, but every time my arm brushes hers, she flinches.

She’s terrified, and partly of me.

A bullet ricochets off the tree, spraying bark across my face, but I don’t duck. I fire right back. Pow, pow, pow!

Two in the chest, one in the head.

Linden’s staring at the dropped body with terror-filled eyes, and I can see how rapidly her chest is rising and falling.

“We’re moving.” I don’t wait for Linden’s compliance as I wrap my hand around her arm and haul her over my shoulders.

Her lungs empty as I stand to my feet, and I take off up the hillside.

The second com in my ear doesn’t quiet at any point. A quick op-plan to the next wave of guards tells me that there is a shoot-to-kill order for Linden and her accomplice. And they are to grab Avery if they see her.

The Scotts have no idea what they’ve done. I’m not going to stop until their bodies are drained of life for trying to hurt my girls.

“200 hundred yards,” I breathe, squeezing the back of her thigh so she doesn’t fall. That’s all we have left.

Then I hear it.

“Sights on target.”

“Take them.”

Instantly, Linden’s back hits the grass, and my body flattens on top of her. She gasps for the breath I knocked from her lungs against my ear as I wrap my arms around her head to protect it as dirt explodes beside us.

She screams, flinching against me with nowhere to run.

When two more shots ring out, I brace for a bullet to hit my back, praying my body will keep it from hitting hers, but… Nothing happens.

The ground isn’t disturbed; nothing skims me. These weren’t missed shots.