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“No cookie-selling there.” Joel pointed at the man near the kitchen door. “This one? He’s not visiting. That’s a gun he’s holding.”
Jocelyn leaned in close and squinted at the screen. “More attackers. You’ve got to be kidding. Here?”
“Looks like we scared dear ol’ Gary,” Ben said and Joel nodded.
“What?” She seemed to be having some trouble taking it all in. She turned around in the open space as the familiar look of fear crossed her mouth and her eyes glazed. “You think he sent commandos.”
“We meet him and suddenly we have people with guns stalking this place. Nobody followed us back here, so yeah, I blame Gary.” Joel clipped on a shoulder holster and put his usual gun in it while he held the one with the silencer.
She shot him a “you’ve lost your mind” glare. “How do you know no one was behind us?”
“I know.”
Ben decided to spare her the car speech from Joel. The man knew his vehicles and could maneuver through the streets with ease. He also had a sense when he was being followed and didn’t think twice of circling around for hours to lose someone. “It’s one of Joel’s specialty areas. It would be hard for someone to tie this property to the team, but if you have skills and access to the right databases, it’s not impossible.”
“Connor might want to work on that.” She pulled her cell out of her front jeans pocket. “On that topic, shouldn’t we warn him there are two guys on his back porch?”
“Oh, he knows.” No sooner had Ben made the comment than a light in the house’s kitchen went on.
“He’s walking right into a trap.” Jocelyn stepped forward.
Ben grabbed her by the back of the shirt. “You stay here.”
“But Connor needs—”
Feeling her body tremble under his hands, Ben leaned down and whispered in her ear, “He’s only opening that back door when he wants it open. He’s got this. I promise.”
As if they’d conjured him up, Connor’s voice broke through the garage. Jocelyn jumped and let out a little squeal. Ben held a hand against her but joined Joel in watching that back door across the yard.
The intercom speaker was in the ceiling and Connor gave a play-by-play on the whole scene as it unfolded outside. That was what happened when you had a state-of-the-art security system.
“Two heat signatures. I’m coming around the side in five.” Connor’s steady voice echoed as he started the countdown. “Five...four...”
Jocelyn’s eyes widened. “Is Connor crazy?”
“Popular question.” Ben pointed at the far wall. “You stand there and don’t move.”
“I have a gun.”
Now was not the time for this. Joel inched toward the door to the backyard and sent Ben the “move it” signal, so he went for the hard truth. “And I don’t want to worry about you being shot.”
“Okay.”
That was almost too easy. “Like that?”
“This time, yes. Go.” She went on tiptoes and gave him a quick kiss on the lips.
“Two...one...”
Forcing his head back in the game, Ben took his position on the opposite side of the doorway. He nodded at Joel as he slammed the garage door open and the humid night air rushed in. The two in the yard spun around at the sound. The one on the right didn’t even get his gun aimed before Joel peeked around the doorway and nailed him in the shoulder. When he tried to get off an off-balance second shot, Ben’s shot took him down.
The steady pings of gunfire rang out. The silencers filtered most of the noise, and the property’s setback in a group of trees and up on a hill hid the rest. The one remaining attacker took a hit to the thigh and doubled over. His leg seemed to go to sleep. He dragged it behind him as he tried to take cover on the back porch. The railing didn’t help and Connor didn’t keep furniture there. It was an open space and gave the team an unrestricted shot.
Another shot and the guy went down. On his elbow and still shooting, he dragged his body to the back door. His shots went wide as the barrel bounced around from all the shifting. Nerves seemed to be settling in and his movements turned jerky.
Got him.
Ben gave Joel the signal to move outside. “Let’s go.”
They could disarm the guy and grab him for questioning. Crouched and going in, they ran across the backyard. The attacker did a double take at the wall of men coming at him. Going faster now, he groaned and half crawled toward the side of the house. His hand slapped against the wooden slats as his gun clanked at his side.
He made it a few feet, but only thanks to the lack of firepower coming at him because of the stated goal to take the guy alive. Joel and Ben were up on him, just a few feet behind, when Connor moved out of the shadows and stepped on his hand hard with a work boot.
