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“This is about your brother,” Joel said.
“Murdered.” Gary uttered the horrible word but didn’t say anything else.
“You’re saying this is about revenge for you?” Ed asked.
Tension choked the room. Jocelyn wanted the team to move. They were waiting and talking, and it didn’t make sense.
Gary’s eyes turned wild as he spoke. “My brother’s team failed to protect him and he got killed. I got a bogus story about his death. Facts I knew were wrong.”
Connor nodded. “But he worked undercover and no one could talk.”
“But they could pay, and they’re going to. They let him die. Hell, they may have killed him to shut him up. Doesn’t matter. I’ll burn it all down.”
“Which means we all need to die, as well.” Her terror cut off her breath and threatened to suffocate her.
Greed was simple and straightforward. A ridiculous excuse for so much pain, but an emotion she saw at the hospital in the way heirs fought over dying parents and insurance companies battled about paying out claims. But vengeance came from a twisted place. It consumed, burning everything in its path. Worse, it meant Gary wouldn’t care how many people he took with him so long as he went out in his brother’s name.
“How do you expect to take us all on?” Connor asked.
“I have the gun and your man.” Gary pressed the gun against Ben’s head again. “And I’m not alone.”
Joel laughed. “Colin here? I’m pretty sure when the bullets start flying he’ll run away like the scared animal he is.”
“I think I could take him,” Jocelyn said, because at this point she might be able to strangle them all with her bare hands.
“You are welcome to try, Ms. Raine.”
Kent leaned harder against the desk, and the legs groaned under the impact of his full weight. “He has a partner.”
“Oh, yes.” Gary shot her one of those smiles that promised pain. “Did I fail to mention that?”
“I think we’ve heard enough.” Ben looked to Connor.
He nodded. “Yep.”
The last thing she saw was Ben diving for her. His arms wrapped around her, and his big body slammed into hers. The momentum sent them flying into the desk, then crashing to the hard floor. The room blurred around them as she struggled to bring it all into focus.
Ed reached for Kent, and Connor took Gary out with one bullet to the forehead. While she rolled over the floor tucked against Ben’s chest, shots rang out and men yelled. A loud thud echoed in her ears as Gary fell in a boneless whoosh.
Then silence.
Struggling to sit up and settling for balancing on her elbows with Ben still covering her, she glanced over his arm and into the chaos. Connor and Joel grabbed Colin’s guns and shoved him hard against the wall.
“You okay?” Desperation pounded off Ben.
She looked up at him while her hands roamed over his arms and she scanned his chest for blood. “You?”
“Answer me. Are you—”
“Fine.” She cupped a hand over his cheek. “Thanks to you.”
Ben exhaled. “We wanted him to talk. Tell us as much of his scheme as we could before mobilizing the takedown.”
Her head jerked back. “The big stall and all that talk was some tactic?”
“Yeah. We run it in a drill a thousand times per month. We know the signals and can do them without a word or movement. It’s all in the eyes.” Ben winked as he separated from her and reached out to Gary’s body. Took out the other man’s phone and pocketed his weapons.
Death had overtaken him during the fall. The man’s eyes were open and his arms spread out wide as blood ran from the wound in his head.
She doubted Connor missed shots much but he sure didn’t miss from that distance.
“No!” Kent pushed out of Ed’s grip and scrambled around the desk. “What did you do? My wife. I need to find Sharon.”
Joel caught the other man before he ran right up Connor’s back. “Colin here is going to help us with that.”
“I don’t know anything.” Colin looked around. His body shook and his dark eyes were alive with fear. “Please.”
Joel shook his head. “Oh, Colin. Begging?”
Between the frantic headshaking and grabbing at Connor’s hand where it shoved against Colin’s chest and held him to the wall, Jocelyn worried Colin might lose it right there. Worse, he’d shut down before they could get to Kent’s wife.
Colin struggled and his body rocked. “Gary’s partner kidnapped her, not me.”
“Who’s his partner?” Ed had moved up and joined in the semicircle penning Colin in.
