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She silently pushed the door open and then dropped to the ground like we’d gone over. The lights were off, and as I pushed my way into the room, it was easy to see that it was empty. I quickly moved to the next room, and Abby followed. She was perfectly capable of running point, but I’d rather be her bullet shield.
I cleared the next room—empty. I heard snoring coming from the next room over. I pointed to the wall. Abby squeezed my arm to confirm she saw my signal. I exited the room and opened the next to find five sleeping men. One bolted upright and cried out. He moved his hand toward the nightstand, toward his pistol resting there. I lunged for him and grabbed his wrist before he could touch the metal of the gun. The air in the room moved as Abby rushed past me. I barely had time to blink before she had her knees in the back of a suspect. She zip-tied his wrist as I finished fighting with my suspect. He was the biggest out of all the men in the room. In a few more seconds, I had his zip-ties on and secured him to the headboard. He wasn’t going anywhere. Abby trained her pistol on the man who sat straight up in bed, staring at us. I dragged him from the bed and deposited him on the floor. I bound his wrists with zip-ties and left him face down.
“Status check,” Yates said into our radios.
“Room of five suspects found. Three incapacitated. Two more to go, and then we will continue clearing the house,” Abby whispered into her radio. Her gun was already trained on the last two suspects. Their hands were up waiting for us.
“We’ve found four, still clearing rooms,” Garcia answered.
“Three restrained, clearing still in progress,” Jones added.
Something moved out of my peripheral vision. He resembled our target, Ricketts’ brother. Abby’s head whipped around. She bounced on her toes to keep herself light. “Do you have these two?”
Before I could answer, she took off running after him. No doubt he was looking for a way out of the house. Abby disappeared out of my sight, but I heard her retreating footsteps as she pursued him. I wanted to chase after her, but I wasn’t going to let these two pricks get away. They’d screw everything up for us and cause us even more danger. It wasn’t worth the risk, and Abby was capable of a foot chase.
“You can make this a lot less painful for yourself and get on the fucking ground. Hands behind your back,” I growled in a low warning.
They took several seconds to size me up, along with the rifle strapped to my back and my Glock—still aimed in their direction. They dropped to the floor like rocks.
“That was the right call.” I bound them to the other beds. None of them were leaving this room until Bob’s team came for them.
I moved to the next room and found it empty. I came across an unlocked cell phone. I made a mental note to come back and look for it.
I moved outside the next door, and three gunshots popped off—the sound echoed through the building.
“Whose shots fired?” Guy asked through the radio. A panic bubbled up inside me. Those shots came from inside our house, from upstairs. Someone was resulting in extreme force, and I had to hope it was Abby.
“From house two, Abby was in pursuit of Ricketts’ brother. Send backup to house two so I can check it out.”
“I’m fine,” Abby panted loudly into the radio. “Mine,” she said breathlessly.
“Where are you?” I asked.
“Don’t worry about it…I’ve got this covered. Watch my six,” she said.
She sounded winded, but I had to take her at her word. I continued a quick search of each room of this massive house.
I heard another round of shots go off coming from the direction of house three.
“Mine, but I too might need some backup. They have ARs in here,” Mendez said.
More shots went off, five to be exact.
“Taking fire,” Garcia said, breathlessly.
“Fuck, on my way,” Yates said breathlessly into the radio. He charged to house three to assist.
“Does that mean we aren’t getting backup?” I asked.
“Wait two minutes, let me confirm team three is covered, and I’ll rush over there,” Yates said.
I continued moving onto the next room, checking the pantry and the lower cabinets of the massive kitchen. I found an under-the-stairs closet and half expected to find a tied-up woman in there. Instead it looked like there was nothing but trash and messed-up sheets on a ratty mattress. The cuffs on the floor gave me an idea of what happened in this space. I tried to block that out. I needed to keep moving so I could check on Abby.
“Status update, Abby?” I asked, thankful that at least I could talk to her through the radio.
“Kind of busy… Can’t talk.” The sound of a good punch could be heard through the radio, and I hoped like hell it was her who threw the punch.
I heard loud footsteps on the stairs and peeked around the side of them while keeping myself hidden. A man almost my size came running around the bottom of the stairs and back toward the kitchen where I was standing. He had a gun pointed right at me. He didn’t give me a second to act in self-defense before the shot fired. The round hit me in the vest, covered by my shirt.
