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Dean held her tight. “Are you hurt, babe?”
“My butt could use some ice.”
Temptation won out and he palmed her behind. “I’ll work on that.”
“Ow, ow,” she hissed, flopping onto her back. “Did you see Katie? Is she all right?” Her lip quivered and Dean felt the knife of it somewhere in his chest.
“Yes. She’s still alive.”
“I can take them out,” she said. “You get Katie.”
“O, no.”
She grabbed his jacket and said, “I can do this! Trust me. Get Katie!”
Gunfire suddenly cut across the ground, and Dean held her head down, his body covering hers as bullets chunked near their position. They were no more than thirty feet from the shooter, the stench of flash burns from his weapon lingering on the steamy air. He wanted to look up and plug the bastard. He heard voices, too soft to understand.
“Time’s up,” she said.
He swore low and vicious, kissed her hard on the mouth, then pulled out his knife, setting it between his teeth.
She pulled out her gun and he couldn’t help noticing how her hand shook. O could do this. This was to save them and her sister. She was an LAPD SWAT officer.
He turned away from her and low-crawled up the hillside to the very edge of the road. The sound of O’s gunfire caught their attention and Dean belly crawled across the hot asphalt to Katie. Her attention was on the gunfire, too. When he rose and covered her mouth, she stiffened, but when she saw it was him, he put his finger to his lips and motioned her into the SUV.
“Don’t come out until I call your name,” he whispered. He moved forward, caught the first man in a punishing choke hold, held it until he was down, then nicked his jugular. The second man turned just as Dean rose. He pulled up the semi-automatic, but it was too late. Dean was way too close for the weapon to be effective.
He swung his arm and plunged the knife into his neck. The guy’s eyes rolled back into his head. He was dead before he hit the ground. Then Dean ran full out toward the sound of the gunfire.
The police were coming, the sirens blaring closer. Extending his arm in front of him he crashed back into the ravine, his fear in his throat. O…
But when he got to her location, she was blasting away, making her shots count. Two of the men were down, two left. She aimed straight, shot without fear. Her chest was heaving, her body trembling. But to her credit, she did not budge off target.
He opened fire just as O clutched her arm and disappeared from view. He shouted her name. He made his shots count. Three to the chest, one to the head, and both tangos went down.
He ran to O who had blood on her arm. He grabbed her and pulled her up and against him, his heart hammering.
“Ow, my arm.” Then she one-arm hugged him as hard as he was hugging her. “Katie?”
“Safe.” The sirens intensified until they heard squealing tires above them.
“Jeez, I’m glad you’re on our side,” she muttered.
Then she collapsed, but he caught her and held her tight in his arms. He muscled her up the ravine to the SUV. “Katie,” he called.
She came out, the relief on her face changing to horror. “Ophelia!” She ran to them, tears running down her face, as he cradled O against him.
SWAT was there, men pouring out of the back of the truck, along with an ambulance. The EMTs took O and put her on a stretcher. She came to while they were checking her over. Katie hovered nearby. When she saw Katie, O yelled her name.
O shoved the EMT off her and wrapped her arms around her sister. It was at least a minute before Katie let her go and the EMTs could finally clean up the bullet graze and bandage it. She refused to go to the hospital.
Inside the semi-truck, they found the guns and C4. But there was only one missile.
Someone behind the scenes, someone who directed his mercenaries to blow up Logan’s home, some ruthless bastard sold a missile to The Black Hearts so they could blow up Metro. Justin had grown a conscious and spilled the beans about The Black Hearts’ intent. That someone was running the show, and he had skills.
After getting O settled, she passed out quickly. He came back out into the living room. Jessica, Gage, Logan, and Ave were all seated there.
“She all right?” Logan asked.
