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Kyle.
Dark brown hair. Deep blue eyes. Wide generous smile. Strong, warm embrace.Wanted to love her forever. She pushed the thought of him from her mind and focused on the men hiding within the circle of vehicles. She counted nine. Nine big men to come after little ole her?
She smiled.
One of the men inched forward. She waited, counting under her breath as he moved steadily into the center of the crosshairs on her scope. She pulled the trigger, smooth and easy, aiming below his vest. He collapsed to the ground, blood spreading across his thigh.
“One down,” she whispered. “Eight more to go.”
His cohorts quickly pulled him back behind the wheel of the closest vehicle.
Almost like a military operation. She crinkled her brow.
They quickly reformed, and then a man crouched wielding a large mirror in his hand. Before she could react, a sharp blinding light hit her. Pain stung her eyes. She squeezed them shut. Then she heard it, the pounding of footsteps on her staircase.
Shit! She opened her eyes, but for a few seconds saw only white pinpricks before her vision refocused.
Wood splintered and her house shook beneath her as someone kicked and pummeled her steel-reinforced front door.
“Damn!”
Her cell rang again. This time, she answered. “Genie, where are you?”
Kyle. She hated the little flutter that hit her chest when she heard his gravely self-assured voice. Flutters like stupid, happy little butterflies. “I’m in the crow’s nest. They’ve breached my perimeter.”
“Don’t worry, I’m almost there.”
“Who said I was worried?” she added, faking nonchalance.
“And why would you be worried? I’m sure you can handle this. Should I just go back to Vegas, belly up to the bar and grab myself a cold one?”
She hated that it had to be him coming to her rescue. Of all the people on their team, Cameron sent him. “You do whatever you have to do.”
“That seems to have become a specialty of mine.” The line clicked and he was gone.
She sighed. She always pushed him away. Even when they’d been together, she kept him at an arm’s distance. A long arm. He’d loved her, but it hadn’t been enough. Could never be enough. Because he could never know the truth of who and what, she really was.
Becca’s voice mocked her. “God forbid Genie should let herself find a little happiness and love. It would mean she had something to lose, a weak spot, an area of vulnerability. And that could never happen.”
But for the three Marsters girls, what choice did they have? What choice did she have?
Even so, Becca’s words still burned, but this time they were tinged with sadness. Her sister had been right all along. Only now Becca was dead, and Genie knew what loving and losing really meant. She couldn’t lose her dad, too.
Something crashed. The house shook beneath her, rattling her teeth. These men, whoever they were, had gained access. She searched the horizon, looking for a cloud of dust on the road, for any sign that Kyle was almost there. That no matter what she said or did, he wouldn’t abandon her.
He wouldn’t.
Not this time. After all, hadn’t she abandoned him first? Left him on his own in that warehouse?
She cringed as she felt and heard her house being torn apart below her. Who were these men? What did they want? Suddenly, they were pounding on the door beneath her, shaking her little perch until she wasn’t certain how much longer it could withstand the abuse.
“Who are you? What do you want?” she yelled.
The pounding continued. She heard a shot fired into the metal. They’d reach her soon. There wasn’t much that could withstand that degree of force. She pulled the necklace her father had sent her out of her pocket and placed it around her neck, tipping the crystal inside her shirt. She closed her eyes and tried to get a reading through the metal door of the men below. Were they Cameron’s men or Emerich’s? She reached out with her mind, but got only vague impressions that were absolutely no use. She couldn’t determine why these men were after her, or who had sent them.
She searched the horizon for Kyle once more but he was nowhere to be seen. She stashed the Ka-bar into the sheath at her waist and her Glock into the holster at her ankle, and set down the rifle. She quickly scanned the yard. No one remained at the vehicles.
They were all inside. All coming for her.
Time to move. She unlatched the bulletproof bubble and pushed the top open. She had a motorcycle stashed out back. Once she got down to the ground, she’d flatten their tires and take off for Vegas. It was the best chance she had.
The acrid scent of burning metal warned her time was running short. They were torching the latch off her trap door. They’d reach her within seconds. She climbed onto the small landing on top of the roof. She was very high up. Too high to survive a fall to the desert floor. She picked up the end of a repelling cable hooked at the ready onto the roof and attached it to her belt.
It was a long drop to the ground, but nothing she hadn’t done before. She just hoped there wouldn’t be anyone below waiting for her.
