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He rapped a knuckle on the table. “All right then. I’ll be right back, and we’ll wrap this whole mission up and get you back to your normal life, Ms. Byers.”
A strange expression crossed her face, but Will shrugged it off. Probably just her reaction to being reminded of the rundown apartment and car that was her normal life.
He spoke to the rest of the team as he left her table. “I’m on my way out. Is he still across the street?”
“Affirmative. Target hasn’t moved.” Pierce was watching the drone video feed from a portable screen while he watched the back entrance.
Will checked his watch. The meeting had been scheduled for twenty minutes ago. He was worried the shooter was going to get impatient. Frankly, they were lucky the guy hadn’t decided to take Melanie out on her wayintothe Screaming Peach.
“Ready to breach the roof,” Tank’s gruff voice came through the earpiece. “On your go.”
“Give me ten seconds to secure the front entrance. Pierce, what do you see?”
“Eagle shows shooter still prone on the northwest corner of the roof.”
Will jogged casually across the street. There was no traffic to speak of. “Almost there.”
“Will,” Joey’s voice cut in. “Local police are inbound responding to a report of a sniper on the roof.”
“Time’s up. Move,” he commanded his team.
“Moving,” he heard Tank confirm. “Get your hands up! Drop the weapon.”
Tank yelled at the shooter and Will imagined what would be happening.
Instead, Tank’s urgent yells came over the comms. “It’s a decoy. Repeat. Sniper is a decoy. No target. Repeat. No target!”
Son of a–
Will ran back across the street, desperate to lay eyes on Melanie. He wrenched the door open and saw her walking toward him with a hesitant smile on her face. Relief flooded him.
Until the ground shook and a flash of light behind her made his heart stop.
A wave of heat pressed into him, pushing him back as the glass exploded in the windows beside him. He forced his eyes open, searching in the dust and smoke for Melanie, finding nothing in the place she’d been moments before.
“Melanie!”
He was yelling but couldn’t hear anything. A few people ran past him toward the street, but he fought his way forward until he found his target. Nothing mattered but getting her out.
Whatever the shooter had planned, clearly Will had underestimated him.
As the dust settled, a flash of red near the ground caught his eye. Her scarf.
He reached down, pushing aside pieces of tables and ceiling tiles. Easier to dig through than the fallen stones last time he pulled a woman from the wreckage. Still, his skin caught on jagged metal, and his eyes stung in the dusty air.
He scooped Melanie into his arms then ran out of the building. She was breathing, he could tell that much. If his team was talking to him, he couldn’t hear it. Either the comms were shot or he was temporarily deaf from the blast. Maybe both.
Still, he knew instinctively how they’d respond. Rally at the vehicle and get out of Dodge, unless he changed the orders or they had to help him exfil.
He carried Melanie in his arms, cradling her to his chest as he headed toward the sunlight. When he made it to the sidewalk, he turned left, away from the broken glass from the front window and toward the blue suburban they’d left parked in an alley two blocks down.
He glanced at Melanie, an angry gash across her forehead bleeding more than he’d like. Her eyes remained shut, and her body hung limp in his arms. He looked over his shoulder, scanning the crowd that had gathered outside the Screaming Peach.
There was screaming, he realized, focusing in on a hysterical woman screaming and pointing at the restaurant. His hearing was slowly coming back. With one movement, he’d adjusted Melanie’s small frame so it was balanced over his shoulders, secured with one arm around her leg and one elbow tucked under her arm. He used his free hand to move his earpiece from one ear to the other.
Quiet voices registered. He didn’t wait to see what they were saying.
“I’ve got her. Rendezvous at the car. Anyone still have a bird’s eye?”
