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Chapter1
Aaron pressedhis back against the rough siding of the ordinary ranch-style house that screamed middle-class suburbia. But the contents of this house were anything but typical for this quiet neighborhood.
Two minutes ago, his silhouette was impossible to discern on the moonless night, but that changed when multiple floodlights illuminated the house. Now there was nowhere to hide.
He raised an arm to peer through the haze of light and caught sight of the tactical response team waiting on the street. They had not heeded his argument to breach the residence immediately, so now he waited, stranded in their delay. Not that he was surprised. He may have had a reputation as a top agent, but that came at the cost of turning on some of his own and almost single-handedly destroying a system that a lot of them relied on. To his face, and by his superiors, he was lauded as a hero. But there remained an element of distrust about his methods. Or deep down, maybe they wished he had got it wrong.
He eased sideways to get another look through a crack in the curtains of the window beside him.
Bobby Tyler was pacing the room, toting a sawed-off shotgun. He didn’t stay in view for long. Despite the crazy look in his eye, he was an intelligent man. He would have known that sniper scopes were aimed at every window, and he was careful to remain out of sight.
The evil that Aaron had sensed when he arrived had set him on edge. It was a depraved toxin that was more familiar than he cared to admit. It had only been one week since he returned from six months undercover. That assignment had exposed him to an ugliness in humanity that he’d never experienced before. But it wasn’t just the vileness that got to him on that job. It was the ones who’d gotten caught up in a nightmare with no way out. Just like the captive Bobby had now.
Aaron eased back, pushing his breath between his lips in a steady stream to calm himself, hoping he’d get the go-ahead to move forward with his plan.
He crouched down and moved to another window, where he could see the hostage huddled in the corner. Bobby walked past and Aaron ducked until the perpetrator turned and retraced his steps.
He’d been pacing the same track for the last half hour and Aaron had counted each step so that if he timed it right, he could kick in the door, take Bobby out, and free the hostage.
But he’d been ordered to wait.
He snuck another look inside and studied the woman’s pale face. Her white tank top was ripped and dirty and her head lolled around like she was high on something.
He sank to the ground, his teeth gripping his bottom lip. When his earpiece crackled, he bit down in reflex.
“Agent Pritchard. Stand down. The hostage negotiator is here.”
Aaron tasted blood in his mouth as he shifted back against the wall. The pale-gray paint from the siding chipped off and stuck to his flak jacket, but he paused, frustrated, before obeying this new command.
He should have breached the residence without them. It wouldn’t have been the first time he faced disciplinary action for going against an order, although it had been a long time.
But they’d only allowed him back into the field by a hairsbreadth. He nearly didn’t pass his psych test, and he was walking a thin line as it was. He reconsidered the wisdom he’d chosen in waiting before walking away.
“Agent Pritchard, do you copy?”
Aaron sidestepped away from the window. “Copy that.”
He scooted to the edge of the property before breaking for the street, where he rejoined the response team. They had deemed their position to be a safe distance from the house, but that was debatable.
“The neighborhood is clear?” Aaron asked the agent in charge, Evan Thomson, a short, bald man who had more muscle than he knew what to do with.
Aaron knew him to be a good agent, but tonight could change that.
“Yeah,” Thomson said, looking over Aaron’s shoulder.
“You should have let me go in. This would all be over by now.”
“There’s more than one way to accomplish a task.” Thomson nodded at a sandy-haired man who wore a cocky grin as he sidled up beside Aaron.
“So what have we got?” the man asked, rubbing his hands together.
“David Clement, this is Special Agent Aaron Pritchard,” Thomson said. “Pritchard, could you be kind enough to thank Clement for his quick response and to fill him in on our situation?”
Aaron glared at Thomson before shifting his attention to Clement. He rested his hands on his hips.
“We’ve had Bobby Tyler under investigation for over a year. We have reason to believe he has been preparing to attack a public library within the month. He must have gotten wind of our investigation, so now he’s in there with a hostage and our intelligence suggests that he has explosives in that house that he may use at any moment.”
“Have you seen the explosives?”
