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“I’m headed your way now. Gather the team.” Viper hung up and started the car.
He turned to Kelly. “Call Lynn. Make sure she’s okay, but don’t tell her anything else. You’re just calling because you’re concerned.” He sped off down the road and turned the corner coming to Rich and Kelly’s house from the opposite direction all the other FBI vehicles had come from to take down Spike. He spotted something in a driveway across the street and two houses before his destination. And someone spotted him, too.
Luckily he had his mask to cover his identity. Even Kelly didn’t know what Viper looked like, or his name.
But she spotted the man hauling ass through the side-yard gate of the house. “That’s Aaron.”
He slammed on the brakes and put the car in Park. “Stay here. Lock the doors. Do not get out of the vehicle.” Viper ran after his target, announcing on his radio, “In pursuit of suspect across the street from your location. White male, black jeans, tan boots, dark green jacket over white shirt, black knit cap. He’s climbing over the back fence from the light greenhouse into a neighbor’s yard.” Viper ran through the gate and straight for the fence as Aaron dropped down. He heard a siren and knew the other agents were circling around to get in front of Aaron.
Viper was up and over the fence in no time, dropping down just as he spotted Aaron out of the corner of his eye. He got clocked in the head with a log and stumbled, pulling his gun as he steadied himself, but Aaron swung a saw with a short, thin blade, slicing through Viper’s thin jacket, shirt, and skin from his shoulder down his bicep. Viper nearly lost his grip on the gun but had the presence of mind to swing the butt right into Aaron’s face, breaking his nose and sending him to his knees.
Viper shoved him to the ground and pulled his hands behind his back so fast Aaron didn’t have time to even touch his bleeding face. He slapped the cuffs on him and held him down with a knee in his back as he used his left hand to pull his radio. “Suspect in custody.”
“Let me go. I didn’t do anything,” Aaron mumbled and wiggled underneath him as Viper tried to breathe and clear his vision. That blow had really rocked him. Adrenaline masked the pain, but it was coming soon. “Get off!”
Nick and two other agents raced into the yard, the homeowner staring at them from their back sliding-glass window.
Viper didn’t move as the world spun around him.
Nick stared down at him. “You’re bleeding.”
“It’s just a scratch.”
Nick frowned. “Uh-huh. You can get off him now. We’ll take him.”
Viper closed his eyes as a wave of nausea hit him, andhe pressed his hand to the goose egg swelling on the side of his head. “I think I need some help.”
“Help me. Get him off. I can’t breathe!” Aaron wailed.
At a hundred and ninetysomething pounds, Viper kept Aaron practically immobile. Though he suspected most of Aaron’s breathing problems were because his nose was gushing blood everywhere.
Nick spotted the log next to the saw someone had been using to cut up tree branches nearby. “How bad are you hurt?”
“He got the jump on me with that fucking chunk of wood, then tried to saw me in half.”
Nick stared down at their suspect. “I’ll add the assault on a federal agent to the assault on your wife and the murder-for-hire on your sister.”
“Lynn deserved worse than a smack across the face for sleeping with my sister.”
“She deserves better than you.” Viper pressed both hands down on the guy’s back in order to stand and move away from him.
Aaron groaned at the pressure, then rolled over once he was free and glared up at Viper. “Go to hell.”
“You first. Enjoy prison.” Viper tried to take a step.
Nick caught him by the arm and steadied him before he went down like a felled tree. “You’ve earned a trip to the ER and some pain meds.”
“I always win the prize,” he grumbled, because he’d been hurt on the job way more than Nick ever had: Viper spent his time in the trenches, and his brother spent most of his time behind a desk.
Nick was the brains, Viper the grunt.
His brother issued orders to the agents around them as he helped Viper out of the backyard and toward ablack SUV. Not the one he’d used to keep Kelly safe until Spike was in custody. Blood had soaked his shirt.
“Great catch and takedown,” one of the agents said. “Can’t believe you spotted this guy so fast.”
Viper took the smack on the back in stride. “He wanted to see his sister get killed for what she did.”
Nick helped him into the front passenger seat of the vehicle. “He can keep hating her from his cell. I hope his sister and wife are very happy together.”
