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His hooded sweatshirt was zipped up. Tugging it enough to reveal the black shirt beneath it, he kept going until Tess saw the gun he had on his hip.
She froze.
Mason took out the gun, flashing his weapon at her. He never lost that smile of his as he murmured, “I said, get in the car, Tess.”
Tess got in the car.
* * *
Meanwhile,at the rendezvous point that Boone had picked out on the mountainside of Hamlet, the stage was set for the inevitable confrontation.
When Sly buzzed Maria’s captor back earlier that afternoon, he agreed to meet him at eight o’clock. By one, Natalie, Kade, and Ethan were all in position. Banking on the fact that the Hamlet locals knew the town better than even a Marine outsider, they wore camouflage and hid nearby.
At four, an unfamiliar car traveled the road Boone picked for the meeting point. From the description Kade passed along to Sly, it seemed like it could have been Boone. He stopped, parked, and looked around. He was probably scoping out the site, making sure that no one had done exactly what the HSD was currently doing.
Whether he caught them or not, no one knew. He drove off immediately, too quick for any of the deputies to take a shot. Kade called in the description first, letting Sly now to be on the look-out for the shiny black car, but, by five, Lucas and Rick—taking another patrol—find the car abandoned behind Franklin’s Garage.
Franklin, Lucas knew, didn’t have any cameras. He’d also shut down the garage earlier, spending the afternoon down at his wife’s ice cream shop, so he wasn’t there to see who abandoned the car—or where it came from to begin with.
Figuring it was Boone, it didn’t surprise any of them that he came by to check out the spot hours before he set up the meet.
It did prove that it was a good idea that they arrived even earlier.
By seven, everyone was in position, including Sly, Rick, and Grace. It was a good thing, too, since Boone showed up at seven-fifteen.
The three of them were standing in the middle of the rode when a champagne-colored sedan came coasting down the road; an entirely different one than that one that was abandoned by the garage, but still one that stood out. There was very rarely traffic on this particular street—another nod toward a local working with Boone to plan this confrontation—so when the car stopped, Lucas figured it had to be showtime.
It was.
The car stopped. Two minutes later, Boone unfolded his big body, climbing out of the luxury vehicle.
Lucas understood why the big man was moving so awkwardly almost immediately: he was wearing a bulletproof vest beneath his suit jacket.
That almost made him smile past the incandescent rage that was burning through his veins. Boone had learned his lesson, it seemed. After being shot three times by Rick, then once by Rick’s bride, he made sure that any shots fired at his trunk would hurt like a bitch, but that wouldn’t pierce through him.
Unfortunately for Boone, the Hamlet locals learned their lesson, too.
Kade had been told that, once Boone revealed that he had Maria with him, he should fire on the outsider. He never even questioned the command; having worked alongside Boone before, back when he was still an outsider, Kade agreed that it was time to take him out.
They couldn’t risk firing on him if didn’t have Maria. He knew her location, and if he kept her hidden, they couldn’t chance not being able to get to her.
Once again, Boone proved to be honest for a murderous bastard. Once he was out of the car, he moved around to the backseat of the car. He opened the door, crouched down behind the door as though using it for cover, but when he stood up again, he was yanking Maria out of the vehicle.
Lucas was standing in the woods about twenty feet behind the point where Sly and Rick were standing with Grace. His Mustang was parked about a five minute walk on the other side of the trees, hidden so that Boone didn’t know that he was also there.
Feeling more than a little bloodthirsty for the way Boone wrenched Maria’s arm as the dragged her feet, rubbing each wrist with her fingers, he held his breath, waiting for the moment the pair of them cleared the car.
The plan was to take him out before he got close enough to grab Grace. And, with one expertly fired shot, that’s exactly what Kade did.
The sniper rifle fired. Boone’s body stopped short as the bullet found his brain.
Between one step and the next, he dropped—and Maria started screaming bloody murder.
CHAPTERFOURTEEN
That was, he admitted, the one element of the plan Lucas regretted.
He knew his delicate sister would be traumatized enough already without having a man be executed less than a foot away from her—especially since, if Kade missed the shot, she was in firing range—but after seeing the deputy show off his aim behind the station house, Sly and Lucas both agreed this was the best chance they head.
