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I hurl my body weight at him, attempt to kick his foot out from under him. We both go down as a loud bang splinters the air. I don’t feel the sting of death, and my target is no more dead or injured than I am. I have no idea who fired the gun.
He and I roll on the floor, fighting to gain control of his pistol.
I’m vaguely aware of the commotion around us, but I’m too focused on not losing my battle and I don’t fully register what else is going on in the warehouse.
A tearing pain rips through the previously injured shoulder. A torn muscle? Ligament? Tendon? I grunt-groan and roll once more. Pin the soldier under my weight. My heart is racing. I’m fighting to catch my breath.
“FBI! Drop your weapons!” a female voice demands. “On your stomach. On the ground.”
I catch sight of the toes of her shoes in my periphery and take a chance the soldier won’t shoot me before she shoots him. I roll off him onto my stomach.
My gaze finds Ethan. He’s talking to one of the FBI agents and is the only agent not wearing a vest identifying him as such. The other agents are cuffing Wilson and the men who work for the man in black.
Ethan walks over to the female agent staring down at me. “He’s an innocent.” He points at me. “The other one is involved in the operation.”
Ethan squats beside me. “You okay, Troy?”
I roll onto my back, struggling to find my breath, my shoulder throbbing. Lucas is definitely going to kill me after this. Him and Samuel.
I nod, although based on Ethan’s expression, he’s not buying it.
He helps me to my feet as I cradle my arm against my body. “Do me a favor?”
“Sure, what?”
“Can you please stick to just rescuing lost hikers next time?” he grumbles with a hint of amusement.
“Are you telling me this entire time you were FBI?” Damn, I hadn’t seen that coming.
“Yup. We suspected Chief Wilson was involved in weapons trafficking. What I’d like to know is what the hell you’re doing here?”
“Wilson is an abusive asshole,” I say as if that explains everything, and my gaze briefly flicks to an FBI agent handcuffing one of the men in black. “He’s been abusing his wife for years.”
“Shit. Is she okay?”
I grit my teeth at the throbbing pain in my shoulder. “My girlfriend was helping Violet and her daughter escape, but he found them hiding at Jess’s house. He beat Jess up as a warning and reported it as a break and enter.”
Ethan huffs a noise of disbelief or disgust or both. “That explains why he didn’t request the Bureau’s help when they went missing. The last thing he wanted was our involvement when he was abusing his wife and involved in criminal activities. Where are Violet and her daughter now?”
“Home. But Wilson has another cop watching her. Sounds like he’s been stalking her when Wilson couldn’t. My brothers and I had a feeling Wilson was up to something, and we followed him here.”
“Well, that explains what you’re doing here.” Ethan shakes his head like he can’t believe my role in what just went down. “Which officer is with Violet and her daughter?”
“Clive Dunbar.”
“Shit,” Ethan mutters under his breath as Kellan and Garrett approach with two agents by their sides.
“We’ve got a problem,” Kellan tells me. “Lucas just saw Jess—and she’s inside the house with Violet and Dunbar.”
My heart stops beating, an ice bullet ripping through the muscle.
60
Angelique
October 1943
France
