Page 69 of Vail

Heavy boots on the stairs had me lifting my gun and pointing it toward the door, just in case his men got the upper hand on mine. It was doubtful, but I wasn’t taking chances.

Raiden rounded the corner, his gun in front of him. We both lowered our weapons at the same time.

“All clear,” he said. “I’ve called for staging. There’s no way to clean this up.”

“Thank you.” He was right. I couldn’t get this many bodies out of here, nor scrub the blood from the floors and walls. As it was, I didn’t know what to do to make this look like I didn’t tear through here.

“Jesus Christ!” a man yelled from the bottom floor. “What the fuck, Jordan?”

“Bear, I will put you to the ground if you fucking start!” Reghan shouted.

I dropped my head to the floor, still holding Vail. Great, now I had Barrett to deal with.

He was the next one into the room, Reghan hot on his heels, a mask of fury on his face.

“I knew when I saw your SUVs leave while I was driving through the city something was about to go down. I didn’t know what though. Then I got a call out on this middle of fucking nowhere road and had to pull over so I could focus on it. Now here I am amidst a pile of bodies and blood and who the hell knows what else. How the fuck am I supposed to explain this?” Barrett asked. “I can’t. Neither can you. And I can’t fucking arrest you or your men. You did us all a favor, rescuing Vail’s sister and the kids. Getting rid of this scumbag. It’s a blood bath in here though.”

“We’ll figure it out,” I told him.

Vail calmed in my arms enough to lift his head. He stood and rushed toward Raiden and Reghan to hug them both. “How are Cat and the kids?”

“They’re fine and outside. Completely unharmed,” Raiden said.

I stood as well, making sure to bring my gun with me which I holstered.

“Okay, this is how it’s going to go,” Barrett began. “Gil reached out and said he was holding Vail’s family hostage. You jumped into your SUV with Vail, Sheldon, Reghan, and Raiden to try to get here, and you also called me, because you had my card from when I gave it to Hartley the other day, even though I didn’t, and knew you needed assistance. I was already out this way, for some fucking reason I haven’t made up yet, and got here fast. Call me now from a burner.”

Raiden pulled a phone out and did so. One of us always had a burner phone on us.

“Good. I called for backup and said shots had already been fired.” He held a finger and dialed, giving a speech about a hostage situation and how he needed backup. He hung up. “Whose guns are legal?”

“Mine and Reghan’s,” Raiden said.

“Jordan, give me your gun.” He quickly wiped it down and put Gil’s fingerprints on it then his own. He took his gun out and put it in Gil’s hand. “Take Gil’s and get rid of it. I’ll say we fought, my gun was wrestled from me, and this was the one I found to use. You haven’t killed anyone else with this, have you?”

“Not that one,” I told him.

“Give me the other one.” He wiped it down then left for a minute before returning. “I need the rest of your men out of here ASAP. Go, tell them to split. We can’t have more of us here. Being out this far, it will take a few for the local police to get here.”

Would this work? Would the story Barrett crafted on the fly hold? Fuck if I knew but I didn’t have a better suggestion.

“Did you see any cameras or security here?” Barrett asked.

“None,” Reghan replied.

“I reached out to our man and he didn’t find anything he could tap into,” Raiden added.

Barrett shook his head. “I don’t want to fucking know all the bullshit you have on the side the police aren’t aware of. Keep that shit to yourselves. Now go walk around and try to cover other bloody prints from your men with your own. Jesus, what a fucking mess. And catch Vail’s sister up to speed. We’re going to say Reghan and Raiden came in with me, Jordan behind us with Sheldon. You two were protecting who you work for as well as helping me.”

I turned to Vail, who kept his eyes off the floor where Gil was. “It’s over.”

“Almost. We still have to talk to the police.”

I nodded. If I could shield him from this, I would. I wasn’t sure how to cover this up without Barrett’s help. There were too many bodies. Too much going on. We got lucky that the house was on a large parcel of land. I didn’t see any others close when we arrived. Someone had to have heard the shots though. The cops would conduct interviews and if anything cropped up, I’d find a way out of it like I always did.

Lana was called as well. She should know what to expect. “I’m walking to my car,” she told me before I hung up. She charged a fortune and was well worth it.

The details didn’t matter. Well, they did, but not as much as Gil being dead. Everything else I could handle. With the threat to Vail now gone, I could relax.

---