Page 49 of Don't Let Go

“Confirmation?” Patch wasn’t distrusting me, she was making sure nothing popped up to surprise Locke in the house. I could cover him, but we wanted one of these guys alive. So better to minimize the collateral—fornow.

“Confirmed,” Locke answered a few seconds later. “Remind me not to piss Remy off.”

“You’ve survived it once,” I informed him. “You’ll be fine.”

“Focus,” Patch said, though a chuckle threaded the word. I’d made her smile.

“At the stairs, going silent to get to the first floor.” Locke didn’t wait for our acknowledgement, he just went quiet. I moved my attention to the main floor where the other three targets were located.

The drapes were open, but a sheer covered the glass. I wouldn’t be taking the shot through the glass. While no glass was truly bulletproof,there were varieties of bullet resistant.

Those made it challenging, but not impossible. You had to plan for the time to take down the resistant glass with multiple shots. However, in the time it took to take down the glass, your targets had time to escape and shift position.

I had a.50 cal with me. As useful as the heavier firepower was, it added some limitations to accuracy. Since we needed one of these assholes alive, I’d prefer to keep that margin of error smaller.

Two beeps.

Locke was in position.

Another two beeps.

Locke was ready to move.

He waited for me, however, and I did a slow sweep with the specialized scope.

“Target one acquired,” Patch told me and I marked it mentally before proceeding. “Target Three, no joy here.”

The target we wanted to take with us. I moved to the next corner.

“Target two acquired.”

I returned to target one. “Confirmed,” she said in a tone that made me want to kiss her. At my sweep past target three to target two, she added a second, “Confirmed.”

It would take me a full second and a half to move from target one to target two.

“Be ready to take down target two if he moves,” I told Locke. “Clear the row.”

Two beeps. An acknowledgement.

“Ignition in five,” Patch began the countdown. “Four, three…”

Everything faded as I prepped for Target One.

On one, the glass exploded outward. The two charges Locke had put into place decimated the glass, cracking it at all anchor points, letting its weight and gravity do the rest.

I fired, eliminating the first target before he even finished coming into view. The second target was moving for the third, but Locke appeared in the visual.

“Hold,” Patch said unnecessarily, because my finger was already off the trigger. The second guy went down with three sharp slices and a series of swift stabs. For a guy who didn’t like the fight, he was damn useful in it.

I was back on target three, he had a gun in his hand.

He didn’t need the hand to answer questions.

I fired, the bullet would shatter his wrist if he was lucky, but probably sever the whole damn thing if he wasn’t.

“Target three down,” Locke said, kicking the weapon away. “Fuck, that’s messy.”

“He’ll live,” I told him. We didn’t need him to live that long, so the target’s comfort was completely secondary. Besides, if he’d gotten the shot off, Patch would have been upset. I refused to give her more reasons to cry. “Secure him. I’m on my way.”

---