Page 19 of Lone Star Christmas Mission

Kayla and he were moving at a snail’s pace, as slow as Cash thought it was safe to do. He didn’t want to give Harvin anexcuse to shoot the hostage again, but he wanted to buy that time for Jericho and Rafe.

“Why did you want me to bring the knife?” Kayla asked.

Harvin looked at her and beamed. “Oh, you’ll soon find out, bitch. Soon,” he emphasized.

Harvin stopped outside the storage room and again tipped his head for them to go inside. Cash did, fully expecting to come face to face with three more ski mask wearing gunmen.

But he didn’t.

Thanks to about a half dozen large flashlights, he had no trouble seeing there was one such thug in the corner, and he was holding an assault rifle. He had it aimed at the three women kneeling on the floor.

“Fuck,” Cash growled.

All three were wearing Christmas costumes. One was an elf, another an angel, and the one in the middle was dressed as Mrs. Santa. The elf and the Mrs. Santa gave him the flashbacks from hell since those were the costumes Kira and Kayla had been wearing when Virgil had attacked them.

Judging from the gasp Kayla made, she was getting a shitload of flashbacks, too. Of course, she was. All of this was meant to dick around with their heads.

And Harvin was succeeding.

Not just for Kayla and him but also for the hostages.

Cash glanced at the trio again, and he was betting not a one of them was over eighteen. Again, Harvin was trying to mimic the scene when Kira had been murdered. Each of the hostages had their hands tied in front of them and were gagged and blindfolded. Despite the blindfolds, tears had streaked down all of their cheeks, and they were clearly terrified.

“I didn’t want to leave the ladies out of this adventure,” Harvin boasted. “I found this group going to their high school party and brought them here to join in on the fun. Does it bringback memories?” He didn’t wait for an answer. “I sure hope so. I want you reliving every last second of your sister’s life.”

They were, and Cash prayed it didn’t lead to Kayla having a panic attack. Or a full mental breakdown.

Harvin’s expression turned to ice. “Do as I say, or they get to feel bullets being fired into various parts of their bodies.”

It took Cash a moment to get his jaw unclenched so he could speak to this piece of shit. “We’re here, aren’t we? We’ve done as you’ve said. Now, let them go and you can deal with us.”

Harvin pretended to think about that and shook his head. “I think I’ll hang onto them just in case your Maverick Ops’ friends get past my guys out there. I’ll call them insurance. FYI, they’re nearly the same age you were when you caused my uncle to end up in jail.”

Yeah, and that meant they were the same age as Kira had been when said asshole uncle had killed her.

Behind him, he could hear Kayla’s breath start to gust, and he could practically feel the panic rising in her. “What do you want?” she snapped, surprising Cash. Her voice sounded a hell of a lot stronger than he’d expected. “Am I to use this knife on you?”

“You wish, bitch,” Harvin spat out. “But I want you to try. I want you to come at me and plunge the knife…here.” He used his left hand to reach around to the front of his hostage, and he tapped the guy on the heart. “I know you’re good at killing people because you killed my dad.”

There was plenty of emotion in Harvin’s voice now. And worse, that was an unhinged look in his eyes. That’s when Cash knew that Harvin didn’t intend for any of the hostages to get out of this alive.

Cash sized up the thug in the corner. His rifle was still pointed at the girls. Harvin’s gun was pressed to his shield’s temple. So, neither of them had taken aim at Kayla and him.That could change in a blink, of course. But maybe a blink was all he needed.

“Get down,” Cash whispered to Kayla, and before the words were even out of his mouth, he yanked out one of the flares and set it off.

Immediately, intense red light began to spew through the room.

But so did the sound of gunfire.

Someone pulled the trigger.

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Chapter Eight

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Everything seemed to happen at once for Kayla. The sound of that gunshot, the hiss of the flare, the red smoke-like light, and the loud gasp of someone in pain.

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