Page 36 of His Reluctant Savior

“Go. I’ll take care of them down here from the front.”

It was hard to calm my heart since I wasn’t trained for this, making it hard to breathe, but I took a few deep breaths anyway as I slightly eased back a curtain in the dining room at the front of the house. Two men were inching their way toward the house with guns drawn. Sure enough, they, too, were wearing tactical goggles.

If I opened the window, they’d see and hear me, so I’d have to trust Sid to take out the sniper and the other two men before rushing out the front door and killing the two men in the front. I quickly entered the code to unlock the door, but I didn’t open it, waiting for Sid.

As soon as I heard the pop from his rifle, I burst open the door, found the guy closest to me, and took the shot straight to his head. I didn’t wait to see him drop before my gun aimed at the second one and fired. He shot at me at the same time, grazing my arm, but hitting nothing vital. The burn was excruciating, but I tried to ignore it. My first bullet hit his shoulder, so I fired off two more rounds, hitting him in the throat and chest, though he was probably wearingKevlar.

My sights turned to the first guy to make sure he dropped, and I found him sprawled on the ground, unmoving.

I slowly stepped outside into the damp early morning, holding my arm as the sun slowly rose on the horizon, scanning the area in front of me to make sure we didn’t miss anyone and then double-checking that the second guy was down. When all was clear, I rushed toward the back of the house to discover two men dead on the ground.

By the time I removed my goggles with shaking hands as the adrenaline wore off, Sid came running outside, checking me up and down. “You okay?”

“It’s just a graze.”

Sid literally growled as he tossed his gun to the ground and lifted the edge of my bloodied shirt sleeve. It wasn’t bleeding too badly, but it was burned, and it would scar.

“I’m fine,” I said. “See, just a graze. It matches the one on my side.”

He nodded, his jaw clenching. “Two grazes in as many days pisses me off.”

“Mentally, though… In all my years with the FBI, I’ve never killed anyone. Now, I’ve laid to waste a handful of men.”

Sid gripped my shoulder gently. “You do what you have to in order to survive. You managed not to kill those other men.”

“We don’t know that. The last car rolled and crashed,” I sighed. “Regardless, necessity doesn’t make it any easier, Sid. It was different when we were running for our lives. My only thought was keeping Owen alive. But this…”

Sid pulled me against him before smothering my worries in a kiss. “We can talk about this later. We need to get out of here. And I need to find that tracking device on your car and destroy it. I don’t want any other unwanted visitors coming here.”

“Why track me? They could’ve just killed me.”

“You were probably only being followed at first.”

“What about the bodies?” I asked.

“I’ll call my guy to send someone. Fuck, I’m going to owe him a kidney at this point.”

He quickly kissed me again. “Get your shit together and bring it to the garage. We’ll take myBronco. I’ll look over your car with my scanner. No more unwanted visitors here.”

“What are you going to do for clothes?”

“I keep an emergency bag and weapons in my cars. Go now. We’ll get your wound cleaned up as soon as we find a place to hole up in for a couple of days.”

I ran inside the house and up the stairs. My bag was ready to go, but I brushed my teeth quickly, changed my shirt, and headed back outside and straight to the garage.

“Did you find it?” I asked, seeing Sid on his back, underneath my car with a flashlight.

“Yep. Give me a second.”

He tossed a small object onto the ground by my feet, and I picked it up.

“I have a toolbox sitting on that wooden table in the far right corner,” he said, sliding out from underneath the car. “Grab a hammer and smash it, will you?”

I did as I was told, lifting the hammer and pulverizing the small device on the wooden table.

“Let’s go,” he said, dusting off his hands. “No time to waste.”

“It’s just that one?”

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