Page 258 of Lodestar

The Tarantino fan in me was beyond impressed at how she’d blown one of their heads off and had gone for gut shots that left them incapacitated on the ground to die a slow, painful death when help didn’t come—I felt that.

Actual Sparrows.

In a siege.

What better opportunity than now to burn off past resentments with skillful shots that left the lasting impression of ‘til death do us part?

“We just want to talk to you!” a Sparrow shouted.

“Yeah, I bet,” Troy roared, taking aim at one of the guys from the second car who’d spent his time crouched behind the vehicle, using it as a shield. “You want to talk to me, but you send in nine guys to make sure I can’t get away? I don’t think so.” She punctuated that by tearing someone’s throat apart with a bullet.

With Dead To Me and Star firing as well, the only thing that was slow about this was how the remaining guards were pinned down, only popping up rarely to lessen how often they could get hit.

But, like whack-a-mole, the snipers took them out, and while they were easy prey in the grand scheme of things, that didn’t take away from the odds of three against nine.

When the only men remaining were the two from the second car, Star called, “Maybe you should ask your questions now that you’re the ones who are outnumbered?”

My lips cocked up in a grin. The nerves of earlier were gone, and it registered then that she hadn’t been scared for herself, just for me.

For our tomorrow.

God, I was going to kiss the fuck out of her when I got my hands on her.

Did she even know how hot she was?

“We came here for the girl.”

“The girl?” D muttered.

“You can’t have the girl,” Troy spat. “Not only because I ain’t got one, but even if I did, she wouldn’t be yours to have.”

“She’s an active member in an investigation?—”

Star hooted. “Because each of you belongs to the Connecticut State Police, don’t you?”

“We’re satellite officers?—”

Three women started cackling in my ear at that.

“Yeah, okay,” D shouted. “I’ll believe you when thousands wouldn’t.”

“What investigation?” Star shouted around her giggle-snorts.

“Into her parents’ murders.”

I zoomed in on the car, trying to see if I could figure out what the pair were doing from behind the shield.

Both cars had been parked at an odd angle, so I attempted to use the reflection from the other vehicle’s bodywork to see what was happening.

My eyes flared when, after zooming in, I saw that one of the guys had a hand grenade in his palm.

“They’ve got more grenades,” I snapped.

There was silence on the other end of the line, silence from all quarters.

Then:

“They lob that and one of us could be fucked.” D.

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