Page 4 of Thin Ice

She counted off three, yanked the door open, and ran. Brookes entered the hall a beat behind. The shooter was ready for them. Abby ducked low as bullets flew down the hallway. Landed in walls. Shattered the windows at the end of the hall.

Brookes dove for the door. He had reached the entrance when a stray bullet ricocheted off the wall and struck his leg. He screamed and grabbed his injured limb as the bullet burrowed down deep. Brookes hit the floor inches from the entrance. He barely registered Abby screaming his name.

She grabbed hold of his shoulders, pulled him the rest of the way in and slammed the door shut and locked it. Little resistance for a determined shooter, but at least it would give them some amount of security.

“How bad is it?” she asked and dropped down beside him. Shucking her goggles, she waited while Brookes pulled up his pants leg. The bullet had lodged in his calf.

“It’s not so bad. It missed the bone at least.” He took off his goggles and looked at her before removing his backpack. Containing the blood flow was key.

Abby stopped him. “Let me.” She retrieved the medical supplies and quickly tied off his leg above the wound, then thoroughly cleaned the wound and bandaged it. As a former Army nurse, Abby knew how to treat an injury quickly.

He struggled to come up with a workable plan to rescue the president and get them out alive. If they stepped back into the hall again, they’d be dead. Which left—

“There’s only one choice. We have to wait for the shooter to come to us,” Abby said aloud what he was thinking.

“Where’s the second guy?”

“Probably with the hostages. Which means even if we take this one out, we’ll still have to find the president and eliminate the second man before backup arrives.”

Brookes scanned the area around them for a place to hide.

Abby rose and held out her hand to assist him to his feet. “The guy knows we’re here. He’ll be ready.” She helped him to the bedroom. Someone had left an old dresser. She directed Brookes behind it and crouched beside him.

Nothing but silence followed. Then the faintest of sounds. The shooter was coming their way.

Footsteps halted outside the door. “I know you’re in there. You can’t get out on your own. There’s no way out. We have people on the way. Give yourselves up or die.”

Brookes listened carefully. The man wasn’t budging, and the clock was ticking. He left his hiding spot and eased closer to the door. Drawing in a breath he fired. The shot resounded all around them.

A loud thud followed. More silence.

Brookes scrambled toward the door and struggled to open it. The man’s dead weight blocked the opening. With Abby’s help, they forced the door open. The man had dropped where he’d been shot. Abby felt for a pulse and shook her head. The bullet had pierced his chest.

Grabbing his weapon, Abby dug in his pocket and found his phone.

“Ready?” She peered back at Brookes.

He nodded. Though his injured leg made the going slow, together they eased from the apartment. An eerie silence filled the space. Brookes pointed to the last apartment down the hall and she nodded. They inched closer. Before they reached the door, a man stumbled from the apartment with another man holding a gun to his head.

“That’s far enough.” The armed gunman ordered and shoved the man in front of him as a buffer. “Come any closer and he’d dead.”

Brookes recognized the hostage right away—the president of the United States.

“Your partners aren’t going to help you. Drop your weapon!” Abby had her gun trained on the man’s forehead.

He kept his weapon leveled at the president. “Even if you shoot me, he’ll die, and there are others close. You’ll both be dead before you reach the exit. And so will she.”

She? The other person being held hostage. The one who’d sent the text message to Cole.

“You got this?” Abby whispered. He knew exactly what she meant. He had one shot to take this man down before the finger on the trigger ended the life of the most important man in the United States.

Brookes had been a sniper before joining the SEALs. He had no doubt about his skills. While the silent standoff continued, Brookes pulled in a deep breath. Let it go. Fired. He blinked. The man holding the president’s eyes slammed shut. The gun dropped from his lifeless hand. He hit the floor hard.

Taking a life was never an easy thing, but at times it was unavoidable. Still, each kill became harder to live with.

Abby squeezed his arm and ran to the president’s side while Brookes shoved down the many lives he’d taken down deep and snapped back into the moment.

Abby removed a knife from her backpack and quickly cut the president’s restraints away. “How many others are there?”

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