Page 50 of Wired Target

“I’ll keep the children safe.”Armita held Sean cuddled close, a hand over his ear to guard against the shrilling noise of the security system.Momi was tucked against her side, a pillow over her head.“Go.See what it is.And turn that thing off before it deafens us all.”

Sophie whirled and hurried to the security panel beside the door leading to the garage.She quickly input a code and the sound turned off.“Going to have to adjust that,” she told Lei.“This is the first time the system has been activated except to test it.Hopefully it’s just a fender bender outside.The men will call nine-one-one.”

Ominous-looking smoke billowed from somewhere on the other side of the wall as Sophie and Lei exited the house through the side door and headed for the large front gate which Clement and Bill had opened.

“Didn’t you just get done telling me your mama wants to kill you and take your kids?”Lei trotted in Sophie’s wake, her weapon drawn.“Maybe you should stay inside with Armita.”

Sophie didn’t reply, too busy taking in the chaotic scene just outside and to the left of her open gate to answer.

The accident seemed serious.A sporty black Jeep had been smashed into the high rock wall after being hit by a dark green Range Rover; rammed into that SUV, and crushing it up against the Jeep even more, was an older black Cadillac sedan.Sophie gasped—that Caddy was her father’s big boat of a car!

“Oh no!He must have been coming to visit!”She ran out through the gate, frantic to find him.“Dad!”

Frank stood in the road beside the smoking metal mayhem of the accident, his arms wrapped around a small, thrashing blonde woman, a Glock in one of his fists.

“Give up!”Frank yelled.“Stop, and I’ll let you live!”

“Never!”Pim Wat screamed.

This was no loving embrace—Sophie’s parents were locked in a life-or-death struggle.

Pim Wat fumbled at the waistband of her pants, then stabbed Frank with the knife she’d pulled, hitting him in the side and the thigh until he released her.

He dropped Pim Wat at last—and before Sophie’s shocked eyes, he shot her in the head.The latest incarnation of her mother stared right into Sophie’s eyes, before falling forward onto her face on the asphalt.

“Dad!”Sophie screamed, running toward Frank.

“Help Connor!”Frank dropped his weapon, holding his side.He fell to his knees in the road.“Connor’s in the Jeep!”

Sophie spun toward the mass of smoking, crumpled metal that made up the three crashed vehicles.Fresh flames burst out from under the crumpled hood of the Range Rover.Through the wavering heat, she glimpsed Connor in the front seat of the Jeep.“Oh no!We have to get him out!”

“Holy crap!”Lei exclaimed from behind Sophie.She yelled at the two security men emerging from Sophie’s estate, one holding a medical kit and the other a fire ax.“Did you call nine-one-one?”

“On their way!”Bill said.

Lei was right behind Sophie as she ran around the trunk of the Cadillac to the hood of the Jeep.The smaller vehicle was sandwiched between the wall and the nose of the SUV that had hit it.“We need something to get the door open,” she said.“But I can’t see how.Both doors are blocked.”

“Thought this might come in handy.”Clement swung the heavy fire ax at the shattered windshield of the Jeep.It folded inward over Connor in a shower of cubelike broken fragments, still connected in one piece.“Get him out through there, before the fire spreads!”

Sophie, with Lei and Bill’s help, lifted the broken windshield off Connor and pushed it out of the way.She jumped up onto the hood of the Jeep and reached inside, trying to undo his seat belt.“It’s stuck!”

Clement leaped up beside her and swung the ax again, burying its head in the stuffing of the driver’s seat and severing the belt.Bill, Sophie, and Lei tugged at Connor’s upper body.He was unconscious as they tried to pull him out—but he didn’t budge.

“He’s trapped,” Bill said.“Looks like the dash is wrapped around him.His legs might be crushed.”

Sophie wouldn’t let herself think about that.She yanked the ax from Clement’s hands, jumped inside the Jeep, and swung at the metal wrapped around Connor.Superhuman strength seemed to course through her muscles as she slammed the tool into the crushed hood and door, banging and prying as her friends struggled with Connor’s limp body.

Out of nowhere, a young man with a shaved head, wearing an aloha shirt, appeared beside Sophie.He was swinging a heavy metal rod—one of the long, heavy iron spikes that supported the gate.“I’m here to help, Mistress!I’m Connor’s personal guard and attendant, Feirn,” he yelled in Thai.

Feirn thrust the iron rod into a section of the dashboard that had collapsed around Connor’s waist.He leaned back on the makeshift pry bar, groaning with effort.The dash gave way with a squeal, freeing Connor’s lower half.

“We got him!”Lei yelled in triumph as they hauled Connor’s body out through the broken windshield.“Sophie, get out of there, now!”

Sophie glanced behind her at the hood of the Jeep.Flames had licked to it from the Range Rover.The whole mass could go up any minute.She hesitated, blocked by the fire, but needing to jump out through the opening and across the hood.

Then young Feirn appeared, extending the iron rod to her.“Grab it and I’ll pull you out!”

Sophie tossed the ax aside and grabbed the rod.The Thai man hefted her out through the broken windshield with so much strength that they both tumbled off the burning wreck together, landing to roll in the grass.

---