Page 65 of Ava
“It’s in the mud room at the house.”
“Okay, I’ll be back.” Ava nodded, and it took her several minutes to get to an open door. By the time she made it outside, she realized she’d left out of the back door and had to make her way around the entire length of the building, and to the house. It didn’t help that it was dark out too. As she rounded the corner, she stopped in her tracks, then immediately made herself blend in with the shadows. She looked down and breathed easier when she remembered her shirt was black. If it had been a light color, she would have been seen. Easing her way along the building, she winced when she heard Lucas yelling at someone, then she heard someone whimpering. When she got closer, she drew in a deep breath, and took in the situation in a matter of seconds.
Letting her military training take control, she walked into the circle of men, and shouted, “Tanner, get your fucking hands off the girl.”
Tanner, the cop from two counties over, whipped around, and that was when Ava saw he had a knife to the girl’s head. “No, this beauty here will bring me a pretty penny.”
“Yeah, and how much will she bring if you mark her skin. If you want to take someone, take me.” Ava was by Lucas by then, and she saw him getting up. She bent down, and acted like she was checking to see if he was breathing. When he tried to rise, she put her hand on his back, and whispered, “It’ll be okay, I’ll get her away from him. I’m going to lure them away from here, further into the dark. When we go, run back to the party, and get Tom and Morgan. Tell them what’s going on.” Lucas was smart enough to give a subtle nod, and Ava trusted he’d do as she said. After rising back to her feet, she looked at Tanner, and shook her head. “At least he’s not dead. That saved your life. You don’t want to mess with his family if he was dead.” She gave a mock shudder, and walked toward Tanner. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw four men come toward her, and she noted the footwear she had, and nodded once. “Come on, Tanner, you know you want me. You fucked with me at that bogus traffic stop. Oh, maybe I should tell you that I videoed you breaking my tail light. I’ve got it all on video, and I have a copy.” She saw that she’d gotten to him, so she continued with her ribbing. “Oh, and I should be thanking you. Thanks to your shoddy police work, my ticket was tossed out.” That did what she wanted it to do. Tanner took the girl in his arms and shoved her into Ava, trying to knock her over. Ava anticipated that move, caught her and told her to grab Lucas and go get Tom and Morgan, then she shoved her away from her. By the time she looked around, two of Tanner’s four goons had moved in. She looked over her shoulder at the girl, and screamed,“GO!”As soon as she and Lucas were gone, she turned to one of the goons and nodded. “Smart.” Was the only thing she said. The men were coming at her from two different angles. Directly from her left and right. She looked at them, and studied their height. With one last look at Tanner, she scowled at him when he crossed his arms and grinned at her.
If that pissant wannabe cop thought she’d cower at his goons, then he didn’t know who he was messing with. She might have been a sniper in her team, but she was also an expert at hand-to-hand combat.
“Bring it,” she whispered beneath her breath, flexed her fingers, and waited for them to make the first move.
* * *
Lucas grabbedhis girlfriend’s hand, and ran for the back door of the shed. He had to stop to catch his breath, and he looked at Gabby. “Are you okay? Did he hurt you?”
“No, I’m fine, but who are we supposed to get? Who was that woman? She can’t take on all five men at once.”
“Trust me, she probably can. Let’s go.” He grabbed her hand and rushed into the shed, not realizing he had a black eye, and blood running down his nose. Because of his height, he could see several yards into the shed, and as soon as he saw Morgan, his grip tightened on Gabby’s hand, and he dragged her through the crowd.
“Morgan,” Lucas said breathlessly.
“Lucas! What on earth happened to you?”
“Don’t worry about that, some guys roughed me up and tried to take Gabby. Ava’s out there now, and I think they’re going to try to take her like they tried to take Gabby. Ava called the guy who had Gabby, Tanner.”
“Where?”
“There,” Lucas said as he pointed to the wall. “But, further out in the dark. She sent us to get you and Tom.”
“Thank you, go to the house and get cleaned up. If you see Justin tell him what you told us.” Morgan told him, then hurried over to where she last saw Tom.
“Morg, what’s up?”
“Ava’s in trouble, turns out Tanner’s here, and he tried to kidnap Lucas’s girlfriend. He and his goons roughed up Lucas.”
“Where?” Tom demanded, and they started toward the back of the shed. On the way, Morgan saw Justin, and instead of saying anything, she went to him, gripped his forearm hard enough to leave bruises, and barked out, “With me.” She didn’t see her other brothers follow behind them.
CHAPTER26
Ava lookedat the two men laid out cold on the ground, then up at Tanner. He wasn’t wearing a smirk any longer. “That all you got, Tanner?” She knew she was taunting him, but she was pumped. The two men were no competition, and she wanted at least some fight coming her way.
She saw the other two men come at her, this time one from the front, and one from the rear. She ran forward, did a roundhouse kick in the air, and the top of her riding boot hit the side of the guy’s head, and the heel of her other foot snapped his jaw.
“Oooh,” she laughed. “That’s going to hurt.” She laughed harder when the guy fell to the ground, out cold. As she turned to the other man, she saw several people standing there, and she grinned.
“Hey, Babe,” Justin called out. “Looking good. Need any help?”
“Naw, these guys are nothing but pussies. One hit from me and they’re down.” She waved her hands at the three downed men, and shook her head in disgust. “Let me take care of this guy, then we can question Tanner.”
“Fuck that shit, I’m the police, you can’t question me.” Tanner crowed from his spot next to the man she’d just downed. Ava noted that he had his finger on the guy’s neck to see if he was dead or not.
“Not in this county,” Tom said as he started forward. Before he could reach Tanner, the man lunged forward, grabbed Ava, and wrapped his arm around her throat. This time, he held a gun to her head. Everyone froze, and when the man still left standing tried to get away, he backed into a group of men several inches over six feet each. Morgan walked up to him, brought her arm back, and slugged him. He crumpled to the ground, then she took the zip ties someone handed her, and tied him up. She had met the man who’d helped her out only an hour ago, and realized he was from BCI, and would be helping them in the future. When she had the other men secured, she noted their facial injuries, and grinned at Ava.
“Nice.”
“Thanks.” Then, she lifted her hands to prevent Tanner from choking her any more.
