Page 23 of Coup De Grâce
“Thanks.”
“Thank me when we get out of here,” he retorted, then snatched my hand and we took off running, praying that each of us made it to the rally point.
8
CASH
Knight had beenoff the radar since I got out of the meeting almost two days ago. I had no way of contacting him and telling him to get everyone to safety. But I couldn’t think about them now. Not when I was in the Middle East, surrounded by enemies with only a few friendlies at my back.
I had to get the job done, and only then could I focus on my family again.
“You got eyes on the target?” Hound asked in comms.
I focused through my sight and finally found Al-ahmar in the crowd. He was surrounded by people, and I wouldn’t have a clear shot until he stepped onto that stage.
“Eyes on the target.”
I heard the faint sound of footsteps behind me and spun, pulling my knife. Shaking my head at Hound, I cursed under my breath. “What the fuck are you doing here?”
I sheathed the knife and turned back to Sally.
“Target’s changed.”
“Say that again?” I asked, rolling back around to find him holding a picture of President Codi. “Why the fuck would we take out the one man trying to solve the problems in the Middle East?”
He shrugged. “That’s above my pay grade. Orders are to take out this fucker.”
“That doesn’t make sense,” I argued. “He’s one of the good guys.”
“Doesn’t fucking matter. That’s the job.”
“No,” I snapped, shaking my head. “I’m not fucking doing it.”
Before I could pull my knife, a gun was pointed at my head and Hound stared at me with such lethal intensity that I knew he’d fucking pull the trigger if I didn’t do as he said.
“This is the job, asshole. You may be daddy’s kid, but the rules are the same for all of us. You do the fucking job, and you don’t question orders.”
Orders from my father.
Fuck, he was making it really fucking hard to find even a scrap of humanity left in him. It was clear by the gun pointed at my head that I didn’t have a choice in the matter. My target was now President Codi, and if I didn’t fucking pull the trigger, I’d have a bullet in my head.
I gave a tight nod and turned back to Sally, changing the target in my scope to the man now standing beside Al-ahmar. Sweat slicked the back of my neck, but it wasn’t because of the oppressive heat. No, it was because I felt like I was about to puke. I had never once taken out a target who didn’t deserve it, and now I was faced with doing the unthinkable.
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, forcing myself to think of the job at hand. Kill or be killed. I had been in this situation before, but never by one of my own guys. Not like this.
“Pull the fucking trigger,” Hound grated from behind me.
My finger slipped to the trigger and I refocused on my new target, but nausea burned a hole in my stomach. I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t kill an innocent man, nor could I take out a target who was actually doing good in this world.
I felt the gun press against the back of my head and let my training kick in. I spun in a flash, gripping the gun and jerking it aside just as it fired, missing me by only an inch. A sharp squeal reverberated in my ear just after the gun went off, making me instantly deaf, but I didn’t stop fighting.
Slamming my other hand into Hound’s wrist, I broke his grip on the gun and turned it on him, only to get a hard fist to the jaw, throwing me off balance. I recovered just as his fist rammed into my gut, but I countered by slamming the butt of the gun down on his head.
He stumbled and fell backward, collapsing on the ground. Running back to Sally, I barely got my hands around her when I heard screams shatter the crowd in the distance. Swinging my scope to the stage, I sucked in a breath when I saw Al-ahmar standing over the body of President Codi as blood streamed from his skull.
Al-ahmar was rushed off stage, but he wasn’t the target. I knew right then that Sloop or Iron had taken the shot. They weren’t there for backup. They were there in case I failed my job. Pulling back from the scope, I knew there was no way out of this for me. It had been a test, and I failed.
Pulling the gun from my side holster, I walked over to where Hound laid on the ground, and pulled the trigger. Quickly gathering Sally in her case, I slung her over my shoulder and headed for the stairs at a quick clip. A half hour to get out before the borders shut down. That’s what they told me, but that was when I had them as backup. I knew now I would never make it out. Not with my original exit strategy, anyway.
