Page 131 of Single Teddy
Because I knew it. I knew in my heart Teddy was here. He was outside. And he’d come to rescue me and the boys.
THIRTY-FIVE
TEDDY
My heart was in my throat.
I knew my first shot had hit a target, but not to what extent.
And I knew Wesley was close. So close I could taste it. But first, I had to walk through hell and high water to get to him.
I broke cover and fired at the open boathouse window before ducking behind the SUV again. A bullet raced over my head and made the sand a few feet from me explode.
Slade took a shot before they retaliated. I turned to him and breathed in.
“How many are you counting?” I asked.
He grimaced.
“I count two, max three,” he replied.
I nodded. That was my guess too.
“Didn’t you say these people had an army?”
Slade looked around us and pressed his lips together.
“They do. They might be on the way. Or they might be packed inside waiting for us to storm in.”
“So there’s a chance he’s not here either,” I said.
Things didn’t add up. It would only make sense if Wesley and the boys weren’t anywhere close.
After the message we caught on the Android phone, we did what we set out to do. Get to work. Only for it to be derailed by chatter on GhostLink the moment we set foot outside.
The chatter in question? A message from an unknown sender with a location pin a mile away from the original one in Salisbury Beach and a simple question: “Are you coming?”
So with two locations so close by and two opposing pieces of intel, we made the best of the situation and approached both locations with caution.
“I don’t know, man,” Slade said after taking another shot. “This feels weird. If they’ve got the manpower, why aren’t they crowding us? They outnumber us.”
I nodded.
“Unless they don’t,” I said, and as I rose over the hood of the car to take a shot, I saw someone rush out the front door and duck behind the staircase that led to the boathouse.
A bullet clipped my ear before I could react or take a closer look, and I dropped to the ground behind the SUV.
“Who the fuck is that?” I asked Slade.
Slade lay on his back to look at the stranger.
“That’s—” he started and promptly stopped when a car appeared out of nowhere and swerved around the front door.
Before either of us could react, the passenger door opened and the driver’s window rolled down. Then the bullets rained down on us. If it weren’t for our cover, we’d have definitely caught strays. But they did the work they were meant for, and the stranger got away scot-free.
“Shit!” I spat. “Fuckers.”
“Alpha Team, we have a gateway car heading westbound. Black Camry. At least two occupants. Can you intercept?”
