Page 52 of Broken (Powertools: The Shields 4)

From ahead, he heard voices. Liam must have too because he slowed, inching toward an opening on the left. It didn’t take more than a sentence or two for Ace to recognize the voice.

He’d heard it that night all this had started and again when the masked man had laid his hands on Ruby. Now that it wasn’t distorted, he noticed something he hadn’t previously. An accent. German, he thought.

“You getting that?” Jordan asked as he too must have heard the same. The gear they were wearing was a hell of a lot better than some shitty security camera.

“Yeah, boss.” Ruby confirmed.

“Someone, go get me—” Jordan cut his comms, probably to keep from distracting the fields agents from a sidebar conversation in the command center. What angle was he working and would it help them nail this bastard who’d threatened Ruby?

A stifled snarl bared Ace’s teeth.

Liam waved his hand parallel to the ground in a signal forcalm down.

Not likely.

Then he gestured between them and pointed to the opening. They were going in.

Ace nodded.

Liam stared straight into his eyes as if saying a million things Ace couldn’t hear but felt soul deep and held up three fingers.

James came over the comms. “Ace and Liam are going in. In three…two…”

Then they were charging. When they burst into the room, they faced three men. Two seated closer to the entrance and the masked man sneering at them from the head of the room filled with electronics and blinking lights. Ace took the guy on the left and Liam the one on the right. He nailed the guy in the temple with the butt of his gun, knocking him to the floor, unconscious.

Liam’s charge tumbled to the ground nearby.

And then they were there, face to face with the bastard who’d tormented Ruby for the sake of some cash. Okay, a hell of a lot of it. But still.

Ace had never been so angry on a job before and he recognized that it probably wasn’t smart. But none of that fucking mattered when the asshole who’d hidden behind that stupid mask raised his hand, and in it was a gun. He pointed it straight at Liam’s heart.

Whether he knew how to use it or not, Ace wasn’t about to hang around to find out.

“I remember you. Going to try harder this time?” The jerk cackled, his expensive watch flashing in the twinkling lights of the computers. “We all know how this is going to end since you clearly need me alive to figure out my code.”

“That’s where you’re wrong, asshole.” Ace charged him, crashing into his outstretched arm. “Ruby had you beat before you even knew it.”

The two of them rolled, preventing Liam from getting a clean shot. But at least that gun wasn’t aimed at him anymore. Ace took an unlucky tumble, hitting his head on an outcropping of rock. The impact made him see stars and lose his grip on his weapon, which skittered to the side, out of reach.

The hacker took his chance. He swung his elbow and hit Ace directly in his bad arm. Ace howled, rolling on the floor in agony while Liam roared as if he’d been the one wounded.

But Ace ignored the pain radiating from his wound and climbed to his feet while subduing the hacker as best he could without using one entire side of his body. Liam still couldn’t get a shot off with Ace in the way and there wasn’t time or room to maneuver. So Ace held out his uninjured hand and smiled at Liam, who immediately understood.

Without an instant of hesitation, Liam tossed his gun to Ace, who caught it in the hand he’d been practicing with at the range. He swung around, aimed, and fired point blank. The hacker would never bother Ruby again.

“Guys!” Ruby shouted. “Two more incoming. Legend and Tavish cleared the rest.”

Ace looked to Liam, who shook his head. “You’ve got this.”

Liam threw himself flat on the ground to keep out of Ace’s way as a flurry of boot steps clomped near. The evil fucks didn’t make it two feet over the threshold before Ace nailed them both between the eyes and they piled up on top of the rest before they could so much as glance in Liam’s direction, never mind threaten him.

Liam rolled to his back on the ground and looked up at Ace in awe. “You’re amazing.”

“Nice work, everyone.” Jordan came over the comms. “Get that drive and get the fuck out.”

“You need me to peel that mask off so you can get some pictures of the perp?” Ace didn’t relish the thought but he’d do it if he had to.

“Nah, I already know who it is.” Jordan cursed. “Albert Suisse. Cash confirmed his voice, and that watch was his prized possession. A ridiculously overpriced one-of-a-kind made exclusively for him.”

---