Page 150 of The Archer Brothers

Rask pauses and glances slightly in my direction, nodding. The voice belongs to Frannie Riveria—just as we suspected—and explains why Nate and Evan aren’t in the house. In front of us is an entryway into the living room where I’m suspecting Frannie is since that’s the last place I saw the shadows of the two people I assumed to be Penny and Ray.

Rask and I quickly enter the room just as the Archers come in, but we’re too late. Frannie stands in the center of the room with Penny sitting in a chair, her hands duct taped to the armrests. A gun is pressed up against her flesh, penetrating Penny’s temple. It takes everything in me not to rush forward to knock Frannie down and cover Penny for safety reasons, but I don’t. I do what my training has ingrained me to do and steady my rifle onto Frannie. This is the scene we saw outside. The only difference is that when we were looking, we saw someone downstairs.

We’re late.

“Well, well, well, if it isn’t Hogan’s Heroes.” She doesn’t seem to care that there are four Navy SEALs each with a gun aimed at her. She’s come to finish off the last person who can testify against her brother and I have a feeling she’s not leaving until Penny is dead.

“We aren’t in Germany, Frannie, and none of us are prisoners of war,” Evan says, training his pistol on her. Nate moves around the back of Frannie, cornering her.

“Can someone tell me what the hell is going on?” Ray’s voice quivers as he speaks out. A quick look tells me his hands are tied behind his back and he would’ve been forced to watch his wife’s assassination and probably Claire’s, too. For a brief moment I thought he could be involved and relief washes over me that he’s not.

“Tell him, Frannie,” Evan says, his voice laced with sarcasm. “Tell this man why you’re pointing a gun at his wife’s head. Tell him why you’ve been hunting her down for the past six months. And please for the love of God tell us why you would destroyallof our lives. Inquiring minds want to know what goes on in your fucked up mind.”

“You’ll never understand, Evan.”

“Try us,” Nate says.

“People do things for the ones they love.”

“Your brother is a child molester. He doesn’t deserve love,” Rask says as he drops a bullet into his chamber.

“I love him and once they’re dead, we can be together. He’ll be free from the prison you sent him to.”

“You’re fucking sick,” Nate adds.

“Penny,” I say, getting her attention only to have Frannie yell for us to stop talking, “look at me.” I drop to my knees so we’re somewhat eye level. Tears steak down her face and her hands shake. Her eyes move to the stairs, her way of silently telling me that Claire is up there. I look at Evan and motion for the stairs, watching as he backs his way up them, his gun never changing position until he’s out of sight.

“I think it’s in your best interests if you all leave. This is none of your business. You’re not even supposed to be alive.”

“I think you’re fucking crazy,” I spit back at her.

There’s a soft whimper coming from Ray; I glance over to see a man scared out of his wits. “It’s going to be okay, Ray,” I tell him, hoping to reassure him.

Frannie makes a move, stepping behind Penny and placing her arm around her neck. “I’m going to count to three then she dies.”

“If she dies, so does your brother. I’ll fucking torture him, Frannie, and I’ll make you watch. You’ll be begging me to end his life, and only when I’ve had enough will I hand you the gun and help you squeeze the trigger, but we won’t aim to kill. No, you see I have twelve rounds in my pistol so each shot will be designed to cause him extreme pain. And the last person he sees will be you as you deliver the final bullet which will end his piece of shit excuse for a life,” I say, making eye contact with her.

The collective gasps in the room don’t catch me off guard. I know what I said is extreme but I mean every word of it. If Penny or Claire die tonight and I don’t go with them, Ted Lawson won’t see a single day in a courtroom.

“Penny, look at me.”

When she does I all but die on the inside. “Claire is safe and you’re going to be just fine.”

The telltale sound of a gun cocking into place fills the room. Everyone is yelling for guns to be dropped, but I’m only focusing on Penny. She’s biting her lip so hard it’s starting to bleed. I want to reach out to her, but can’t right now. Not until the threat is gone.

“I’m going to kill her,” Frannie says, grabbing Penny’s hair and pulling her head back. Before I can stand, the faint sound of glass breaking and Frannie lurching forward catches my attention, but it’s the second gunshot, which has me tackling Penny to the ground in her chair, knocking the wind out of her, so I can protect her body with mine.

PENNY’S SCREAM PIERCES MY ears, causing me to move away slightly. I can’t tell if she’s hurt or freaked out. Probably a bit of both if I had to guess. I’m afraid to move, to leave this position for fear that Penny will be hurt more than she already is because I don’t know where the hell the shot came from.

“She’s down! She’s down!” someone yells from behind me. I can’t tell if it’s Rask or Nate, but I look over both my shoulders to see what they’re talking about and find Frannie on the ground looking lifeless.

“What the fuck?” I hear Evan behind me as he comes thundering down the stairs. I hope that Claire has stayed in her room because she doesn’t need to see her mother tied up like this.

“Is she dead?” I ask Rask who is the closest to the body. He crawls over to her, pushes her gun away, and feels for a pulse.

“She’s gone,” he says. I quickly roll off Penny and pull my knife from my boot to cut the tape from her wrists to free her.

“Where’s Claire?” Penny cries, panic lacing her voice, and I look to Evan for the answer.

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