Page 66 of Lone Star Rescue

“Kill them!” Buckner shouted again, but there was fear in his voice. So much fear. And if Rafe hadn’t been so damn worried about getting to Bree and Tessa, he might have relished the sound of the sonofabitch dying.

The hired guns all came out from cover and lifted their weapons. Again, Rafe was the target. A big mistake because in less than a blink Jericho took out two of them. Rafe took out two as well, and the remaining pair scrambled underneath the platform and continued their attack from there, pinning down Rafe.

Four minutes, thirty-two seconds flashed on the timers.

Hell. That wasn’t enough time to disarm the bombs and get everyone to safety. Still, he was going to try.

Rafe didn’t have to shout out for Jericho to cover him. He would. So, Rafe bolted from cover and hoped he didn’t get gunned down.

“Only time to save one,” Buckner taunted. Yeah, he was fading fast all right and was now lying in a pool of his own blood. Too weak to pick up his gun. But not too weak to add one more thing. “They’ll know which one you love because that’s the one you’ll save.”

He didn’t want that to be true, and Rafe was clinging to the hope that he could save them both. He couldn’t think about a choice like that. No. So, he fixed a mantra in his head.

Focus. Get to them now.

Rafe kicked Buckner’s gun to the side, just in case the man managed to reach it. Wade moved in quickly to snatch it up, and he began firing at the goons. Davy grabbed one of the dead thug’s guns and started to do the same.

Rafe ran as if Bree’s life depended on it. Because it did.

Three minutes. Ten seconds.

Get to them now.

Rafe jumped onto the platform, heading for Bree. Just as Bree yanked herself away from the pole and threw off the ropes. She immediately started trying to unstrap the vest.

The relief nearly robbed Rafe of his breath. She had a chance.

If she would take it.

“Get the vest off and run out of the building,” Rafe told her as he hurried toward Tessa. “Take Wade and Davy with you,” he added, hoping that would make her obey. He wanted her as far away as possible if the damn explosives went off.

“Save yourself,” Tessa muttered when he got to her. “Don’t die because of me.”

“You don’t have a lot of faith in my rescue skills, do you?” he said, trying to keep his voice calm while he worked furiously to get the vest off her.

Beneath the platform, Rafe heard at least one of the two gunmen yell when he was hit. There was the sound of the bullet going into flesh, followed by a thud. God knew who’d fired the killing shot, and Rafe didn’t care. As far as he was concerned, this was a war zone, and he had two people to rescue while Jericho, Wade, and Davy took out the enemy.

From the corner of his eye, he saw Bree. She had the vest off and was gently laying it on the platform. Good because Rafe didn’t know if was rigged to explode on contact.

“Both of you run,” Tessa insisted.

They didn’t. Even though it caused Rafe to curse, Bree hurried over to help him with Tessa’s vest.

Two minutes flashed on the timer.

“I’m not running,” Bree muttered, probably very aware that Rafe was cursing her for not saving herself.

Behind him, there was a thud, and Rafe pivoted, bracing for another attack from another would-be killer. But it was Jericho. He’d jumped down from the rafter, and he immediately took aim at something.

The final gunman who was bolting out from beneath the platform.

The gunman clearly had killing on his mind because even though he’d already been shot, he moved his assault rifle, ready to spray everyone on the platform and go out in a hail of bullets.

That didn’t happen.

Rafe whipped his own gun around, fired two kill shots into the man’s head, and then immediately opened the last strap on the vest. As Bree had done with hers, he carefully lifted it off Tessa, placed in on the platform.

“Run like hell,” Rafe ordered everyone.

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