“We got it, don’t blow the case,” Peter ordered.
“Fuck the case, that’s my wife at the bar,” Dare said.
“That’s my town,” Granger said angrily as Ryker heard a revving engine over the coms. “Dare, get in.”
“Do we have a pilot?” Paxton asked as they climbed the stairs.
“Yeah, me,” Ryker said as he shoved open the door to the top of the building.
Ryker started up the stealth helicopter he’d purchased a year before. He kept a pilot on call 24/7, but he’d insisted on getting his pilot’s license because he always preferred to be the one in control. He needed to know he could leave at a drop of a hat if necessary, and it turned out tonight was exactly why he had taken those lessons.
Ryker did the safety checks faster than ever before as he got the helicopter up and running. Peter and Paxton were texting as he lifted off. “Any news?” Ryker asked, pushing the helicopter to full speed the second he got enough altitude.
“Georgina has been shot, but Gavin and Kenzie have stabilized her,” Peter answered. “Anyone not armed has been hidden in the root cellar where Harper stores her liquor.”
“Kord has armed those he could with the weapons Edie managed to grab from her trunk and then whatever anyone else had on them,” Paxton reported. “Tinsley has a gun and is in the front room with Skeeter, Turtle, and Gator guarding the door. They’re barricaded in. Kord has Edie and Maggie upstairs acting as snipers. Gage has snuck out and is running home to get his folks and more weapons to ambush the attackers.”
“I don’t understand what they want. Why are they attacking the bar?” Ryker asked.
“They thought they wanted Edie or Kenzie since they were shot at. But then they demanded that you be turned over to them,” Paxton answered. “Wade pretended to be you to keep you safe here.”
Ryker’s entire body had gone cold at the first text. Now he was ice. Darkness overcame him the likes of which he’d never dared tap into since Tinsley had pulled him from the darkest depths of his guilt and depression after Christabelle’s death. Anger didn’t even describe what he was feeling as anger implied a heated temper. It was a ruthlessness that should have chilled him to the bone. Instead, Ryker welcomed the cold and embraced it. He let it consume him. They were threatening his life, and that was what Kenzie, Tinsley, his family, and friends were. They were his heart. They were his life. They were all that had kept him from drowning in that darkness. Now he wasn’t drowning. He was diving headfirst into it and letting it consume him. Whoever was threatening all he held dear to him would pay.
Kenzie helped move the memory foam mattress and an old thick wooden table against the window. Edie and Maggie could look out over it and shoot, but it would hopefully protect them from the spray of bullets they were anticipating.
“Ryker, you have one minute to come out—” the man yelled again, but it was cut short by the booming echo of the rifle Maggie shot.
There was a moment of shocked silence as Edie shot a bow and landed another hit before they both ducked. “Get in the tub!” Edie yelled to her. Kenzie jumped into the iron tub as bullets tore apart the upstairs.
“Two are down, but the fog is picking up,” Kord reported, looking out over the mattress. “Let me go downstairs and make sure all is well.”
“I’ll keep picking them off as I can,” Maggie said, never taking her eye from the scope. “They’re all hiding now. The best I can count, there are still six more out front and I don’t know how many out back.”
Kenzie sent a text and Harper wrote back. “Six out back. There’s a whole other SUV in the back trying to break into the kitchen, but we have it covered,” Kenzie read out.
Edie ran over and looked out the window. “I see them, but they have more cover back here with the garbage dumpster. Let’s see if we can draw them out front.”
“What are they doing?” Maggie asked a moment later, causing Edie to hurry back to the front window.
Kenzie crawled from the tub and stopped well behind Edie and Maggie. She went up on her tiptoes and looked out over the barricade. The interior light of the extended SUV was on.
“They’re getting something out of the car. Whatever it is can’t be good,” Edie said to Maggie. “Can you shoot the gas tank?”
“Sure,” Maggie said with a shrug and a second later there was the boom of her rifle and the next thing Kenzie saw was the fireball.
Edie and Maggie fired repeatedly and then there was a sudden silence.
“What happened?” Kenzie asked quietly, not wanting to surprise the women.
“I’m out of arrows,” Edie said as she sat down on the floor. “There are two men left, and I just saw one of them with a large case.”
“I’m sorry, I can’t get them. They’re in Tinsley’s art gallery and while I can shoot the window, I can’t get through the brick,” Maggie said.
The sounds of glass breaking had Edie popping back up and looking out. “Why did they break Tinsley’s window?” Edie asked.
“We have an RPG and we’ll destroy the entire building if Ryker Faulkner doesn’t come out in one minute,” a man yelled out the broken window of Tinsley’s gallery.
“Do you have a shot?” Edie asked Maggie.
“No. I can’t see him and he can shoot with cover from there. We need to seek cover. How’s the back looking?” Maggie asked Kenzie.
Kenzie looked out back and saw the dumpster rolling backward. “They’ve all taken cover behind the dumpster and have moved it as far from the building as possible.”
“Shit, they’re going to fire on us,” Edie said, her voice cracking as the idea that they were going to die set in.
“The walk-in freezer downstairs. That’s our best shot of surviving this. Go!” Maggie yelled as she and Edie took off running. Kenzie hurried after them. Kord was frantically getting as many people as possible into that walk-in already, but Kenzie didn’t follow Maggie and Edie.
Instead, Kenzie walked through the empty front room. She couldn’t let anyone die, not when she had a chance of stopping it. She had to put her back to the barricade to move it just enough to open the door a crack. “I’m coming out, don’t shoot!”
“Kenzie!” Kord yelled, running forward to grab her, but Kenzie didn’t look back as she slipped out the door.
Kenzie raised her hands and squinted her eyes against the flames of the engulfed SUV flickering through the fog. “Don’t shoot,” she yelled again.
“Where’s Ryker Faulkner?” a male voice heavy with an Italian accent yelled from the safety of Tinsley’s gallery.
“He’s not here. I’m his girlfriend. Take me instead and leave the rest of Shadows Landing alone,” Kenzie shouted back. Her body shook with nerves, but her voice held strong.
“We don’t believe you,” the man shouted back.
“If you want Ryker, then you must know him. He’s not the kind of man to allow his girlfriend to sacrifice herself to protect him. He’ll come for me. I’ll come with you if you promise to leave immediately and not hurt anyone,” Kenzie yelled.