His hands closed into fists as he fought the need to charge into the PZs until he found her.
Don’t be a fool.
Either she’d escaped in the commotion at the roadhouse, or was shot and left behind, or she hadn’t escaped. None of which he could do anything about right now. His jaw was so tight his teeth ground together.
The quickest way to her was to eliminate the bastards outside.
Exhaling, he saw that Kit had a hand over her mouth and was shaking. Yeah, there was guilt to spare and no time for it.
“We’ll find her.” He hardened his voice. “For now, move out, Kit.”
Her mouth firmed, and then she and Sarah hurried toward the stairs to the attic.
The dining room table held a pile of weaponry, obviously for Bull. He strapped the Colt 45 around his waist, slung the bag with ammo over his shoulder, and picked up the HK semi-automatic rifle.
“We’re ready.” Loaded up, Dante stood beside Lillian.
Bull nodded to Erica. “Let’s go.”
With the three behind him, Bull hunched slightly as he strode through the fucking-low tunnel. A side tunnel held the steps to Caz’s house. “Erica, wait here.”
With Dante and Lillian behind him, he went up the stairs to the door, punched in the code, and ushered them through. “You know how to get into the attic?”
They both nodded.
Back in the tunnel, he led Erica past Hawk’s and turned into his side-tunnel and up the stairs. He put in his code, opened the door, waved her in, then kicked it shut.
Two more flights upstairs got them into the small attic area.
Each house had a sniper’s roost. The walls were reinforced with metal and sandbags. Camouflaged slits in the roof and walls allowed the shooter to move and target different areas.
The room was dark with the only light from outside. Not that there was anything in here to trip over. Just bare floor.
“Stand there a moment, Erica.” Down on one knee inside the door, he felt for the display controls and flipped it on. The light-muted screen was close to the floor to avoid stray bullets. The display split into several windows with the feeds from their outside cameras.
Fuck. In the dark night, he couldn’t tell how many black SUVs lined the road, but it looked like a lot.
Erica made a scared sound.
Keeping her busy would help.
“Let’s get you set up.” He donned one of the wireless intercom headsets. After handing another one to the young woman, he showed her the loopholes on the right side of the room. “Pick out the targets closest to you and fire away. After a few shots, move and shoot from a different slit.”
“Got it.” Her voice was shaky, but she knelt at a narrow opening that overlooked the dirt road.
The inter-house intercom dinged in his earpiece.
“People.” Gabe’s voice came through loud enough to be heard over the gunfire. “Fence is amped up to max.”
Bull snorted. Electric fencing spanned the gaps between each house and from the end houses to the lake. Normally, the zap was only strong enough to deter bear and moose, but the charge could be increased.
No one would survive climbing the fence today.
“Sound off, people,” Gabe ordered and started, “Ready at Gabe’s—Gabe and Audrey.”
Bull spoke, “Bull’s place is ready—Bull and Erica.”
“Ready at Hawk’s. Lillian and Dante,” Dante said.
“We got Caz’s. Knox and Chevy.”
“Here at Mako’s,” Kit said. “Kit and Sarah.”
Bull nodded. The Hermitage was as prepared as they could be.
Over at the front, Erica continued to fire, making small sounds as she did. Good woman.
A long screech of pain came from down below. Yeah, someone had tried to climb the electrified fence. The bastard would have some burns to show for it.
Another yell came from farther away. Probably Mako’s fence.
“Caz will watch for ground floor or lakeside incursions.” Gabe said. “In thirty seconds, I’ll flip on the flood lights. It’s a target-rich environment, team. Have yourselves some fun.”
Off to one side, Erica gave a choked laugh.
Spirits lifting slightly, Bull shook his head. Leave it to the old man to make a full-fledged attack sound like a light-hearted evening’s entertainment.
There was a reason Gabe was their leader.
Bull took up position at a horizontal slit on the room’s left side. “When the area’s lit up, shoot as fast as you can. They’ll be blinded.”
“Got it.” Erica moved to a new spot.
The bright floodlights came on, illuminating the road that ran past the outside of the semicircle of houses. A few bodies lay stretched in the gravel to show the effectiveness of the Hermitage’s defenders.
But, Jesus. Two oversized passenger vans and another four SUVs lined the road—and there was a white cargo van a lot farther away.
A shitload of PZs were using the vehicles for cover. Four dozen or so of the assholes must be out there.
Even as he started firing, Bull’s teeth gritted together. So much for getting his ass outside and searching for Frankie. Dammit. Dammit all.
He’d give his own life to save her, but he couldn’t risk the children or leave his brothers a man down. God, Frankie, be alive. Be safe.
From here, he’d do what he needed to do.
Searching for her would be a fuck of a lot easier if every PZ bastard was dead.
Where the hell were they shooting from?
Standing on one side of the white cargo van, Nabera squinted against the lights blazing down on his men who were much closer to the five two-story houses.
The amount of gunfire from the defenders was impressive.
He could see narrow windows on the first floors—smaller than man-sized—with metal grills, no less. The second-floor windows were slightly bigger, but dark. He couldn’t spot any movement.
There were no windows in the attic spaces, but before the lights had blinded him, he’d seen muzzle flashes from high up.
People were shooting from the houses. For fuck’s sake, they were more than adequately armed—and prepared. Even hosing them down with machine guns hadn’t stopped them.
Hoping to breach the houses from the lakeside, he’d ordered two men to climb the eight-foot fences between the houses. Only they’d discovered the fencing was not only electric, but high voltage. Two more men disabled.
Fucking Hermitage bastards. He’d kill them all once he got through their defenses.
Swearing under his breath, Conrad joined Nabera. “We can’t keep this up for long, Captain. They’ll have sent for the state troopers, and our roadblocks won’t hold them off forever.”
At least the plan to isolate the town had proven effective.
Since Sterling was the only road to Rescue, they’d set off explosives, creating landslides to block the highway on each side of the town. Once they had the women, the Zealots would drive up Dall Road to McNally’s Resort and leave their SUVs in the crowded parking lot. His men would scatter into the forest and make their way to a small lake and the floatplanes there. For Nabera and the captives, a rented helicopter waited on the helipad to fly them to the rendezvous point outside of Seward.
But Conrad was right. By now, they’d have heavy equipment working to clear away the landslides, and the troopers and the Feds would be on them the minute the road was clear.