“Bitch.” Blood and spittle sprayed from his nose and mouth.
Jamie kicked him again, and his eyes rolled into the back of his head. When she went to kick him again, Walker grabbed her and handed her over to her father. He thought she’d collapse into tears, but she was obviously made of sterner stuff because she stood firm, her weapon trained on the prostrate man.
From somewhere Chip produced zip ties, and Walker hogtied Rees before he regained consciousness. Mark got off him and before he could regain his balance, Walker grabbed his bicep and held him fast.
“Jamie, keep your eye on him. If he moves, shoot him,” he ordered.
“With pleasure,” she snarled.
“Maybe you should have said if he tried to get away?” Mark murmured. “He only has to wake up and she can shoot him.”
Walker shrugged. He didn’t care. He frog-marched Mark over to one side of the yard and shoved him against the wall. It didn’t escape his notice that Mark was limping.
“What’s wrong?” Mark asked.
“What’s wrong?” Walker roared. “Are you fucking kidding me? What’s wrong? You rushed a man holding a gun to my cousin’s throat and you ask what’s wrong? You rushed him while that man was aiming at you.”
“He wasn’t expecting it.”
Walker’s jaw dropped. “He wasn’t expecting it?”
“You know he wasn’t. His attention was on you and not on Jamie or me. I knew you’d take out Wright before he could kill me. And I was a moving target, so he’d have less chance of killing me.”
“You took a chance.”
“A calculated risk,” Mark corrected.
“What if he or Wright had shot you?” Walker’s voice hitched. “I might have lost you.”
Mark cupped his jaw and Walker didn’t flinch back. There was no point. Chip and Jamie knew his closely guarded secret now. He would process that later. Now Mark’s hands were on him and he felt like the world wasn’t about to come to an end.
“At some point, I’m gonna put you over my knee and spank your butt for scaring me like that,” he murmured, because there were some things he didn’t want his family to hear.
Mark grinned at him, obviously not the least bit intimidated by Walker’s threat. “Tell you what, I’ll put you over my knee and spank your butt to make up for scaring you.”
Walker gave a curt nod. Then he frowned. “Rees and Wright aren’t snipers.”
“No, they’re not.” Realization dawned on Mark’s face. “So who killed Rhianna?”
Walker turned to Jamie and Chip. “Get into the house! Now!” he barked.
They blinked at him.
“What the—” Chip started as the ground exploded in front of him.
They turned and fled, followed by more sprays of concrete. Rees’s body jumped once.
Mark yanked Walker into the wall. Wherever the shooter was, they were not in his line of sight.
“They took out Rees,” Mark murmured.
Walker nodded. “But not Chip and Jamie. They weren’t interested in them.”
“They didn’t want Rees talking.”
“They’ve still got to kill me,” Mark pointed out. “I’m the target.”
Unfortunately, Walker agreed with that assessment. “This is a cat and mouse game,” he reminded Mark. “Do you wanna go hunting?”
Mark’s eyes lit up. “Yes, I do.”
He handed Mark Wright’s Desert Eagle and took out his AR-15. “Let’s go hunting. But you stick to me like glue, understand?”
“I do.”
Walker studied him to make sure Mark wasn’t feeding him a line of bull.
“I promise, Walker.”
Walker nodded and Mark gave him a quick kiss on the cheek before they went a-hunting.
Chip’s junkyard had less space than Pete’s, the carcasses of cars stacked high. There was nowhere high enough for the shooter to take aim outside the yard, so he had to be perching on the twisted heaps of metal. The problem was there were too many towers of vehicles. He’d not been able to get a read on where the shooting was coming from, but it had been behind them, so from anywhere in the yard. Great. Mark wore a grimly determined expression, and Walker caught a glimpse of what he must have been like in his agency days. They slowly made their way down each pathway, clearing each stack before moving onto the next one. There’d been no more shots. In the crowded yard it wouldn’t be easy for the shooter to take aim unless they were in his clear line of sight. They cleared the next stack and the next. Odd thoughts permeated through Walker’s consciousness as he spotted cars he had worked on in the past. He’d grown to love some of the vehicles with all their foibles.
One line of vehicles cleared, time to go onto the next. He and Mark worked like they’d been a team for years, but that was the agency training. Mark pointed at the next stack and Walker agreed, but then something caught his eye. Mark followed his direction. There was definitely something moving in amongst the vehicles. They waited for a moment, but no shots were fired, and Walker breathed easier. Suddenly something leapt at them. Walker brought his gun up to fire as an indignant tabby cat landed at his feet.
Fucking cat!
If he shot one of the yard cats his uncle would never speak to him again.
Mark rolled his eyes and they moved on, now looking out for the four-legged inhabitants of the yard as well as the sniper. Tension filled Walker’s muscles as they cleared row after row, stack after stack. Where the hell was this guy? Was he even still here? He had to be, surely; he hadn’t fulfilled the mission to kill Mark. He could see the frustration building in Mark’s face.
Suddenly Mark stopped, pointed, and Walker followed his direction. Something was moving in the next row and it wasn’t furry and four-legged. Mark motioned to go one way and he the other. Walker didn’t like that idea, but he’d be able to see Mark at all time. He crept toward his quarry, eased around the corner and discovered the last person he expected to see.
“Collins!”
What the hell was his teammate doing here? For one awful moment he thought he’d been betrayed by a member of his own team, and then he realized how stupid that was. Collins wasn’t a sniper.
Mark came up behind Collins, ready to shoot, but Walker shook his head.
“What the hell are you doing here?” he demanded.
“Here to save your ass,” Collins sneered. “The others are clearing the yard. We arrived just as the shooting started.”
Christ, they were lucky they didn’t shoot each other.
“How did you know I was here?” Walker asked.
“We didn’t, but Doyle took a stab in the dark.”
“Much as I’m enjoying the catch up, gentlemen, can we get rid of the shooter first?” Mark asked.
Walker flushed at Mark’s chiding tone. Collins looked over his shoulder.
“Is he the boyfriend?”
“No,” Walker said.
“Yes.” Mark said.
“Christ, you can’t even work that one out?”
Doyle appeared from behind Mark.
“Good, you found them. The yard is clear. There is no one here,” Doyle said.
“You sure?” Mark demanded.