After several excruciating seconds he thought he heard something else. Was that a siren? Or was the cold making his ears ring? He slid to the edge of the building and peered around the corner toward the front of the house. He kept staring, as if by looking long enough he would be able to pinpoint the source of the sound he’d heard. Finally, he realized what his brain was trying to show him. The person by Yard’s Jeep was gone.
Kye bit off a curse and slipped the safety free on his pistol. But it was only a precaution. No way could he make a clean shot at this distance in the dark.
He heard a soft swoosh of sound in the distance at his back. Yard. She would have realized by now that he had deserted her and was probably mad as hellfire about that. Had probably decided to come after him.
He spared a look over his shoulder, almost positive he saw her shadow take shape in the gloom of the building to his rear. He wanted to yell for her to stay back but he didn’t dare utter a sound.
And then he had bigger problems.
He caught the wisp of a human voice on the wind, undeniable this time, and turned his head in time to see a faint glow behind the window curtains in the kitchen. Was it a penlight? Too small and weak to be a flashlight. Or maybe it was a cell phone glow. Was Gunnar making a call? Didn’t he know that light made him a target?
The back door of the house opened and two figures emerged. His blood ran cold. The two carried a third slumped between them, head hanging limply down, with an arm draped over the shoulders of each of his captors. It was Gunnar. And Purdy. The third had to be his partner.
*
“Shit. Shitty shit shit shit.”
Yard whispered the curses as a stun grenade canister noisily rolled away from her in the dark. She’d safely pocketed two before the slip. It was so dark she couldn’t see her hand six inches from her face. She would never find what she dropped.
Something she hadn’t considered was that the familiarity of the storage room would vanish in a zero-visibility environment. It had taken her forever to find the right key, awkwardly trying to fit each one into a hole she had to locate by touch. Besides that, adrenaline was making her hands shake, which wasted valuable seconds as she fumbled around. Her clumsiness made her impatient.
This was a stupid idea. Why was she bothering to load up with flash bangs anyway? What were they going to do with more than—?
The soft click of a door opening sent her spinning around as she gritted her teeth to keep from calling out. Her heart went into overdrive as every sense strained for more information. Kye was here with her, she reminded her strung-out nerve center. He would have heard whatever she heard. He was armed. So was she, with flash bangs. They would be okay. Even so, she’d have felt much safer if Oleg was with them. She knew dogs. Weapons, not so much.
The question was, had someone come in, or gone out?
Moving silently to the doorway of the armament room, she pulled a flash bang from her pocket, fitting it in her hand so the spoon pressed against the web between the thumb and forefinger of her right hand, and the ring of the pin draped over her fingers.
That’s when she heard the distinct click of a hydraulic door closer pulling a door shut. The sound echoed in the silence like a physical presence.
Swallowing the hysteria crawling up into her throat, she made herself consider where the sound might have come from. The devices were only used for outside doors. She’d helped install them herself. The sound had been nearby. That meant the cafeteria doors had been breached. Kye was headed that way when she came here.
Kye. He’d left her.
Heart thundering in her ears, Yardley stepped into the hallway, the forefinger of her left hand curled into the pin of the flash bang. If she went down, she’d take someone down with her. At least for the moment. Flash bangs temporarily stunned, blinded, and made victims deaf.
It look a few seconds for the light to gather in her eyes, trigger the cones that sent impulses to her optic nerve. And then she saw, in the light coming through the twin glass panes in the double doors, something hunched on the floor.
She bit off the cry that erupted from her and rushed forth, expecting to find Kye wounded. But the lump didn’t move as she called out softly. And when she went down on her knees before it and stretched out a trembling hand, she realized it was too small to be Kye. She touched the parka, a dark dull red in the semi-dark.
Empty.
She glanced at the door. Saw that it was unlocked. Kye had left her behind. After he promised he wouldn’t.
Relief made her weak as she slumped over the coat and gathered it tightly to her chest. Kye was okay. He wasn’t hurt. He was out there somewhere. Trying to protect her and save the day. Like some lunatic Lone Ranger.
Son of a B.
Anger replaced fear, burning through the terror of the last moments as she pushed her arms into the oversized coat for its warmth. It was still warm inside, and smelled faintly of Kye, that warm aloha sun, slightly salty sea smell that was his alone.
Don’t leave me behind.
I promise.
Kye McGarren had lied to her face.
She wanted his balls on a platter.
After they were safe once more.
She scrambled to her feet, put her unused flash bang in a pocket of his parka, zipped up, and pushed through the door. Two could play Rambo.