by H. L. Wegley
She reached for it.
Another burst chewed up the hardwood floor near the club.
She made one more attempt and snagged the sand wedge, then moved to the left of the doorway, praying the man outside did not shoot through the wall where she stood.
A big man leaped into the room firing. He swung the barrel of his gun in an arc. Not knowing her position, he had started his shooting arc on the other side of the room.
She had maybe a second. Gemma swung the sand wedge like a baseball bat into the man’s face.
He grunted, stepped back and nearly fell.
She raised her gun and fired.
The gun clicked.
It hadn’t been fully loaded.
She raised the sand wedge to hit him again. But she was out of time.
Now, the action seemed to slow. Gemma saw every detail—Blade’s rifle swinging her way, the club in her hands accelerating toward his head.
The outcome became clear. Blade’s rifle shots would reach her body before her club hit him.
Another rifle fired a long burst, striking Blade in the head and chest.
Blade stumbled backward. He went down hard and didn’t move.
“Don’t shoot, Gemma.”
That voice … it couldn’t be.
A head poked in through the shattered bedroom window.
Cody Cottrell!
“Cody, I thought—”
“Quick, tell me who’s where in the house.” He slid open the window to avoid the broken glass in the window frame and climbed through.
Gemma tried to organize her thoughts. She tried to answer whatever he had asked, but a muddle of surprise and confusion stopped her.
“Gemma,” he pulled her to the far-left side of the room, away from the doorway. “How many FBI are left. I see three bodies here.”
That would mean three minus Kirby were left. “There are two. Probably in the living room. One of them is probably wounded. I think they’re holding Lex and KC Daniels. I hope they’re still alive.”
“KC Daniels? How did—”
“Don’t ask. Long story.”
“Weapons?”
“They have automatic rifles, like that one.” She pointed at Blade’s rifle in the doorway.
“Can you shoot one?”
“Show me how and I can.”
“Could you shoot a person if you had to?”
“I just shot two of them.” She at pointed one of the men on the floor.
He nodded and snatched Blade’s rifle from the doorway. Then Cody pulled a full magazine from one of the men’s pocket and loaded the rifle.
“Here’s the safety—on and off. Here’s automatic mode. Leave it there.”
“Blade, did you shoot Saint?” The voice came down the hall from the living room.
“We need to hurry, Gemma, or we lose all chance of surprising them.”
“You okay, Blade?” The same voice.
Cody laid a hand on her shoulder. “We both step into the hallway, you on the left. On my signal, shoot a burst into the ceiling of the living room or high on the wall. Keep your gunfire to the left. I’ll be moving toward them on the right side. The gun barrel will try to rise while it fires. Just hold it down as best you can.”
“Here’s the way it is, Ms. Saint. If you try anything, KC Daniels gets her head shot, immediately.” The voice sounded angry but uncertain, maybe frightened.
“So much for surprise. But they think I took out three of their men. They’re crazy.”
“No, Gemma. You’re much stronger than you think.” He pointed at the men on the floor. “And I’m banking on there being more strength where that came from. Now, let’s go.”
“But they said they’d shoot KC. And Lex is in there too.”
“We can’t give in to their threats and intimidation. When you shoot, their first reaction will be to protect themselves. My job is to not let them have a second reaction.”
Gemma nodded, and Cody pulled her into the hallway.
“In the living room … on which side are the couch and chairs, the places they would sit?”
“The right side.”
“Where do you think Lex James and KC Daniels are?”
“Against the wall on the left side.”
“Then that’s how we’ll play it. Let’s go.”
Cody pressed his body against the right wall and slunk toward the living room.
Gemma pulled the gun into her shoulder, aimed it high to the left, and squeezed the trigger.
The gun came alive in her hands, cracking out a rapid staccato rhythm that both frightened her and sent her on a power trip.
The gun barrel climbed until she blew off part of the hallway ceiling.
Gemma pulled the barrel down slightly and continued firing.
The far wall of the living room took a beating. Pieces of pictures and decorations flew through the air.
Gemma ran out of bullets.
Cody rounded the corner, gun ready, and fired two short bursts.
The house went silent, except for the ringing in her ears.
“Put your gun on safety and come in, Gemma.” Cody’s voice. “We have control of the house.”
Gemma started to run, then slowed and approached the living room cautiously. What would she see there? Lex shot? Something worse?
When she entered the room, Gemma scanned a quick one eighty. The scan stopped on Lex.
What would he think when he saw her? So much had happened that affected their relationship—all her fault or her choice.
Lex sat on the floor, beside KC, both with their hands bound behind them.
He saw Gemma.
Their gazes locked.
Lex smiled.
It was a good sign, an invitation to resume building the deep relationship both had already acknowledged.
Gemma slid onto her knees beside Lex and kissed him. She kissed him again.
“Gemma, at least cut this tape off my hands so I can defend myself.”
She looked at KC. “Are you both okay?”
KC grinned. “I would be if someone would get a knife from the kitchen and cut his tape off my wrists.”
“Be right back.”
“These two won’t be giving us any more trouble. They’re both dead,” Cody said.
“And who might you be? The lone ranger?” Lex frowned and studied Cody.
“No. The lone marshal. Cody Cottrell.”
“The dead marshal?”
“The almost dead marshal. They bounced a bullet off my skull. I woke up in a hospital, worrying about Gemma.”
“You know, that can be an exercise in frustration. She’s unpredictable.”
Gemma had heard enough to know there were some major wrinkles to be ironed out between her and Lex. That would have to wait. She hurried to the kitchen to get a knife.
When she returned she went to KC. “Ladies first.”
She sawed carefully through the tape until she could rip it off.
KC pulled the tape from her hands and hugged Gemma. “Go easy on Lex.” She mouthed the words, “The note.”
So the note had hurt him, just as she planned. It was so stupid in hindsight. But he couldn’t believe it now, could he?
Gemma slid close to Lex.
He pushed his wrists away from his back, exposing the tape.
“Lex, I didn’t know if I’d ever see you again and—oh, the boys.”
Lex’s eyes focused on the big living room window. “Do you know where they are?”
“I know where they were. Josh tossed your pistol to me through the bedroom window. That’s how I got two of their men. But I need to back up to tell you—”
“No. You need to cut this tape off me.”
She looked across the room at Cody. He was collecting all the weapons.
“Cody, I think Walker is alive. He’s in the bedroom. Be careful. He still has the use of his legs and one arm.”
Cody stood and strode toward the hallway.
Lex’s forehead wri
nkled. “Legs and one arm? What did you do to him, Gemma?”
“Caleb’s squirt gun was under the bed where they put me. It laid beside a sand wedge. Kirby got both, the squirt gun to the eyes and a sand wedge to the head. After Josh threw in the gun, I shot him in the shoulder for good measure.”
“Remind me never to get on the wrong side of Gemma Saint.”
KC laughed. “Having to hurt people isn’t funny, but taking out half of an elite team of undercover FBI with a squirt gun and a sand wedge—Brock’s not going to believe this story.”
Gemma studied Lex’s eyes wondering when a certain subject would surface. “The boys saved us, along with Cody.”
“And you, Gemma.” Lex’s long steady gaze into her eyes brought the truth home. She, Lex and the boys had survived against insurmountable odds. Something only a good God could accomplish when He erased Gemma’s jinx. Maybe it had never really existed, except in her mind.
“Please, Gemma. This tape is killing my wrists.”
“Sorry.” She reached behind Lex and sawed on the tape.
“Walker’s alive.” Cody’s voice came down the hallway. “But he can’t move much, and I think he’s nearly blind.”
When Lex’s hands came free, he reached for Gemma’s shoulders. Dried blood painted a dark red trail down his arm.
“You’re bleeding. What happ—you’ve been shot, Lex.”
“It’s only a deep scratch. I’m fine. Let’s go find Josh and Caleb. Then you and I have something to discuss.”
KC raised her eyebrows. “Something like … a little love note left in my bathroom.”
Chapter 33
Gemma could never repay the people in this room.
Lex tried to pull her to the living room door, but she stopped him.
Lex, KC, Cody, even the twins had all risked their lives for her. What had been elation turned to a fountain of tears. She couldn’t turn it off.
“Are you okay, Gemma?” Lex pulled her head against his chest.
He had done it as if it were the natural thing for Lex James to do. “You had to do some difficult things, Gemma. It’s only natural to feel—”
“No. that’s not—” Her voice broke and for the next minute she finished soaking the front of Lex’s shirt.
“What is it then? As soon as we find the boys, everything will—”
“Police! Everyone in the house, put down your weapons and come out with your hands on your head.” The voice blasted from a bull horn, loud and full of authority.
Lights lit the area around the house like a football field on Friday night.
“There’s more of them, Lex. Law enforcement that we can’t trust. I should have known.”
Lex released his hold on her and turned toward Cody.
Gemma looked up and saw Cody smiling. “Do you know who’s out there, Cody?”
“Someone I sent a message to before I drove down the driveway to this house. He brought a SWAT team with him.”
KC walked to Cody’s pile of guns and reached for her M4. “If it’s law enforcement, can we really trust them? We’d better be sure before we walk out of this house.”
Cody cracked the front door. “Ramirez, is that you?”
“It’s me. Quantico?”
“Six years ago.”
“No. Nine,” the voice on the bullhorn replied.
“We’re safe,” Cody said. He cupped a hand around his mouth. “We’ve secured the house. The rogue FBI are all dead except for one badly wounded man. But we’ll put down our weapons, even the squirt gun, and come out hands on heads.”
“Come on, Cody? Squirt gun? The word’s out that you had a bullet bounce off your head and then you snuck out of a hospital. How much damage did that bullet do?”
“We’re coming, Ramirez. I’ll explain once we’re outside.”
“The boys—they’re still out there.” Lex’s voice crescendoed. “What if one of the SWAT team spots them and starts shooting?”
“Ramirez, there are four-year-old, identical twins outside. Lex James’s boys. Tell your men to be—”
“We’ve got the little runts. Don’t worry about them. But does anybody in there have Triple A?”
Lex’s body relaxed. “Triple A? That’s a bit off topic.”
Gemma draped her arm around his waist. “They’re safe, Lex. That’s all that matters.”
“Cody …” Lex stepped toward the door and pulled Gemma with him. “I’ve got to see my boys. I’m going out.”
Cody hooked Lex’s arm. “Just a second … Ramirez, we’re coming out. There will be four of us. The wounded guy is incapacitated in the master bedroom.”
Lex led Gemma out the door into the blinding floodlights.
Gemma tried to shield her eyes with an elbow as she walked with her hands on her head toward four men standing in front of the first tier of trees.
Cody’s voice came from behind Gemma. “We’re all out.”
They walked across the lawn and another twenty yards to the men.
Two members of the SWAT team each held a squirming child with an arm cinched tightly around the kid’s waist.
“Put me down. You’re nothin’ but a bad FBI man. Gemma called you a Fibbie. That’s ‘cause—”
“Cool it, kid.”
A muscular Hispanic man knocked Cody’s hands from his head and gave him a manly hug. “Dude, it’s sure good to see you come out of there with no holes in you. But I’ve got a question for you.”
“Shoot,” Cody said.
“Who or what is an uncalex?”
“That would be me, sir. Lex James.”
“Uncle Lex … I get it, and I recognize you now,” Ramirez said. “These your boys?”
“That depends. What did they do?”
“They let all the air out of our tires. Both vans.”
“Hence the Triple A request,” Lex said.
“And it was real hard, Uncalex. But we didn’t want the Fibbies to get away before you and KC could shoot’em.”
“Yeah,” Caleb said. “But we found two of these and it was real easy after that.” Caleb held up a bullet with a pointed head.
“Looks like the bullets I dropped when your Fibbies got the drop on Lex and me,” KC said.
“Put the boys down guys. Who’d have believed two little squirts could strand us out here using two M4 bullets without the gun to go with them.”
Lex chuckled. “You’d be surprised what two squirts can do.”
KC broke into hysterical laughter.
Ramirez stared at her, hands on his hips. “Well, I don’t think it’s so funny. I have to explain to my superiors that we had to call a tow truck because two four-year-old vandals flattened our tires.”
“Officer Ramirez,” Gemma said. “I’ve got Triple A. Well, I had it with my first fake ID for WITSEC, but with the fake ID I got in Bend, at the college, I guess I don’t have it anymore.”
“You keep going, Ms. Saint, is it? And I’ll have to read you your rights.”
“Yes, sir. We wouldn’t want that.”
Ramirez shook his head. “I’m not sure I want any of this, the expense report or the other reports I have to write up.” He gave the order for his men to secure the crime scene, check on the wounded man, and call for an ambulance.
“I’ve got an idea,” Cody said. “While I give your team a guided tour of the crime scene, I’m going to borrow the team leader’s secure phone. There’s got to be a senior FBI or DOJ person managing this black operation. When the leader, Blade, doesn’t check in, the person in charge will call. I want to know who it is. With a little help from a hacker I know, maybe we can follow this conspiracy up the chain of command.”
“Good idea, providing you don’t create some unusable evidence,” Ramirez said.
“As long as I know the person’s identity, I can find a lot more evidence.”
“Cody, I know that person’s identity,” Lex said.
“Do you suspect, or do you know?” Cody asked.
“He knows.�
� KC said. “We both overheard Blade’s conversation with his, uh, boss.”
“Well …” Cody looked from KC to Lex.
“It’s Max Carr, the swamp man.”
“Then it’s still a good idea,” Cody said. “Even if the evidence is not directly admissible in a court of law.”
Cody took several members of the SWAT team for their tour of the house.
Ramirez walked to Lex’s SUV.
Lex and Gemma stood beside the vehicle, each with a boy under their arm.
KC leaned against the front fender.
Ramirez’ hands went back to his hips. “Now, does someone want to tell me about that deadly weapon Cody mentioned?”
“Which one would that be?” KC asked, with a smirk on her face.
“The squirt gun.”
Lex looked at KC.
She shook her head. “You tell him. Lex.”
He blew out a sigh. “This is a story about how two four-year-old geniuses and a beautiful young woman took out an elite FBI team with a squirt gun.”
“And a sand wedge, Lex,” Gemma said.
* * *
As Gemma listened to Lex tell the story she had played a role in, one word came to mind, incredible.
When overconfident people’s arrogance causes them to underestimate others, incredible things can happen. But what happens when people are misjudged in other ways, considered to be untrustworthy, liars? What if they had a good reason to lie? Or thought they did?
KC, in a rare moment they had alone, had told Gemma what Lex said after reading the note. “Gemma, Melissa—they’re all the same.”
For Lex, a man with trust issues, Gemma may have pushed him beyond his point of no return. She was about to find out.
Lex took Josh and Caleb by the hand and handed them off to KC.
She nodded, mouthed something to Lex, and walked off with the boys. She took them away from the house toward the two vans with flat tires parked a short distance down the driveway.
Lex glanced down at his watch. “What a day. It’s nearly midnight and it looks like we survived it.”
“We survived? Did we, Lex?”
He didn’t reply, but even in the dim light his face said he understood her question.
Still no reply.
If he wasn’t going to say anything, she was.
“You know, people make mistakes, errors in judgement, especially when the stakes are high and when—”
