by Lauren Carr
“I forgot to before I went to bed,” Jessica said from where she was laying on her back under the dining room table searching its underside. Having not bothered to put on her bathrobe before rushing off to feed Monique, she was dressed only in an oversized navy t-shirt and blue lace panties. “I woke up at three o’clock and remembered and was afraid I’d forget this morning. When I went downstairs, I found that some animal must have knocked the lid off her tank—” she cast a glare in Spencer’s direction “and she got out.”
On the sofa, Spencer laid back her ears and buried her snout under her paws.
“She’ll turn up,” Cameron assured her. “We’re all tired and keyed up. Let’s go to bed.”
Jessica rolled over and crawled out from under the table. “Being a detective, don’t you resent not going with Joshua and Murphy?”
“I’m not a Phantom,” she said. “No visitors allowed. Besides, we still don’t know who or what was behind that hit on us this afternoon. They could have been going after Izzy since she is most likely General Graham’s daughter.” She patted the gun she had tucked in the pocket of her bathrobe. “So I’m not exactly stuck here making soup and sandwiches while waiting for our men.”
Gesturing for Jessica to follow her, Cameron went over to the stairs leading to the floors above. “Let’s go to bed.”
Groaning about not finding Monique, Jessica went over to the front door to check the lock and the security panel. “Oh, no.”
“What oh no?” Cameron stepped back down from the stairs.
“The security system is off,” Jessica said.
“You mean you forgot to activate it when Murphy and Josh left?”
“No, I activated it,” Jessica said, an edge of panic to her voice. “That was the last thing Murphy told me when he left. I mean it is off as in powered off. Like the system has been completely shut down.”
Pushing Jessica up against the wall, Cameron pulled her gun from her pocket. “Where’s your gun?”
Keeping low, Jessica hurried to the end table next to Newman’s chair and took a nine-millimeter Beretta from the top drawer. She checked the magazine. It was fully loaded.
“Good.” Cameron picked up Jessica’s cell phone from where she had left it on the dining room table and tossed it to her. “Call the police. I’ll go upstairs and get Izzy. You stay here by the door and don’t open it until the police arrive. Don’t go outside until they get here. These people are professionals. They could be waiting outside to shoot you when we step out into the open.”
Watching Cameron race up the stairs, Jessica sank to the floor to dial the police. Sensing her fear, Spencer trotted over to press up against her.
“Murphy will be here soon,” Jessica said while giving the dog a hug. Glancing over to the living room, she saw that Newman was eying her with question in his eyes. “I don’t suppose you’d be any good against an assassin.”
As if to answer her, Newman hit the power button on his remote to start the television.
The emergency operator had just picked up the phone when the doorbell sounded. With a shriek, Jessica dropped the phone and inched up to peer out the door.
Two men in police uniforms were waiting on the other side.
“Nine-one-one,” the emergency operator said, “what’s your emergency?”
“Mrs. Thornton,” one of the officers said, “it’s the police. Sorry to wake you up. Your security company called to report that your security system has shut down. They asked that we come to check on you.”
Sounds reasonable.
“Jessica!” Cameron hissed from up the stairs. “Ask for them to hold their badges up for you to see, and then ask the emergency operator to confirm.”
“Hello?” the police operator was still calling to her from the phone.
“I know what to do,” Jessica told Cameron before bringing the phone to her ear. “Can you hold on just a minute? I need for you to check a couple of badges for me.” Clutching her gun in both hands, she called through the door, “Press your badges up to the door so that I can read the numbers.”
There was a long silence.
On the stairs, Cameron craned her neck to peer through the cut glass in the front door. She saw that one of the officers stayed on the stoop while the other stepped away. “Jessica …” Two more figures appeared on either side of the door.
“It’s taking them an awfully long time to get their badges,” Jessica said.
Cameron saw two of the figures swinging their arms in unison. “Duck!”
The door exploded inward from the force of a metal battering ram. What had seconds before served as a barricade between the women and the assassins was now nothing more than chards of glass, wood, and metal.
Jessica and Spencer scrambled toward the dining room to take refuge behind the wall.
Cameron took down the first assassin through the door with three shots. The first one to his thigh brought him down to the floor. She finished him off with two shots to his head. Without stopping, she drove the assailant’s partners back out the door with a continuous stream of gunfire.
Dropping back to replace her magazine, she yelled down the stairs, “Make ‘em head shots, Jessie! They’re wearing vests!”
Newman responded to the violence by slapping the remote with a paw to up the volume on the television.
“Cameron!” Izzy screamed from upstairs. “What’s happening?”
“Hide, Izzy!” Cameron yelled.
Head shots. They’re wearing vests. Need to make it head shots. Taking deep breaths, Jessica pressed up against the wall. She clutched her gun in both hands. No rules, Jessie. Time to stomp on your bitch button!
Determined to make her shots at the intruders count, she sucked in a deep breath and whirled around to take aim at the doorway. Before she could pull the trigger, she felt a powerful hand grasp the back of her head and ram it into the wall.
As she slid down to the floor, she heard a rough voice chuckle. “What a lovely piece of ass you are. We’re gonna have some fun with you before we finish this job.”
Fighting to remain conscious long enough to see her attacker, Jessica could make out his dark hair with white temples. Sidewalls.
On the stairs, Cameron waited for more assailants to attempt coming through the door. There were none.
The silence was more frightening than the gunshots.
Spencer’s barks broke through the silence. The blue sheltie shot out of the dining room and ran out the shattered front door.
Where’s Jessica?
Her heart racing, Cameron raced down the stairs and to the doorway. Pausing at the door, she peered outside to see a uniformed police officer opening the side door of a van while another, carrying an unconscious Jessica over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. They had used the downstairs entrance to snatch her.
“Halt!” Cameron screamed.
The hitman holding the door open turned to shoot, but Cameron was ready for him. She put a bullet through his knee before finishing him off as he fell with a shot to the neck and head.
Without pausing, the man carrying Jessica threw her into the van and jumped in himself while it sped off.
The roar of Murphy’s motorcycle came to Cameron’s ears. In her bare feet, she ran down the steps to meet him when he pulled up. Gesturing at the van, she screamed for him to hear her over the motorcycle’s engine. “After them! They took Jessica in a black van!”
Murphy gave chase.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Cameron only paused long enough to give the fallen assailant a quick check to ensure he was dead before replacing the magazine in her gun with the last one she had in her pocket and running back inside to check on Izzy.
Neighbors were waking up to the gunshots. Some called the police to report it. Others were outside with their cell phones recording everything they could to post on t
he Internet.
When Joshua rounded the corner in Murphy’s SUV with a van filled with Phantoms behind him, he cursed. This was more public than he needed. Hitting the button on his cell phone, he called back to Major Ford. “They were already here. Civilians are out and about.”
“No problem, Captain,” Ford responded. “We’ve got it covered. No one will ever know this was us.”
Upstairs, Izzy was cowering under the bed. Holding her breath for fear the shooters could hear her, she clutched Irving to her chest. She felt her heartbeat pounding against the cat’s large furry body.
A stream of light fell across the floor next to the bed. Peering out from under the edge of the comforter, she saw a pair of women’s feet make their way across the room to the bed.
Izzy sensed that the feet did not belong to Cameron or Jessica. Sucking in her breath, she curled up as tightly as she could to make herself as small as possible. Irving wriggled out of her grasp.
No, stay, Irving. It’s dangerous.
She saw the legs lower down for the knees to meet the floor. While the intruder prepared to peer under the bed, Izzy caught sight of the shiny blade of a butcher knife. Tears of fear welled up in her eyes.
The intruder grasped the bottom of the bed’s skirt and lifted—releasing twenty-five pounds of furry wrath.
With a screech, Irving shot out from under the bed with all claws extended. Most of them found their mark.
Grabbing her face with both hands, Paige Graham leapt to her feet. Screaming, she whirled around while trying to capture the enraged animal that continued to claw and scratch her with every ounce of rage he had inside him, before bouncing off the top of her head to the dresser, and then scurrying out the door.
Letting off a string of curses, she wiped the blood from her face. Seeing her own blood in the palm of her hand only infuriated her more.
She didn’t remember being this angry with anyone since Sebastian’s parents threatened to go to the army’s criminal investigation division with evidence that she had arranged the murder of that idiot commanding officer who threatened to ruin her husband’s career.
Snatching the butcher knife from the floor, Paige admired the shiny blade. A grin came to her lips while recalling the shocked looks on her in-laws’ faces when they realized their foolishness in thinking that she was not worthy, or worse, clever enough to be the wife of a distinguished military leader.
“It’s over, Paige.”
Paige Graham looked up from where she was staring at the knife to face Cameron who was aiming not one but two guns at her.
“Drop the knife.”
“My husband was General Sebastian Graham,” Paige said. “He was going to be the Chief of Staff for our United States Army. In no time, he would have been chairman of the Joint Chiefs. After that, it would have only been a short jog to President of the United States. You have no idea how brilliant Sebastian was. He was going to do great things for this country—all thanks to me.”
“Thanks to you for enabling his predatory behavior against women.”
“Nobody’s perfect,” Paige said. “Every great man has had a weakness. Sebastian’s was women. So he’s raped some. But when you take into consideration those lives he saved in the Middle East, and the fabulous plans he had for our country when he got to the White House—the price these women paid is really quite insignificant.”
Cameron squinted her eyes. She couldn’t stop the laughter that worked its way up her throat. “You’re looney.” She scoffed. “You really believe that these women your husband forced himself on should have felt honored that he selected them to rape?”
“Why would they not?”
Steadying her aim on Paige, Cameron ordered, “Drop the knife or I will shoot.”
With a shrug of her shoulders, Paige tossed the knife to the bed.
“Now put your hands on top of your head and turn around.”
Paige did as she was directed.
After tucking Jessica’s Beretta into her robe’s pocket and her smaller semi-automatic into the waistband of her pajamas, Cameron removed the belt from her bathrobe and stepped forward to grab Paige’s wrist. She had just gotten in reach of her when Paige whirled around and slapped Cameron against the side of her head with her fist. She followed up the blow with a kick to the knee that dropped Cameron down onto the bed. She felt her gun break loose to drop down into her pajamas pants.
By the time Cameron sat up, Paige was pointing the Beretta she had snatched from Cameron’s pocket at her.
“You all make the same mistake,” she said. “You all underestimate the power of the woman behind the man.”
Paige held out the gun to aim her shot between Cameron’s eyes. Her arm tingled with the feel of something itchy working its way up her forearm. In the dim light of the room, she could only make out something several inches in diameter and made up of black fur scurrying up to her elbow. Her jaw dropped open upon realizing that the enormous furry thing was not only the size of a luncheon plate, but had eight legs.
With a scream, Paige dropped the gun and swiped at Monique, who hopped up her arm until the spider landed on her shoulder.
Hysterical, Paige twisted, whirled and jumped while slapping and hitting herself in an attempt to kill the oversized bug. Panting with madness, she ended her dance at the top of the stairs where she collapsed over the bannister.
“Paige Graham, you’re under arrest!”
When her presence of mind returned, Paige found herself staring down at the muzzle of Joshua Thornton’s gun.
Looking down at her hand by her side, she saw that she was still clutching Cameron’s weapon.
Regaining consciousness, Jessica was aware of the van speeding down the road. Staring out the back window, Sidewalls was sitting next to her with a gun pressed against her side.
“You haven’t lost him yet?” Sidewalls growled up at the driver.
“He’s been sticking to us like glue. The guy’s on a motorcycle and he knows how to weave his way around traffic.”
No rules.
Keeping her eyes shut, Jessica pretended to be unconscious while waiting for her opportunity.
“Run the red lights,” Sidewalls ordered. “Let’s see him weave around a semi without getting squashed like a bug.”
Can’t lose sight of them.
The capital’s rush hour traffic started with the sun rise. As the sun crested the horizon, vehicles took to the streets. Murphy had managed to catch up to the speeding van when it hit the four lane road heading away from Washington on Oxen Hill Road. Luckily, most of the heavy traffic was heading in the opposite direction—toward the city.
Weaving around vehicles driven by sleepy commuters, Murphy tried to form a plan for attack once he caught the van. It was unlikely that he could force it off the road with only his motorcycle—unless he shot the driver. But with Jessica inside, he considered the risk too great.
The best bet was to run them down to the ground and take them all out when they stopped.
Keeping on the van’s tail, Murphy revved the bike’s engine to race through a red light of a busy intersection. The long blast of a loud horn announced that a semi-truck and trailer with the right of way was coming through.
Going too fast to stop and not wanting to risk losing sight of the van, Murphy leaned to the side and plowed right on through the intersection—clearing the space underneath the moving trailer.
Without missing a beat, on the other side, he righted the bike and revved the engine to catch up with the van racing away with his wife.
In the van, Sidewalls cursed when he saw that Murphy was still on their tail. “I don’t believe it!” Leaning up toward the back of the driver’s seat, he said, “We’ll make it a two-fer. Lead him someplace nice and secluded. We’ll let him watch us play fun and games with his wife before killing her in front of him. Then, we’ll kill him nice and
slow for being so much trouble.”
The driver’s laughter was cut off by the blast of Sidewall’s gun through the back of his seat.
Focused on trying to shake Murphy, Sidewalls had forgotten about Jessica—until she jumped up to grab the gun he was clutching while talking to the driver, pointed it to the back of the seat, and pulled the trigger.
Jessica’s sense of success was cut short when the driver collapsed over the steering wheel and his foot hit the gas pedal.
Chapter Thirty-Three
The television was blaring.
“Give it up, Paige!” Joshua yelled over The Power Rangers opening song. At the bottom of the stairs, he was braced against the wall with his weapon aimed at her. “My people have the place surrounded. There is no way you can get out of here alive unless you give yourself up.”
Paige Graham slowly raised the hand clutching the gun and eased it up over the banister. “You have no idea who you’re dealing with.”
“I do.” Cameron pressed the muzzle of her gun against the base of Paige’s neck. With her other hand, she snatched her gun from Paige’s hand. “It’s over, Ms. Fruit Loop.”
Standing up tall, Paige said, “It’s over when I say it’s over.” She whirled around and grabbed the gun Cameron had pressed against the back of her neck. Afraid Paige would once more get her gun, Cameron backed up.
In a surprise move, instead of wresting the gun out of Cameron’s hand, Paige shoved her body against the muzzle, up under her ribs, and, with Cameron’s hand still on the weapon, pulled the trigger.
By the time Joshua reached the top of the stairs, Paige was down on the floor.
“She grabbed my gun … and pulled the trigger,” Cameron sputtered out. Gasping, she realized, “She said it was over when she said it was over.”
