Guns and the Girl Next Door

by HelenKay Dimon

  “Got a little carried away there,” he said with a not-so-innocent smile.

  “We could—”

  “No.” He planted a quick kiss on her mouth but pulled away before it could build to anything. “How’s your head?”

  “Cloudy?”

  He pulled back and shot her a look of serious concern. “I’ll call for Caleb.”

  She grabbed him before he could call in reinforcements. And he would. “From the kiss.”

  Understanding dawned on Holden’s face. “You are tempting, but Caleb ordered you to sleep.”

  “What did he tell you to do?”

  “He was upset with my meddling in the Walters issue at the time, so he didn’t really say anything I can repeat without blushing.”

  She couldn’t help but smile at the thought of that. “A big, tough guy like you? I can’t imagine you blushing.”

  Holden wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her in close to his side. “Besides, my job is to wake you up in two hours.”

  Rather than fight it, pretend she was fine, she snuggled against his warmth and inhaled the fresh scent of soap and shampoo on his skin. “Are you setting an alarm?”

  “Don’t need to. I’ve always been able to get up when I want to get up.”

  “That’s quite a skill.”

  “One of many.”

  She peeked up at him. “That’s good to know.”

  With a gentle touch, he pressed her head back against his shoulder. “Go to sleep before I forget to be a gentleman.”

  Chapter Nine

  The alarm sounded at three in the morning. A buzzer rang through the house as the watch on Holden’s wrist vibrated. Tuned to danger and accustomed to switching from sleep to get-up-and-fight mode, he sprang out of bed and reached for the gun on the nightstand.

  His eyes adjusted to the dark within seconds. Figuring out the source of the danger took longer. He looked at the window, straining to see the fence at the end of the long drive. He could make out lights and trees and little else. Yet the alarm continued to rattle.

  Mia shifted on the mattress, then sat straight up. With the sheet pressed to her chest, she glanced around the dark room. Her head turned back and forth fast enough to make even a person without a head injury get sick.

  Pieces of hair hung in her eyes and the pink flush of sleep stained her skin when she honed in on him. “What’s wrong?”

  “Something.”

  Her eyes focused. “Could you be more specific?”

  The door creaked the second before it flew open. Holden rounded on the entrance with his gun raised as he signaled for Mia to stay down.

  Caleb came through the opening shouting a warning at the same time. “It’s me.”

  Holden backed down the adrenaline pumping through his veins and forced his shoulders to unbunch. “That was close.”

  “No time to knock. We need to get downstairs.” Caleb glanced at Mia. “Both of you.”

  Holden wanted to ask what had happened, but Caleb was gone.

  “I don’t understand,” she said.

  “Me either.” Holden held out a hand to her. “But since Caleb isn’t one to get upset over nothing, we need to move.”

  “Right.” She didn’t hesitate. She jumped out of bed wearing only panties and a T-shirt.

  The flash of long legs grabbed his attention away from the alarm of the moment. If he’d known how little she had on when they kissed earlier, she’d be undressed by now.

  When she pulled on the sweats, his focus snapped back into place. “We go downstairs with you at my back. Do not move unless I tell you to.”

  “I’m not arguing with the chain of command.”

  “Good.” He pivoted out the door and felt her fingers curl into the waistband of his jeans.

  They slid along the banister with his hip balanced against the wood. Halfway down, he saw Caleb and Luke standing in the entry on either side of the front door.

  Holden guided Mia to the bottom and beside Claire. “You the only two here?”

  Luke nodded. “Adam and Zach went to check out some places around town for Rod.”

  So, they had three men to handle whatever was coming through the door. Holden felt comfortable with those odds. “What are we looking at here?”

  Luke glanced at the small monitor on his wrist. “Four men in combat gear near the front gate.”

  “The plan?” Holden asked.

  A smile broke across Luke’s mouth. “Tick off the neighbors.”

  “They already hate the fence. Why not completely alienate them?” Claire mumbled.

  “Imagine what they’re going to say when the floodlights turn on.” Luke held a small remote control in his hand.

  Caleb glanced away from the outside for a second. “You think lights are going to scare these guys?”

  “They’re coming in soft. I’m guessing this is a test run on the security. So, we scare them off. But not before we try to catch one of them.”

  Holden understood the plan. They’d walked through it numerous times after Luke and Claire decided to move in and tried to establish a normal life. Divert and attack. Easy enough.

  Holden started issuing orders before Luke could say anything. “Caleb and I will take opposite directions in front. I’ll circle and provide a diversion while Caleb goes to work.”

  Luke had suffered a significant shoulder injury when he rescued Claire from her ex months before. He still didn’t have full use of the arm, but he had an ego and didn’t like getting stuck with desk duty. Holden knew they didn’t have time to argue about who was best suited to skulk around in the darkness, so he made the decision for the group.

  Mia stepped in front of Holden. “No.”

  Not the direction from which Holden expected a fight. From her pale skin and wide eyes, he knew she was terrified. She was about to be in the middle of another gun battle. Any smart person would worry, but he couldn’t let that look stop him.

  “It will be fine,” he said.

  She grabbed his arm, her nails biting into his skin. “You are volunteering to be a target.”

  Caleb raised his hand. “Then I’ll do it.”

  “No,” Holden snapped back. No way was he backing down from an assignment. Not for her or anyone else.

  “Then it’s settled.” Luke nodded. “Holden will draw fire and I’ll zap the gate. That should knock out anyone long enough for Caleb to grab him. Let’s look to prevent gunfire and collateral damage.”

  Mia’s hands were on her hips now. “And what if Holden gets shot in the process?”

  Holden spared Luke from having to answer. “Not going to happen.”

  “You could call the police,” she said.

  “Not until we know why commandos are trying to storm an innocent-looking house in the middle of suburbia.” Holden didn’t wait for more questions. He picked up the black vest Claire held out for him and checked his weapons. No one was getting into this house on his watch.

  “I’ll feed intel from here and Claire will keep her hand on the phone in case we need to call 911.” Luke glanced at the watch monitor again.

  “That’s not funny.” Claire pulled Mia away from Holden and toward the dining room.

  Luke ignored the comment and stayed focused on the screen. “We got one trying to get through the bars.”

  “Perfect.” Holden motioned for Caleb to take the exit through the kitchen.

  Holden was going through the front door. He wanted all eyes on him and all thoughts of Mia out of his head. She’d be safe in the house with Luke. Holden needed his mind on the guy trying to get to them.

  Opening the door as little as possible, he slipped out and onto the front porch and ducked behind the pillar holding up one side of the small porch roof. He hadn’t bothered with night goggles and regretted that choice. The cool weather and rolling clouds made the sky even darker than usual. In the distance he could make out shadows but not much else.

  He made his way along the front of the house, going left an
d keeping his body low and in-line with the bushes. His feet fell against the wet grass with a minimum of noise. The hope was to blend in until he got close enough for Luke to hit the button.

  When Holden reached the far edge of the fence, his sight line to the front of the property opened. He didn’t see Caleb but knew he was stationed opposite from him on the high wall. The plan was to curve around and hit the intruders from both sides. The green dots on Holden’s watch indicated his team’s movements and showed Luke safe in the house.

  Everything went according to plan. Holden had reached the front of the property without being seen. From this angle, he watched two men working on the fence. One attempted to cut through the metal while the other kept guard.

  This was easier than they imagined. One zap and the fence would come to life and knock them both out. Holden gave the signal to Luke.

  Nothing happened.

  Again, Holden hit the “go” button but the lights stayed off and the fence remained silent. He scanned the area looking for any signs of Caleb.

  The yard couldn’t be more than two acres. At this distance, communications should be up, but the opposite was true. Holden stood in the open, not fifty feet from the intruders, and could not reach his team.

  He decided to try a new strategy: wound first, apologize later. The silencer would keep the commotion to a minimum, but he had to work fast. With two men out front, that left two unaccounted for. If they were on the property, they could be near the front door. Close to Mia and Claire.

  That got him moving. He raised his weapon right as the intruders glanced up. After a long frozen look, the intruders backed away from the gate. Through his site, Holden watched them scatter, racing down the other side of the street and blending into the shadows around them.

  Holden reached their previous point of entry in time to see dark figures slide into the black night. He ducked down, listening for footsteps or evidence of the other two. Nothing came back to him.

  Continuing his circle, he found Caleb on his back on the ground about halfway back to the house. His gun was gone and blood trickled from his temple.

  Holden dropped to the lawn. He watched the area around him as he felt for a pulse. Relief flooded through him when a strong beat pounded under his fingers. “Caleb.”

  The other man shifted and groaned. Finally his eyes popped open. “You okay?”

  “I’m not the one who got hit.” Holden helped his friend sit up. “What happened?”

  Caleb rubbed his forehead. “Got jumped from behind.”

  “That means the intruders got inside the gate without Luke knowing.” Holden didn’t understand how something like that was possible. Only the team had the code. Between the alarms and protections, a breach should have been impossible.

  “If someone breached, then why were the other two hanging out on the opposite side of the front gate.”

  They got played. That fact zoomed right into Holden’s brain. “Those two were the diversion.”

  The daze started to clear from Caleb’s eyes. “Where are the ones who hit me?”

  The truth smacked Holden like a sucker punch to the stomach. “The house!”

  They took off at a run, their footsteps fast yet quiet. Without saying a word, they knew they had to work in unison and reach the front door as fast as possible.

  Somehow Holden slowed his heart. Racing in and getting everyone killed wasn’t a decent plan. He put all thoughts of Mia out of his head and concentrated on listening for any sound bouncing back to him.

  They rounded the porch. The door stood wide open and the remote control lay on the porch. With a simple hand signal, Holden sent Caleb to the left as he walked through the main entrance.

  Holden took the right. No signs of struggle. No blood.

  A slight creak of the floorboards sounded above them. Both Caleb and Holden reacted to the noise. Holden waited as Caleb checked the kitchen and small den at the back of the house. He came back into the entry and shook his head.

  That meant the intruders went in one of two directions, up to the bedrooms or down to the underground control room. Since the bottom floor of the house wasn’t on any building plan anywhere and the entrance was nearly impossible to find without knowing about it Holden bet the armed men went up instead.

  He nodded to Caleb, then hit the first stair. With slow, steady steps, Holden went up, pausing on every riser to listen for signs of life. As he watched, legs clad in dark pants moved into his line of vision.

  On the landing and with the advantage from above, the intruder turned and fired. The wall behind Holden’s head blew apart and his foot slipped off the step.

  Off balance, he pumped two bullets. The first slammed into the man’s chest, pushing him back with a grunt. The second hit his leg.

  Holden reached the man right as he fell to his back. As Holden shifted to kick the weapon away, a second man rushed out of the bedroom Holden had shared with Mia. He saw a flash of black clothing right before Caleb rushed up the stairs, firing as he ran. Almost instantly a red blotch spread across the intruder’s forehead. Momentum kept him moving as he went flying over the banister and crashed against the first-floor tile with a sharp smack.

  When Holden turned back, he saw the man he shot wrestling to sit up and reaching for his gun. Holden didn’t hesitate. This time he skipped the chest and obvious protective vest the man wore and followed Caleb’s lead and went for the head.

  People talk about disasters moving in slow motion. To Holden, it zipped by even faster than usual. With not even a second to breathe or think, he reacted. Movements flowed into each other. Shoot, duck, aim.

  Now as he focused on the rushing beat of his heart, he glanced around at the bloody aftermath. In the span of five minutes, the shoot-out had ended. Two intruders lay dead on the floor and three people were still missing.

  Holden looked to the bottom of the staircase and edited that number to two. Luke stood there, gun raised and ready to provide backup.

  “Everyone okay?” Luke’s voice took Caleb by surprise and had him spinning.

  “Whoa.” Holden put his hand on Caleb’s arm and lowered his gun.

  “What the hell happened?” Caleb’s words raced out.

  “Something jammed the signal,” Holden said. “It was as if they got into our communication system.”

  Luke lowered his weapon. “I saw the two come up the lawn as you went down. My priority was getting Mia and Claire out of the firing line.”

  Holden didn’t care about the logistics. “Where is Mia?”

  “Here.” She popped out from around the banister. She twisted the edge of her T-shirt in her fingers but otherwise appeared calm.

  He tried to beat back the energy still pumping through him. The blonde in front of him helped. Seeing her alive and safe put a lid on his frustration. Breathing returned to normal. Once he could convince his fingers to ease up on his gun, he’d be fine.

  “How’d they breech the perimeter?” Caleb asked.

  Luke’s calm demeanor slipped for a second before he regained control. “No idea. According to my readings, everything held, but that’s clearly not the case.”

  Claire held out her arms and gestured around her. “Apparently not.”

  Luke grimaced. “Sorry about this.”

  Claire wasn’t ready to be dismissed. “Look at my house.”

  “We’ll figure it out. I’ll put Adam on it and we’ll have an answer in no time.” Luke tucked his gun in his waistband with enough force to rip the fabric. “Nothing like this is ever going to happen again.”

  Claire’s mouth flattened into a straight line. “If you say so.”

  Luke stared at his wife. “I promise.”

  Holden understood the fury battering Luke. He had vowed to keep his wife safe. They all had. Two men got within feet of her and Mia. Reality beat the crap out of the idea they were prepared and in control of the situation.

  Inside they were all burning with frustration. Two private residences violated in two
days. This was about more than shutting down Recovery Project. Someone was coming after each of them. This was personal.

  Mia stood next to the dead man’s hand. “How do we get around calling the police now? The bodies are starting to pile up.”

  Luke kicked the man’s foot. “Rod usually takes care of this part.”

  Claire stared up at her broken banister. “Then we better find him so I can have my house back.”

  Holden knew she was struggling to find normal. He also knew that was gone forever.

  Chapter Ten

  Bram Walters sat at the massive cherry desk in his office the next morning. Outside his door, staffers hunkered down in their cubicles, answering calls and mail. The flag hung from a pole behind his head and the walls were lined with photos of Bram with visiting dignitaries and heroes from his district in Virginia.

  He’d dreamed of this job, this chair, and now he’d achieved it. He held the power. After paying his dues and consistently voting with his party’s leadership, he’d moved to the top. He had his pick of choice committee assignments.

  And a small group of people could ruin all that. Destroy him.

  He rubbed his sore shoulder. Mia dislocated it when she hit him with the car. Popping it back into place had hurt more than the broken ribs. If she had just answered him when he asked about her partners none of this would have happened. He could have turned her, used her as his inside spy. But not now.

  If only he had refused to hire her in the first place.

  The entire tense situation he now found himself in started with a favor. Then it spun into a tragedy when Trevor’s ex-wife decided to use the divorce and their son as weapons of personal destruction. Now Bram was stuck dealing with blackmail dressed up as obligation.

  His main assignment was clear: crush the Recovery Project group so they couldn’t ask questions. Discredit Rod Lehman and his work. The Project’s previous handling of the Claire Samson, now Hathaway, incident made that task easier. No one on the intelligence subcommittee liked the idea of a rogue law-enforcement team receiving federal funding and not being subjected to any rules.