Dammit. I’m dead.
“Jesus, babe, I almost shot you.” Dean lowers his weapon.
Chapter 13
A few minutes earlier…
Dean
The day we met, Tommy’s kid claimed she had no online presence and I pray she’s right. Otherwise, the ORA’s going to realize they have the wrong woman and when they do, Sky’s as good as dead.
The drone that followed the Hummers to a farmhouse, now circles overhead and projects heat signatures. Parked out of sight, I time how long it takes the guard to circle the farm. On the next pass, I sneak behind the building’s overgrown shrubberies and listen below a pair of boarded-up windows.
“If you’re so smart, you know I can’t possibly let you live.” I’m guessing the voice belongs toMack Snyderson, the ORA leader.
Sky makes a snarky comment about a last meal, and I swallow hard. My God, her mouth is going to get her killed.
Once I’ve wiped away my relief, I text my brothers for an ETA. A few seconds later, my butt vibrates, and I lift the screen to my face. O’Brien says the FBI’s at least two hours out.
Shit.Having no other choice, the moon lowers, and I make myself comfortable. Soon after it disappears, the activity inside slows, and snores replace conversations. About an hour before dawn, a younger man pauses at the front door and motions another over. While the two light up their cigarettes, I inch closer on knees and elbows.
The wider awake of the two, coughs and spits a few feet to the left of my position. “Are you okay with lighting up DC, PhillyandNew York? Aren’t you worried the radiation will spread?”
“Nah. My family is all out west. You?” The fortyish man who’s been circling the farmhouse sucks in nicotine.
As he slowly exhales, his replacement shakes his head. “Ohio. But I keep thinking about Japan in World War II.”
“Listen kid, the government is trying to scare you. Mack would tell us if it was a problem.” His cult-like faith scares the piss out of me. It’s like watching the idiot teenagers in an apocalyptic movie but much, much worse.
After the barely-adult one scratches his thin beard, he grinds what’s left of his cancer stick into the ground. “Yeah, you’re right. It’s just, you know… all our life we’ve heard how nukes would end life as we know it.”
The older merely scoffs. “You can’t believe their bullshit. Politicians lie all the time.”
Holy fucking shit. They’re talking about setting off nuclear weapons in our own damn U.S. of A. The devastation would send us back to the stone age.
I text Colin.
Me: DC, NY, and Philly are the targets
Still behind the bushes, I slow my heart and creep closer to the conversation flowing through the open door.
“Do it now. Go get a finger from the bitch and drop it off at his fucking doorstep.”
Ah, hell. I shoot the two outside the front door, the one in the kitchen, and sprint down the hall. Gun out, I take aim at the one person still standing and when I realize who it is, lower my weapon.
“Jesus, babe, I almost shot you.”
Chapter 14
Sky
Holy shit, I killed a man. Did he have kids? A wife?My gaze lifts to the badass cop, and I freeze under his heated stare.
“Ophelia, you’re in shock. Lower your weapon.” Palms down, Dean steps forward.
Pointing my gun to the ground, he unwraps my index finger from the trigger. Then, with my head to his chest, he lowers us to the smelly mattress.
“Ridiculous.” Sure, I’m shaking, but the temperature in the house dropped fifty degrees. My trembling is unrelated to the river of blood running down the hallway.
