“I saw two more moving northeast.”
Swiveling around, Ryan waved to signal the others and Jackson signaled back.They were ready.
He faced forward again, searching through his scope for another target.He and Wade began firing again, laying down covering fire so the rest of their group could move.
“We’re clear,” Cam called out a minute later.
Ryan’s heart rate eased and when he looked back there was no one left behind the wall.Candace was now out of sight behind solid cover with Erin to treat her wound, and Dev and Maya were both armed as well.She was in good hands, and as safe as he could make her for the moment.
Now he and the guys had to hunt down the rest of these bastards before anyone else got hurt.
He signaled to Cam and Jackson, hiding behind the end of a short brick wall that separated the patio from the garden, then resumed firing to keep the shooters at bay and give the PJs time to join him and Wade.
Thirty seconds later, Cam and Jackson reached them, rifles to their shoulders and ready to rock.
“Two more shooters moving to the northeast,” he told them.“We’ll go in pairs.Wade and I’ll take the right, you two take the left.”
“Roger that,” Jackson murmured, eye to his scope.
He and Wade peeled off and started across the north lawn while Cam and Jackson covered them.They stopped behind a decorative rock formation in the middle of the grass and covered the other guys, then kept leapfrogging their way toward where the shooters had been.
The one Ryan had hit was gone, but there was a blood trail for them to follow, though it was hard to see with just his scope to aid them in the darkness.
Either the shooter was still mobile or someone else was dragging him.No matter what, he couldn’t have gone far.
Ducking around the tree he was hiding behind, Ryan jerked back when a bullet struck the trunk, sending up a hail of splinters.
Wade immediately fired from Ryan’s left.“Got him.”
Good.Two down.“See anyone else?”
“Nope.”
“Anything?”he called out to Cam and Jackson.
“Negative,” Cam answered.
There could be more than two remaining shooters out here, but if they were lucky, maybe not.
Then, in the distance, came the sound of an engine roaring to life.He eased around the tree trunk and scanned the terrain with his scope.A flash of movement caught his attention.
Zeroing in on it, he saw someone driving away on an ATV.“One target on an ATV moving northwest.Can’t get a clear shot through the trees.”
“I see him,” Wade muttered.“No shot though.”
And it wasn’t like they could catch up to him on foot either.Dammit.
“Contact, ten o’clock,” Jackson said to their left.
Ryan swung the barrel of his weapon toward the new target and caught sight of a man running between the trees.He was cradling his arm, seemed to be struggling.“I got him.Cover me.”
Stepping out from behind the relative protection of the tree, he rushed forward.Behind him he could hear Wade following.On silent feet he moved over the short-cut grass and into the trees, knowing the others had his back.
He lost sight of the target for a moment, then the wounded man burst out from behind a stand of trees.He stumbled, went down on one knee, and it was the break Ryan needed.
Ryan raced straight at him.“Drop your weapon and put your fucking hands up!”
The man grabbed his weapon and whipped around, trying to raise it in time to get a shot off.
