“Actually, that might be a good thing,” she said.“We’re her targets, right?So, if she sees us go in the house, maybe she gets excited and decides now is the time to try to get to us.We’ve been in hiding at my apartment for over a month.She might think this is her only opportunity.She won’t want to waste it.”
“But she’s a hitwoman, Kat.What if she takes us out with a rifle while we walk across the front yard?”
Kat shook her head.
“That’s not her style,” she said.“She wants to do this up close.I’ve seen her handiwork.She likes to make people suffer.That will be doubly true with us.She wants to see our faces as she takes us out.A long-range rifle won’t do the trick.”
“Great,” Hannah said.“Your certainty that she wants to kill us in the most intimate way possible is filling me with confidence.”
“It should,” Kat told her.“That’s going to be her undoing.Let’s go.”
CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN
After going through the security prompts, Hannah opened the front door.
She had gotten tired of the retinal and fingerprint scans and would be glad when they were no longer needed.If they were lucky and SWAT did its job, this might be the last time they’d be needed.
“Remember to keep it down,” she whispered as Kat entered the house after her.“In my experience a sleepy Ryan is often a grumpy Ryan.”
“Understood,” Kat whispered back.
They walked quietly as they passed through the foyer into the living room.This was the first time that Hannah had been back in this house in over a month.The experience was both strange and reassuring.After her adoptive parents were murdered, this is where she came to live with Jessie, the half-sister she hadn’t even known existed.It held a special place in her heart.It was her security blanket in a brutal world.
From where she stood, she could see that the door to Jessie and Ryan’s bedroom was open.That was odd.Wouldn’t he close the door if he was going to nap?And if he wasn’t sleeping, why hadn’t he answered the calls or texts?
“Maybe he’s not napping after all,” she said in a still-hushed tone.She suddenly felt weirdly unsettled as she tiptoed over to get a closer look.But as she got deeper into the living room, she glanced over to the adjacent kitchen.For a second, she had trouble comprehending what she saw.
Ryan was sitting in a chair at the breakfast table, but he wasn’t eating.He was tied to the thing with bungee cords wrapped around his arms and legs.Worse, he was completely bloodied.His face was covered in it and his clothes were stained red.His head lolled limply to the side.
She opened her mouth to shout out a warning to Kat, who was just steps behind her, when she saw something out of the corner of her eye.Somone had stepped out from behind the divider separating the kitchen from the living room.Hannah saw the baton coming at her face and a fraction of a second before it made contact, her brain comprehended who was holding it: Ash Pierce.
CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT
Even as she saw Hannah drop to the floor, knocked unconscious by the baton blow to her temple, Kat was pulling her handgun out of her hip holster.
She was just raising it to aim when the baton came down hard, smashing into her right wrist and knocking the weapon to the hardwood floor before it slid under the couch.Ash Pierce, wearing a mail delivery uniform and a huge grin on her face, was cocking the baton back again to take a second swing.
Kat did her best to ignore the screaming pain in her right hand, which she was pretty sure was broken.Before Pierce could follow through on her strike, Kat flung herself at the hitwoman.The baton made contact with her left shoulder but the power was diffused slightly by their close proximity.
She used her full weight as she slammed into the much smaller woman, propelling them both back into the kitchen.They collided into the breakfast table and toppled over it onto the floor.Pierce had landed on her back but popped right up.Kat, on the other side of the table, landed on her stomach and took a little longer to get to her feet since she only had one working hand.
“Nice to see you again, Katherine,” Pierce said as if they’d causally bumped into each other at the grocery store.
Kat looked over at Ryan, strapped to the chair beside her.Though he appeared to be alive, he looked terrible.His breathing was raspy and there were deep cuts all over his face and torso.Blood had pooled on the kitchen floor around him—a lot of it.She looked up at Pierce.
“Wish I could say the same,” she growled.
“Oh, are you feeling bad for the big strong man?”Pierce asked, using a mock baby voice.“Don’t worry.He kept passing out because of the pain.I had to use smelling salts to wake him.Over and over again.It got tiresome.But he’s getting off easy compared to you.And what I’m going to do to you will be a walk in the park compared to your little friend on the ground there.I’m saving the best stuff for Hannah.”
“You won’t get that far,” Kat said, though she had no clue how she was going to keep that promise.Pierce had a police baton while she was unarmed and injured.
“I think I will.”
“It’s hardly a fair fight,” Kat spat, hoping that appealing to Pierce’s arrogance might change the dynamic.
“I know what you’re trying to do, Katherine,” Pierce said, “bating me like that.But I don’t mind.It’s more fun if you have false hope.”
Without warning, she tossed the baton.Kat reached out and snagged the thing before it hit the ground.She gripped it tight, glad to have it, though her left arm was nowhere near as strong as her right.But considering that her right wrist was useless right now, this would have to do.
