Yessiree, boys, Maddy thought with a savage, frantic sort of glee.That’s what you might call bein’ stuck between a rock and a hard place.Bran being the rock and Mason being the hard place, of course.
“Don’t try it,” Bran rumbled. His voice had all the gravity and solemnity of someone speaking at a funeral.
Try what?Oh! Shesowanted to peek her head out and see what the heckfire was going on.
“I’m serious,” Bran continued. “I won’t hesitate to turn you into an organ donor. There’s a real shortage of assholes lately, so I hear.”
And Maddy suddenly had the distinct urge not only to peek her head out, but to march out there and wring Bran’s neck. He was baiting them. Egging them on almost as if hewanteda reason to—BOOM!The sound of a shot echoed around the fort and inside the magazine house like an exploding cannonball. She was pretty sure her heart exploded right along with it.
Chapter 12
8:15 p.m.…
The guy with the bad knee is a grade-A, double-D douche canoe.
That was the thought that spun through Mason’s brain when the fuckface squeezed off a shot that flew by Bran’s head and stuck in the brick corner of the old gunpowder magazine house.
Bran returned fire without flinching. Two shots. Both hit Bad Knee center mass, dropping the man in under two seconds.
Mason sighted down his barrel as he readied himself to take out the remaining masked men. But they took one look at their buddy and tossed their rifles to the ground.
Now, not every decision Mason had ever made in the midst of a gun battle was one of moral clarity. But this one was. There was no way he could justify shooting two unarmed men.
“Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!” the one who sounded like he should be skinning squirrels and sipping sweet tea on a porch swing yelled when Bran swung the business end of his M4 in his direction. “We’re unarmed!” He and his pal threw their hands in the air. “Don’t shoot!”
Should’ve given that advice to your buddy, fucknuts.
“Dustin!” Southern Boy shouted, glancing at his squirming friend who was flat on his back, writhing and clutching at the wounds in his chest.
“Forget it,” Mason told him. “He’s a dead man. He just doesn’t know it yet.”
When Bran aimed to kill, he didn’t miss. It was just one of the many things Mason loved about his brother-in-arms.
“Damnit!” the third guy screamed. “I didn’t sign up for any of this shit. It was supposed to be an easy snatch-and-grab. It was supposed to be—”
“Shut up!” Southern Boy snarled.
“Screw you, Luke!”
“Why don’t you both shut the fuck up,” Mason grumbled, having heard enough.An easy snatch-and-grab?So thishadbeen about kidnapping.
“I’d listen to him if I were you,” Bran said, skirting around Bad Knee, kicking his dropped SCAR-L away, and not sparing the dying man a glance. It wasn’t that Mason and Bran were unmoved by death and killing. It’s just that very early in their SEAL careers they’d learned that sometimes there was nothing to do but put rabid dogs down.
“And while you’re listening to him,” Bran said, “you can tell us where you’ve hidden those girls.”
“Well, which is it?” Southern Boy asked. Even though Mason couldn’t see his face because of the balaclava, he was pretty sure by the sound of Southern Boy’s voice that he was sneering. “Do ya want us to do what that jackhole says and shut the fuck up? Or do ya want us to tell you where the girls are? I’m gettin’ mixed signals here.”
Bran glanced over the man’s shoulder at Mason, raised brow saying,Can you believe this bozo?When he turned his attention to Southern Boy, he said, “Wise guy, eh? Well, wise guy, unless you fancy a round in your shoulder, you’ll stop with the lip service and answer my goddamned question.”
“We really didn’t hurt them,” the second half of the duo answered quickly. “We tied them up—”
“I told ya to shut up!” Southern Boy screeched. “Those girls are our only bargainin’—”
His sidekick ignored him and went on as if he hadn’t spoken. “They’re in the far north casemate on the second floor and—”
“Shut up! Shut up!Shut up!” Southern Boy was apoplectic.
“Thank you,” Bran said. “Now, both of you get down on your knees and put your hands behind your heads.”
