* * *
Jes and Caleb were on the move before Jake even finished telling them Damien was starting his raid on the hotel. But the angst in his voice when he’d hesitated, then told them to be careful, had been enough to almost make her heart freeze in her chest. It took everything in her to not flip on her mic and tell him to watch himself and not do anything that might harm a single hair on his head. But she had a job to do, and an open channel was no place to tell Jake she was worried about his safety.
Low growls rumbled from Caleb’s throat as he disappeared around one side of the farmhouse, heading for the door to the kitchen and the overwhelming number of bad guys waiting for him inside. Based on the visible spring in his step, Jes got the feeling he was looking forward to the murder and mayhem.
It was entirely possible the omega werewolf was slightly deranged. Then again, maybeomega werewolfandderangedwere synonymous.
Jes ducked under the window on the front porch, slipping up quietly to stand beside the door. Caleb had told her earlier he planned to kick in the door leading into the kitchen, but that approach wouldn’t work for her. She simply didn’t have enough body weight to do it. Fortunately, there was another way.
Pulling the small explosive breeching charge out of her messenger bag, she attached it to the door in between the knob and the frame. Then she applied the electric initiator and flipped the arming key on the handheld trigger unit.
“Ready when you are, Caleb,” she whispered, moving to the side of the door a little so she could peek in the window.
“Ready,” he replied. “On three. One…two…”
“Three!” Jes shouted, pushing the red button on the trigger unit as she saw the men who’d been sitting on the far side of the living room stand up and advance on the kids, their guns down at their sides, fingers on the triggers. The guy on the right had his cell phone to his ear and while she couldn’t hear what he was saying, she got the gist of the conversation. And he wasn’t calling for takeout.
Darby was giving them the go-ahead to kill the hostages.
The kids must have realized the same thing. They started screaming, knowing they were as good as dead.
The blast of the front door blowing in sent the kids scrambling for the floor. While one of the men turned toward Jes, the guy who’d been talking on the phone kept his attention locked on the kids, aiming his weapon at Olivia as she threw herself over two of the smaller kids.
Jes momentarily ignored the guy bringing up his weapon and pointing it in her direction, focusing on the guy going after Olivia. Praying these guys weren’t like Darby, she stepped inside and put a bullet through his head. Without waiting to see if it took him down, Jes half spun and did the same to the other man. She held her breath for half a second before both men dropped to the floor with solid thuds…and didn’t get up. She was still holding her weapon on them when the sound of growling and automatic weapon fire came from the kitchen, shattering the momentary silence.
The kids scrambled backward across the mattresses, screaming bloody murder when they saw Jes coming their way. Keeping her gun low, she motioned for them to sit down.
“Stay on the floor,” Jes told them firmly as she edged toward the kitchen.
Caleb expected her to get the children out of there, but she couldn’t leave him on his own, regardless if he was a werewolf or not. Besides, if any of the bad guys who were left were supernatural creatures and came after them, this would turn into the shortest rescue in history. It was better to face the creatures head-on, not with her back turned, trying to herd a bunch of kids across the front yard.
Jes had only taken a few steps toward the mayhem going on in the kitchen when she heard the sound of boots on the stairs.
She and the men caught sight of each other at the same time, all three of their weapons coming up. Jes swore she could feel the bullets zipping past her so closely they heated her skin and plucked at her clothes. Ignoring how close she was to dying at that moment, she focused on returning fire.
When she successfully put three rounds through the center of the first guy’s chest, she thought dropping him would expose his buddy behind him. Instead, the guy in back latched an arm around the dead man, hiding behind the body like it was a freaking shield.
Jes kept shooting, trying to nail the guy in the legs or the arm he had around the body, but she ran out of time—and ammo—when the man stumbled down the last few steps with his dead buddy and crashed right into her, knocking her weapon from her hand.
The combined weight of both men landing on top of her sent the air exploding out of her lungs. Her vision went a little dark and she would have probably passed out if it wasn’t for the gun coming toward her face.
Jes reached around the dead man on her chest, trying to shove the other guy’s weapon away. She’d barely managed to nudge the pistol a few inches to the side before it went off, burying a bullet into the floor so close to her face she felt wood chips nick her skin, never mind what it did to her ears. They were going to be ringing for days.
She struggled at the dead weight on her chest, knowing if she didn’t get the corpse off soon, the living goon would put a bullet through her within seconds—if he didn’t suffocate her first. So she took a chance and shoved one hand between her and the body, getting it on the corpse’s chest and trying to push it to the side.
Unfortunately, that move didn’t achieve a damn thing. But on the upside, it did put her in contact with the extra magazine for the dead guy’s weapon. Fully loaded, it was big and heavy.
The man above her was already moving his weapon back into position to turn her head into a bloody mess, and she didn’t stop to think. She simply grabbed hold of the magazine filled with bullets and swung as hard as she could.
She’d been aiming for the man’s temple. While she missed his head, she did get him in the throat.
The guy tumbled to the side, rolling onto the floor, coughing and choking. He wrapped his free hand around his crushed throat while swinging his pistol around wildly with the other, pulling the trigger over and over again in a mad attempt to kill her.
The dead body that was still on top of Jes saved her life, absorbing every bullet that came her way.
As soon as the guy ran out of bullets, Jes shoved the corpse off her and went on the offensive. He was still choking and half-blind from tears and lack of oxygen, so Jes threw herself on him and started beating the crap out of him with the base of the magazine in her hand, finally ending it with that temple shot she’d been going for earlier.
Jes climbed to her feet, gasping for air and OD’ing on adrenaline. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a glimpse of the kids over by the wall, staring at her in shock. Ignoring them, she looked around wildly for her weapon, finding it a few feet away, at the bottom of the stairs. Quickly reloading the Sig, she spun around, heading for the kitchen, abruptly realizing it was now deathly silent in there.
