Audra.
For a moment, Diggs forgot where he was. He forgot his duty. Forgot histraining.
“I’m ready for a turn,” the guardsaid.
Diggs forced his mind from the tumultuous violence building inside of him and gripped the handle of the knife so tight that blood pulsed in his fingers. Even from down here Diggs could see the eagerness on the guard’s face. He wanted to be inside, dishing out the pain, not sitting out here in the wings watching for someone he thought would nevercome.
The man at the door let out a grunt, his clothing that of a civilian, but his eyes never stopped scanning the yard, alert and aware. “Shutup.”
Diggs tensed, rolling behind the tree completely, so that even his shoulders were hidden. The man at the front door had turned in his direction, as if sensing hispresence.
Completely unaware of the threat lurking below his feet, the guard said, “But I want to play. Bradshaw didn’t say we couldn’tplay.”
There was no answer from the frontporch.
Diggs kept his back plastered against the trunk, focusing on the sound of the man’s steps on the front porch, ready to take them both out if he approached. Obviously, the other man was more alert and professional than the one in the tree. The one in the tree just wanted to hurt people. The man at the door was doing hisjob.
The silence stretched out a few moments longer. Then there was a creak of the floorboard and the soft snick of the door indicating the other man went back inside. He was the kind that didn’t waste his time on words. And that kind was more dangerous than the idiot on the branchabove.
There was a sound of a strike, light flared, and smoke filled his nostrils as the guard in the tree lit a cigarette. “Fucking assholes,” he muttered under his breath, but Diggs heard it like ashout.
Diggs took in a breath and let it out slowly, forcing his grip to loosen on the blade. Men like this joined these types of teams for the joy ofkilling.
They didn’t need to be left tolive.
No matter how much Diggs wanted to see the surprising realization on the man’s face as he killed him, Audra was more important than the satisfaction he would get from vengeance. Like a ghost, he spun from behind the tree. Standing up directly beneath the guard, he let his blade fly. It whistled through the air, and, flying end over end, embedded in the guard’s neck just beneath his chin. He braced himself, caught the body as it fell to keep it from hitting the ground with a loud thunk, and then carried him around to the front of the truck and shoved him beneath the vehicle out of sight. He yanked his blade from the man’s throat, wiped the blood on the man’s shirt, and re-sheathed it at his hip before returning to the tree to put out the freshly litcigarette.
Then he drew his pistol, holding it high as he ran across the yard, and ducked beneath the single front window on the right side of the house. Carefully, Diggs straightened his legs until he could peer over the bottom edge of the window. What he saw knocked the breath from hislungs.
There were six men inside, three of them clustered around something on the floor. Two of them were standing near an unconscious Audra who’d been tied to a chair, her hands bound behind her back and her head slumped forward, blood dripping from her nose andmouth.
One of the men stood with his arms crossed, staring at her without any expression on his face, a bloodied hand held tucked into his front pocket as he waited for her to wakeup.
A steel-plated fury formed around Diggs’s veins. This team wasn’t only a hit squad. They wanted something, something they thought Audrahad.
Diggs heard the scuff of a boot, followed immediately by a dog’s whimper. One of the men on the left shifted, and he could now see Trigger lying, still bound to the carrier, on the floor. The same guy kicked Trigger again, and Diggs gnashed his teeth together, knowing how much pain the dog was in with his crackedribs.
If Diggs had even been considering letting the men live earlier, he stopped right then and there. They were all dead; he wouldn’t let anyone in this room live. But he couldn’t just run in. Taking on six at once was too risky. All it would take was one bullet while he was distracted with another. He needed to draw them out, and he now knew how to doit.
He leapt onto the front porch, tested the knob, felt that it was unlocked, and opened the door. He lifted his gun and fired off a round. Before the bullet finished sinking into the man’s skull, Diggs was off and moving, letting the door shut behind him to cover histracks.
He leapt onto the railing and up onto the roof, deciding to use height as a weapon. He waited for the first man to come to the door, knowing they would think he’d taken off running into the yard. He sprawled out flat above their heads, unmoving, blending in with the darkness. Even the moonless night seemed to be on his side, the clouds still thick overhead and blocking out any extra natural light that would aid theenemy.
The door burst open and two men fanned out, searching for him in a standard tactical pattern, just like Diggs himself would do on a normal mission. They wanted to flank him, and because he’d anticipated this, they did exactly what hewanted.
Diggs smiled in the darkness. Calm. Centered. Ready toattack.
When the man that went left was directly beneath him, Diggs dropped to the ground, grasped the man’s head and twisted with all his strength. Before the other guard spun around, his friend was already falling to the ground, his rifle dropping uselessly beside him. The other guard fired a wild burst of bullets that bunked into the sides of the house and in the dirt at the ground where Diggs had just beenstanding.
Diggs had already taken off running, melding into the shadows of the night. He lifted his gun and fired a single shot, and kept moving. The other guard slumped uselessly to the ground,dead.
Diggs heard the sound of men’s whispering inside, knew the other three were making a plan and that he had limited time to make his move before he risked Audra being used as a weapon againsthim.
Diggs took off running around the side and back of the house. He passed the door and two dark windows he’d seen earlier. They’d have a man posted at each entrance for sure, and with the front door being left open, he’d be a walking target. He’d have to use the element of surprise first and take over the situation before they could hurt Audraanymore.
He crouched near the back door. One of the men inside the house shouted, “Come out or we’ll kill thegirl!”
Diggs’ lips pressed into a hard line, as he readied his pistol. They were trying to goad him into giving away his location or making a stupid move, but Diggs was beyond that. He was beyond anything but dealing death right now. The image of Audra slumped over and bloody in that chair flashed across his mind and his resolve firmed. He’d trained enough to use his enhanced senses, and although he hadn’t gotten to practice them in battle as long as he would like to be completely comfortable, he had no choice but to rely on them rightnow.
