Chapter Fourteen
Cora woke up to the sound of heavy footsteps in the hallway. It was still dark out and she had no idea what time it was. She sat up and threw on the closest outfit she could find. As she was opening her door, Hannah almost barreled into her.
“Cora, thank god you’re up. They’re here. Alejandro’s men are here.” It took Cora a moment for Hannah’s words to sink it. Alejandro’sarmy was here. And Liam wasn’t. There were only three men against the army. Cora refused to let her panic set in. Panic wouldn’t help her.Heavy movement coming.
“Alright, let’s find Charlie. I’m sure he’ll have us go down to the computer room or maybe there is a bunker we can get to.” She wouldn’t put it past Aaron to put in underground tunnels throughout his property. He seemed like the crazyparanoid kind of guy.
“I can’t go back to him, Cora. I can’t.” Hannah sobbed and clung to Cora.
Cora took Hannah by the shoulders and shook her. “Listen to me, listen. That’s not going to happen. Barricade yourself in the computer room. Look for an escape tunnel; if you find it, use it. Don’t look back. Call the police the first chance you get. Don’t be a hero.”
“What about you?”
Whatthe hell am I thinking?
“I’m going to help them guard the house.” She was a bit rusty with a gun, but she had no doubt it would quickly come back to her. She had her gun as a precaution but never needed one until now.
“Do you even know how to shoot a gun?” Hannah looked at her shocked. It wasn’t surprising. Cora was a computer geek.
If Hannah only knew the truth. “My parents took me outshooting every chance they had. Don’t worry about me.”
“Then let me help too.”
“No,” Cora snapped at her. “You would serve better here in the computer room. Monitoring the property. Please, Hannah.” Cora didn’t have time to argue with Hannah. Charlie and his teammates were yelling downstairs and loading up on weapons. She had to get down there. “Just trust me on this. Everything is going tobe fine.”Nothing was going to be fine.
Hannah looked like she wanted to argue but time was of the essence. Cora grabbed Hannah’s arm and dragged her downstairs and pushed her towards the computer room. “I’ll see you when this is over.” Probably. Maybe.
“Are you sure you’ll be alright?” Hannah was trying to give Cora an out, and she didn’t want to be left alone. Cora had to help though. Itwasn’t what Liam would want her to do, he would want her to hide with Hannah and let Charlie and his team do what they were trained to do but they were outnumbered, and she had to help any way she could.
“I’ll be fine.” Once Hannah was heading downstairs Cora spun around and raced to the front porch where the men were arming up. She was reaching for a rifle when a strong arm grabbed the weaponfrom her hands.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Charlie growled at her. “This isn’t play time. Go inside with Hannah. You’ll only get in the way.”
Cora pulled the rifle back from Charlie and checked the chamber before grabbing a few boxes of ammo. “You can use all the help you can get. Both my parents were Marines. Taught me everything they know.”
If she thought that would impress himshe was wrong. Charlie grunted. “Just make sure you aim for the bad guys.” Cora barely resisted the urge to roll her eyes. She had been shooting since she was a kid. She was a hell of a marksman, but it had never been anything she wanted to pursue. She only hoped that her skills hadn’t left her.
Cora went back inside and ran upstairs to the roof access. She took the point at the front northwestcorner, facing the grouping of trees and fence, and opened the boxes of ammo for easy access and watched the front of the property as she loaded the rifle. She was proud of herself when her hands didn’t shake. She shut her mind off, not allowing herself to think about what she was about to do. She was going to kill someone. There was no way around it. Alejandro and his men wouldn’t just walk away.She looked through the scope, just as men were approaching the front gate, trying to find the best way onto the property without notice. Too late for that. Cora counted at least forty men. She had no idea if more were coming in from the sides or back. They were so screwed. The trap door behind her opened, and Ortiz jumped up and took the point at the opposite corner of the house. They sat andwaited for the enemy to approach. Cora tried to breathe evenly; she knew if her breaths were off it could mess up her shot.Exhale and shoot.Cora looked over at Ortiz and almost did a double take when he reached into his side pocket for a cookie and was munching away as if he didn’t have a care in the world. Seriously? They were outnumbered, and he was snacking on a… was that an Oreo? Only shewould have this kind of luck.
“Relax, Chica.” He told her in between bites but still looking through his scope. “Today, only enemies die.”
That was reassuring. Not.
As one Alejandro’s men started scaling the walls. As they reached the top, and started climbing over the wall, their bodies jolted and fell back.
“What the hell was that?” Cora whispered in horror watching men being electrocutedand dropping like flies.
“Hound put a wire on the top of the fence that if someone attempts to scale the fence gets a couple thousand volts of electricity jolted through their body,” Ortiz chuckled.
That sounded horrible.
The men backed away from the fence, and several jumped into their vehicles and rammed the gate, forgetting about being stealthy. They had to run into it several times beforeit broke open. Cora aimed at the vehicle, wondering how many bullets it would take to take down the vehicle, when she saw Ortiz was reaching for something in his pocket. Really? Another Oreo now? He pulled out what looked like a remote and held it up with his thumb over it but not pressing down.
“You may want to cover your ears, Chica.” He said right before he hit the button and an explosionerupted and the vehicle’s front end exploded sending its front end in the air. Several more explosions erupted, and she saw bodies scurrying out of the way. Cora stared in opened mouthed shock.Aaron had land mines?She and Hannah had been walking the property for the past four days, and she could have stepped on one of these? Ortiz hit another button, and another explosion went off, sending menflying in the air. Ortiz laughed as he did it repeatedly. Cora kept her ears covered and watched in horror as Ortiz blew people up so casually. Did her parents do things like this? It was horrible. Why did she think she could do this? She was about to say forget this and crawl off the roof and hide with Hannah when Ortiz waved at her. “Time to go to war, Chica.”
Could she do this? Did she reallyhave a choice at this point? No. These men needed her. Hannah needed her. She could do this. She had shown promise when she was younger at shooting. Her parents had entered her in several competitions that she had won. But those were targets, not real people. Liam was counting on her. Hannah was counting on her. Charlie and his team were counting on her.
Cora pulled her rifle back up and tookaim. She shut the world out and focused on a target as they ran towards the house. Cora adjusted her sight and took a deep breath. She exhaled and squeezed the trigger. One target down. She took aim at another then another. She could hear Ortiz firing, but she blocked him out until he grabbed her and pulled her down. She was about to question him, but a piercing screech rang out and hit the house.Gunfire erupted and pelted the house. She could hear Charlie yelling from the porch below her and returning fire.
