Page 39 of Under Fire in Big Sky

Five.

Four.

Three.

Two.

One.

With a powerful swing, Eli thrust the thirty inches of steel into the door, knocking it wide open.

Similar loud booms resounded throughout the building.

“FBI!” Trujillo announced.

Weapons up at the ready, the special agent and Olivia swept into the apartment. Eli dropped the ram, drew his gun, and brought up the rear.

Audrey jumped up from a plastic folding chair in the living room, hair in a messy ponytail, dressed in a T-shirt and sweatpants. “Kev, run!”

“You’re under arrest.” Trujillo lunged for her. “Down on your knees.”

Frantic scuttling came from the bedroom. Hurried footsteps. Wood groaned and metal creaked.

Olivia charged toward the sounds coming from the back of the apartment. In the bedroom, an air mattress was on the floor. The window gaped open. She glimpsed the top of Kevin’s blond head as he raced down the fire escape.

“Wait, Liv!” Cutting around her, Eli ducked out the window.

Olivia followed right behind him.

Kevin raised his head, glancing up at them, his eyes wide with fear, his face panic-stricken, his shaggy hair wild. The guy pounded down the metal steps barefoot. He kicked the steel ladder, and metal screeched as he sent it rumbling lower. Quickly, Kevin scrambled down the rungs. Near the bottom, he leaped the rest of the way, hitting the hard concrete on his side with a painful thud. He scurried to his feet, groaning, and foolishly took off running again.

Olivia hissed a curse under her breath. “Carter, stop!”

Not slowing, Eli kept after him. He slid down the steel ladder with a whoosh, his boots scraping along the sides. Landing on the unforgiving pavement, he tucked and rolled. Then Eli sprang to his feet and kicked it into high gear.

Olivia clattered down the ladder and dropped onto the balls of her feet.

Eli dashed after Kevin, easily closing the distance between them. Once he was within two feet of the guy, Eli pounced, tackling Kevin to the ground. He wrestled the young man, forcing him to his belly on the asphalt of the parking lot.

By the time she caught up to them, Eli had wrenched the guy’s arms behind his back and cinched zip ties around his wrists.

Eli jerked him up roughly to his bare feet. “Want to take potshots at me in a hospital like a punk? You have no idea how badly I’ve been waiting to get my hands on you.”

It was a satisfying feeling. But as much as Olivia wanted to be done with the Carter siblings, she anticipated a long day ahead to get them to talk.

In the sheriff’s department, Eli stared through the one-way glass of the observation room, watching Trujillo question Audrey Carter for a second time. The FBI agent had been going at it for hours, the hard way, and getting nowhere.

Eli glanced back at Olivia. They were alone in the room, and she was over in the corner, talking to Lauren on the phone, hatching some new plan. He was sure whatever she was up to, it was going to tick off Trujillo.

“That’ll work,” Olivia said, then disconnected the call. She joined Eli at the one-way glass. “Any success?” She gestured to the room on the other side of the mirror.

“Nope. Audrey is still stonewalling.” He didn’t look at Olivia as he spoke. “Not the least bit scared. Demanding a lawyer.” He sipped his coffee. “Trujillo can’t stop her from talking to one forever.”

“Forever isn’t necessary. Just long enough will do, and when it comes to a terrorist, the FBI doesn’t have to hurry,” she said, without a single glance at him.

The tension between them from earlier in the hotel room lingered like a rancid smell.

Marriage had never been a consideration again for him, but he did the right thing, the honorable thing, and proposed. He would’ve sworn that was what she wanted. Instead, the whole thing blew up in his face. Maybe it was a sign that Liv and the baby would be better off without him. Yet, the notion of walking out of their lives made him sick to his stomach.