Page 99 of Ultimate Justice

When Blue snorted and scrambled to his feet, Evan let out the unsteady breath he’d been holding. His dog was okay.

“Evan!” Marlie rushed over as Evan rose unsteadily. “Are you all right?”

Noah knelt, holding open his arms. “Blue! I knew you’d come!” Blue made whimpering sounds as he frantically licked Noah’s face.

“I’m okay.” He retrieved Manello’s gun and stuck it in the back of his waistband. Blood seeped from a hole next to his left ear. The snow beneath the other side of his head quickly turned red, melting from the heat of the man’s blood and cranial matter that had gushed from the exit wound.

He put two fingers to Manello’s carotid. Nothing, not even a light thump. Reality crashed over him, draining the adrenaline in his system faster than water from a sieve.

He’d just killed the one person in the world who knew exactly what happened to his sister. Then again, Manello may have done the dirty work, but someone else knew. Of that he was certain.

Evan turned to Marlie and Noah, assessing them for outward signs of injury and finding none. Except for the blossoming red mark on Marlie’s cheek that sure looked like she’d been hit. He ground his jaw, willing his next words not to fly from his mouth on a wave of anger because he should have gotten here sooner. So he could have smashed his own fist into Manello’s jaw. “Is everyone all right?”

“We’re fine. We’re fine,” Marlie repeated, as if not quite believing it herself.

Noah lifted his head and was instantly rewarded with a lick to the mouth. “Yuck.” He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “Took you guys long enough.”

“Yeah.” Helicopter crash and all. Now wasn’t the time to get into it. “Sorry about that.”

Noah pointed to Manello’s body. “Are those his brains leaking out?”

Evan choked down a laugh. After facing incalculable danger and imminent death with the courage of a Navy SEAL, Noah had reverted to exactly what he was: a kid.

“Evan.” Marlie blinked, her lovely eyes bluer against the backdrop of her pale complexion and the white flakes landing on her hair and cheeks. “You came.”

Again, he forced the rage inside him to stand down. Manello had laid hands on her. If he hadn’t already killed the man, he’d do it again. So many emotions rolled through him, so many unsaid words that should have been said before he’d let her walk away.

The radio crackled, startling him and preventing him from baring his heart and soul right then and there. “Evan, you there?” came Deck’s voice.

He yanked the radio from his belt. “Ten-four. I found Marlie and Noah. They’re okay. Did you find anyone else?”

“Uh, yeah. You’d better get back here. We’ve got a situation.”

By the time they hoofed it back to the mausoleum, the wind had strengthened, whipping and twisting the inch or so of snow that had fallen into snow devils. Deck and Thor waited for them by the road. Brett and Blaze stood next to a SWAT sergeant guarding the front door.

“You’re not gonna believe this,” Deck said. It wasn’t the words his friend used, so much as the thoroughly disturbed look on his face that set off alarm bells in Evan’s head. “Six adults and lots of kids. About twenty of them, ages from twelve to eighteen, plus one seriously bawling baby. Some of those kids are definitely on the board in the war room, but here’s the problem.” Deck arched a brow. “The adults are surrounded by the kids. They’re using them as human shields, and we can’t get to them. They’re refusing to come with us.”

Evan’s stomach went harder than a rock. He’d seen this before with kidnapped children. If too much time went by, they started to love their captors, or at least rely on them to the point that leaving them was worse. “It won’t be easy, but somehow, we’ve gotta separate them. Marlie, take Noah to the truck and stay there.” He pointed to the produce truck he’d commandeered, his mind already spinning with possible approaches he could make to sway the kids into leaving without creating a giant shitstorm that would put them in danger.

“Wait!” Noah grabbed his arm. “Let me talk to them. I almost convinced some of them to leave with me when I escaped. The others will never leave because they don’t understand they’ve been lied to, and that this whole place is a lie. They know me. I can help.”

What he was saying made sense. Hearing the ugly truth from one of their peers would carry more weight than hearing it from a bunch of badge-carrying cops they’d never seen before. Some of them had probably even had run-ins with the police, which wouldn’t help matters. Even surrounded by a battalion of cops, taking Noah in there could still put him in danger. Marlie was his legal guardian. The decision was hers to make.

“C’mon, Evan,” Noah said. “I know I can help, and if Caleb’s in there with them, I know he’ll help, too.”

In a protective gesture, Marlie draped an arm around Noah’s shoulders. “Okay, but I’m coming with you.”

“No.” Evan began shaking his head. Hell no. Putting Noah in another potentially dangerous situation was bad enough. He wouldn’t do it again to Marlie, too.

“Don’t you shake your head at me.” She waggled a finger at his face. “Counseling kids is my specialty. It’s what I do, so give me a chance to do it. Where he goes”—she looked at Noah—“I go. That’s the deal. Take it or leave it.”

As it had when he’d seen Manello’s gun aimed at her back, fear raced through his veins like an evil drug. Dragging her into this less than ten minutes after she’d nearly been shot in the back… He didn’t know if his heart could take seeing her in danger again, but she was right, and they both knew it. He took an unsteady breath. “Let’s go.”

At the front door, Brett stopped him. “Evelyn and Adama are here.”

Hearing their names made him grind his teeth. “I know.”

Brett frowned. “How did you know that?” Brett’s frown turned to one of shock as he raised his brows. “You know who they are?”