Page 73 of Her Honorable Hero

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“We’re on Poway, now what?”Dalton demanded.

“Four lights, then a left,” Dex answered absently. He was looking over Griff’s shoulder at the drama playing out on the small phone screen.

“Beautiful,” Griff breathed out through gritted teeth. He only wished he’d had two vests at home. How had Miranda gotten Livvie to put up with that shit? His wife was brilliant.

“Griff, why are they headed to your patio door?” Dex asked. “Check your porch.”

He did. He didn’t like what he was seeing. Three big Eurasian men were standing on the porch. One started to pound on the door with his fist, he was yelling something. It was the first time Griff regretted being able to afford a property that was further back from the street with space between his neighbors.

The one pounding at the door, pointed at the other two, and they took off going on either side of the house.

“It’s not far to your neighbor’s backyard if they go out your backdoor,” Dex said as Heinrich followed Miranda to the sliding glass door. She pointed to the computer and asked a question. Heinrich grabbed her and then pushed her toward the door.

Dalton blew through a red light, oblivious to the horns honking. Dalton’s phone rang.

“Is that your piece of shit truck that just ran the red light?” Josiah Hale wanted to know.

Dalton glanced in his rear view mirror.

“Is that your NSX behind me?”

“No, it’s Liam’s. He wants to know what you have under your hood.”

“Quit with the chit chat, we’re three minutes from the house,” Griff ground out loudly. “We have one bad guy with a gun trained on my wife and baby inside the house. Three bogeys outside, one at the front door, two went to scout the perimeter on either side. Bad guy and Miranda are heading out the back door.”

“What else?” Josiah demanded.

They were coming up on Maple.

“Dalton, we need to slow down, your truck’s too loud.”

“I’m way ahead of you,” Dalton said to Griff, as he downshifted and took the vehicle down to a purr. “Where should I park?”

“Dalton, we’re going to go one more street down and actually take a right onto Evergreen. I want to get to the back of the yard.”

“Gotchya.”

“Josiah have Liam park two houses before my home, on Maple,” Griff said.

“Affirmative.” Josiah answered.

Griff watched as Miranda and Livvie and the piece-of-shit Heinrich stepped out of the patio door. Heinrich was hit from behind, not on the head, no the big man went for a kidney a hard kidney punch for maximum pain, and Heinrich went down like a sack of potatoes. Griff grinned ferally.

He then grabbed Miranda by the hair and yanked downwards so she went to her knees. Griff felt like he was falling off a cliff when he saw the man pull out a sub-machine gun from his jacket. He jammed it into her side, right next to Livvie. He whispered into Miranda’s ear. She nodded, and nodded again, clutching a crying Livvie to her bosom. He saw the tears streaming down his wife’s face.

He needed to get to her. Another man came up beside her. He had a gun trained on her too. Griff swept right twice on the app and saw that the first guy was still on the porch, now he had a phone to his ear. But then he took a leap off the porch, and went to hide behind the big agave and other succulent plants that grew to the right of the of the house’s exterior. Fat lot of good it did, since there was a huge Escalade in the front driveway, it was a bit of a giveaway.

“Josiah, bogey to the right of the porch. Just pulled a sub-machine gun. Bizon. Fucker looks like he’s one of the Gurkha mercs we’ve been hearing about. Watch yourself.”

“On it,” Liam said.

“What in the hell is Miranda working on?” Josiah asked.

“Top Secret, with DOD. I know she’s giving her findings to a general who’s presenting to the Joint Chiefs of Staff.”

Liam whistled.