Disavowed(69)

He found Briar hunkered below the large window on the east side of the room. She’d pulled the drapes back a few inches and eased the blinds up a fraction to see outside. He pressed up against the wall on the other side of the window while she did a visual sweep.

“I can see ski tracks leading around to this side from the trees out beyond the backyard.” She eased back and they both paused there in the darkness, listening. There was no further sound from outside, but that didn’t mean that whoever had been here was gone. Briar’s breathing was slow and steady as they waited.

Matt didn’t like this, not one bit, even though he knew they couldn’t just sit back and let someone attack if that’s what they were planning. They had to go out and make sure there was no threat, and eliminate it if there was. He knew Briar could absolutely handle herself tactically, but he didn’t want her to have to. That primal part of his brain that he couldn’t shut off wanted her hidden upstairs with Zahra, as far away from this new threat as he could get her.

He also knew that if he pushed her on this, he risked having her pull away from him, maybe even losing her.

Fuck.

“I’m going out to check. I’ll take the right side,” she whispered, carefully unlocking the window. “You take the left.” She slid it open a few inches, letting in a wave of cold, dry air, and waited. When nothing happened she pushed it open a little more, waited again. Still nothing.

“West side is clear,” Rycroft said quietly as he came in from the kitchen. “I’ll take lookout from Zahra’s room.”

“Ready?” Briar asked Matt.

Since he had little choice in the matter he nodded and she eased the blinds up slowly, silently, until she had enough room to slip out. With her rifle in hand, her profile illuminated by the sliver moon hanging above the tall evergreen trees, she eased up enough to put a hand on the windowsill then paused again.

No sounds from outside, no movement and thank God no shots.

She swung one leg up, gripping the window ledge for support, shifting at the last second. Her booted foot had just cleared the frame when a bullet buried itself in the wall where her head had been an instant before.





Chapter Eighteen





Briar jerked back but Matt had already grabbed the back of her jacket to yank her inside.

Son of a bitch almost got me.

She stumbled and caught herself against the wall, quickly regaining her footing and putting the butt of the rifle to her shoulder. Her pulse throbbed in her ears as she ducked low and slammed the window shut, sneaking another peek through the edge of the blinds.

The threat was real. Now to determine how many tangos were out there, eliminate or capture them.

The riflescope afforded her a crystal clear view of the hillside. She couldn’t see any movement outside, but that shot had definitely come from south of where the ski tracks had stopped.

“You see him?” Alex called out from upstairs.

“Negative. Shot came from our two o’clock,” she answered. The shooter was likely moving to another position now. “You?”

“Negative. Moving to the master bedroom now.”

They needed another set of eyes up there. “Be right back,” she said to Matt. Without waiting for a response she sprinted upstairs to take up position in the guest bathroom, being as quiet as she could.

She knew the layout of the house and the surrounding area by heart because she’d memorized it on arrival. It was something she did everywhere she went, so ingrained she didn’t even have to think about it. There were three possible escape routes the shooter could take away from the house. They had to seal them all off.

“Are you okay?”

She turned her head to find Zahra peering at her with wide eyes from the partially open doorway of her room across the hall. “Yeah, I’m good. Just stay there, shut the door and don’t come out until we tell you.” She didn’t want Zahra or either of the others getting hurt because of her.

“You got a visual yet?” she called to Alex.

“Nope. My side’s clear. I’ll head back down, check the front again.”

In the guest bath she stood to the side of the window and eased the blind aside enough for her to get a clear, bird’s eye view through her scope. The ski tracks definitely broke off partway between the house and the nearest group of trees to the north, but even from this vantage point she couldn’t see where the tracks led because of the undulating topography. The shooter had used that benefit to their advantage. That told her the tango had training, and it upped the threat level against them all.

Lowering her rifle she stepped back and charged downstairs, careful to keep away from the other windows even though the blinds were still closed. Matt hadn’t moved from his spot beside the long window, his back to the wall. He was a big, lethal shadow there in the corner, poised to react to any further threat.