“It’s too late. We’re in this now, and we’re not going home.”
“What does that mean?”
“Just what I said. We won’t be going home from here. Once those in charge have their say in front of a billion Americans, we’re going to scatter to the winds. I won’t be going back to Grizzly Pass. And you’re coming with me.”
“Okay.”
He squeezed her arm tighter. “Okay? Why the big turnaround now? Have a change of heart? Afraid of me at last?”
“I’ll go with you. But I have one condition,” Sierra said. This might be her only angle to get the terrorists to release the children. She had to play the card she’d been dealt.
“You’re not in a position to demand conditions,” he said.
“If you don’t grant my condition, I won’t go with you willingly. If you grant it, I will go with you and cause you no trouble.”
His eyes narrowed in the slits of the mask. “What condition?”
“Release the children.”
“No way. They’re a bargaining chip.”
“You have the biggest bargaining chip with the vice president of the United States. What more do you need? He draws more attention to the media than a handful of kids who will be screaming again as soon as they get hungry or have to go to the bathroom.”
“Why should I trust you?” he said. “How do I know you won’t go back on your word?”
“I’m not the one who lied and cheated in our relationship.”
“You lied when you said until death do us part.”
“I didn’t lie. I was no longer married to the same man. He died somewhere in the past eight years. Whereas you lied when you said you’d love, honor and cherish me. What part of beating your wife is cherishing?”
His lips pulled back in a snarl. “If you weren’t so damned mouthy...”
“It didn’t matter if I talked or was mute. You hit me. And if I go with you again, you’ll hit me again.”
His eyes narrowed again. “So why would you promise to go with me, then?”
Sierra pushed back her shoulders and lifted her chin. “Because I care more for those children than I do for myself. They’re just starting their lives. They deserve a chance to live them.”
“I’m not in charge. I can’t promise anything. But if it means you’ll come with me without an argument, it might just be worth it.” He shoved her back toward the women and children. “For now, sit down and shut up.”
Sierra did as she was told, sinking onto the floor beside Brenda.
Clay walked back up to the exit. “I’ll be right back.”
“Yeah. That’s right. Leave me with all of these hostages. At least give me enough bullets to take care of all of them.”
Clay pulled a thirty-round curved magazine from a strap on his vest and tossed it to the man standing guard over the vice president. “Shoot them if they give you any trouble.”
The man sneered. “Even your wife?”
Clay shot a killer glance at Sierra. “Especially my wife.” Then he left the room, closing the door behind him.
If Sierra hoped to get out of the situation, she had to come up with a plan. She had no intention of going with Clay Ellis anywhere. The man was on a one-way path to hell, and he could damn well get there by himself. But she had the children to think of. If she could negotiate their release, she’d tell the devil anything he wanted to hear.
Chapter Fourteen
Thankfully, the Black Hawk waiting at the fairgrounds was large enough to carry the entire Safe Haven team and their weapons to Yellowstone National Park. The state police, county sheriff’s department and the National Guard had been alerted and were on their way. Some of the county sheriff’s deputies were there, herding tourists out of harm’s way.
Garner was on the radio with Hack and the county sheriff the entire way there, keeping apprised of the situation. As they approached a field close to the Old Faithful Visitor Education Center, Garner turned to the others.
“There are approximately twenty heavily armed Free America members at the visitors center. Ten inside and ten outside.” Garner stared at the four men. “Since they don’t have a SWAT team available or on-site, I’ve asked if they would like for our highly trained combat team to be the ones to go in and neutralize the situation. Right now, they have a hostage negotiator working with the FA people.”
“What do they want?”
“They want to make a big splash in the news. They’ve asked for news teams from the big networks. When they’re done making their speech, they want helicopters to take them to the border of US and Canada. Only then will they release the hostages.”
“Seventeen unarmed hostages and twenty bad guys armed to the teeth?” T-Rex shook his head. “Even they can’t be serious. That’s a transportation nightmare. And Canada will refuse to allow them in. They have to know they are on a suicide mission.”
Garner’s lips pressed into a thin line. “My bet is they’ll wait until the news teams are in place and then they’ll make their big announcement and martyr themselves and their captives.”
“Should we wait and see if they can negotiate the release of the hostages?” Caveman asked. “We’re not in the Middle East. If we go storming in, there could be civilian casualties.”
Garner nodded. “If we go in, we have to go in stealth mode. We can’t go in shooting from the hip and raising hell.” He touched his headset. “Hold on. Hack’s talking.”
He bent his head and cupped his hand over his headset, nodding as he listened. When he glanced up, he smiled. “They’ve released eight children.”
“Was that all of the kids?”
“The park rangers seem to think they were all part of a ranger-led group. There were eight children, six women and a ranger in the group.”
T-Rex leaned forward. “Did they release any of the women?”
Garner nodded again. “Two women, identified as mothers, were released with the children. They kept four of the women, the ranger, vice president and Grady Morris.” His gaze captured T-Rex’s. “They said they’d start shooting captives if they don’t get those news crews in the next fifteen minutes. They’ll start with the women.”
T-Rex cursed and willed the helicopter to land faster. He understood the need to touch down out of range of the terrorists and potential rocket-propelled grenades. The Wyoming National Guard wouldn’t want to risk losing another expensive helicopter through careless mistakes. But damn. Could they put the craft on the ground already?
His hand on the release clips of his harness, T-Rex counted the seconds until the helicopter skids kissed the dirt. He unclipped his harness, shucked his headset and jumped to the ground.
“T-Rex.” Garner was right behind him with a hand on his arm. “You can’t go charging in without assessing the situation and coming up with a plan.”
“We can’t wait until they start shooting the hostages.”
“We have at least ten minutes before that happens. Ten minutes to get in and rescue them.” Garner’s hand tightened on T-Rex’s arm. “We don’t want to make them nervous and start shooting hostages sooner.”
T-Rex drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. Garner was right. “I won’t let them kill Sierra.”
“Or the vice president,” Ghost added. “We don’t want any of those people shot. We need to study the situation and come up with a plan.”
His teeth grinding together, his jaw tight, T-Rex nodded. His teammates were right. “Time’s running out. Let’s get somewhere we can see what’s going on.”
The team grabbed the rifles Garner had packed into the duffel bag, checked the full magazines and slipped into the protective vests Garner had included. The rifles were equipped with silencers, which would come in handy if they wanted to take out certain bad guys and not alert the others. They were also given radio headsets for communication among the team members.
Meanwhile, Garner coordinated with the law enforcement team currently positioned in the parking lot. He informed them they would be swinging around from the side and to hold their fire.
“I’m having the law enforcement crew clear the parking lot. The helicopter pilot will move closer, providing a distraction while we move in from behind.”
The team moved through the trees surrounding the visitors center on two sides. When they were close enough, T-Rex took the lead and crossed to one of the outer buildings separate from the larger main building.
“There’s a man in the prone position on each corner of this end of the building.”
“Can you sneak up on them?”
T-Rex studied all angles. He’d have to cross an area that would leave him exposed and alert the guards. He wouldn’t make it without being seen. “I don’t think so. If I step out now, they’ll see me and open fire.”
“That will alert the rest of them, and they might start shooting prisoners,” Ghost said.
At that moment, three bison wandered past close to his position, heading toward the main building.
“Wait,” T-Rex said. “I have an idea.” He slipped the sling of his weapon over his shoulder and waited until the second bison was within five feet of him. Then he ran to get on the opposite side of the animal, hunkered low and walked with the big beast to the edge of the building, past the enemy guard on the corner. Once past the man, he left the bison and ran for the side of the building, hugging the shadows.