Chapter Twenty-One
Jaxson
I climbed the trellis of ivy up the side of the compound.
We had to move quickly.
Lincoln was already upstairs, staking out the place, making sure we were clear.
Gunfire erupted as I breached the window and threw myself inside. I couldn’t shoot. I could barely cover myself as I flung my body through the small space.
Lincoln covered me.
Two men of DeLuca’s lay in a pool of their own blood, dead.
“We need to move,” Lincoln said.
I leaped to my feet, gun poised and ready to go. The tactical gear weighed us down and had made it a little more uncomfortable to climb the ivy and whisk me in through the window.
“On it,” I answered. I followed behind Lincoln as he had already scoped out the room and made sure it was safe where we’d entered.
Together, we exited the small bedroom and flanked into the hallway.
“Upstairs!” a gruff voice shouted.
Several pairs of boots trampled up the steps in haste.
“Reinforcements,” I muttered under my breath to Lincoln.
We positioned ourselves around the edge of the banister, careful not to be seen. As DeLuca’s men tore up the stairs, shooting blindly, we landed shot after shot at their heads for a kill shot.
We didn’t come to take prisoners. We were here on a search and recovery mission.
Anyone standing in our way was the enemy.
The compound was at least two stories. I suspected there also might have been a basement. The girls could have been kept anywhere.
Room to room, we searched the premises, just the two of us. The majority of the rooms upstairs were empty.
Additional gunshots erupted outside.
“We need to move,” I said. We had to hurry. It wouldn’t be long until more men tore up the stairs looking for us. We’d shot down the half-dozen soldiers who had come for retribution.
Lincoln opened door after door, and I went with him, gun drawn, prepared to take out anyone who stood in our way of finding our family.
Yanking the door open, I stared at Izzie as she sat at a child’s table with Skylar and a teen girl having a tea party.
“Daddy!” Izzie shouted. She leaped out of her chair. The tiny wooden seat fell to the floor as she rushed across the room.
“Don’t move,” DeLuca’s voice echoed from behind.
I heard the click of the safety being turned off as I felt the barrel of the gun at the back of my head.