Page 101 of Adoring Delaney

I glanced in my rearview mirror and Clark already had his phone to his ear making the call. Thank God Dylan had come into work when he had, we needed all the help we could get.

After he was done explaining what we needed, he hung up and his phone beeped.

“Graveyard’s a grid with one main road leading up the center. Lowe is buried in the second block on the right. No cover. Not even a damn tree.”

“Can’t fan out. With no cover, there’d be crossfire,” my dad said.

He was right, if care was taken it could be done without one of us shooting in the direction of someone else, but in this case, none of us were in the right frame of mind to chance friendly fire.

“Without elevation can’t say for sure, but if it’s not uphill we could take her out from a hundred yards. Anything beyond that with the weapons we have would be too dangerous. We miscalculate bullet drop and there are others in the cemetery…” Uncle Levi trailed off.

He wouldn’t miscalculate, none of us would. However, if Dana moved a few inches in either direction after we’d taken the shot, we could miss her altogether and hit an innocent.

“We’re gonna play this by ear. If she doesn’t have the muzzle pressed against Delaney, I’m gonna rush her. She’ll swing around toward me and one of you can cover Laney.”

“That’s suicide, Carter,” my dad growled.

“No, it’s not. She won’t hit me. She’s emotional. She’ll be startled by my approach, her hands will shake, her heart rate will be out of control, she’ll shoot in my direction but she’ll miss.”

“Listen—”

“She won’t hit me,” I cut my dad off. “And you know it. You know her adrenaline will spike, she won’t know how to control it. She was aiming less than twenty-five yards away from Quinn and couldn’t hit her. Easy shot and she missed. I come at her wild, yelling, dodging, she’ll never fucking hit me.”

There was a growl from behind me and I knew it’d come from Jasper and I knew why. I was pleased as shit Dana had missed Quinn but the point was, she missed. And if I was hit, I’d gladly take a bullet or two for Laney. With Dana’s full attention on me, one of the guys could get to Delaney.

“One thing.” My jaw clenched again. “Whoever gets to Delaney, take care with the impact.”

“Fuck,” Jasper clipped. “There a reason that will be necessary?”

“Strong possibility.”

“Jesus Christ Almighty—”

Jasper’s tirade was cut off by my phone ringing.

“Yeah?”

“How close are you?”

“Two minutes.”

“You better make that one. Emergency is blowin’ up. Shots fired at the cemetery.”

Cold fury took over and the mud and muck cleared from my mind and I slipped into an all too familiar place.

I’d never wanted this day to come. I’d gone to great lengths to ensure it would never happen. For eight years I pushed Delaney away so she never saw this part of me. She’d never see the man I’d become.

All for nothing.

My veins filled with ice and gone was Delaney’s Carter.

Today she’d see Special Operator Lt. Lenox.

Today she meets the devil.

30

Ireally wished I’d paid more attention when my dad was teaching me how to shoot. I was more interested in learning how to aim and fire, not to mention gun safety, and hadn’t been paying much attention to lessons about the gun.

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