Page 184 of Protecting You

She’d taken the first bullet.

They’d decided to send her to the door because they figured Ghazi and his people wouldn’t fear a woman. They wouldn’t consider her a threat.

The sight of her corpse made it all feel very real.

She was dead.

A woman who’d worked with them, plotted with them, helped plan this whole thing.

Dead.

Don’t think about it.

Because though it was definitely the cop’s body lying there, Callan saw Peri. And Alyssa. And both of them.

Lifeless.

Not helping.

Forcing himself to focus, he crouch-walked to the space beneath the window. When he pushed up on the glass, it rose easily. The question was, how hard would it be to get past the plywood that’d been nailed to the inside?

He was about to find out.

Grant said, “He’s in position.”

Talking to Bartlett, since Callan couldn’t exactly speak. No idea who was on the other side.

A gasp came from inside, then a thump that had his stomach flipping.

Like a fist against flesh.

Then a door. A curse word.

“I told you to kill her.”

Ghazi.

“She knocked the gun away.” That was Benson.

“Take care of it… Whoa.”

A door slammed.

Callan was out of time.

He pressed against the plywood, and it gave, not enough for him to push all the way through. He squeezed into the gap.

The scene flashed like an image from a horror movie.

Ghazi wasn't there.

A man at a computer stayed focused on the screen as if nothing were going on behind him.

Benson had straddled Alyssa, who wasn’t fighting at all. The man was looking at something out of Callan’s line of sight.

He pushed on the board more. And saw… Peri.

His little girl was holding a gun, aimed at Benson. Eyes wide, terror-filled.

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