Page 97 of Home Town Knight

“Negative. No fucking way.”

“Owen, listen to me.” I felt the angry scowl on my face. The wounds pulsing in my hand. The soul-deep determination rising up inside me. “That’s a Stillwater helicopter. We both know what they do. What they’vedoneto countless innocent people. I came to Hartley because I wanted to stop them. Maybe this is only one small piece of Stillwater, a few henchmen among many, but I amnotletting them load up that chopper and get away scot-free.”

Aiden leaned in. “She’s right. They need to go down.”

Owen knew it too. Still, for a split second, he hesitated. Then he let out a string of curses, the worst I’d ever heard from him. But he yanked off his vest and strapped it onto me instead, followed by his camo coat. He took his own handgun from his pack, checked it, and gave it to me. “I’m giving you my earpiece too.”

“I’ve got a backup.” Aiden unzipped a pocket in his coat, then fit the tiny device into my ear. “You’ll only be able to receive, not send, but it’s what we’ve got.”

Owen checked my makeshift gear, then nodded once. “I’ll go first, then Aiden. You stay behind him. You got it?”

We edged downhill between the trees. Gunshots were flying across the clearing. Bullets pinged off the metal hull of the helicopter. I heard River’s and Lynx’s voices through the comm. River had been trying to take out the chopper’s engines, but they were pinned on the other side of theclearing from us. Some of the Stillwater commandos were shooting from behind the helicopter.

Butwewere now on that side of the helicopter. We’d sneaked up on three of the Stillwater gunmen. Another one lay on the ground, already taken out by River or Lynx. I could see the faint shape of the pilot in the cockpit. The glass had to be bulletproof, because it was unscathed.

The pilot was hitting switches. The rotors turned.

Owen signaled silently to Aiden. They opened fire. Two of the Stillwater men went down. The third returned fire, retreating to the chopper. He jumped inside, where another Stillwater henchman had just started firing at us.

The two gunmen inside the helicopter fired in our direction. Then in Lynx and River’s.

I grabbed Owen’s arm. “The others must be in the bunker,” I said. “There’ll be at least a couple of commandos in there gathering the valuables.”

“Not for long.” Aiden pulled something from his gear. My eyes widened when I saw what it was. A grenade. “Cover me!” he shouted.

We moved along the tree line toward the bunker. River and Lynx continued to exchange fire with the gunmen inside the chopper.

“Genny, I’ll cover Aiden,” Owen said. “You watch my back.”

I turned around, putting my back to his. The forest was eerily still compared to the chaos in the clearing below. Owen fired his rifle. I swiveled my head, watching for movement in the opposite direction.

It came on my left. A commando veered out from behind a tree just a few feet away. I fired in rapid succession. One of my shots caught the man in the neck. He went down.

“You okay?” Owen shouted over his shoulder at me.

“Yes!” My entire being seemed to be vibrating, but I was okay.

“Fire in the hole,” Aiden said in the earpiece. I wasn’t able to see him, but I imagined him sprinting back toward us, the grenade already bouncing past the bunker door.

Owen pushed me against a tree trunk just as the grenade exploded with a percussiveboom.

I risked a glance back. Flames, smoke, and debris spewed out of the bunker.

In the clearing, the rotor blades had picked up speed, kicking up wind and dust. The chopper lifted off the ground.

Suddenly, Lynx burst from the trees, firing on the men in the chopper. One Stillwater gunman tumbled out headfirst. The other fell backward into the darkness of the cargo area. The chopper rose higher and higher above the concrete.

Then I saw River across the clearing with a sniper rifle. He lined up the shot. Lynx dove for cover.

The tail rotor exploded.

The chopper spun wildly. Crashed into the line of trees. There was a terrible screech of twisting metal. The engines sputtered and died.

Finally, the noise faded and the smoke cleared. My pulse was still loud in my ears. I gasped for breath, smelling gunpowder and burning chemicals.

Owen still had his arms around me. I rested my head against his chest. “Everyone make it out of that in one piece?” Owen asked on his mic. “I’ve got Aiden and Gen here with me.”

“Lynx and I are good,” River responded. “The Stillwater people though? I believe they’re in many pieces.”

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