Page 7 of Own

Lunchbox was already at the top of the steps as I rounded the corner. Voodoo appeared right behind him. “How many?” Voodoo asked as he checked his weapon.

“At least one full five-man team, and a backup.” I passed them my phone. I’d tied security through it. “They have the gate cams looped. Swipe right, you’ll see the street cam.”

“Got it.” Voodoo eyed it. “Two vehicles. Four motorbikes. Five man team on point and another in reserve. They have a couple keeping watch on the gates.”

He cut his gaze up to me then Lunchbox. We had options. The bigger question was how did we want to do this? We’d known an attack would come, it was only a matter of time. Grace not being in the househelped.I wasn’t a fan of her being where I couldn’t see her during this, but she also wasn’t right in the middle either.

“Bones is going to be pissed,” Lunchbox said, though his wry tone shrugged off any actual emotional weight for the sentiment.

“Luck of the draw,” Voodoo said as he passed my phone back to me. “Third team just arrived, probably for the scoop.”

“I’m starting to think these guys don’t want to take no for an answer.” Lunchbox pressed a hand to his chest. ”It’s almost touching.”

“Well, Lieutenant,” I said as I scanned the screens one last time before tucking it away. “Sixty seconds. What’s our play?”

“Well, they’re knocking, and it would be downright rude to keep them waiting.” Voodoo pursed his lips before he glanced at Goblin.

“Rude can be fun under the right circumstances.” The observation from Lunchbox made me grin.

“So can taking them up on it.” Which was where I leaned at the moment. Frankly, Gallo had information we could use. Getting it out of him wasn’t even that challenging, save for the fact he didn’t seem to really understand what he actually knew. Irritating, rich dick.

A little pop of breaking glass had Voodoo moving as a canister landed on the foyer’s tile floor. He picked it up and lobbed it right back out the broken window. The gas exploded out there, along with a lot of cursing.

“We’ll think about taking them up on their offer,” Voodoo said over his shoulder. “But they need to woo us first.”

“Woo?” Lunchbox snorted, but he raised his gun at a flash of movement from the rear of the house. I drew back a step with Goblin pressed right to my leg and out of sight. He fired three shots rapidly. Two in the chest and one in the head of the man trying to get through the glass door.

I shifted around the corner and fired at the next pair coming up. One in the knee, the other in the head, then back to the downed guy and shot him through the throat.

The spray of blood was going to be messy as hell.

Oh well, so sad.

Moving on.

“Woo,” I picked up the conversation. “Persuade. Seriously, we are not cheap dates. They definitely need to work for it.”

“Somehow,” Lunchbox said in a grimmer tone as the hiss of something burning around the front door carried. “I don’t think they’re that intous.”

No, I didn’t think he was wrong. They wanted Grace.

“Too fucking bad for them.” Voodoo deadpanned. “Let’s make a hole or we’re going to be here longer.”

Agreed.

After that, we didn’t need more words. There was a blast from upstairs. Their teams were hitting from all angles.

Smart.

By unspoken agreement, Lunchbox headed to the second floor while Voodoo and I took position in the hall that let us cover the front and back. “Cover,” I said as the hinges and lock blasted off the front door in rapid succession and it tumbled inwards from the shattered frame.

Goblin snarled next to me as the black garbed team stormed the door in two-by-two formation, alternating high and low. Solid tactics.

Dropping my hand for Goblin to get down, I dropped to one knee and fired. I had fourteen rounds left in the magazine. Despite the heavy garb, they weren’t wearing combat helmets.

Bad planning. I fired right through the head of one and into the midsection of the guy behind him. The vest took the hit, but the blood and brain spatter had them falling back a step. Another two bullets into the guy’s knee to bring him down and it created a chokepoint of bodies for them to have to get over.

Four bullets, two bodies. Ten in the mag. Another pair fought their way over and I spent the ammo to take both of them. Eight bullets, four bodies. Seemed a little pricey. Six in the mag.

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