Page 36 of Ozzie

The men are off their snowmobiles, checking the vehicles.

“Kid, get in the far back.” She opens the sliding door about an inch.

We all get into position. A minute later, the door opens, and before the man can say a word, Harding breaks his neck and pulls him into the van. While I’ve worked with her many times, I’ve never seen her kill someone in that manner.

She quickly disarms him and hands a gun to Lightning and a knife to me.

“You don’t want a weapon?” I ask.

She arches a brow. “You need it more than I do.”

“Hey, Art? Where are you?” a second man says as he approaches the van.

He leans in and sees us. Harding reaches to grab him, but he gets away.

“Over here! They’re over here!” he yells.

Two sets of footsteps crunch in the snow as they run in our direction.

The man’s back is to us as he’s waiting for his friends. Harding jumps out of the van, lands behind him, and kills him before he’s aware she’s there. But she doesn’t drop him. She uses him to shield her as the other two men approach.

Lightning moves to the edge of the door and aims the gun.

“Where’s the boy?” one of the men asks.

“Drop your weapons,” Harding tells them.

The men laugh. Then one reaches for his gun, but before his hand connects, Lightning fires. The man goes down. The second man reacts by grabbing his gun. He gets a shot off in our direction before Lightning fires, and he’s down. Harding drops the man she’s holding.

JB exits the van and vomits.

“We need to get out of here now,” Harding says.

CHAPTER 11

Piper

For the first time,I’m nervous as I walk into RHS. Whatever Jerry says will determine if I get to stay with Durango or have to defy him and stay with my friend. I really want to keep things as they are.

I sit down and get to work. Fortunately, there is a lot to catch up on that will keep me busy until my meeting with Jerry.

One advantage to working at RHS is that I have access to the master calendar. It’s where Reed keeps track of how long he expects the guys to be on assignment.

Well, I checked yesterday, and Ozzie’s scheduled return was today. But this morning, I checked again, and his return now says TBD, which means something has happened. Something unplanned. And while he’s trainedfor this and end dates get pushed out all the time for all sorts of reasons, I can’t help but worry.

I don’t bother asking Reed what’s going on because he won’t tell me. I found that out when I once asked why Durango’s return date had been extended. He assured me everything was fine but that he couldn’t give me any details.

My phone buzzes. My mom. It’s not unexpected that she might call, since she has called a handful of times over the last year. Every time, she says she hopes we can be a family again. And there is always a mention of how much John misses me.

But her timing now makes me wonder if she knows what’s going on with John. Or maybe Millie told her John shot me.

“Hey, Mom,” I answer.

“Piper, I’m so glad I caught you. I was going through some old photos and found the one when you blew out your sister’s birthday candle. Do you remember that?”

I laugh. I was six and didn’t like that the spotlight wasn’t on me, so I blew out her candle while everyone was still singing happy birthday. “I do. She was pretty mad at me about it.”

“Yeah, but she forgave you. Are you two still close?”

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