Page 79 of Holiday Hostage
Maverick rolled his head from side to side, then raised and lowered his shoulders. “It’s nothing.”
At my scoff, the hint of a smile broke free. “Nothing I can see or hear. Just a feeling.”
“Gut instinct.” Reed patted his stomach. “Like how animals sense a storm and go into hiding.”
The bite of eggs I’d taken turned to ash in my mouth.
I knew exactly what they meant.
I’d felt it in the instant before Jack took me hostage.
A wrongness tinged the air, turning it acrid and bitter.
My mouth burned, and I took a great gulp of air to ease the queasiness in my stomach.
All four men stood at the same time, bodies poised with hands on guns.
Even Tucker had a pistol strapped to his waist.
“Get down.” Maverick put a hand on my head and shoved me toward the floor.
Reed did the same thing to his father, attempting to push him beneath the table.
Glass shattered.
The entire front window blew inward, sending glass shards in every direction.
I screamed and ducked while trying to cover my face as shards whistled through the air and fell to the floor with a sharp, tinkling sound.
The air outside was still, but the sudden loss of protection allowed the frigid temperature to funnel into the room.
I gasped with the shock of it and dropped my arms to hug my ribs.
Every man around me drew his weapon.
A moment of envy curled through me.
I should have asked them to teach me how to shoot.
It was the one skill that might have saved me from the evil of men.
23
MAVERICK
I grabbed Payton and hauled her to my side, cupping my hand over the back of her head to shield her from the last of the flying glass fragments.
“How the hell did they find us? The storm should have held them back and covered our tracks.”
Reed shifted forward, gun at the ready, and shot me a perturbed look.
“Jack probably remembered me mentioning this place during one of our missions. It’s not like I kept it a secret from our team.”
Regret carved deep lines in his forehead. “I thought about it the other day, but hoped he had forgotten. Not like the bastard paid any attention when it mattered.”
But he’d overheard one of Reed’s hunting stories and had remembered the exact location of the hunting cabin.
Sounded just like Jack.
