“Hey! You heard anything from Clay or Benny in the past few minutes? I haven’t seen the shadows of either in a bit.”
Hollis froze, his toes barely touching the first step. No more than a couple of minutes had to have passed since they’d knocked out the first guard. These bastards weren’t supposed to have noticed yet. This wasn’t good.
“They probably snuck off some place to get fucking high again,” answered a different guard, proving that there were at least two of them. Hollis looked over his shoulder to find Rowe staring at the ceiling. He had one finger pointing up toward the front of the house, indicating the first guard, while his other hand was pointing toward the back of the house. But only the first guard was pacing. Was the second guard maybe stationed near a door? Possibly where they were keeping the kids?
“Benny, you stupid fuck,” snarled the first guard. “Put down the crack pipe and report in.”
Hollis held his breath and waited for Rowe to make a call. The damn guard had used the walkie-talkie to contact the exterior guard. Only thing—Rowe or Noah had confiscated that walkie-talkie. They had no idea the range of the damn things. If Benny didn’t report in, could the guard call in backup from the nearest city? They were running out of time and couldn’t risk these bastards calling in more help.
Before they’d left the safety of the overhang, Hollis had used the satellite phone that Rowe had brought along to call in their find to the state troopers as well as the cops he trusted in Cincinnati working the Jagger case. They’d pass the information along to the feds who’d been hounding Jagger for years. He knew police backup was on the way, but they had no clue as to how long it would take them to get there. They had to get the guards taken out and secured before more firearms arrived, risking the lives of any kids on the premises. Some idiot with an itchy trigger finger could get them all killed without intending to.
The guard swore again. “I’m going out to find those dumbasses. I’m going to send Kevin up to cover you. Don’t shoot the fat shit.”
Hollis and Rowe had barely enough time to scramble away from the stairs and back into the shadows before the foul-mouthed guard’s footsteps quickly approached. He thundered down, not caring how much noise he was making, swearing under his breath about the incompetent idiots he was forced to work with. Hollis hugged the wall, holding his breath while silently thanking whatever luck had finally shined on them that Benny was a true fuck-up. It hadn’t even occurred to the guard that they were under attack. No, Benny was just screwing up as usual.
The guard turned after descending the stairs, heading straight for the door and right past Hollis. He struck, slamming his elbow into the guy’s gut, knocking the wind out of his lungs and bending him forward. Throwing one arm around the man’s throat, he clasped his opposite biceps while putting pressure on the back of the man’s head at the same time. While Rowe had opted for the rear naked chokehold, he preferred the standing guillotine. Regardless, the result was the same. The person was silenced and knocked out in a matter of seconds.
Rowe stood in front of the guard, looking over Hollis’s hold before lifting his eyes up to Hollis. “Really? I’m surprised at you, cop. You could kill a guy that way,” he mocked in a low whisper.
Of course, Rowe was right. If you didn’t know what you were doing, if you locked in the move too hard and fast, you could too easily break a man’s neck with that move.
“Only if you don’t know what you’re doing,” he sneered.
Rowe smirked as he helped Hollis lay the man out on the floor. With the last of the tape, they covered his mouth and bound his arms behind his back. Once they had the guards taken care of, they would come back and better secure him. For now, they had to slow him down so he couldn’t sneak up on them while they were still working.
With a wide grin, Rowe led the way up the stairs, but this time he was making no attempt to be quiet. His heavy footsteps pounded on the stairs, the old wood loudly creaking under his weight. He wanted the other guard to think that he was Kevin or maybe even the guard who’d just descended. Hollis followed close behind, walking as silently as he could as he palmed his gun and raised it, ready to put a bullet between the man’s eyes if he even looked at Rowe funny. All this sneaking was getting on his last good nerve. He wanted these bastards taken care of so they could finally see if the risk was going to pay off. They’d still not heard a single sound that they couldn’t attribute to one of the guards. Hollis was beginning to fear that the only people in the entire schoolhouse were Jagger’s men. A nice find, but not what they wanted.