“That’s not possible,” Jenner snapped quickly.
“The land line is gone as well, and we seem to have a dead zone with cell service.”
“Inside!” Ian barked out the order. “Now!”
I swatted Drake’s arm. “Run up to your boyfriend’s room, kid, and bring him downstairs to the first floor.”
He bolted, and I turned and fisted my hand in the front of Ian’s sweater.
“Right behind you,” he promised, giving me a trace of a smile before I let go and sprinted toward the house.
“Everybody inside!” Ian shouted. “Take cover now!”
Gilman was hurled backward as I ran by him, dead before he hit the ground.
How much clearer was Ian supposed to be?
Breen died beside his car, Fann died in front of it; both of them shot in the head. I shouted at Colby to run, but he was frozen where he stood. He died seconds later.
Jenner’s man who had come from the house was running beside me but went down, hit in the back. The caliber on the bullets had to be huge—the blood spray was big. After diving toward the stairs with Ian beside me, we scrambled up and onto the porch.
“If there are any guns here,” Ian yelled at the men taking cover on the porch. “You need to get them!”
A man opened his mouth to say something but dropped to the ground, sliding down the exposed log wall leaving a trail of blood on all the rounded joints.
“Shit,” Ian roared, shoving me inside the open front door and down onto the polished wooden floor. I was pinned under him, his lips against my ear. “Do not get up. I’ll go get the boys and bring them here. We gotta get out of this house.”
“But we’re safe in the house,” I argued.
“We’re so not safe in the house, M,” he assured me. “It’s gonna be torched.”
I didn’t question him, just stayed where I was as he rose and moved in a crouching run toward the kitchen.
Outside, people were shouting, and suddenly Holley and Jenner flew through the front door.
“I need these cuffs off him!” Holley yelled at me.
Clambering over to them, I used Ian’s spare key that I had on the ring with mine and got the cuffs off. Another man was hit outside the doorway, and arterial spray splattered the window when he was shot in the throat.
“What the hell is going on?” Jenner screamed, terrified and unhinged.
“You removed a federal witness,” I answered flatly as he and Holley joined me low on the floor. “When you did, you made what was invisible, visible. Orson Malloy sent a sniper and God knows who else to kill Drake Ford. This is all on you.”
Holley turned to me, his eyes frantic with fear.
“They have us pinned down, we can’t call out since they’re using some kind of jammer, we’re too far back from the road for anyone to notice anything amiss, and they’ve already cut the power and the landline.” I looked at Jenner. “Do you have guns here?”
“I have a couple of hunting rifles and a shotgun, but nothing high-powered or semiautomatic.”
“Okay,” I said as Ian and the boys ran into the room and dived down onto the floor beside us as an explosion rocked the house.
“What the hell was that?” Jenner cried out.
“That was an RPG,” Ian answered, rolling onto his back so he could talk. “You have your bag, Cabot?”
“Yessir.”
“Okay. Now I need you to grab three more, hiking packs if you have any, but if not, whatever. I need bottled water, rope, a box of matches, any pairs of snow boots in the house, the heaviest jackets and gloves you and your father have, the sharpest knife you got, a hatchet, a tarp or tent, and as many flashlights as you can find.”
“We have a flare gun.”
“I’ll take that as well as any road flares, the rifles, and all the ammunition you have.”
“Okay,” he said but didn’t move, looking to Drake.
“Drake, help him and do it as fast as you can.”
“Yessir. Let’s go,” Drake prompted Cabot.
They crawled quickly from the great room to the kitchen and then when they got there, stood up and ran.
“What are you doing?” Holley asked Ian.
He looked Holley directly in the eye, his voice dropping low. “They’re gonna come in soon, from the road because that’s the point of origin on all the fire we’re taking, and when they do, we’re dead. So the six of us are going out the back and up and over that hill.”
“You’re nuts!” Jenner yelled loudly, sounding horrified at the suggestion. “It’s a lot rougher climb than it looks, Marshal. Those hills are covered in thick brush and loose rock and streams and it’s going to be dark in another half an hour, so—”
“It beats being shot with a rocket-propelled grenade,” Holley apprised him. “These men are trying to kill us, Jenner!”