Page 114 of Night Hawk
The guard spun, lifting his gun.
“Drop it!” Clay warned. “Don’t end up dead like your buddy.”
At least Clay hoped the guard had taken the bullet and not Trent.
The beefy man slowly lowered his rifle to the porch.
“Hands on the wall above your head,” Toni snapped.
He turned and planted his hands on the rough siding. Clay moved slowly forward, keeping his gaze pinned on the man should he go for another gun. He didn’t move.
“Cuffs are on my belt,” Clay told Toni, not bothering to be quiet as the gunshot had alerted whoever was in the house to their presence.
She took them and jerked the guy’s arms down to cuff him. She searched him and recovered a handgun from a waist holster.
Clay let out a slow, silent breath. They’d gotten this far unharmed.
“Sit,” he commanded.
The guy dropped to the floor.
Toni looked Clay in the eye. “I’m going in for Ursula and my niece.”
28
Toni moved past the guard. He was the one who’d taken Rachel. Toni had to fight the urge to kick him after the way he’d treated Rachel and the other girls, but she held her anger. He would go away for a long time, and that punishment would have to be good enough.
She glanced into the window, seeing Ursula on the couch in the front room with one arm around Rachel and a gun to the child’s head.
Toni would have to negotiate with the crazed woman, but how? She wouldn’t know until she started talking to her. Toni eased open the door. She didn’t hear anyone moving inside, but assumed Trent had breached the back door. For all they knew, he’d been shot. Meant she needed to be prepared to face the other guard.
She turned the knob. Found it unlocked. She pushed the door in and darted away from the opening in case Ursula or the guard fired.
No bullet.
She waited a few seconds and took a quick look inside, stifling the cough trying to work its way out of her body. She spotted Ursula, still on a sofa with the gun pressed against Rachel’s head, before Toni jerked back. Poor Rachel was terrified.
“Come in, Agent Long,” Ursula said. “But leave your gun in the hallway.”
Toni didn’t want to enter unarmed. It was a foolish move and one law enforcement officers were trained never to make.
“Do as I say.” Ursula’s irritated voice came from the room. “I’ll let the child go if you do. You’ll work far better as a hostage.”
Toni wasn’t falling for that. She didn’t believe Ursula would let Rachel go under any circumstances. But Toni could never leave a child to fend for herself. She set her gun on the floor, going against everything she was trained to do, and stepped into the room with her hands raised.
“Now, that’s a smart woman,” Ursula said. “Isn’t she smart, Rachel? She listened to me.”
Toni took a quick look around the room. Searching for something. Anything she could use against Ursula. Nothing but a club chair, a wood coffee table, and an end table holding a yellow glass lamp. There was an arched opening behind the blue velvet couch, and she had to watch for someone to approach from that direction, but her gaze locked on poor Rachel, her hands clasped in her lap, her eyes wide and terror-filled.
“It’s okay, Rachel.” Toni cleared her throat to try to make her raspy voice sound more normal. “I’m here to free you.”
Ursula scoffed. “Like you have any way to do that.”
“I’ll serve as your hostage,” Toni said. “Let the girl go.”
Ursula’s red-lacquered lips slid into a slimy smile. “Did I say I would do that? I must’ve been mistaken. Take a seat in the chair, Agent Long.”
“I’ll stand.” Toni needed to exert some control here. “With the sheriff and his deputies outside, how exactly do you plan to get away?”
