Page 54 of The Cabin-A Reverse Harem Romance
“Okay, let’s hit it, boys,” I said.
Sean went first, moving rapidly through the tree line, heading for the back of the cabin. I cut a glance over and saw Nolan moving stealthily toward the back where Sean would meet him. Nolan was the one I trusted with the recon, and though he was plenty tough, and more than capable in his own right, Trevor was the one I trusted to have at my side in a physical confrontation the most. He just had an attitude and a swagger, not to mention a mean streak and physicality that neither Sean nor Nolan had.
Trevor could just be straight up mean when we were in the shit, and at that moment, that was what we needed. We needed somebody who wasn’t afraid to mix it up, even if mixing it up meant shedding a little blood in the process. We picked our way through the snow and approached the front of the house as quietly as we could. With every step we took though, the silence that enveloped us seemed that much more foreboding, making the snow crunching beneath our boots sound so much louder. We had to have sounded like a herd of elephants stampeding through the snow. But it appeared that we made it across the yard without any alarms from inside being raised.
We reached the porch and I took the lead, quietly ascending the small staircase that led to the front door. I cringed and stopped moving when the wooden stair beneath my foot let out a groan that sounded impossibly loud. I hunched down a bit, waiting for the front door to open, ready to launch myself the moment I saw Brad’s face.
Trevor waited at the foot of the stairs, his body tense, ready to bound up the steps and into Brad as well. We waited for a long moment, but when we heard nothing – not even movement inside – we gave each other a nod and mounted the rest of the steps.
We reached the front door without incident and took positions on either side of it. I looked down at the door, and judging the busted handle and splintered wood, it looked like Brad had forced the door open. “Looks like the right place,” Trevor said, pitching his voice low.
I nodded. “I’d say so.”
“Could be something on the other side bracing it closed,” Trevor whispered.
“Probably is,” I whispered back.
“Gotta hit it real hard just in case,” he said. I nodded. “Let’s do it then.”
We both took a step back and lined up side-by-side. I gave him the hand signal that I was counting down from three, same was we used to do it back in the Army and were busting into somebody’s place to root out the bad guys.
I counted down, and when I hit one, Trevor and I launched ourselves forward with all of our might. We hit the door like NFL linemen coming off the ball, powering ourselves over the threshold.
Much to our dismay though, what was on the other side of the door was not a bookcase, couch, refrigerator, or anything else that was all that heavy. The rocking chair behind the door went flying across the room as we blasted it inward, stumbling over ourselves in the process. We went down in a heap, grunting as we slammed ourselves to the floor.
“What the fuck?”
It was Brad’s voice. I disentangled my legs from Trevor’s, both of us rushing to get back on our feet. I’d just gotten on mine, when I caught a baseball bat to the gut. The pain was sharp and instant, and the air all left my body in one fast whoosh. I doubled over, clutching my belly. Cutting a glance up, I saw Brad raising the bat again, ready to bring it down on my head. Before he could do just that, I saw Trevor enter my field of vision, knocking Brad over with a full body tackle.
I gasped and wheezed, trying to catch my air again, when I heard the sound of the back door crashing inward. I caught a glimpse of Elise bounding down the stairs, her eyes wide, a look of absolute fear on her face, blended with a healthy dose of relief. Sean and Nolan were at her side in a heartbeat though, moving her to the far corner of the room, and positioning themselves between her and Brad.
I got back to my feet, my legs unsteady as hell, still sucking in air. Trevor was straddling Brad’s chest, holding him up by the front of his shirt, powering punch after punch into the man’s face. He was throwing fists with an expression of the darkest rage I’d ever seen on his face.
Brad’s face was bloody, his eye already swollen shut. I wasn’t even sure he was actually still conscious at that point, so I stumbled over and caught Trevor’s fist before he delivered another blow. He rounded on me, fury in his eyes, and a snarl escaping his throat.
