Jax ended the call after it went to voicemail for the fourth straight time. He thought it more than odd that Punky wouldn’t answer her phone when she knew what was at stake. He downshifted the sport sedan and surged up the hill toward the fly-in community, wondering what was waiting for him when he got there. Margaret’s call bothered him. Even more so after being unable to reach the NCIS special agent.
“Dammit!” He knew better than to let his frustration get the better of him, so he drew in one long, deep breath and held it while counting to four. By the time he exhaled, he had decided he wasn’t willing to return to the safe house without knowing why she wasn’t picking up.
He scooped up his phone and scrolled until he found the number for the NCIS Southwest Field Office. “Jax Woods for Camron Knowles,” he said when a receptionist answered the call.
“One moment, please.”
His call was placed on hold, and he seethed at the calming elevator music playing in the background as he waited to be connected with Punky’s supervisor. The music ended.
“He’s in the field,” the woman on the other end said. Jax almost blew a gasket. “Transferring you to his cell phone now.”
“Thank you,” he muttered, then took another calming breath.
The phone rang a few more times before a gruff voice answered, “This is Camron.”
“Camron, this is Jax Woods.”
“Yeah?”
He could hear something in Camron’s voice—Fear? Anger? — and he hesitated. “I’ve been working with Special Agent King on a case,” he said.
“Oh…”
The tone in his voice changed again, but Jax couldn’t quite pick up on it. “Yes, sir. I’ve been unable to reach her. And I was hoping—”
“She’s been shot, Jax.”
His heart rate spiked, and he felt his skin prickle with a dump of adrenaline. “Shot?”
“Her vest took most of the abuse, but there was some penetration. She’s going to be fine, but she’s banged up pretty bad.”
Jax rounded the bend in the road and reached the last switchback before getting to the safe house. He remembered Margaret warning him to call ahead. “Can you pass along a message for me? I recovered Lisa’s intelligence, but something is going on up here, and we’re increasing the threat level. Have her call me before she drives up—”
“She might not be going anywhere for a while,” Camron said. “Whoever shot her stole her car, but we’ve got an APB out on it and will track it down soon enough.”
“Her car?” Jax didn’t think an all-points bulletin was needed. He knew who had shot her and stolen her car, and he gasped when he crested the rise onto the straightaway in front of the fly-in community. “Shit!”
“Jax?”
“Send help,” he said, then pressed his foot to the floor and launched the Audi S3 straight at the Mopar muscle car.
Guo Kang had a choice to make. Two identical matte black Ford trucks rolled toward the gate from the other side, carrying the doctor and her daughter. He didn’t know where they were going and knew if he let them leave, he would no longer be able to control the situation. But if he forced the issue there at the gate, he would be outgunned and lose the engagement.
It’s now or never.
He unrolled the driver’s window, then quickly drew his pistol and leaned out to aim slightly above the lead truck’s headlights, targeting where he expected the driver. The gun barked when he squeezed the trigger, then he shifted aim to the passenger side and fired twice more. The lead truck skidded to a halt, and he shifted his aim back toward the driver’s side and emptied his magazine.
The truck’s doors opened and emptied operators on either side before the air over his head crackled with returning gunfire. He dropped the empty magazine and reached for a fresh one when movement out of the corner of his eye drew his attention to the left and down the road toward the interstate. He almost choked when he recognized the nose of a car pointed directly at him and accelerating rapidly.
He stomped on the gas, trying to lurch clear of the kamikaze attack, but he was a beat too late. The Audi sport sedan slammed into his left quarter panel and spun the Challenger almost one hundred and eighty degrees. The air bags deployed, and his head rang with the impact and sound of shattered glass and splintered carbon fiber, but he quickly shook himself free from his paralysis.
He yanked on the door handle and threw his shoulder into it, spilling out of the driver’s seat just as several rounds from the shooters in the pickup trucks plinked into the Challenger. He fell to the ground and rolled onto his back, spreading his legs wide and rising in a half crunch to aim his pistol toward the airfield where the rifle rounds were coming from. He sighted in on the passenger from the lead truck and squeezed the trigger.
Click.
In the chaos of the crash, he had forgotten to reload. He flopped back to the ground, found his spare magazine, then slipped it into the magazine well and released the slide to chamber a round. He craned his neck up and spotted a man racing toward the fence while firing his suppressed rifle at the Challenger.
The concrete on either side of Guo Kang splintered and flew into the air with the impact of dozens of high-velocity rounds. He squeezed off two more shots without taking aim, then rolled to his stomach and aimed at the Audi S3’s crumpled nose where he expected the driver to emerge. But the driver’s door was still closed.
He didn’t waste time savoring his small victory of stopping Tan Lily from leaving the compound. He was pinned down by an adversary with superior firepower, and he ignored the rounds impacting around him to push himself upright and improve his fighting position.
Move!
Like a sprinter, he launched himself across the driveway to the low fence on the other side. He had taken fewer than ten steps when a red-hot hammer slammed into his upper back and pitched him forward. The impact jarred the pistol from his grip, and it skidded across the asphalt as he struggled to take a breath, wincing from the bullet lodged in his upper back to the right of his spine.
Get up, dammit!
Guo Kang pushed himself up, hobbled two steps to retrieve his fallen gun, then stumbled into the bushes on the other side. If he could get out of sight, he might have a chance of surviving the day.
And reaching Tan Lily.
Tan Lily’s body shook as she stretched it to cover as much of Shen Li as possible. Her daughter trembled but remained quiet, crying silently as the truck reversed away from the gate. She had her arm around Shen Li’s head and stroked her silky hair in between kisses and whispered words of comfort. But she knew it was her fault her daughter was in danger.
The truck’s tires squealed, and her body flung sideways as Margaret quickly spun them around, then accelerated back toward the house. Tan Lily remained on the floorboard, her tensed body sheltering her shaking daughter while listening to the sound of gunfire retreating behind them.
“Mama?” Shen Li whispered in a muffled voice.
Tan Lily kissed her hair. “Yes, my precious?”
“Are we going to die?”
She opened her mouth to reply but couldn’t find the words. When she had agreed to take Shen Li to the United States, she never expected she would have had to answer such a question. Yet here she was, lying on the floorboard of a pickup truck, preparing to sacrifice her body to keep her daughter safe from stray bullets.
She swallowed hard. “No, my precious. We’re not going to die.”
She sounded more confident than she felt, but she knew the time had come. She could no longer cower in the back of a pickup truck and wait for others to decide her fate. She needed to take matters into her own hands and get them out of this mess. There was no reason the sins of the mother needed to fall to the daughter.