“I know.”
“He could shoot you outright and we couldn’t do anything to stop it,” Roman continued from the driver’s seat, all signs of his usual jesting nature gone.
Ashton shrugged.They weren’t saying anything he didn’t already know.“But you’d be able to get Summer and Chloe out.That’s the most important thing.”
“Alright, people, cut the goodbyes.That’s not what we do,” Derek said.“Everybody stay frosty.Ashton, you get in there and don’t get killed.We’ll get the tactical positions we need and call it in to you.”
“Okay.”Ashton slipped the earpiece into his ear.“But Summer and Chloe are the most important thing.Nobody lose track of that.You see a chance to get them out, you take it.I don’t care what happens to me.”
Years of training were the only thing that kept the panic from swallowing Ashton.He couldn’t let himself dwell on how frightened Summer had to be.And Chloe’s little face—he had to push that away entirely.If he didn’t, he wouldn’t be able to focus the way he needed to.
Summer and Chloewouldget out of this.
If Ashton walked away, too, that would just be a bonus.
“You keep your Kevlar and your helmet on,” Derek told him.“If mystery man number two is around with a rifle, we’ll find him.But it will take a little time.Let’s not give him a free shot.”
“Buy us time with Harper, Fitzy,” Roman said.“We’ll have your back.”
“I wish I had some pointers from Joe Matarazzo.”Joe was the best hostage negotiator any of them had ever seen.
“We’ll patch Joe through from HQ,” Derek said.“But you’ve heard him enough to know a lot of his tactics.Just keep the perp talking as much as possible.Listen to him.Give us time to do our job.”
“I’m better with a gun than words,” Ashton muttered.“Always have been.”
The truck stopped and the team filed out.Ashton had been trusting them with his life for years.Trusting them with Summer and Chloe’s was harder, but he knew he could.
“You guys,” he told them as he got into the driver’s seat.“These girls are everything to me.”
Derek and Lillian nodded.
“We’ve all known that from the first muffin, man.”Roman winked.“We’ll get them out.”
Chapter Nineteen
Ashton made no attempts at stealth as he inched the SWAT van toward George Harper’s house.He had to force himself to go slowly, just like he’d had to force himself to not speed immediately to the house once the rest of the team had sprinted off for their tactical positions.
Everything in him screamed to barrel down the road, to burst into the house guns blazing, to make sure Summer and Chloe were safe again.Only the knowledge that his not-so-elaborate plan would do more harm than good stopped him.
Give the team time to get into place.Harper should be glad it wasn’t Ashton positioning himself with his sniper rifle.For the first time in his career, Ashton wasn’t sure he would wait for the green light to take the shot.
His watch beeped.It was now twenty-eight minutes since Harper’s call.Show time.
He pulled the truck up the isolated road and into the Harper driveway.Grass grew two feet tall all around him.There’d been no upkeep at the place for years.A nondescript vehicle was parked in the cracked driveway.
“Got a gray early-model Camry at the front of the house,” Ashton told the team as he checked inside.“Empty.”
Most of the windows in the house had been knocked out by nature or vandals.Some were boarded up.The front door leaned off its top hinges and sat at a canted angle against the floor, barely upright.
Ashton turned off the truck and got out.“I’m about to enter.”Ashton wouldn’t be able to say much once he was inside if they wanted to keep up the appearance of him being alone.
“Roger that,” Derek responded.“Roman is moving in toward the back to check out closer around the house.Lillian is establishing sniper positioning.So far we’ve had no sighting of Harper’s accomplice.”
There was a hell of a lot of empty ground where the other man could be hiding.
“Backup is on the way.ETA five minutes.We’ll have thermal imaging soon, Ashton.Just draw it out as long as possible.”
“Roger.”
