“Yes.”
“How am I supposed to believe you?”
“The only thing I care about is getting Summer and her daughter out of here unharmed.You can make that happen.Let them go right now and you can do wherever you want with me.”
Harper brought his hand to his ear again.“Is everything a go?”
Ashton stared at the man.What was Harper talking about?
It dawned on Ashton.Damn it.The man was talking to his partner through a radio comm channel, just like Ashton was with his team.
“Who you talking to on that comm unit, Harper?Your partner?”
Harper’s gloating laugh filled the air.“Just because you’re here alone doesn’t mean I’m stupid enough to be.”Harper touched his earpiece.“You’re sure he’s here by himself?”
While Harper and his partner spoke, Ashton’s team reported to him.
“Ashton, we’ve got no evidence of a partner out here.”Derek’s voice filled his ear.Ashton didn’t want to answer and tip his hand to Harper that he wasn’t, in fact, alone.“Thermal imagining report in the next two minutes.The rest of the Omega team is here.Tyrone Marcus is making his way around to help Roman.”
Harper was looking at Ashton with glee in his eyes.
“I told you I was alone, Harper.Now let’s stop messing around.Let Summer and the baby go.”
“You killed my father, Fitzgerald.In cold blood.”
“I killed your father because he’d taken people hostage.Had hurt people.”
“He was forced to do that!”Harper’s tone bordered on whiny.
Ashton shook his head.“We gave him every chance to surrender before using lethal force.He’d already killed one of those hostages—a young girl who’d just started college and had never hurt anyone.And he was about to kill someone else.”
As he spoke, Ashton could see a myriad of emotions cross the other man’s face: disbelief, guilt, acceptance, fear.Harper knew what Ashton said was the truth.
Ashton lowered his tone, tried to be more friendly, approachable like Joe Matarazzo would do if he was here handling the negotiation.
“It was an unfortunate situation, Curtis.If I could take it back, I would.”It was a partial lie.Ashton would change shooting George Harper if he could, but only if it meant the other victims wouldn’t have been hurt also.“The Omega team always tries to get everyone out alive if they can.”
He was getting through to Harper.The gun in his hand wavered and lowered.But then his partner obviously said something to him, because Harper stopped and looked away, holding his ear.Whatever the other man said worked.At his words, Harper obviously pushed the other emotions away to hang on to what justified his actions now: righteous anger on his father’s behalf.
“No,” Harper said.“Omega Sector does what it wants.Shoots first and asks questions later.Youshot before you had all the facts.”
Derek’s voice came on again.“Ashton, thermal imaging confirms there is nobody out here.I don’t know where Harper thinks his partner is, but no one out here has a bead on you.”
No partner.
This changed things.Yes, Harper still had a gun, but if he didn’t have a partner out there with a sniper rifle, the odds just became much greater in Ashton’s favor.All he needed to do was get the gun pointed at him and not Summer.
But where was the partner?If their goal was to kill Ashton, this was a great opportunity.But the other man had left Harper without any backup.What was their plan?
Ashton stepped closer.Summer started shaking her head.
“I shot before I had all the facts?”Ashton ignored Summer and took another step closer to the couch.He needed to be close enough to attack Harper if things turned sour.“Is that what you really believe, Harper, or was that what someone told you to believe?”
Harper’s eyes narrowed.“What are you talking about?”
“You’ve known I shot your father for four years.Why are you just now deciding to take revenge?”
“Because you deserve to rot in hell for what you’ve done.”
