LITMIR.BIZ

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man. The one who told them to put us on this boat. I recognize his voice. He’s the one … the one who…”

      “The one who molested you in the cabin?”

      Marcie nodded, then said, “Why would they take us?

      “I’m not sure, but they didn’t hide their faces, so that’s not a good sign. I’m guessing it must be a trap for Jack and maybe Danny. Come on!”

      Natasha crept forward and peered out the exit. She saw two bikers standing at the back of the house. They were both carrying rifles and talking to someone through a window.

      “Two of them are in the backyard with rifles. They’ve got their backs to us, but I can’t tell if someone in the house is looking this way or not. Are you a swimmer?”

      “No,” said Marcie.

      “See if we can find any keys to this thing.”

      Both Natasha and Marcie searched for keys. There weren’t any.

      “I’ve got to chance it,” said Natasha. “They could come back any second. You wait at the top of the stairs while I slip across to the boathouse on the other side. Maybe I’ll find something.”

      Natasha peeked out the exit and saw the bikers disappear, one around each side of the house. She scrambled off the cabin cruiser and scooted across the dock to a small boathouse. She cautiously opened the door and saw a high-powered speedboat parked inside. She climbed in and frantically searched for keys.

      She abruptly froze when the door to the boathouse opened, then realized it was Marcie.

      “You should have waited!”

      “I was afraid. Did you find any keys?”

      “No.”

      “Maybe we should make a run for it down the dock!”

      “It’s too long in the open. We’d never make it. I think —”

      Natasha was interrupted by the sound of gunfire.

       chapter thirty-nine

      Sid moved the paint and stepladder to one side, then opened his front door again and gestured for Jack and Danny to come up the steps and follow him inside. They stopped when a German shepherd came out onto the porch and started barking.

      “QC! Quit barking!” Sid commanded, then said to Jack and Danny, “It’s okay, he won’t bite. Come on in.”

      “You named your dog Cutesy?” asked Jack, glancing at Danny.

      “Cutesy?” Sid chuckled. “No. It’s QC! Short for Queen’s Counsel. Cute, don’t you think?”

      Jack exchanged another glance with Danny. They looked at the plastic sheeting in front of them and both went for their guns.

      “Do it now!” screamed Sid toward his foyer. “They know!”

      Jack pumped two shots through the door. The dog lunged at him, knocking him down as a rifle shot sent a bullet zinging past him into the side of the garage. In front of him, he caught a glimpse of Rolly clutching his throat and staggering back as the door swung open. He was only partly conscious that Danny was taking aim at whoever had the rifle. His attention was focused on Booger, who appeared in the foyer carrying a MAC-10 submachine gun.

      Danny saw T-Bone standing at the end of the house as he took aim to fire another shot at Jack. Danny fired three shots. Only one counted, but it was enough. T-Bone fell to the ground as the bullet tore through the centre of his chest.

      A barrage of shots rang out from the foyer, along with another shot from near the garage behind them. Danny crouched beside the steps and turned to see who was by the garage.

      Jack lay on his back on the path and tried to protect his face from the dog’s savage attacks with one hand while firing more rounds at Booger, who let loose with a short burst of fire before leaping back out of sight. More bullets whizzed over Jack’s head from behind him, and the dog yelped and fell to the ground when a rifle bullet severed its spine.

      “Take cover!” Danny yelled. “Wizard’s behind you!”

      Jack’s only place for cover was in the house, and he bolted through the door while firing rapidly. He caught a glimpse of Sid running up a spiral staircase but directed his shots toward Booger, who stood in the living room and fired another spray of bullets toward Jack.

      Jack dived into a shallow pond inlaid in the floor near the bottom of the staircase. He squeezed off another shot at Booger, who darted back behind the wall. Jack barely had enough room to keep his face out of the water without exposing his head above the edge of the pond. Looking up, he could see only the lower half of the spiral staircase. Rolly’s head and one arm lay in the pond. Blood from his throat spilled into the water. His other hand lay limp at his side.

      Jack raised his head slightly to look toward the living room, but a rifle bullet delivered from outside by Wizard ricocheted off the ceramic tile floor and zinged past. Wizard was rewarded for his effort by two shots from Danny, who was still crouched behind the steps. Wizard quickly retreated back behind the garage.

      For a few seconds, everything was quiet except for the sound of a koi gasping for life as it flopped around on the floor.

      Sid then screamed from above. “Get in there! Finish them off!”

      Booger yelled back, “We’re at a bit of a Mexican stand-off here. I’ve got him pinned down. Go to a window and tell Wizard and the others to finish the pig at the door first, then we can do this one from both sides.”

      Danny peeked over the edge of the top step while punching the numbers into his cellphone. When he connected, he screamed the address first, then said, “It’s O’Reilly and Taggart! We’re at Sid Bishop’s house!” A rifle bullet slammed into the cement in front of his face. Fragments of lead and cement shot into his face and eyes. His cellphone flew from his hand as he fell back. Pain shot through his head and blood gushed out of his forehead and into his eyes.

      Jack heard Danny’s body slam into the side of the house. He yelled out from the pond, “Danny! Are you all right? Danny!” There was no reply. He grabbed Rolly’s body and slid him into a position to partially block Wizard’s view, while trying to keep watch on the corner of the living room wall. He yelled for Danny again. No response. His mind felt numb.

      Wizard shouted, “Booger! What’s happening in there?”

      “Rolly took a hit! He’s bought it, but I’ve got the pig pinned down in the fucking fish pond. What’s taking you and T-Bone so long?”

      “T-Bone is down, but I shot this fucking pig in the face as he was usin’ his cell. I think he’s dead.”

      Sid hollered, “Did he get through? Do you know if he got through?”

      “I heard him give your address,” Wizard yelled, “but don’t think he said much else before I nailed him.”

      Sid screamed an angry, jumbled list of obscenities while kicking a wall.

      “We still got time to think of somethin’,” Wizard shouted. “Booger! You sure you got that pig in there pinned down?”

      Jack saw that Booger had taken a mirror off the wall and propped it out from the corner of the living room to see him. The two men stared at each other’s reflection. It was easier for both of them knowing where the other one was and what they were doing.

      Booger yelled back to Wizard, “No problem! This pig ain’t goin’ nowhere for now!”

      “Okay!” Wizard responded. “Sid! I’m goin’ down to the boat and get Thumper. We’ll kill the bitches and use oil and gas from your boat to throw in the pond and flush out Taggart. Torch the pigs and nobody will figure out what really happened.”

      “You’re going to burn my fucking house?”

      “It

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