Chapter 26

CHAPTER 26

" H ow many are there?" Connor asked, hunkering down to flank the front window with Dave.

"Looks like six," the oldest brother said. "Four followed me from the road. Two trailed my family down the mountain."

Glass shattered as a hail of bullets slammed into the window between them.

"Shit!" Dave muttered, pulling back. He aimed the weapon out the corner of the window and fired in the direction from which the shots had come. One silhouette landed in the snow.

Connor moved to the electrical circuit box and cut the power to the lights, then doused the fire in the stove. "Gonna get cold in here," he whispered.

"Better cold than hot visible targets," Matt said from his spot by the side entrance.

Now that the cabin had gone dark, they had the advantage of the moonlight and snow highlighting their enemies' movements.

A shot came from one of the bedrooms. "Two down," Luke said.

"That makes it one on one," Dave said, firing out the window.

Gunfire and shattered glass sounded from Matt's side of the house. He returned fired, then ducked to the side of the door as rapid fired bullets hit the window.

"Dammit, they have semi-automatic weapons," he said ducking close to the floor.

Suddenly, a canister lobbed into the room.

A flash of bright light went off blinding Connor as the bang deafened him.

Ears ringing, he turned toward the door and aimed instinctively, feeling the room shake as boots hit the wooden planks of the porch.

The door crashing in was muffled due to the sensory deficit from the flashbang, but he'd been ready for it and opened fire. A thud shook the floor in front of him. Something hit his arm, followed by searing pain. He switched the weapon to his other hand and fired again in that direction. A second body fell onto the other.

Behind him, he heard the muffled fire of another shot from the bedroom.

Then another from the hallway, resulting in a third body filling the front door. His eyesight clearing, he turned to find Katie standing in the hallway.

"Get down, baby," Matt yelled, and she immediately dropped to a squat.

Everyone went silent.

As Connor's hearing cleared and his equilibrium settled, he tried to focus on sounds beyond his own heartbeat. A little whimper sounded from down the hall.

"Zoe?" he whispered to Katie.

"She's good. So's your dog," she whispered back.

Dave held up a hand.

Again, silence reigned in the cabin's main room.

"What's the body count?" Dave asked quietly.

"Three here in the doorway," Connor replied.

"One out the side door despite his gun superiority," Matt said.

"One out the side here," Luke called from the bedroom.

"That's five and one out front," Dave said.

Connor looked out the window, only seeing one black form lying in the snow. "I thought two went down out front?"

"Check the last guy's leg, I think he was hobbling as he came on the porch," Katie said.

Dave stood and did exactly as his sister-in-law said. "That's all six."

"You think there's more outside?" Luke asked coming out of the bedroom.

"Special ops teams usually work in sixes," Connor said, drawing the others' attention. He went to the electrical box and turned on the power again, quickly filling the cabin with light.

"We should leave it off just in case there's others," Dave said.

"We could, but Katie needs light to check out Zoe's wounds," Connor replied, giving the other man a look daring him to disagree with him.

"And yours," Katie said coming to his side.

"It's a skid mark. Nothing I haven't had before. We need to be sure Zoe can travel because she can't stay here. And I'd like your opinion on her broken leg and that shoulder wound."

She fixed him with an assessing look, then deciding not to argue with him, she whirled around and headed back to the bathroom.

"I'll take guard duty while you two process those guys," Matt said, stepping out on the porch shadows, cradling his rifle in his arms.

Dave and Luke started moving the three bodies in the doorway into the light. The intruders were all dressed in black military-grade clothing and tactical gear, including high-tech mics and ear bud communication devices. While Dave searched their pockets for any identification, Luke started taking pictures of them. When he turned over the first guy's hand and snapped a picture, Connor paused to watch.

"Why pictures of their hands?"

Luke glanced up at him. "I have an app on my laptop back home that can read fingerprints. Once we're back in range of the internet, I'll send these to Abby, my wife, and she'll start running it."

Matt chuckled from outside. "He and his wife are our tech geeks. Any new app or gadget and they're all over it like a kid in a candy store."

"No ID's on any of them. Other than car keys and ammo, these guys came in dark," Dave said.

Connor grabbed the broom. "Someone means business."

"Sorry about the mess," Dave said. "Damn shame we can't identify them."

"They're a hit squad," Connor said as he swept up glass from the floor and deposited it in a box he usually used for extra firewood. He stopped sweeping to look at the others. "We need to get Zoe out of here before they send in another one."

"Where do you want us to put the bodies?" Dave asked after he'd dragged in the man from the side door and checked his pockets.

Finished sweeping the glass from the floor that might cut Duke's paws, Connor set aside the broom and hefted one of the bodies over his shoulder. "Let's get them up the valley about a hundred yards. If we're lucky, bears, wolves or wild hogs will feast on them before the weather thaws."

"Damn that's a unique way of disposing of a body," Matt said, setting aside his gun to heft one of the smaller bodies over his shoulder and follow, same as his brothers.

Connor didn't care if these bastards' carcasses were torn apart by the mountain's predators. They'd tried to kill Zoe.

?

"Is anyone hurt out there?" Zoe asked as Katie came back into the bathroom and laid the gun on the edge of the pedestal sink.

"Besides the men someone sent to kill you?" Katie asked, opening the medical pack once more. "The guys have some cuts from glass. Saw Luke picking it out of his hand. And the big guy?—"

"Connor was shot?" Zoe said, trying to stand up.

"Easy, Zoe," Katie said pushing her back onto the toilet with a hand to her uninjured shoulder. "He says it's only a skid mark on his right upper arm. I'll make him let me look at it once I've checked you out." Katie opened a tube of ointment from her pack and smeared some on her scraped cheeks. "Your poor face."

"At least the swelling has gone down in the past twenty-four hours. Connor said I did it falling down the mountain." She relaxed and started unbuttoning the front of the flannel shirt he'd dressed her in so Katie could inspect her wounds. "You know, I was unconscious and he carried me down the mountain and all the way back here by himself?"

"He's certainly big enough," Katie said peeling back the gauze Connor had taped over her shoulder wound.

Zoe smiled. "He is, isn't he?"

"What's his story? And by the way, this is going to sting, but I want to clean the wounds and put some antibiotic ointment on them," Katie warned as she ran hot water over a washcloth.

"He's a dog trainer for search and rescue dogs, like Duke." She reached over with her right hand to stroke the dog once more as the sting Katie warned her about happened. From the moment Connor told him to protect, he hadn't left her side. "Duke was the one who found me on the ledge."

"Well, that was serendipitous for you wasn't it?"

"Yes. You might think someone was watching over me this time."

Katie chuckled as she rinsed out the cloth and used it to clean the area. "Don't tell your aunt Mary that. You know how my mother-in-law believes in the power of prayer to overcome her own worry."

Zoe chuckled, too. "Given all the situations her kids, Zach and I have gotten into, both as kids and now as adults, Aunt Mary probably has a direct line to the Big Guy."

"She has plenty to keep her busy this week. Besides us being on a mission, she and your uncle Benjamin are watching our girls. Two eighteen-month-olds should keep her worrying at a minimum." She took a tube out of her backpack and squeezed some gooey looking gel on a four-by-four square of gauze. She peered closer to the wound. "What did Connor put on this? It smells like honey."

"Probably was," Zoe said, trying to look at it. "He did it while I was unconscious."

"I did read somewhere that honey is a natural disinfectant. Connor is a smart man. Since he didn't know how long you were up there, it's a good thing he didn't try to stitch it closed. The rule of thumb is that if a wound is over twenty-four hours old it is best to clean it and let it heal on its own." She laid the gauze on it, then took some plastic nurse tape out of the bag, tore off some strips and secured the dressing. "How long were you unconscious?"

"He said he found me the morning after the storm. I didn't wake up until the next day." She gave a little shrug. "That was an odd experience."

Katie had moved to clean the exit wound on the back of her shoulder. She paused and locked gazes with her. "What do you mean odd?"

"Waking up in bed with a strange man, unable to move my leg, my shoulder on fire, aching all over, head throbbing and not knowing anything. Oh and dressed in a flannel shirt about five times too big."

"You were in bed with him?"

"Connor was trying to keep me still," she hurried to defend him. She didn't want Katie to think he'd taken advantage of her. Deep inside she knew he was an honorable man and he'd never do that. "Apparently, I'd been thrashing around, and he didn't want me injuring myself worse by knocking loose the temporary splint he'd put on me up on that ledge. He changed out the splints here to make it more stable."

"I saw the sapling he chopped down and the vines he tore from the mountainside." Katie said as she dressed the exit wound in her back like she had the front. "I'll take a look at your leg after I check out all these bruises and cuts. Did you get them in the fall?"

Zoe closed her eyes, letting the memories of the shooting and fall fill her mind again. "It was weird. I saw Markus aim the gun at me from his driver's window."

"Markus?" Katie asked, feeling along her right rib cage.

Zoe sucked in some air at the tenderness there. "Markus Louden. My old mentor. He's who shot me. The car shifted on the wet road just as he fired. Probably why it only winged my head or I'd be dead."

They exchanged a look.

"Mary." Katie said and she nodded.

"I managed to get out of the car on the passenger side, trying to keep the car between us when he fired again, this time he got my left shoulder."

"Just missing your heart."

She nodded. "The impact sent me over the edge. I remember tumbling like a snowball, then slamming into something." She blinked, clearing her mind. "Then nothing until I woke up next to Connor."

"How did he get you off the mountain?" Katie asked as she helped her button the shirt back up. "A fireman's carry?"

"I strapped her to my back," Connor said, standing in the doorway a folded grey bundle in his hands. He held it up. "Brought y'all a pair of sweatpants and some more socks. We need to get you out of here and you can't go out barelegged."

She held out her hands and he laid the sweats in them, his fingers stroking across hers as he let go. Her breath stuck in her throat a second as she stared up into his eyes. "Thank you. I'll probably swim in them."

"Maybe not as much as you think. I wore them when I first got out. I'd lost a lot of weight inside." He hesitated, a light blush filling his cheeks above his beard, realizing Katie had heard him admit he'd been in prison. "Duke, heel," he said turning and heading down the hall, the hound happily trotting behind him.

"He was in prison. Framed for something he didn't do," Zoe said, running her hands over the soft material of the sweats.

"Zoe."

She looked up to see compassion and understanding in Katie's eyes as she held her foot.

"We all have things in our past we might not be too proud of. I lived in a cult of crazy people who used my skills to actually blow up a building and killed hundreds. Whatever Connor did or didn't do to end up in prison, he patched you up, hauled you off a mountain, kept you safe, and just helped our family fend off a group of hired assassins, risking his freedom by using a gun. I think your trust in him isn't misplaced." She gently grasped Zoe's left foot and raised her leg to inspect the splint he'd fixed to stabilize the break. "Besides, you should've seen the way he nearly choked Luke for saying something rude about you."

"He did?"

"Right before the shooting started." Katie grinned at her. "I like him."

Zoe smiled. "I do, too."