Chapter Thirteen

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Slade took hold of Marise, pushing her into the still-open doorway of Stephanie's office. The fire eating its way toward them wasn't exactly an inferno, not yet anyway, but it was taking up the entire hallway.

No way to get through it without risking serious injury.

"Is there another exit that way?" Jace asked the colonel, tipping his head toward the man's office. "Maybe a fire escape or balcony?"

Rosa shook his head. "Just the windows."

"Then, we're going out the windows," Slade insisted, and he was very much aware of a couple of really bad things.

Someone had set that fire.

And the someone could be waiting for them to escape.

"We locked the exterior doors," Slade said to Rosa, and they hurried into the office. "Who has the keycode to the house?"

"Stephanie and me, of course. And the housekeepers. Probably Julian," he tacked onto that.

Not that many people, but that didn't mean one of them other than Rosa hadn't given the codes to someone like Sonny. Someone willing to attack and kill to cover up a murder.

Because that's exactly what this was.

With their vehicles parked on the side of the house, the arsonist would have known there were people inside, and he or she had trapped those people with the placement of the fire.

Once they were all in Stephanie's office, Slade shut the door and locked it in case the arsonist had managed to get into a position to attack them from inside the house. That wasn't likely, but he needed to cover all possibilities.

Angel was working on some things as well, and Slade heard him complete his call to ask for not only backup but also the fire department. Slade hoped they made it in time to put out the flames before they destroyed the evidence of what had to have been a murder.

Keeping Marise right next to him, Slade went to the window and peered down at the yard one floor below them. It was way too high up and dark for his liking, but the stench from the gasoline and smoke was already making its way toward them. They'd have to get out of there and fast.

"I'll go first," Jericho offered, glancing down at Slade's bandaged arm. "If the arsonist is out there, I'll deal with him."

Slade was both resentful he needed that offer but was also thankful for it. He wanted to do this himself, but jumping out of a second floor window was going to hurt like hell. Added to that, it'd be next to impossible for him to break his fall without causing himself even more intense pain.

Jericho opened the window, kicking out the screen, and in the same motion, he grabbed the chair cushion and some throw pillows from the small leather sofa. He dropped them down onto the ground.

"It won't soften the fall much," Jericho said, "but it's better than nothing." He looked at the colonel and Marise. "Lessen the distance of the fall by climbing out and hanging onto the sill before you let yourself go. Try to relax your body and land on the balls of your feet, rolling forward to lessen the impact. Whatever you do, don't land on your head or bash it against the side of the house. Some of us already have enough injuries on that particular body part."

Jericho aimed a look at Slade for that last bit.

The instructions were no doubt whirling in Marise's mind, but there wasn't time to have him repeat it. Jericho caught onto the window frame, dangling above the ground for a couple of seconds before he plunged down.

Slade watched his brother land, and then he dropped and rolled to the side, still staying close to the house but not hitting it. He didn't stay down long. Jericho scrambled to get into a standing position and drew his gun.

"Clear," Jericho said a moment later. He didn't shout it either. Probably because he didn't want to alert the arsonist to their position.

But who had done this?

Not Stephanie. She'd appeared on Slade's security camera less than fifteen minutes ago. There hadn't been enough time for her to make it across town.

So, maybe this was Sonny's doing.

But that didn't feel right either. Sonny was a more in your face kind of thug. Setting a fire seemed more like a coward's move. Then again, maybe the fire hadn't been meant to kill them but rather just to destroy evidence.

"Jace, you go out next," Slade said while Angel used his phone to make a video of the blood-stained rug. "I want Jericho to have some backup down there."

Jace didn't argue, and with all the agility of a cat, he slipped out the window, dangling by one hand before he used his feet to push off from the sill and then let go. He landed much the way Jericho had. The two men immediately moved back to back, their gazes and their guns sweeping around the grounds.

From the corner of his eye, Slade saw the smoke squeezing its way through the sides and bottom of the office door. The stench burned her throat, and he wondered how long it'd be before the fire ate through the door and reached them. They had time, but the seconds were ticking off fast.

"Colonel Rosa," Slade said. "Drop and then roll and after you're back on your feet, scramble behind those shrubs."

No need to spell out that Rosa could be the main target if there was an attack. After all, he was the witness that could seal the fate of the killer. Once the killer was IDed, that is.

Rosa was trembling when he climbed into the window, but he didn't hesitate with the jump. He landed much harder though than Jericho or Jace, and Slade heard him grunt in pain. Slade hoped he hadn't broken anything.

"You're next," Slade told her. "I'll keep watch from up here to make sure no one's out there."

Sonny.

That was Slade's concern. That Sonny was hiding in the darkness, again, ready to try to kill them.

"And the two of you will be right behind me," she insisted, glancing at Angel, who was still recording the scene.

"Yes, right behind you," Slade assured her, and he did something that seemed to shock Marise more than the fire.

He brushed a kiss on her mouth a split second before he maneuvered her through the window. Below, Jericho had restacked the pillows so after she went out the window and hung onto the sill, she aimed herself at them, counted to three.

And sprang out.

While she had a terrified expression on her face.

Her reaction was understandable. Unlike Jace, Jericho, and him, she hadn't had the training, but she clearly tried to mimic what Jericho and Jace had done. She landed hard on her feet, but thankfully kept moving. She darted behind some shrubs and looked up at the window. She probably hoped to see him.

But she saw Angel instead.

Slade had purposely had the cop go next because he wanted all the help on the ground to protect Marise. Angel hadn't balked, and he moved damn fast to the window. He jumped and did his drop and roll while the smoke billowed out all the front windows on the second floor.

In the distance Slade could hear the sound of a fire engine. That was good, but at the moment, his focus was on Marise. And the toll this was going to take on his body, what with his injuries. Still, there were a lot of options here.

Slade climbed through the window, catching onto the sill with his good arm. And he let go. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to choke back the low snarl of pain he made when he hit. He shoved the god-awful pain aside, came off the ground, and drew his gun.

Just as a bullet slammed into the house next to him.

Part of Slade had been bracing for just this very thing, but he still cursed and moved straight toward Marise, putting himself in front of her. Thankfully, she was already getting down and taking cover.

"The shot came from the side of the house by our vehicles," Jericho rattled off just as another shot rang out.

He took cover, too, by going belly down on the ground behind a landscape boulder. Jace was on his right. Angel, on his left. The boulder was nowhere large enough to give them all protection, but Slade soon realized that wasn't a massive concern.

Because the shots were clearly aimed toward the shrubs where Rosa, Marise, and he were. So, one or all three of them were the targets.

"Jericho, do you have a visual on the shooter?" Slade asked, putting Marise belly down as well.

He motioned for the colonel to do the same. Rosa did, but he also positioned himself to protect Marise. Slade would thank him for that later. For now though, he focused on getting them out of there alive.

"No. Shrubs and trees in the way," Jericho responded. "I'll move out and see if I can spot him."

"Hold for now," Slade insisted. Jericho would be way too easy of a target if he shifted away from the boulder, and while his brother might not be the shooter's primary mission, that didn't mean he or she wouldn't take Jericho out.

Especially if it was Sonny.

Sonny would be delighted in a sick-assed kind of way to kill two of his sons in this attack.

"Stay put," Slade told Marise and Rosa, and he crawled through the narrow space between the shrubs and the house.

Not easily.

Crawling meant putting pressure on the stitches in his arm, but he kept moving. Kept aiming for the vehicles where the shooter had likely taken up cover.

Another shot came, this one slamming into the house where Marise and Rosa still were. Hopefully, they were still down, and while he was hoping, Slade added that maybe the shooter couldn't see him. It was dark after all so Slade had that on his side. He also had the experience for this sort of counterattack. Lots of shitstorm missions had honed and prepped him for just this kind of op.

The shots continued, and the pace felt frantic to Slade. Probably because the shooter could also hear the sirens getting closer and closer. Of course, if the fire department arrived first, the shooter could just attempt to gun them down, but it was possible there'd be a cruiser full of cops close behind.

Slade crawled another ten feet or so before there was enough of a break in the line of shrubs for him to see the vehicles.

And the shooter.

Shit.

It was Julian.

And the asshole was indeed using a car for cover. He'd parked directly behind Slade and Jericho, which would have put him close to the side entrance. Julian had no doubt then sneaked in with the gasoline, poured it on the floor, and tossed on a match.

He hoped he got the chance to ask Julian if he was doing all of this on Stephanie's orders or if this was his plan. But Slade wouldn't make getting that answer a priority. Nope. He was taking this piece of shit out.

"Hey, asshole," Slade called out, knowing that Julian would almost certainly pivot in the direction of the sound of his voice.

He did.

Julian turned, moving to take aim at Slade. But Slade was already in place. He fired, sending two shots directly into the asshole's chest.

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