Wrecked (Josie Gray Mysteries #3)(96)
*
Thirty minutes later, Nick’s two team members, Tom and Juan, cleared the area and set up their position at either door. Once they were stationed, Josie and Otto followed Sergio and Marcos outside and jogged across the dark street, noticing how eerily silent it was. Josie hoped the Medrano cartel had not been tipped off they were coming. They continued down an alley that ran behind the row of houses and stopped behind the stash house.
There were no outside lights on the house, or on either of the neighboring houses, but the sky was clear and the moon and stars lit the area enough to navigate the yard. Light also streamed around the edges of the boards nailed onto the back window and through the curtain covering the window on the back door. Nick said he’d be in a black, armored Chevy Suburban, positioned half a block away, ready to move in front of the house and dispatch as soon as the team members were inside. Keeping the laser sights off to better maintain their secure position, each of the officers quickly acclimated to the night sights on their weapons. Josie watched as Sergio stepped up to the back door, turned, and waved Otto and Josie into place.
They ran to the window on the back of the house and attached their guns to the three-point hitch on their gun belts. The hitch was specifically designed to hold the AR15. Through the cracks between the wood, they could see a small portion of the floor but nothing else. They ran around to the side of the house, attempting to see into the corner bedroom, but the boards were too close together. Nick signaled in the headsets that Tom and Juan were inside.
Hearing no noise from the team members inside, Josie slipped her crowbar under the bottom piece of wood on the side window and tried to pry it up quietly, but the nails squeaked as they were pulled out of the plank. She paused a moment to listen for movement or a reaction inside. Hearing nothing, she and Otto pulled the board off slowly, as quietly as they could, and peered into the bedroom. It was filled with boxes and trash bags and piles of what looked to be old computer equipment.
Seeing no movement, they ran again to the back of the house, where Josie worked at the bottom board. The nails were tighter and required her to jerk on the crowbar to get the nails to budge. She could feel Otto beside her, his body as tense as her own. When the board gave way they saw a man sitting in a tattered recliner to the right of the closed bedroom door, his head tipped back in sleep. An automatic weapon lay across his thighs, his hands resting on the gun. Suddenly all hell broke loose at the front of the house and the man leaped up from his chair and faced the bedroom door, fumbling with his gun.
Josie and Otto pried off the next board as quickly as they could while the gunfire inside disguised the noise. With the boards off the window, the guard finally noticed movement outside and jerked his head in their direction. They saw him turn his body toward them, and as he lifted his gun to begin firing, Josie and Otto moved from the window and ran several feet down the side of the wall to keep from getting showered with glass. A hail of bullets shattered the glass, and Josie felt shards bouncing off the back of her SWAT uniform as she crouched down to the ground.
When he stopped shooting, Josie peered in through the left corner of the window, trying to find Dillon, but saw only the man, jamming a fresh magazine into his weapon. Otto looked from the right side of the same window and lifted his thumb up.
“He’s on the floor, on the wall to the left of the door from where I stand,” he said.
The guard began shooting out the window again, but Josie and Otto were both out of the line of fire.
Josie moved ten feet down the back side of the house, scouting for other attackers outside the home as she moved. She spoke into the headset. “I have a visual. Dillon Reese is in the back bedroom. As you enter the room he’s on your right, sitting on the floor. Condition unknown. Shooter is left of the door.”
Josie struggled to hear Nick confirm over the hammering of bullets inside the home.
The gunfire inside came to an abrupt stop. Nick responded, “Two cartel guards down in the kitchen. Juan is down. Repeat, Juan is down. He’s being removed from the scene by Marcos. Tom and Sergio are inside. One guard barricaded in the back bedroom. Josie, your position again?”
She pressed the mic button and spoke into the headset, repeating what she had said earlier during the gunfire, and then stated her own and Otto’s location. “Visual contact has been made in the back bedroom. A guard is in the room, last seen to the right of the door. Guard is heavily armed.”
Gunfire started again and continued for a full minute before stopping. After thirty seconds of complete silence, Nick’s voice sounded on the headset. “Third guard down. Tom and Sergio unharmed. Juan has been removed from the house. Critical but he’s alive. Josie?”
Before she could answer, the last guard inside the home yelled something in Spanish that she couldn’t interpret. Standing to the left of the window she yelled back, “In English.”
To her surprise he yelled back in perfect English. “I want out! I’m coming out with the prisoner. If you try to shoot me I will kill him! Back away from the house or I’ll kill him!”
Josie could hear the desperation in his voice. Otto ducked below the window and came to stand by Josie. “The guard’s moved. He’s pulled Dillon up to a standing position, although he’s barely standing upright. Dillon won’t have the strength to run if given the chance.”
Josie turned her head away from the window, pressed the mic button, and spoke quietly to Nick. “Let me negotiate with the last guard. He doesn’t know about the remaining officers, correct?”