The Flight of the Silvers (Silvers #1)(162)

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Hannah paced the road in furious bother while Zack and David studied the back of the tug. It seemed insane that they’d come this far only to be hindered by a single door and Dep.

“I’ll open it,” said Hannah. “If I’m fast enough . . .”

Zack shook his head. “It’s a sliding gate. The moment you lift it, you’re a stationary target.”

Melissa fought a laugh over their inflated impression of Owen Nettles. The man was more in danger of hurting himself.

“It’ll leave your midsection exposed,” she told Hannah. “Which is exactly where my man will shoot. He knows abdominal injuries are slow to kill. We’ll have plenty of time to get you to a reviver.”

“You need to stop talking,” David urged.

“You know he has a crush on you, my agent in there. I’m not one to judge—”

“I said be quiet!”

“Or what? You’ll shoot me in the head?”

“If that’s what it takes!”

“David . . .”

Melissa smiled wisely. “No, Zack. Let him work it out. The boy’s gotten a taste for power now. I do believe he likes it.”

David lurched toward her. “You don’t know the first thing about me!”

“I know you would’ve killed me if Hannah and Zack hadn’t stopped you. I know it wasn’t morality that stayed your trigger finger. You care what your friends think. You want them to keep trusting you.”

Hannah yelled as David grabbed Melissa by the collar. Her grin turned fierce.

“Go on, boy. Show them. Show them the real you.”

“David, stop! You’re doing exactly what she wants! You’re helping her stall for time!”

He looked to Hannah with wide-eyed revelation. “You’re right. You’re absolutely right.” He tossed a cynical laugh at Melissa. “Wow. I was told you were smart, but you’re downright brilliant. You played me like an amateur.”

Melissa silently cursed Hannah. She’d hoped the stunt would buy a few more minutes.

“Well, I’m impressed,” David said. “Feel free to keep talking. I’m no longer . . .”

His smirk disappeared when he noticed Carter standing ninety feet up the road. Though the agent’s hands were still cuffed behind his back, he grinned like all was right with the world.

David raised his collar mic. “Mia?”

Now Zack and Hannah joined him in worry. Hannah tested her own mic. “Mia, are you there?”

Zack turned pale. “Uh, Hannah, can you please—”

She shot up the road in a dusty blur. Zack traded a wary glance with David. “I don’t like this.”

Neither did Melissa. She had a dark feeling that Carter and Ross were pulling a two-man rounder, a risky tactic used to turn the table on armed aggressors. Unfortunately, its success relied on the enemy’s ability to drop their weapons. These people were their own weapons.

She bent a knee in nervous readiness. “Zack, David, I need you both to stay perfectly still . . .”

Thirty feet behind them, Ross emerged from the shadows, his hostage still muffled in his grip. He raised the gun. Mia forced a scream through his fingers, loud enough to turn David around.

Melissa jumped to her feet. “Wait!”

Ross Daley had been fully prepared to shout a warning. The words had moved from his mind to his throat. Don’t move! Don’t move!

Unfortunately, David was quicker. He raised his palm and hurled the first loud noise he could find, the warning shot he’d fired two minutes ago. The ghosted echo struck Ross like a cherry bomb, rupturing both eardrums.

It also prompted him to fire.

David watched helplessly as the bullet cut through his right hand, severing two fingers at the base before continuing into the night. The shock of his wound kept him mindless and frozen for three and a half seconds, through the many events that happened next.

The moment he spied David’s bloody hand, Zack lost hold on all reason. For the second time in his life, he focused his weirdness on Rebel’s gun without any concern for the hand that wielded it. Melissa shoulder-barreled him before he could launch his attack. They tumbled together to the dirt.

Mia worked her teeth around Ross’s index finger, biting him deep enough to draw blood. The agent yelled and threw her to the ground. He aimed the gun at her head.

“Goddamn it! Goddamn! You little bi—”

A sudden windy force slammed him from behind. He flew eight feet through the air, then skidded six feet across the road.

Hannah de-shifted at the place of impact, her stunned gaze fixed on her victim. She’d shoved him in the back at 120 miles an hour, hearing and feeling the snap in his spine. Now he writhed on his back, wide-eyed, broken. The actress covered her mouth with both hands. God, what did I do to him? What did I do?

David remained in shell shock at the two gushing stumps on his hand. Once the agony of his wound caught up to him, he fell to his knees and screamed.

Mia pulled off her sweatshirt and ran to him. She tried to wrap the garment around his hand. He savagely struggled away from her.

“David, stop it! Stop! You’re bleeding!”

Melissa clambered back to her feet. She glanced down the road at her fallen agent.

“Oh goddamn it. Goddamn it. Zack, you need to let me out of these cuffs.”