Echoes at Dawn (KGI #5)(74)

“Everyone over in the hangar,” Hancock directed. “No surprises or I give the order to start firing. I’ve always thought playing last man standing would be kind of cool.”

Insane son of a bitch. He’d always been a morbid bastard, but he hadn’t been this f**king crazy. Maybe Rio would’ve been this way if he hadn’t walked away from Titan when he had. Maybe he would be the one throwing Grace to the wolves. The knowledge hurt. This was what he used to be. Mission above all else. No conscience. No sense of right or wrong. Only of what his directive was. Right or wrong hadn’t been for them to decide.

Sam motioned for his men to fall back. Cole and Steele dragged Dolphin toward the hangar. He was bleeding heavily and Rio’s heart sank. He hadn’t wanted to lose even one man to this. He’d been a fool.

“Disable the other planes,” Hancock called to his men. “Make damn sure they can’t take off in them.”

Then Hancock turned to face Grace, and it was all Rio could do not to lunge after him.

“Well, Grace? Care to give me the gun now?”

“Fuck you,” she snarled.

The corner of Rio’s mouth lifted in a half smile. She was f**king fierce.

Hancock held up his hands. “Okay, okay, we’ll do it your way. Tell me what you want.”

“What I want and what I can have are two different things,” she snapped. “You don’t really want to know what I want right now.”

“Then tell me what the next move is. Ball is in your court.”

“I want every one of your men gone. If they’re getting on the plane, then get them there now. You have five minutes or I decorate the tarmac with my brains.”

Rio winced and closed his eyes. Calm down, Grace. You’re scaring the shit out of me.

She ignored his reprimand and continued to stare at Hancock like he was the nastiest sort of bug. “Get them moving. We don’t have all day. They have an injured man who needs medical attention.”

Hancock directed the men on the tarmac to board. Grace quickly stepped down and away so they couldn’t get close enough to wrest the gun from her grip. Rio had to admit, she’d thought this through with admirable speed and common sense. She was giving them no opening. No opportunity to back out of the agreement.

When the last of the men was on board, leaving only her and Hancock facing each other, Grace said, “Now you.”

“I’m not boarding without you.”

Slowly she lowered the gun and then extended it toward Hancock. Rio died a thousand deaths. Terrence wrapped beefy arms around him as if knowing he was about to go after Grace.

“She knows wC;She knhat she’s doing,” Terrence said quietly. “You’ve got one hell of a woman, Rio.”

Don’t make any moves, Rio. He has snipers out there. At least half a dozen. I have no way of knowing if he called them off but I’m betting not. You’ll have to figure a way out of the hangar without getting shot at.

You leave that to us. You just do what he says and give them no reason to hurt you.

I love you, Rio. I don’t regret any of our time together. I wouldn’t change a single thing about what happened to me because it brought us togethe

r if only for a little while. Thank you.

It sounded too goddamn much like good-bye and he couldn’t stand it. His mind was filled with so much grief and rage that he couldn’t even communicate back.

He’ll likely make it impossible for me to communicate with you. He knows I’m telepathic and he won’t want me to be able to relay information. Don’t panic if I go silent. If and when I’m able, I’ll tell you what I can.

Rio closed his eyes as Hancock slowly took the gun from Grace’s hand and gestured for her to climb the steps leading back into the plane.

The door closed and for a moment Rio felt a surge of fear through the pathway to Grace. And then, as she’d predicted, he sensed a sudden flash of pain and then darkness settled over his mind.

The plane began an immediate taxi and soon it was zipping down the runway, lifting off in the distance until the lights from the wings were barely visible in the overcast sky.

CHAPTER 33

STEELE tossed P.J.’s rifle toward her. She deftly caught it, checked the chamber and then set it aside to yank a camo shirt over the soft yellow T-shirt she’d worn to pose as Grace.

“Never could stand yellow on me,” she muttered. “Makes me look washed out.”

“P.J. and Cole, I need you to find those goddamn snipers and take them out,” Steele barked. “Renshaw and Baker and I will try to draw their fire. When they shoot, take them out.”

Rio dove for the hangar just as a shot cracked in the distance. The bullet ricocheted off the concrete a mere foot from where he landed, kicking up shards of rock.

“You okay?” Ethan Kelly yelled in his ear.

He was surrounded by Kellys, all pulling him farther into the hangar and out of danger. He felt gut-shot. He rolled to his back and stared up at the faces looking down at him.

“Grace,” he croaked out. “We can’t let that bastard get far.”

Nathan Kelly knelt beside Rio while Sam, Garrett and Donovan hurried over to tend to Dolphin, who was steadily swearing a blue streak.

“Shea felt her go out too,” Nathan said quietly. “Shea’s going to try to stay with her, but it takes a lot out of Shea. She isn’t like Grace. She doesn’t have Grace’s control or focus. But she’s going to keep trying. She said to tell you to keep trying.”