No Ordinary Day , Tate, Harley [ebook offline .TXT] 📗

for what he presumed was living space and a handful of barns of various sizes. No signs of above-ground electricity, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t connected to the grid. Most places in the foothills ran electricity underground from the road.

Past the cabins, a man-made pond anchored a mini-farm complete with rows of fruit trees and a pen with what John guessed must be pigs. Not a bad setup, all things considered. He watched the old woman and two younger members of the family as they came in and out of buildings, hauling animal feed and filling troughs of water.

As his knees protested from crouching so long, he began to stand. Halfway up, commotion at the barn stopped him still. He adjusted the binoculars for a closer look.

Tank! Somehow the dog had gotten free and was barking and pawing at a closed barn door. Was that where Emma and Holly were? It looked more like a horse barn than living quarters. John panned the barn, freezing when the movement of pale fingers through dark wood caught his eye.

They were in there, all right, and it wasn’t by choice. A woman reached for Tank’s harness and the dog turned, teeth bared. She smacked him hard across the nose. John’s temper flared. That dog deserved better. He slipped behind the closest tree and thought over his next move.

Without access to a phone or communication device, he was cut off from Dane and anyone else in the organization who could help him. Emma Cross and Gloria Sanchez were still his responsibility. At some point, after a few missed check-ins, Dane would send the cavalry.

Until then? He was on his own.

He thought of Emma and her upcoming testimony. The woman had done nothing wrong. In fact, just the opposite. She’d stuck her neck out to tell the world about the dangers of a product and ended up on the wrong list because of it. John ground his teeth together.

If the power outage was as bad as he’d been told, killing Emma would be meaningless. No seeds would roll out of a CropForward lab regardless of their safety. But if Eugene and Gil’s warnings were overblown… He’d be up a creek without a paddle. Dane never accepted failure. Or desertion.

Once a hitman, always a hitman until your dying breath. No retirement with white-picket fences and iced-tea-filled glasses. Only the end of the line.

Unless the EMP changed everything.

John cursed. He needed more information and time to gather it. A door slammed shut and John eased around the tree to scope out the scene.

The older woman pointed at the barn and a younger woman rushed to the lock. She yanked it open and reached inside, dragging out first Emma and then Holly. John’s chest seized. Dried tears streaked Holly’s cheeks and he didn’t need to hear the words tumbling from her mouth to know she begged for her life.

She’s just a child.

Emma threw up her hands, begging with the older woman. The man emerged from another building, carrying a rifle. John didn’t need to see any more.

He shoved the binoculars in his bag, unholstered his Sig Sauer and crept toward the clearing. He might end up killing Cross in the end, but that burden was his and his alone. Until then, he was going to keep her, Holly, and Tank alive.

No matter what.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Emma

“What are they going to do with us?” Holly cupped her hands around her face and peered through a gap in the wood barn wall. “They aren’t going to kill us, are they?”

Emma shook her head. “Not a chance. We haven’t done anything wrong. They’re probably just going to let us go.”

Holly chewed on her lower lip. “What about Tank? I haven’t heard him bark since they dragged him inside. Do don’t think—”

“I don’t have any idea.” Emma refused to think the worst about the dog or their situation.

Emma ran her fingers along the barn walls, searching for a loose board.

“You’ll never find a way out. Ma makes us check every month so the horses can’t escape.”

Emma glanced up. Jenny, the girl who’d been tasked with watching them, stood just outside. From the sound of her voice, she couldn’t be much older than Holly. “You’re Jenny, right?”

After a moment, the girl responded. “Ma said I’m not supposed to talk to you.”

“Is she your grandmother?”

“Yep.”

“And you all live here together?”

“Ain’t nothin’ wrong with it.”

“I didn’t say there was. In fact, I think it’s wonderful. Multigenerational family homes have a lot of advantages.”

Emma kept running her fingers along the wall as she talked, sticking her fingers in knots and gaps, assessing for weakness. She couldn’t just sit in the barn waiting for something to happen. This wasn’t an experiment she’d set up to run, this was real life. If she didn’t do something, nothing good would happen next.

“What’s going to happen?” Holly spoke up, approaching Jenny. “Can’t you just tell us?”

“Depends on whether the law might come lookin’. That’s what Ma says.”

Emma shivered. “If they do?”

“Then we let you go with a warning and keep all your stuff.”

Holly rose up, about to argue, but Emma held up a hand.

“And if they don’t?”

The girl didn’t answer right away.

“Jenny?”

Barking sounded from across the open area and within moments, Tank scrabbled at the door, trying in vain to reach them.

“You better get back,” Jenny offered.

“I told you, girl, ain’t no talkin’ to the prisoners.”

“Yes, Daddy.” The girl moved away. “I know what you said, but they started talkin’ to me.”

“Get on back inside. It’s time to deal with these looters.”

Tank growled and the man said something Emma couldn’t hear.

“Leave him alone! He’s not yours!” Holly shouted.

“Way he growls, we’ll turn him into an attack dog in two shakes.” The man’s voice carried from the direction of the closest cabin.

Emma rushed to the side of the barn and peered through a gap in the wood. She watched as the man hauled Tank up the steps and threw him inside.

The door squealed as it rolled back on its hinges.