Runaway Heiress. Jennifer Morey

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СКАЧАТЬ it. Sadie and I were up on the turret patio.” They reached the gatehouse, where the guard inside was on the radio talking to the guards in the mechanical room where all the surveillance cameras fed into.

      “Dwight’s here now.” He dropped the radio and saw Jasper and Dwight enter and go into the equipment room.

      Dwight tossed Jasper a body armor vest.

      “Mechanical counted at least five on the video,” the gatehouse guard said. “The silent alarm tripped with the first shot at the perimeter light.”

      Five? Jasper ignored what that implied and secured his vest. “Who’s inside?” He’d left Sadie locked in her room.

      “Jacobs and McKenzie.” Dwight finished securing his vest. “They’re with Sadie now. Two more are in the mechanical room.”

      “Where did they last see the intruders before they took out the cameras?” Jasper asked the gatehouse guard.

      “Shooting out the northwest corner light. All the lights are out on the northwest side.”

      “They’ll go after the cameras next.” Jasper handed Dwight a radio and connected his before going to the gun rack. “They’re going to try to get inside.”

      Two other guards joined them. Jasper put on a helmet and Dwight handed him a night vision device. He strapped that to his head.

      After checking his automatic rifle and pistols already in his waist and thigh harnesses, Jasper went to the video monitors and searched with the gatehouse guard for movement outside the gate. There was none.

      “Have they breeched the wall?” Jasper asked.

      “Mechanical said no, not yet. But they disabled the sensors so we won’t know where they’ll try.”

      From his surveillance on the turret patio, the trees would hide them from sight, so they’d likely make the attempt somewhere along the fence in that location. He pointed to a section of fence where the trees were the thickest. “They’ll try right there.”

      “How do you know?” Dwight asked.

      “It’s what I would do.” He turned to Dwight and the other two guards. “You two go around the northwest side. Dwight, you come with me.”

      Dwight turned to the gatehouse guard. “Stay here and wait for police. You’re the gate defense until then.”

      The guard’s head bent with one determined nod.

      Jasper ran from the gatehouse and Dwight ran beside him.

      “If I wasn’t going to suggest the same, I would have given the orders,” Dwight said.

      “This is no time for a contest of egos.” Ignoring the other man’s pinching mouth, Jasper ran toward the northwest fence and cluster of trees with an attractive walking or biking path meandering beneath the canopy. He stayed close to the stone wall and out of sight in dark shadows. Near the first shot-out light, he stopped.

      Dwight stopped beside him, using two fingers to point from his eyes toward the house.

      Jasper spotted the other two guards near the corner, giving an arm up sign that Dwight returned. Silent language no one had shared with Jasper, something that tweaked his ire but would have to wait until later to reprimand. Sadie’s safety could be compromised with each piece of information they kept from him. They had to operate as a team.

      The two guards disappeared behind some shrubs.

      Jasper resumed his trek along the fence. Near the edge of trees, he stopped and listened. No sound from the other side alerted him, but that gave him no ease. The enemy could have already cleared the fence.

      Dwight elbowed him and pointed. Jasper followed the aim and spotted an area of barbed wire that had been cut. The enemy had cleared the fence.

      “Team twenty-two,” Dwight said low into the comms. “The coyote is in the yard. Move out.”

      “Roger twenty-one.”

      Team twenty-one and twenty-two? They must have decided early on to use that code in the event of an attack.

      Dwight used his hand to indicate to Jasper that twenty-two would flank the trees opposite from where they stood and they’d take this end.

      Jasper nodded once and used his night vision to scan the trees. Nothing moved.

      He ran to the first trunk and took cover, Dwight taking cover behind another. Night vision revealed no threat. Jasper moved along with Dwight deeper into the trees.

      An explosion thundered and the pressure sent Jasper flying. He landed on his back on the ground, narrowly missing a fallen log. He scrambled on a backward crawl to take cover behind a tree. Searching for Dwight, he saw him the same instant he spotted darkly clad men armed with high-powered rifles rushing through a gaping hole in the rock wall. Some grass and a tree started on fire.

      The cut barbed wire had been a diversion.

      Dwight was slow to regain coherency.

      Seeing a man storm toward Dwight with his weapon ready to fire, Jasper used his rifle scope and found the man through the high-tech optics. The man took two more steps with his rifle aimed, enough time for Jasper to find him in the crosshairs and fire. The man went airborne and fell to the ground, lifeless.

      Jasper counted two, three, four more men scattering when they realized Dwight was covered. Jasper continued firing while Dwight regained his wits and scrambled to a tree trunk. Then Dwight began firing along with Jasper.

      The other guards reached them, going to the opposite side of the gap in the wall. All four of them fired on the intruders. Bark flew off trees. Rapid gunfire exploded against the mountainsides.

      The first of the four remaining attackers fled through the opening in the fence, leaping over the grass fire. The rest returned fire, forcing Jasper to duck for cover.

      “Move!” Dwight shouted.

      Jasper welcomed his vigilance. The enemy was getting away. He saw three figures jumping the fire and vanishing behind the fence.

      He joined Dwight in running after them, seeing the other two guards close behind. Jasper jumped over the fire and took cover at the first tree he came to. Dwight and the other guards fanned out and they all searched with night vision. But there was no sign of the enemy.

      Seeing movement in the trees, Jasper broke into a run. He heard an engine start. As he broke from the stand of trees, he stopped on the side of the dirt road leading to Sadie’s house and saw the last of the remaining men get into a big SUV. The driver began racing away before the doors were all shut.

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