Page 51 of Russian Rescue

With a squeal, she handed Marcus the strap from her harness. He attached it to his chest then shouted, “Hold onto the strap there, and jump.”

The door opened, and the first guard stopped when he saw the bodies, then his gaze lifted toward us. Amanda spun to look at the door and screamed when she saw the men staring at us. I fired off two shots and hit the man in the doorway and the one just coming around the corner, but the others were behind the wall. I fired several shots hoping to pierce the wall and take them out too, but the wall was too thick for this caliber bullet.

“Now, Amanda!” Marcus shouted.

Amanda jumped out the window with an ear-piercing scream.

“You good?” Marcus asked.

“Just get her safe. I’m fine.”

He trusted my decision and disappeared from the window as he descended rapidly down the rope. I dropped behind the couch, using it for cover as I waited for the guards to come in again. Their comms crackled to life, and I listened to them in the hallway calling for backup. My brow furrowed when their panicked Russian blended into a different language.

“Did you catch that?” I asked Wes.

“Catch what?”

“They’re speaking Ukrainian.”

“Yeah, I heard that, but right now, I don’t care what language they’re speaking, just kill them and get the hell out of there!”

“Roger that.” I stayed low and listened, waiting until I heard four sets of feet enter the room. They pointed to the shattered window and rushed toward it. When I knew they were near, I popped up and fired my pistol. Each bullet found its target, and the last four bodies dropped dead on the floor.

“Nice,” Wes said. “Now get your ass out of there!”

I didn’t waste a second and ran to the window. Grabbing my descender tight, I swung out and started rapidly sliding down the rope. When I reached the bottom, Marcus and Amanda were crouched in the shadows.

“You good?” Marcus asked.

“Yep. Let’s roll.”

Wes turned on the headlights of the dark sedan and tore across the street, skidding to a stop beside us. Marcus tossed Amanda into the back seat and climbed in beside her. I jumped in the front, barely getting the door shut before Wes took off.

“Wes!” Amanda shouted, then crawled up from the floor, wrapping her arms around his neck from behind. “Oh my God! It’s you! What are you doing here? What’s happening?”

“You’re safe now, baby sis. We got you.”

I sat up straight and caught Wes’s gaze. He mouthed “thank you” to me as he sped the car off and out of the city.

We made it out of the city and picked Knox up from the side of the road that he’d hiked to after safely landing his helicopter. He crawled into the back seat, his large frame squishing them all together.

“I should have called shotgun,” Marcus grunted as he wiggled for more room.

Wes looked into the rearview. “Put your seatbelts on.” He glanced at me. “You too, Piper.”

With a snort, I blurted out, “Seriously? I just jumped out of a stalled helicopter, got in a shootout, and repelled down a thirty-story building, and you think I need my seat belt?”

“Safety first, baby.” He grinned and jutted his chin toward my seatbelt.

Groaning, I reached over and strapped it across me.

Amanda sat squished between Knox and Marcus in the back seat, still looking shell-shocked. “So, you’re not a computer programmer?”

Wes chuckled. “Um, no.”

“You’re what? Like a secret agent?”

He sucked his cheek. “Not technically. These guys are the secret agents. I’m just the guy who keeps them alive with my computer skills.”