Page 95 of Ultimate Justice

“Cuff her, too” he directed one of the cops. When the woman—Margaret, he assumed—had been searched, he tugged her phone from his pocket. The recent call log indicated a call made less than a minute ago. So much for a stealthy entry.

Evan read Margaret her rights. “A woman and a boy are here. Marlie and Noah. Where are they?”

She thrust her chin at him. “There’s no one here by those names.”

He unclipped his phone and dialed Marlie’s number. The song “I Need A Hero” blared from a few feet away. He whipped his head around. Keeping the phone pressed to his ear, he took a few steps, following the sound. Tall grass lined the road. The music stopped when his call went to voicemail. He hit redial.

Again, music blared from somewhere nearby. If the situation weren’t so dire, he would have laughed his ass off at the ringtone she’d assigned him. Using his foot, he pushed the grass aside until he found the phone.

He glared at Margaret. No problem. He’d be sure to tack on a false statement charge to the long list of crimes she’d be indicted on. “Get them out of here,” he said to the nearest cop.

Two officers escorted John and Margaret to the patrol units.

A dark-gray BearCat armored tactical vehicle barreled toward them, braking to a stop. Five men and one woman exited, decked out with Kevlar body armor and helmets and M-16s.

“What have you got, and what do you need?” the SWAT lieutenant asked Sgt. Browning.

“Active shooter,” Browning said.

“With hostages, including children,” Evan added. Marlie and Noah, he now assumed. “We don’t know how many people are in there. When we flew over the property today, there were around ten houses, a large church-like building, two warehouses, and tarp-covered fields I have reason to believe are illegal marijuana grows. There’s at least one high-powered rifle, maybe more.”

“Do we have time to launch a drone?” the lieutenant asked. “I’d feel better knowing how many bodies we’re up against.”

“You can launch one,” Evan said, shaking his head, “but this guy just shot down a chopper. He won’t think twice about shooting down a drone. Besides, time’s not on our side, and I’m not waiting around. We have exigent circumstances working for us right now. The more time that passes, we stand more of a chance of losing that legal coverage.” No way was he about to let that happen, and he wanted to get in there to find Marlie and Noah ASAP. “What I need is for all these cars blocking the gate to get out of the way. Then I need you to break down the gate.”

“My pleasure.” The lieutenant grinned, raising his hand in the air and making a circling motion with his finger. The rest of his team got back into the BearCat.

Browning pointed to the two marked units blocking the gate. “Move these cars out of the way!”

Officers hustled to back the vehicles out of the BearCat’s path.

“We’ll be right behind you,” Deck said, then he and Brett ran back to their SUVs.

“Blue, with me!” Evan opened the driver’s side of John and Margaret’s truck. Blue jumped in and sat in the passenger seat. Evan got behind the wheel, then did a tight K-turn and drove the truck forward another fifty feet, well away from the BearCat’s destructive path.

In the rearview, he watched the armored vehicle start rolling forward, picking up speed as the driver gunned it. The sound of the BearCat slamming into the gate was louder than a crack of thunder. The gate flew clear off its hinges, landing well to the side of the road.

The cavalry lined up behind him. “Let’s do this.”

Chapter Thirty-One

Evan slammed his foot on the gas, rocketing the pickup down the rutted road. The truck swayed back and forth violently to the point where his head whacked the window. Beside him, Blue wobbled in the seat, struggling to stay upright.

Directly behind him were Cheyenne PD cars, the SWAT armored truck, with Brett and Deck taking up the rear. Still no sign of Marlie’s pickup, but he was dead sure she was here.

Several hundred feet later, the road descended down a steep ravine, forcing him to brake or risk careening off the road and plummeting God knew how many feet down the embankment. The white houses he’d seen from the air came into view. Not old structures but not new, either. Around thirty years old.

He put the truck in park. The other vehicles wagon-training behind him also stopped. Evan got out, leaving the door open for Blue.

Every house looked meticulously maintained, with a grassy yard surrounded by a white picket fence. The green grass was a stark contrast to the dusty dirt road. None of the houses had garages. Tire tracks led away from where he stood, but the only vehicles were those pickups he’d seen from the chopper.

Slowly, he did a one-eighty, keeping his rifle at the ready as he scanned the houses, searching for signs of movement. The air was still and quiet. Deadly quiet. Not the slightest hint of wind or sound came to him.

Something wasn’t right here. A sense of evil hung over the place just as surely as the sun was up there somewhere behind the thick clouds.

Not wanting them to be sitting ducks longer than necessary, he signaled to the SWAT vehicle and the other units to join him. Within seconds, everyone had gathered at the tailgate, including Deck and Brett with their K-9s.

“Search every house,” he ordered. “I only saw one shooter from the air, but there could be more. Keep in mind there could also be children on site.” Making their job that much harder. He wanted that shooter so badly he could taste it, but safeguarding children came first, middle, last, and always. “Let’s go.”