Private Rogue

Chapter 58

Maria screamed and Danny started wailing. Justine instinctively grabbed the girl and pulled her close, so she couldn’t see the horror. Beth did the same with Danny.

“Jim!” Roni yelled.

Jessie tried to pull him inside, but a second bullet struck his skull and his head whiplashed with a sickening crack. Justine had to choke back bile. She swallowed the acrid liquid as Taft fell forward onto the icy porch. That was when Justine saw them: three masked men, all in black, holding machine pistols fitted with suppressors. Jessie tried to shut the front door, but Taft’s body blocked the threshold.

The men were close now, running across the drive past the Nissan. Jessie grabbed Taft’s gun and fired a couple of wild rounds. The men scattered, taking cover behind the vehicles.

Justine heard a noise behind her and turned to see three black-clad men at the glass doors overlooking the waterline. One was working the lock. Roni shot at the man. The bullet made a perfect hole in the glass, hitting him in the shoulder. One of his accomplices dragged him away from the door while the other returned fire, the glass splintering around them.

“Come on,” Roni said. “Upstairs!”

Jessie loosed a couple more rounds to buy time, before pushing Beth and Danny toward the stairs.

Justine and Maria followed behind them as they crossed the marble hallway. Roni was laying covering fire as they ran to the right-hand flight of stairs and raced up them. Justine held Maria’s hand and pulled the distressed girl up after her onto the curved balcony that joined the two staircases.

“He’s setting a charge,” Roni yelled, sprinting after them.

Jessie followed her. As Justine watched the two women race up the staircases, Roni on the left and Jessie on the right, she heard a small explosion and the sound of glass shattering.

“This way,” Roni said. They ran into a corridor leading off to the right.

The children whimpered and cried as they all dashed past a number of bedrooms before reaching a master suite at the very end of the corridor. They bundled inside and Roni shut and locked the door.

Justine heard heavy footsteps on the stairs and the low indistinct sound of whispered instructions.

“They’re coming,” Roni said in a low voice. She ran to the front window. “I’m going to jump,” she said, looking down. “You need to throw the children down to me and then jump after them.”

Danny sniveled and Maria wept.

“We’ve got to do it, kids,” Beth whispered fiercely. “I bet it’s not even that high.”

Justine heard a door being kicked open further along the corridor. They were checking all the bedrooms.

“Come on,” she said, pulling Maria over to the window.

The girl resisted, but Justine was insistent. She knew they had no choice. If they didn’t get out in the next few seconds, all would be lost.

Jessie moved into position by the door and covered it using Taft’s Glock.

Roni holstered her pistol, opened the window and climbed onto the sill. She looked down one last time and dropped. Justine heard a thud and a groan, but when she looked down, Roni was on her feet and had her arms held up to catch the children.

Justine helped Maria onto the sill. “Just don’t look down,” she said.

Maria whimpered and Justine said an inward prayer for forgiveness as she pushed the girl clear. Maria cried out as she fell, but Roni caught her.

Gunshots erupted behind Justine. She turned to see Jessie’s gun smoking and two bullet holes in the door. Jessie signaled there were people on the other side. Justine could hear movement.

“Come on,” she said, trying to control her rising panic.

Beth helped her lift Danny onto the sill.

“Don’t be scared, Dan,” Beth said. “Maria’s done it.”

He turned to face the opening, and Justine pushed him. He squealed as he fell, but hit Roni as intended and the two of them tumbled into the snow.

“Go,” Justine told Beth. She clambered onto the sill and jumped without hesitation.

Jessie fired another couple shots through the door.

“Let’s go, Jess,” Justine said, urging her colleague over.

Justine heard a gunshot then a scream. She looked down to see Roni clutching her chest and staggering before she fell to the ground. Three masked men were dragging Beth, Danny and Maria away.

Jessie ran over, but there wasn’t a clear shot.

“We can’t go out that window,” she said. “We’ll be picked off as we hit the ground.”

She ran back to the door, stood to one side, flung it open and peered round the frame.

“It’s clear,” she said.

She waved Justine forward and the two of them hurried through the house. They met no resistance. All the rooms were empty. They ran down the stairs, Justine feeling a renewed wave of nausea as they passed Taft’s body. They got outside just in time to see Beth being bundled into an unmarked white van at the end of the drive. Before the side door was closed, Justine caught a glimpse of Maria and Danny inside, both held by masked men. The door slid shut and the van sped away.

Justine ran to the Nissan.

“It’s no good,” Jessie said, indicating the wheels of the SUV and the adjacent Suburban.

All four tires on both cars had been slashed. They’d be next to useless in normal conditions, but completely out of action in the snow.

Justine fell to her knees. Jack was dead, and now Beth and the children had been taken. The crushing weight of defeat bore down on her and made her feel as though she couldn’t breathe. Her whole body shuddered and shook. When she was finally able to draw breath, she started to weep and felt as though she might never stop.