Burnt Sienna

The steps caught Malone by surprise, his right shoe striking one. He felt a metal rail to his left and started up, only to stiffen as a furious voice in the other corridor shouted, “I heard something!”

Malone worked higher up the stairs. Sie

“That way!” the angry voice shouted.

Jesus, Malone thought. As the men’s footsteps raced closer, Jeb yanked open a door. Gray light spilled in. The door’s hinges grated.

“Around that corner!” one of the men yelled.

Silhouetted against the light in the tu

Malone fired, hit one of them, and fired again, absorbing the pistol’s recoil while the remaining three men scrambled back around the corner. One of them cursed, but Malone barely heard it – his ears rang painfully, as if someone had slammed hands against them.

He whirled and ran the rest of the way up the steps, entering a utility room, where Sie

Jeb hefted a large plastic container marked CHLORINE TABLETS and set it on the table. Malone did the same with a second container. It was heavy, but not enough. Any moment, the men would ram their shoulders against the door.

Malone hurried with Jeb and Sie

The stable, Malone thought. He motioned for Jeb and Sie

His shoes slipped on mud. He fought for traction and ran harder. The rain made the dusk gray enough that he prayed they couldn’t be seen from the burning house or from the pool area. The stable loomed closer. They splashed through puddles, reaching a door.

The rectangular building hadn’t been used in quite a while. A horse trailer was covered with cobwebs. The ten stalls along each side were empty except for dusty straw and more cobwebs.

Straining to catch his breath, Malone peered out the open door toward the pool area. While he had time, he ejected the magazine from the grip of his pistol and checked to see how many rounds were left. He couldn’t assume that it had been full when he picked it up – the man from whom he had taken it might have fired several times before he was shot. He was right. The weapon, a 9-mm Beretta, the same type of pistol Malone had used in the military, could hold as many as sixteen rounds, but only nine were left.

“Do you see anybody?” Jeb asked.

“There.” Sie

“But I don’t see the others.” Malone immediately understood. “Jesus, they’ve split up. They’ll be coming at us from three sides.”

Jeb pulled out a pistol. “There aren’t any doors along each side. I’ll watch the one at the far end.”

“How can I help?” Sie

“We don’t have another gun. Take cover.”

“I see one of them,” Jeb said from the other end. “He’s still too far away. I can’t get a shot at him.”

Malone stared at the man hurrying toward them along the lane. Abruptly the man sank behind the fence that flanked it. “This one’s taking cover, sneaking up.”

“But where’s the third one?” Jeb asked.

Straining for a glimpse of a target, Malone told Sie

But when he glanced in her direction, he didn’t see her. He looked in another direction and saw a ladder that led to a platform above him. She was halfway up.

“What are you -” Immediately he quit talking, his attention totally focused on the gunman in the lane, who suddenly appeared at an open gate and dashed through the rain to the cover of a shed.

Malone aimed, ready for him to emerge on the right or the left.

Above, amid the rain drumming on the corrugated metal roof, Malone heard Sie

“There’s a window,” she said.

“For God sake, be careful.” He kept aiming.

“I’m high enough that I can see him behind the shed. He’s -”

Her abrupt silence made Malone tense.

“He’s motioning to someone on your right,” she said. “He’s pointing toward the side of the building. The third man must be heading toward it. He’s going to sneak along it on your blind side.”

Several rapid thunks at Jeb’s end of the building sounded like bullets slamming into wood.

“Jesus, are you okay?” Malone asked. “I didn’t hear the shots.”

“He’s using a silencer,” Jeb said.

A thought nagged at Malone, but before he could analyze the implications, the man behind the shed fired three rapid shots toward the open door. As Malone pressed himself against the wall next to the door, bullets splintered the slats of a stall behind him. But he didn’t hear the shots, and not because of the ringing in his ears. This gunman, too, was using a sound suppressor. Why?

“The one behind the shed is looking to your right again,” Sie

Malone understood. The gunman behind the shed would keep firing to distract Malone while the third man crept next to the door and waited for Malone to return fire. The moment Malone revealed his position, the third man would make his move.

“The man behind the shed just nodded,” Sie

Malone scrambled back to the cover of the building. Studying the men he had shot to make sure they weren’t moving, he realized that Sie

Jeb was next to him also. “The third man took off through the woods. But the ones at the house are ru

“They work for Laster,” Malone said.

“How do you know?”

The thought that had nagged at Malone became clear. “The men I shot wouldn’t have used sound suppressors unless they didn’t want the men at the house to hear them. Laster’s men managed to fight off the attack.”

“Yes,” Jeb said. “I see Laster.”

“Go out and tell him we’re safe,” Malone said.

“You’re not coming with me?”

“Sie

Jeb hesitated, massaging his left thigh, where he’d been shot the night Malone had saved his life in Panama City. “Sure.” He hesitated longer. “You’ve earned it.”