Runaway Heiress. Jennifer Morey

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.