Chapter 17 - Blood on the Coastal Floor
Luke lunged forward with blind fury, swinging the iron bar. I sidestepped the blow, drove the butt of my shotgun into his ribs, and tackled him through the glass partition into the living room. We crashed onto the floor in a brutal struggle.
Simultaneously, Reid slipped past the main engagement, breaching the basement stairs and charging down toward the safe room. Armed with a heavy breaching hammer, he began pounding against the electronic lock mechanism of the vault door, screaming threats to the children inside.
Inside the vault, Paige looked at the monitor. Seeing Reid attempting to compromise the door, she grabbed a steel emergency crowbar from the supply kit. When the door lock finally sparked and clicked open from the physical damage, Reid kicked the door wide.
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Before he could step through, Paige swung the crowbar with all her strength, striking Reid across the shoulder. The force disoriented him long enough for me to reach the basement landing. I tackled Reid away from the entrance, pinning him to the concrete floor and securing him with heavy-duty tactical zip-ties just as Cole’s team secured the upper levels.
In the living room, Luke lay bruised and disarmed, staring up into the barrel of my weapon as federal sirens began to wail in the distance.
