Page 20 of Witness Security Breach

They had to turn around and go back. It was worth too much to leave the flash drive behind. They could pop more smoke, surround them and take them out.

“Hey, D,” Tate said over comms. “We’ve got a serious problem.”

Make that two problems. “What is it?”

“Those two marshals are following us in the cop car. Lights flashing.”

Then the siren started blaring.

Fury pooled in Devlin’s gut. It burned him to the bone that those two were in possession of the flash drive and would soon have every cop in the city chasing after them. With that kind of heat, they’d never make it out of San Diego.

They needed to find an alternate place to ditch the vans sooner than planned. In five minutes, SDPD would have a helicopter in the air and over their position.

First, he’d take care of those marshals. Teach them both a lesson they’d never forget.

“T, we no longer need the wife,” Devlin said. “Injure her. Make it critical and toss her.”

The Package’s eyes flared wide in horror. “No! You can’t. You promised you wouldn’t kill her.”

Devlin sighed. “I told him to wound her, didn’t I? Not kill her.”

Chapter Six

“Nice touch with the siren,” Aiden said to Charlie.

He was kicking himself about losing two colleagues, plus Edgar and his wife, but it wasn’t over. Not yet.

Charlie had been the first to make a beeline to the cruiser. When others might buckle and concede defeat, she bucked up and dug in for the fight.

She was relentless.

God, he loved her. Always had. Always would.

After they checked the patrol officer and saw he was dead, they took off in pursuit. Charlie had radioed in the incident to the police, giving the make and model of the vans, but there were no license plates. The cops’ response would be faster and more widespread than the Marshals’—hot and heavy with one of their own gunned down. No mercy would be shown.

Aiden was closing the distance up to the rear van.

Only a few hundred yards separated them.

The sliding door slashed open. A face covered in a skull mask peered out, and then the man threw Sharon from the van.

Panic seized Aiden as her body slammed to the blacktop, bounced violently several times and rolled to a stop on her back.

Those heartless bastards.

Aiden stomped on the brakes in front of the woman.

They both hustled out of the car and to her side. There were scrapes and bruises all over her, but her left thigh was covered in blood.

It didn’t look like it had been caused by the fall out of the van.

Aiden peeled back the fabric where her pants had been torn. A fountain of blood spurted.

Jeez. The femoral artery had been sliced. This wasn’t like the cut on his arm, something within their power to control. In three to five minutes she would bleed out. It could take that long or longer for an ambulance to reach them.

If they didn’t get her medical help right away, she’d die here on this road.

That was what those men were counting on. Marshals giving up the chase to save a life.