Chapter 11
Melanie's POV
We arrived at the house and hurried inside, I made the introductions.
"Miranda, Maddie these are my friends Ty and Sasha, they'll be helping us while we stay here."I said.
Ty and Sasha were apart of my army team back in the day, they were willing to help when I arranged a back up plan earlier.
Miranda and Maddie were shown to their rooms by Ty as Sasha and I began stratigizing our best defense for when they came for us.
"Ty's got his sniper set up upstairs, I'll take the front, side and back on the right side, while you do the same on the left."Sasha told me, pointing to the different areas on the sketch of their house.
"Sounds good, my team will come in from the west side giving them a wide firing range for the front."I added, and we shared a smile.
"Just like the old days."she said happily, before heading to the kitchen.
"Yeah, feels like it too."I said to myself but shook it off,
'This was different from back then and I had more people to help me.'I thought as Miranda came up to me.
"Where will I be stationed?"she asked, I shook my head.
"You'll be staying with Madison, she'll be scared and might try to run away or something. We need her calm and quiet, you're the only who can do that."I explained.
"I can help, don't sit me on the sideline!"she argued back at me.
"I know, and you will be helping by being with Maddie."I told her, she didn't look convinced. "If we really need for fire power, I'll call you. Ok?"I added.
"Fine, you're a piece of work Ms. Cole."she said in a huff.
"Listen to me, my mission is to protect you and your daughter. I will not put either of you in the line of fire, I can't risk that but I will do everything in my power to keep both of you safe. The least you can do is follow orders!"I told her in truth and irritation.
She nodded and walked off as Ty came in,
"Nice work, you handled that pretty well."he told me and smiled. "In the old days, you two would have been fighting all over the floor."he mused a sparkle in his eye.
"Thanks, yeah that's about right. I'll be back in a minute."I told him and went off down the hall to see Madison.
Barney's POV
We were twenty minutes out now, but no matter how hard I hit the gas we didn't seem to go any faster.
"We'll get there, so long as you don't kill us first."Lee said as if he knew what I was thinking.
"I know, lets check in with the others."I told him and picked up the radio.
"How you boys doin'?"I asked them, even though I could pretty much guess how they were doing; willing and waiting.
"We fine here."Yang answered, "How long before we get there?" Gunnar added.
"Eighteen minutes."I replied checking the road.
"Barney, can't we go any faster? Mel needs us."Toll said.
Lee took the radio from my hand, "Toll, if he drives any faster we won't make it there!"he told him irritated as I took the turn a little too fast and he hit the car door.
"I see what you mean."Toll replied as Lee looked at me sharply.
"You did that on purpose."he said to me,
"Maybe, maybe not."I said, he rolled his eyes at me. I chuckled as we hurried on leaving a big cloud of dust behind us.
Melanie's POV
I knocked on her door, "It's Melanie, may I come in?"I said.
"Sure."came her response and I went inside.
Maddie was sitting on the bed holding a pillow against her chest, she looked scared to me and in need of comfort. I sat on the floor in front of her and smiled.
"This is my old room, I even marked my initials in the bedpost. See?"I said pointing them out to her.
"Cool, Melanie, what do you do when you're scared?"she asked, so offering her a distraction didn't work too well.
"Well, I talk about it with someone. They'd often give me advice or show me something to make me feel better."I replied.
"I'm scared that big men are going to come and take me away and they'll shoot all of you."she said quietly, I felt so sorry for her being caught in the middle of all this.
"You don't need to worry about us, we can take care of ourselves and shoot them right back. I'd like to show you something, but it's a secret ok?"I told her, she nodded her eyes lighting up with excitment.
I crawled over to the corner where the air vent sat, pulled out the screws and poked my head in with one hand I pushed back the cover above and slid back out.
"Go ahead, it's alright."I urged her inside.
She crawled into the vent and up into the hidden crawl space I had made in my youth to hide away from everything. All my things were still in there; a chair, table, books, magazines for dogs, paper and markers for drawing, and blocks too.
"Wow!"she exclaimed, taking a quick look around and came back to me. "That's amazing, I like it a lot."she said happily.
I smiled, "Good, if it gets to be too much for you just hide in there, you'll be safe as long as you close the door behind you. Got it?"
"Yes, I got it. Thank you Melanie, I feel better now."she said.
"You're welcome, and one last tip; when you hear the loud bang sound stay on the floor, right down on your tummy."I told her.
Maddie nodded quickly, I smiled and walked out back to the kitchen.
I sat down with Sasha and noticed Miranda in the livingroom,
"Ty's upstairs keeping an eye out."Sasha informed me as I got some water from the pitcher.
"Get down!"Ty's voice called and I hit the floor and Miranda did too just before a bullet hit the pitcher splashing water on my back; they were here.
Moving quickly Sasha and I got our guns as Miranda went down the hallway to her room, we took our positions as the house was sprayed in bullets and we started fighting back.
Lee's POV
I saw the house and not a minute later the jeeps rushing towards it, bullets flying everywhere. I pulled out my gun and leaned through the window firing on their jeeps, as Barney and the others did the same.
The comms were up now as the enemy now returned fire on us and it got to be pretty loud, movement from the house and the firing suggested three people were fighting from there but that made no sense.
"Mel, who's in there with you?"I asked knowing she had her comm too.
"A couple of my army buddies, best of the best. Glad you got here."she said.
The men were dropping quickly between all of us but I didn't see Cutter anywhere, through the cab of the car I could see Barney scanning around for him too.
A flash caught my eye at the back of the house, "Mel, watch the back!"I ordered as a jeep came into view.
Melanie's POV
I rushed to the back hearing a shot on my way, and two shots were returned. I got to the back and saw Miranda beside the doorway returning fire, my anger flared but I took position beside the window firing as well.
The firing outside stopped, I scanned around but saw nothing, Miranda and I looked at each other and an arm grabbed Miranda around her shoulders while the other hand grabbed her gun and shot at me, I ducked behind a filing cabinet.
When I came up they were gone, I rushed outside firing at the jeep's tires but nothing. I ran for my jeep at the side of the house, Ty had moved it earlier, and chased after them.
"We're right behind you."Barney said in my ear,
"Gotcha."I said seeing their jeep in my mirror.
When we passed a stand alone tree on the road, I made a sharp left and floored it.
"What the hell are you doing?!"Lee yelled at me.
"Stay on him, I know where he's headed I'll try and cut him off."I replied as we reached the city.
I figured where he'd come through but miss calculated and he cut by me arriving to the river, the man came off a boat got Miranda and put her below as Cutter began driving off.
I ran for the dock and grabbed a jetski off a guy who had just come in, "Hey!" he yelled angrily as I drove away, I'd buy him a new one after this.
Cutter glanced back and saw me following him, moving faster, I gunned the throttle closing the gap between us. I needed to get close to the boat for my plan to work, I pushed the ski harder and got close enough to jump for the railing.
I grabbed it tightly as he turned sharply right to avoid the dock which I just launched the ski into making it explode, thankfully no one was on the dock.
Scrambling over the railing, I crept below sneaking up on the man gurading Miranda and put him in a choke hold until he was out cold and laid him on the floor before untying her.
"Thank you, I'm sorry. I should have listened to you."she whispered, I nodded.
"Listen to me now then, I'm going to distract Cutter and I need you to climb up and steer the boat ok?"I whispered to her, she nodded firmly.
Lee's POV
We drove along the road following the river, I was surprised when Mel actually jumped onto the boat, she was coming out from below now and took a stance at the space in the back.
Cutter moved from the controls down to Melanie, while Miranda climbed up to take the controls. The two circled each other and I wished I was with Mel to help her; this guy was a highly trained killer.
He rushed at Mel, she stood hunched down ready for the blow but instead of plowing into to her, he kicked out her leg making her fall to one knee before grabbing her around the waist and throwing her at the ladder.
She hit it mostly with back and fell to the deck but quickly got to her feet as he pulled a knife and moved to the left away from him.
I didn't get why she didn't pull her own knife, I knew she was packing, she never went without now a days. It also occured to me that Miranda could just stop the boat but then they'd both have to face him and Melanie wouldn't put a client in harm's way.
Cutter moved forward for swiping this way and that, she dodged and he aimed for her mid section, though she moved her stomach in the knife caught her as when it came up it had blood on it.
Melanie stood up and said something because Cutter's facial expression changed from cocky to surprised and then she rushed at him full force knocking him off the boat, but she too went in right along with him.
Barney drove for the nearest dock as did Miranda but I watched for Mel to resurface my eyes not leaving the water; even as we got out and ran down the dock.
They surfaced Cutter waving his arms all over the place, Mel grabbed him by the upper body and swam with him over to the dock.
Barney took Cutter up and locked him the trunk while I helped Melanie.
"You alright Mel? You're all wet again."I said lightly.
"Yeah, I'm aware of that. Just need a few bandages here and there before we head out again."she said.