It took nearly an hour but for a graceful while he could listen to her linger through the house and let the sound of her trap him lulling into a kind of domestic innocence that hadn't existed in his life for long years. He let it belong to him for a bit, owned the presence of her living normal minutes in a normal house. Except that the situation was so far from normal that he snorted a silently despondent laugh into it. He'd shifted to the edge of her bed, a burning cigarette in the ashtray that he'd left aside, head cocked into the nearly comforting ripple of water running. He flinched, knowing how close her sink was to the broad kitchen windows, but before his hands had fully clenched the sound died off.
"Good girl." He nodded as he reached for the cigarette, piecing it between his lips as he unzipped the sweatshirt, catching the lighting of his silenced phone from the table.
He inhaled as he checked the message from Teller.
"North corner window."
Bedroom window. Exactly what he'd pinned his bets on.
"Told her you were a fuckin' idiot." He muttered and stubbed the cigarette as he considered the assault rifle, head cocked over it before he shrugged his shoulder against it and backed into the wall beside the window frame.
He drew both blades from their sheathes as he shook his head back against the wall, the sound of her in the kitchen a tinted echo to the sound of a sudden rattle on the window beside his head.
He wasn't ready to trade in the heartened sound of her down the hall.
He was, however, perfectly prepared to silence one noise to keep the other close.
It was the sound of breaking glass that shattered the feigned wall of false security she'd built around herself. But even the crashed crumbling of it didn't stall her from moving down the hall with her firearm already in her hand. And even the raking sound of a scuffle landing against a wall didn't stop her from pulling it up into the doorway, head lifted into the way Telford was already twisting the full blade of one of his knives into the shoulder of a familiar blonde.
He was wrapped up along Dulane's shoulder blades, ferocious in the reach of his arms as the gloved hand twisted the blade harder, the other hand bracing the other knife into the younger man's throat. The crushing of his arms and the twisting he was jamming into his wrist was angling the both of them slowly down toward the floor, The Scot's movements terrifying controlled as he drew them both down into crumpled glass and carpet. The sound of his knees grating glass match the shunted groan the deputy leaned off into the air.
"Stop." Her voice collapsed over him and he flicked her a deadened glance that didn't sway from its original intent. "Filip, stop."
"Chibs?" Her shoulders tensed into thrummed call of Teller's voice, the other man already leaned into the doorway behind her. She realized easily that Jax's weapon wasn't aimed in the same direction as hers, and while it wasn't necessarily drawn at her, it was swung low and closer to her than in Telford's direction. The urge to continue guarding the Scot won out the battle against her distrust for the blonde at her side.
Telford's glance strayed between the two of them and she exhaled as he shook his head, taking her gaze and holding it as his wrist bore down harder.
"Please?" She murmured into a pleading. "You don't have to."
"I'm done." He hushed over the weakened groaning Dulane breathed out, blood already pinkly tainting his throat from the paper thin slice that was starting to separate skin.
"Lieutenant - "
"Shut your filthy mouth." Telford's hissed whisper grazed loudly over all three of them and she felt the way Jax tightened around the doorframe, his head turning away from watching her. "Y'don't speak to her."
"Chibs." Jax's gloved hand lifted slowly past the way she was still poised in a trained stance. "She can finish this with a phone call. You can let it go, brother."
"It's done, Jackie." The ride of the other man's voice was riding near manic.
"Naw." Teller shook his head into an intentionally lightened tone, turning a jerked glance into the way Ally lowered the Glock as he softened his voice farther before looking back to Chibs. "You keep going and you're done with something else, I think."
"Stop." She nodded a softened tone to match the breath of the words of the man beside her, holding the browned eyes that were suddenly newly aware of her.
Chibs bit down hard before his arms laxed a fraction, his face slackening as he shook his head into the way she was looking at him. Too much fear and a veering toward reproach. He loosened a little farther, his arms suddenly aching in their tightness. He was watching the nod she gave him as he started shifting the knife from the other man's throat, eyes flicking down the stretch of her arm as her gun came back up sharply. The surprise of the movement in his direction held him sullen still on a possible drop of betrayal, unaware of the hand the deputy was lifting his direction.
The first bullet was hers and the second was Jackson's and they were only a fraction apart.
And both echoed hard on his ear as he ducked to the side, the taste of blood laying onto his lips as he shut his eyes.
"Jesus Christ." Tig's voice was a well of weary heat between the way the two of them were both slumped to the floor. "I can't leave you two alone for an hour?"
"Don't start." Her head dropped back into the bedroom doorframe, a pressing of complete exhaustion pinning her down into the carpet with her gun hand loose to the floor, the weapon barely braced in her fingertips.
"Call Hap." Chibs' voice was just as seemingly weary from the opposite side of the bedroom, his legs bent before him and his back against the wall, both gloved hands leaning his knees. "Shit needs to be cleaned up."
"No." she shook her head slowly, letting her skull rock back and forth on the ridge of the frame. "You all need to clear out so I can call this in."
"No," Chibs dipped his jaw back down as Tig stepped over her lax legs, crouching slowly over the dead deputy's body. "It needs to be quiet. Ya can't explain Jackie's bullet or the knife wounds without puttin' yourself in jeopardy."
"I mean," Tig's head lifted as he bounced a glance back and forth between the two of them, "holy hell, guys. Overkill much?"
"Tiggy." Chibs exhaled hard as his legs went flat, his eyes meeting hers across the room in an aching reach for her warmth. "Stow it."
"Get her outta this room, huh? Get cleaned up." Trager caught the other man's eyes in a gentle softness of agreement, his hand breaking down to catch against Telford's leg, "Hap and I can handle this."
Chibs nodded slowly, catching into the other man's fingers for leverage to stand, "Thank you, brother."
Tig pulled into the reaching, balanced on the balls of his feet to lever the other man off the floor as he shook his head over the mess of blood, "Yeah. You got it."