Chapter 4 - The Corrupt Badge
I dove behind the overturned sofa just as a suppressed gunshot hit the wall.
Wood splinters rained down on my hair.
A man dressed in black tactical gear stepped slowly out of the kitchen shadows.
"Sheriff Miller sends his regards," the man mocked in a low voice.
He aimed his pistol precisely at the edge of the sofa.
I knew he was waiting for me to peek around the corner.
I looked down at the shattered glass covering the rug.
I picked up a heavy shard from a broken coffee table.
I tossed the glass across the room toward the fireplace.
The assassin spun around and fired two rapid shots at the noise.
I lunged out from behind the sofa with the bat raised high.
I brought the wood down onto his firing arm with a sickening crunch.
The man howled in pain and dropped his weapon.
I did not stop moving.
I swung the bat horizontally and struck him across the ribs.
He collapsed onto the floor, clutching his side and gasping for air.
I kicked his weapon away into the dark hallway.
I grabbed him by the collar of his tactical vest and pulled him up.
"Where is the estate?" I growled into his face.
He spit blood onto my boots and laughed.
"You are too late, old man," he sneered.
"They already have the girl and the flash drive."
I threw him back onto the ground.
I grabbed a roll of duct tape from the kitchen drawer and bound his hands tightly.
I helped Dr. Ellis sit up against the wall.
"Call the state police," I told the doctor.
"Do not trust anyone from the county department."
I walked out of the house and got back into my battered truck.
The Voss family compound was located twenty miles north on a private mountain road.
I knew exactly where it was.
I had helped pour the concrete foundations for that property twenty years ago.
I knew every blind spot and every access tunnel on that estate.
I drove into the night with a cold, hollow feeling in my chest.
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My headlights cut through the darkness like knives.
Suddenly, a massive explosion illuminated the sky above the mountain.
