Game of Secrets and Shadows (Book One in the Covert Operations series)

Six

I didn't look back.

There was some emotion trying to claw its way out of my chest but I couldn't, wouldn't, let it overpower me. There was a man after my brother and soon he would learn that it would be the last thing he'd ever do. Nobody attacked my family.

I reached the second floor and heard a shout of pain coming from my brother's bedroom. I drew the gun up, checked the chamber and saw that it was still loaded, and crept quickly but quietly towards my brother's room. I turned the corner, saw a large bald man with a gun out and pointed towards the closet where, presumably, my brother was.

The man didn't hear me. Maybe he wasn't paying attention. Maybe he was too focused on the fact that he was getting ready to shoot my brother. Either way, it didn't matter because his distraction was all the opening I needed.

Under any other circumstances, I would have chosen a different course. I would have gone for the more complicated path, the one where I tried to subdue the man, knock him out and then run. But I wasn't in a training exercise like at school where, if I failed, I could just try again tomorrow. This was real life and screwing up meant death. Not just for me but for Wes too. He'd just lost mom and now, though he didn't know it yet, dad too. He was an orphan. I was an orphan. And so I couldn't endanger his life anymore than it had already become.

I planted my feet. Raised the gun. Pulled the trigger.

An echoing bang. A flash of bright, harsh light. A body falling to the floor with a dull thud with a puddle of thick blood already forming around his head.

From inside the closet there was a cry of surprise. I rushed forward and peeked inside. Wes was huddled in the back of the closet, his blue eyes wide and young with shock. His sand-colored hair was disheveled, messed up from sleep. When he saw me, he flinched away, eyes growing wider again but with terror.

"Are you alright?" I asked. I tried to keep my voice as soft and reassuring as possible.

Wes didn't even respond. He didn't make any move that showed that he even heard me. If anything, he just looked more scared at the sound of my voice. His eyes trained on the gun in my hand and then flicked over to the body on the ground before, daringly, he raised them to mine.

If I'd had the time I would have coaxed him out of the closet gently, explained what had happened. But no sooner had I spoken did the sound of large vehicles sound from outside and saw the flash of headlights against the windows of Wes's room. I wouldn't have paid them any mind had I not seen seen them stop, directly across the street from the house.

A heavy weight settled into my gut and I heard my father's words echoed in my mind. Not safe.

No kidding.

"Come on," I said to Wes urgently. "We have to go."

He frowned at me, as if understanding for the first time that I wasn't going to hurt him. I didn't think he'd recognized me yet. Hadn't realized who I really was in relation to him. "Wh—?"

"Now!"

Wes scrambled to his feet. He moved to follow me out of the room and staggered when he went to pass the man lying dead on the floor. After a second, remarkably, he regained his composure and crept after me hesitantly as I headed for the stairs. There was a sense of dread in my stomach. We'd have to go out the back which meant that we'd walk right past dad's body.

I felt like throwing up.

But, I pressed on, Wes a half-step behind me the entire way. We descended rapidly and as we went down I caught movement outside the front door. There were a few dark shapes moving infinitely closer, but they were taking their time, so as not to alert anyone to their presence. I knew, though, that the second they were through the door, all bets were off. They wouldn't care about the noise, so long as they got what they came for and since I wasn't entirely certain what that was at the moment, all I knew was that it was my responsibility to get my brother out of here alive.