“What about the computer?”
“Password protected.”
It was time to go. Alex knew these men wouldn’t get what they were after because he already had it. He turned to Colin and nodded. As they stepped back, the floorboard squeaked. They both froze in fear. Peeking through the crack in the door, Alex saw both men freeze.
Shit, now they’d just alerted the men that someone was in the house, and all he had to protect them with was a knife. It was such a rookie mistake. If Nick were here, he’d smack him in the back of the head.
Neither detective spoke. Jones nodded toward Smith, and both pulled out handguns. Things just got a little trickier, but Alex wouldn’t admit Payton was right. Between Colin and himself, they could still subdue them. Even one-armed, Colin was still a capable soldier.
Alex stepped back away from the door entrance to the side so he was out of the line of fire. Colin mimicked his actions, pressing his back against the wall. Alex’s muscles tensed and coiled, his ears strained to pick up the men’s breathing and footfalls to know where they were.
Alex slowed his breathing and waited. It only took a few seconds. The door slowly eased open only a few inches. Enough for a body to slide out of. A sign to Alex these men were professionally trained.
He braced himself for the men to come out one at a time. It would make it easier to take them out that way. Alex pressed himself further against the wall, trying to make himself unnoticeable.
As expected, Smith came out first; he was the muscle and an easier target. Alex waited for him to come out. Once Jones passed him, Alex moved. He kicked out the back of Jones’ knee and twisted his wrist holding the gun until he dropped it. As Jones cried out in pain, Smith whipped around with his gun aimed at Alex. Colin used his prosthetic and smacked the gun out of his hand. Colin swung again for Smith’s face, but Smith just laughed before backhanding Colin into the wall.
Shit, it was going to take both of them to subdue him. Alex wrenched Jones’ arm back and used his momentum to swing him around until his face connected with the wall and was incapacitated. He came up behind Smith and punched him in his kidney.
Smith turned around and grabbed Alex by the throat and lifted him off his feet. Alex instinctively grabbed the hand holding him up and tried punching at his arm to drop him as his air supply was getting cut off. Smith shook him until Alex thought his neck might snap before Smith tossed him away like he was trash.
As he went sailing through the air, he had an epiphany that Payton had been right. He was not prepared for this at all.
Shaking his head to clear the stars he was seeing, Colin jumped on Smith’s back and tried to choke him out with his prosthetic arm. “Go to sleep. Go to sleep. Go to sleep,” Colin chanted, compressing on Smith’s neck. Smith started swinging in circles; Colin looked like a rag doll clinging to his back for dear life.
“Little help,” Colin grunted, as Smith backed against a wall and slammed into Colin over and over again. Alex punched Smith’s stomach like a punching bag, but it was like attacking an armored tank with a fly swatter, for all the good it did.
“How about something other than your hands,” Colin grumbled helpfully.
Trying a different tactic, Alex grabbed a gold ball off a table near the office door and slammed it into Smith’s knee. He heard the sickening crunch of bone shattering. He did it again until the big guy dropped down to his good knee.
Alex took another swing to Smith’s head with the ball. Smith’s eyes rolled into the back of his head, and he fell forward. Alex felt like the mighty giant slayer. He never had a doubt he and Colin couldn’t have handled the situation.
“See, no problem. We had everything under control.” He looked down at the weapon he’d wielded. It was an award, of a globe, for Nick for his excellence in global peace affairs. How fitting.
Colin just glowered at him as he stood bent over trying to catch his breath. “Let’s figure out who these guys are and get out of here.”
Alex set the award down and was reaching into Smith’s pants when Colin cursed and pulled him to the side as bullets went whizzing past him. Jones had woken up and was pissed. The element of surprise was gone. Retreat was their only option. Colin knew it too as he ran for the front door and to their car.
“Do you want to tell me what’s going on now?” Colin asked once they were out of the neighborhood.
Alex didn’t want to, but he’d pulled Colin into it inadvertently. “Those men were after the Intel that’s in the envelope.”
“What’s in it, and don’t bother lying again.” Colin glanced at him out of the corner of his eye with a hard stare. He was pissed and rightly so. This was bigger than Alex would have ever expected.
“Nick was looking into reconnaissance for me. I think that’s the Intel in it.”
“Well, open it and find out.”
He didn’t want to do it on the open road, but he couldn’t avoid it anymore. Alex reached into his back for it but came up empty. “Shit, it’s gone.”
Colin did a double take. “You mean you lost it?”
“I didn’t lose it; I just can’t find it at the moment.” There was a difference.
“Did you drop it when we were fighting?” It was possible but unlikely. He would have felt it as he was rolling across the ground, which meant it had been gone before then. Realization hit him like a slap in the face. “Hate to break it to you, but with those two still in the house, we can’t go back without some firepower.”
“It’s not in the house.” Alex’s hands balled into fists. He wished Smith were here so he could let out some of his frustration.