Night Moves: A Shadow Force Novel Read Free Page A

dead guards along the way whom Reid had taken out soundlessly.
    The guards had gotten cocky and it would be their downfall tonight.
    Kell discovered that Reid had saved a couple of guards for him. They were watching the perimeter of the house from the west, but they were tired, and only focusing on what was in front of them, had not been properly trained—Kell could spot that lack easily.
    Kell took down the first man quietly, so as not to alert the second. When the man slid to the ground with his neck snapped, his partner turned to Kell, who took him out efficiently with a pen to the carotid artery, all the while thinking of the destruction this gang of drug dealers and thugs had caused over the past months for the city’s residents. And now nothingelse mattered but getting this job done. He moved silently to the mansion, which was lit up like a Christmas tree. If there were guards on the roof, they hadn’t spotted him or Reid.
    It was time to put the drug lords to bed for good.
    This was his element—had been for a long time. As he left thinking behind, everything became easier. This was instinctive—the prowl, the hunt … even the kill had become as much a part of him as breathing.
    He wove around to the back of the house—saw the basement windows half buried behind thick bars.
    The glass wasn’t bulletproof, hence the crisscross of metal Rivera thought would keep him safe in the fire- and bombproof bunker.
    Assholes should’ve gotten rid of the windows completely. It allowed Kell to see the targets sitting on a couch, drinking and talking. If he looked directly across the room from his position on his belly, he could see Reid, a mirror image to him.
    Cruz and Rivera in one place—something big must be going down, because this was incredibly stupid on their part.
    Almost as stupid as he and Reid leaving a woman handcuffed in their Jeep, unprotected.
    Head in the game, Kell
.
    Both he and Reid had a perfect shot of their targets. “I’ll take Rivera,” he whispered into the mic around his neck, the words barely voiced, and still Reid heard them clearly.
    “Affirmative. From five—my count,” Reid said. Kell steadied his rifle, adjusted the scope and waited for Reid to begin the countdown. They’d have to takethe shot at the same time or they’d lose one of the men in the ensuing confusion, for sure.
    Kell’s hands remained steady on the trigger. Although he wasn’t a sniper by trade, he’d been trained by the best and he could do this dance when necessary. And when Reid uttered the word
one
, he and Kell fired simultaneously, Kell’s bullet catching Rivera in the heart and Reid getting Cruz between the eyes.
    “Show-off,” Kell muttered, but there was pride in that statement.
    “Let’s move out,” Reid said in his ear. “Drop the cards and let’s go.”
    The government wanted to send a message to the gangs and the drug lords—
we can get to you, and we will
. So Kell dropped the calling cards he’d been given, with the name of some of the higher-ups in the Mexican government who’d promised to clean up the streets of Juarez, even if it killed them—which it might—and then backed down the hill toward the Jeep.
    Time to get the hell out of Dodge. Both men were in the Jeep in record time, finding the woman had shifted a little but was basically in the same position as when they’d left. Kell climbed in next to her to stop her from falling out of the vehicle when Reid gunned it as the house alarms finally sounded.
    Too late to do any good, but it would bring the calvary. They needed to be as far away as possible, which Reid managed with ease. Within twenty minutes they were on the deserted road that had led to their destination, the wind whistling against Kell’s skin calming the adrenaline-fueled rush he’d come to associate with these missions.
    “And the night’s saved,” Reid muttered as they pulled up to the safe house they’d been using for the past few days. “I’ll let Dylan