Midnight Kiss (Men of Midnight #7) - Lisa Marie Rice Page 0,92

will take you out in an instant. I can’t let that happen. If you’re in the gun locker, you’ll be safe until our guys can make it. The gun locker will withstand anything, including grenades and maybe even an RPG. If they are conscious of sound discipline they won’t use grenades or an RPG though. I can plan to keep the drone shooting in the wrong direction until you’re inside the locker.

This was not ok, but Luke looked absolutely determined. His determined look was different from that of the men she was used to dealing with. Their looks were stubborn. His was the look of a man who simply could not be swayed and that terrified her. She’d just found him and she couldn’t lose him, simply couldn’t.

He wasn’t going to be swayed by the mention of danger or the fact that he’d probably die, something that would be a major deterrent for most of the men she knew.

That wasn’t going to work here.

So in the short time she had before he gathered his strength for what might well be a last sprint, she had to convince him to do the thing that would save his life.

She clutched his hand. “Listen, if that drone has thermal imaging a bloom of heat and light will burn its receptors, for a moment at least, until the subset of instructions closes the lens. So we need to create a controlled fire. But not one that will kill us in the locker if it spreads. Which leaves that fancy fireplace. Can you turn on the gas fire remotely?”

His eyes widened for a moment then he nodded. “It might just work,” he murmured.

“Of course it will.” She was exasperated.

That earned her a small smile.

“When I turn it on, we could make a small Molotov cocktail and toss it onto the fire to make it flare. That will really blind the drone.” He spoke with effort, through clenched teeth.

“Um. We’d have to toss it exactly into the fire. That’s hard.”

It was his turn to look exasperated. “I am a very good baseball player and I have excellent aim.”

He also had a bullet wound in his shoulder but maybe now was not the time to mention that. Luke got to his knees, with a difficulty he tried to disguise, thermal blanket over him. He started to shuffle toward the drinks cabinet but she stopped him.

“Let me.” Before he could protest, she duckwalked under the thermal blanket, grabbed a bottle and a lighter near the little forest of candles and made it back in record time. “Here.”

Luke was staring at the bottle.

“What?” she asked impatiently.

He had a peculiar expression on his face. “This is a 40-year-old single malt. It probably costs three hundred dollars.”

Hope heroically refrained from rolling her eyes. “Then take a big slug or three before you toss it. Probably act as a pain killer. You don’t need to aim. Reducing your pain would probably be worth being slightly soused.”

Luke’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t get soused on a few slugs.”

“Luke.” God, now was not the time for him to get all macho on her, when he’d been so good up until now. “Light the fire and throw the damned bottle. And then we run.”

He gave a sharp nod, thumbed an app on his cell while taking a couple of healthy slugs of the amber liquor. The instant they heard the whoosh of the fireplace lighting, he capped the bottle and threw it. He didn’t peek around the corner and he didn’t even turn around. He threw it backhand over the couch.

As they moved as fast as they could while crouched, she chanced a look over her shoulder and damned if he hadn’t thrown it perfectly. The entire fireplace area was in flames. The intensity of the light and heat must have thrown the drone into disarray because another fusillade of bullets came immediately, killing a couch, a cabinet and two expensive-looking vases.

By the time the bullets stopped, Luke was pulling the door of the gun locker closed. It closed with the soft whump of an expensive car door. The instant it was closed, Luke put his back to the wall and slumped down. He looked terrifyingly white. He looked — no, she wasn’t going there.

“Whoa, that was one perfect pitch, slick. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone throw like that before. I’m glad you got a taste of that super expensive whisky, otherwise such a shame for it to go to waste. Though it wasn’t