BooksBarbecue
Back The Neighborhood
Chapters (59)
  1. Part I Reconnaissance
  2. Chapter One
  3. Chapter Two
  4. Chapter Three
  5. Part II Incursion
  6. Chapter Four
  7. Chapter Five
  8. Chapter Six
  9. Chapter Seven
  10. Chapter Eight
  11. Chapter Nine
  12. Chapter Ten
  13. Part III Under Siege
  14. Chapter Eleven
  15. Chapter Twelve
  16. Chapter Thirteen
  17. Part IV Course Correction
  18. Chapter Fourteen
  19. Part V Balance of Power
  20. Chapter Fifteen
  21. Chapter Sixteen
  22. Chapter Seventeen
  23. Chapter Eighteen
  24. Chapter Nineteen
  25. Chapter Twenty
  26. Chapter Twenty-One
  27. Chapter Twenty-Two
  28. Chapter Twenty-Three
  29. Chapter Twenty-Four
  30. Chapter Twenty-Five
  31. Chapter Twenty-Six
  32. Chapter Twenty-Seven
  33. Chapter Twenty-Eight
  34. Chapter Twenty-Nine
  35. Part VI Spy versus Spy
  36. Chapter Thirty
  37. Chapter Thirty-One
  38. Chapter Thirty-Two
  39. Chapter Thirty-Three
  40. Part VII Winds of War and Flame
  41. Chapter Thirty-Four
  42. Chapter Thirty-Five
  43. Chapter Thirty-Six
  44. Chapter Thirty-Seven
  45. Chapter Thirty-Eight
  46. Chapter Thirty-Nine
  47. Chapter Forty
  48. Chapter Forty-One
  49. Part VIII Strong to the Finish
  50. Chapter Forty-Two
  51. Chapter Forty-Three
  52. Part IX Spy Games
  53. Chapter Forty-Four
  54. Chapter Forty-Five
  55. Chapter Forty-Six
  56. Part X What Goes Around
  57. Chapter Forty-Seven
  58. Chapter Forty-Eight
  59. About the Author

“Get down, now!” Zack screamed, as he reached forward and swept upward with an open palm, striking the barrel of the rifle. The impact drove the barrel up and away from Sam, who dropped to the carpet like a limp doll.

The shooter, dressed in a police uniform, reacted to the attack and pulled the trigger, and a series of six or seven shots erupted in blinding flashes in front of Zack, who forced himself to ignore the light and instant absence of sound except the new buzzing in his head.

Sam screamed in terror, but the sound was muffled in Zack’s ears.

Zack viciously punched the man’s trigger finger and felt several small bones break under the blows. The man screamed, and his hand went limp, the finger leaving the inside of the trigger guard. Zack violently yanked the man’s finger with his left hand, snapping it backward with a satisfying crack that felt like kindling breaking cleanly.

With the shooter’s right hand disabled, Zack solidly punched the man in the jaw, weakening his resistance further. In one fluid motion, he grabbed the assault rifle’s stock just behind the charging handle and pulled the weapon toward him to remove or loosen—it didn’t matter which, for what came next—the shooter’s left arm from the rifle. He felt the weapon change hands, offering itself up to him to do as he wished, and Zack responded by pummeling the shooter several times in the face until the man collapsed in an unconscious heap of blood and uniform on the hallway carpet.

Zack breathed heavily, and his ears rang loudly, drowning out most sound. It wasn’t the first time he’d been close to gunfire in a confined space, and he knew it would pass, usually improving noticeably every ten or twenty seconds. The ringing would stay for days, though. That was the cost of doing close-quarters business.

Zack heard Sam call to him. He knelt to make sure the shooter was unconscious and turned to his babysitter. The teenager who’d defended her home and killed a man sat up against the wall, one hand on each bent knee, staring at him.

Zack moved toward her, the buzzing in his head decreasing further. He knelt down and took her hands. “Sam, are you hurt?”

She shook her head, looking quizzically at his face.

She’s in shock. She has to be. The first time he’d killed had been hard, and he’d trained for it. She was just a junior in high school. But she’s tough, and you know it.