Page 37 of Hemmed

“Alright. I won’t leave you,” said Richard. “I’ll send two of the other men. I’ll be with you, and everything will be alright.”

She nodded her head, pacing back and forth with her trusty flashlights. Richard called two men on the walkie and ordered them to take the boat to the mainland and find someone good.

Immediately.

Code watched the screens as the drones flew above the island and its mansion on the southern end. He had the exact count of men and a sense of how large the mansion was. But when he checked the heat signatures, he saw no women in the home other than one.

“Across the field,” said Ace. “There. That’s a farmhouse or something.”

Code nodded, steering the drone toward the other building. As he scanned for live bodies, he looked up at Ace.

“A dozen, maybe more. Young females, at least two are just children.”

“How many men?” asked Ace.

“Four. No, five.”

“Trak? You read?” said Ace.

“Yep.”

“We’ve got at least a dozen young girls in a farmhouse across from the mansion. Five men inside. Once we get on the island, they’re going to be watching us. Get the girls out before they even know they’re gone.”

“I know.”

“I know. I know, he says,” smirked Ace. “Alright, Code. Let’s unplug them.”

“In five, four, three, two, and one,” he said, looking across the river as the entire compound went dark. “Now what?”

“Now, we wait until they come and pick us up. We’ll be standing right here waiting for our yacht ride,” said Ace, standing outside the van. “After all, what do two geeks know about changing a flat tire.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Alec, Tailor, Max, and Dex went around the back of Krauss’s mansion, double-checking the number of guards that were present. As predicted, there were only five guards on duty. With each man taking one, Alec and Tailor played rock-paper-scissors for the fifth one.

“Children, can we hurry this along,” growled Max.

“He won,” frowned Tailor. Dex only shook his head.

“This is why I prefer working with the animals. Let’s go. The dim light is on our side.”

The men at Krauss’s mansion were definitely not the cream of the crop. They’d barely been able to utter a word before they were subdued, gagged, tied, and thrown in the cellar. While Ian, Ghost, Nine, and Gaspar waited inside for Krauss to arrive, the others stayed hidden on the mansion grounds.

As darkness fell, Krauss’s private car pulled up with a second behind him. Krauss plus eight men. This should be easy. Stepping through the front door, he turned for just a moment to the other men.

“You stay with me. The rest of you, see if those idiots are still on the property and kill them. I want to leave here as soon as possible.” He slammed the door and began walking toward his office. “Are you coming?”

Before he could turn, he heard the cocking of the weapon. Slowly, he turned around, seeing his guard with a pistol at his head, and a man holding his fingers to his lips.

“Not a word, or you’ll both be dead,” said Ghost.

“Do you have any idea who you’re fucking with? Do you know what kind of pain I’m going to put you through?” sneered Krauss.

“Oh, we get it,” said Ian, coming up behind him. “You’re Wallen Krauss. Criminal extraordinaire. Or at least you think so.”

“Who the fuck are you?”

“Us?” smirked Gaspar. “We’re just the old men that brought down your website, fried your videos, stopped your little game with the dress shops and the tracking of the women, of course.”

---