Page 55 of Home Free

But she’d figured out something else too. Once you let go, the rest was surprisingly easy.

She climbed the steps without looking back.

31

Finn stood at the window, looking out over the harbor below the apartment where they’d set up shop in a tiny town called Kyle of Lochalsh. The sky was gray, a faint mist falling over the hills, the water choppy.

Somewhere out there in the gloom, Castle Blackridge loomed on the Isle of Skye. There Achilles sat like a king, protected by his bodyguards and his fortress, thinking he was invincible.

He was wrong.

“Your pack ready?” Ronan said behind him.

Finn turned away from the window. “Almost.”

“Make sure someone checks it,” Declan said from the floor where he was cleaning his weapon.

Finn dropped to the sofa and inventoried his gear: Kevlar, smoke grenades, weapon and silencer, night-vision goggles, comms.

“Don’t forget this,” Nick said, tossing him a life vest.

“Thanks.”

Castle Blackridge hovered on a cliff on the far side of the Isle of Skye. They would approach by boat, and Ronan had insisted they all wear life preservers. The sea was wild that far out. They couldn’t risk one of them going overboard in the dark without a life vest.

Finn ran through the plan in his mind for the thousandth time — the water approach, their plan to leave the boat on the beach, the ascent up the cliff face, a hike through the woods surrounding the castle.

It would be an uphill battle even reaching Castle Blackridge.

Finn looked from Declan to Nick. “You sure you want to do this?”

He’d already asked the question of Ronan, so many times that Ronan had finally told him to shut the fuck up before he put a gag in Finn’s mouth.

“I’m sure.” Declan checked the magazine in his hand and inserted it into his weapon. He grinned. “It’s my last hurrah.”

Kate was due in less than a month. After that, Declan would be out of the field for the foreseeable future, taking care of his family so Kate could continue working.

“Me too,” Nick said. “I know this seems like a big deal, and I don’t want to downplay it because god knows anything can happen, but we got this.”

Ronan nodded. “Nick’s right. Cromwell has a security force, but nothing we haven’t dealt with before, and probably small in number if the gala is any indication.”

“That was in public,” Finn said. “The castle will be guarded.”

“Yeah, but perimeter patrol is easy to get around if we time it right, and we will. I’m guessing the four men we saw with Achilles at the gala are his body men. We can handle them.”

“You know better than me,” Finn said. “I just don’t like you guys risking your lives, especially now.”

There was too much at stake for all of them, and Finn reminded himself that he could call it off anytime. His brothers might give him shit, but they wouldn’t object. Finn could go back to Boston, get Elise, and they’d be on their way.

But deep down he knew it was too late for that. He needed to see the man who had ordered Fedir and Iryna’s murder, needed to know why. He just hoped the people Ronan hired were doing their job, keeping Elise and Julia and JT safe.

“Hey, you sure about those bodyguards you hired?” Finn asked.

Ronan didn’t look up from the Kevlar he was folding into his waterproof bag. “What bodyguards?”

“That firm you hired for Julia and Elise? Imperium?” Finn asked.

Ronan looked up and met his gaze. “I’m sure. They’re the best in the business.”

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