Page 77 of Trick's Trap

The FBI agent was checking his phone. He was also in his shirt sleeves. “This is where we tracked the car that met the plane.”

Trick rubbed his eyes. “It just seems crazy these people would bring her to their home.” His hand swept out to encompass the expansive lawn of the Palm Beach estate.

They’d snuck over a tall spiked brick garden wall a few minutes ago. No alarm bells sounded, and they hadn’t been met with goons with guns.

Trick was half out of his mind. As soon as he saw the house, he’d started running toward it, but Ethan yanked his collar and dragged him behind a clump of bushes next to a big bald cypress tree.

Ethan scoffed. “You expectsanefrom these people?”

He had a point. “All right then. What are we waiting for?”

“Back up,” Ethan said, checking the latest message on his phone. “Fuck. We have our warrant, but the local bureau office is only now mobilizing. They’re at least a half hour out.”

That was too long. “We can’t wait.”

He could feel it in his gut. They needed to get to Tahlia now.

“I agree,” Ethan said, surprising him. It must have shown on his face because the agent snorted at him impatiently. “They’re lunatics who worship the devil. We don’t know what they are doing to her.”

Trick flinched, but Ethan just frowned, pointing out a guard patrolling near the house. “Don’t think about it. We go when he rounds the corner.”

He nodded. “Why aren’t there more of them?”

These people were obviously wealthy. They had a private beach for fuck’s sake. He’d expected the place to be crawling with armed guards.

“More guards, more witnesses.” Ethan never pulled his punches. The agent peeked around the tree. “Okay, go now!”

He started running, following the other man as he sprinted to the massive old-world-style mansion. They ran along the left wing of the house, crouching beneath a darkened window.

It was empty. “We should split up,” he said in a low voice as Ethan lifted the sash.

The agent climbed inside. “No way. I only have my service piece. What if you run into someone with a gun?”

“I don’t know how to shoot anyway.” He dropped into the room lightly after Ethan.

It was a salon of some kind. He landed next to a turn-of-the-century fainting couch. Expensive antiques littered the room.

“All the more reason we should stick together.”

“Fine,” he growled, reluctantly letting Ethan take the lead. Together, they prowled the hallway, peeking into room after empty room.

How big was this damn place?He shuddered to think of the twisted childhood Tahlia had under this roof.

They turned the corner, finding themselves in a luxuriously appointed foyer. An imposing mahogany staircase descended from a second story. Twin hallways swept into darkened recesses on either side.

“Which one first?” he asked.

Ethan opened his mouth to answer when a dark-suited man stepped out of the shadowy left hallway. “Sir, I think we have intruders. A motion sensor near the wall was trip—”

The security guard glanced up in time to meet Ethan’s fist with his nose. Unfortunately, the stranger must have been on steroids or something. Physically, he was near Ethan’s build. The sucker punch didn’t take him down.

Ethan and the man grappled. “I got this. Go find Tahlia,” Ethan grunted as he punched the man again.

Trick didn’t need to be told twice. He whirled around. Which hallway?

Damn, I need some of Tahlia’s luck.

Unbidden, an image of him slipping his engagement ring onto Tahlia’s hand flashed through his mind.

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