Page 308 of The Black Trilogy

“We are sure they are here?”

“We saw them go in. They couldn’t all have left, not when we’ve been watching the house for the entire day.”

I suppressed a shudder. Knowing they’d been so close while I relaxed with my friends gave me the creeps. Time to upgrade the security system, at least, if there was anything left to upgrade. The current one covered the house, the outbuildings, and the driveway but not the woods. Last time we’d tried motion sensors in the trees, we spent most of our nights chasing deer, but we couldn’t keep relying on my intuition.

I winced as an intruder caught sight of his reflection in a polished kitchen cabinet and shot a grenade at it. Seconds later, the sprinklers came on downstairs, making the mother of all messes.

As I watched a river running through my lounge, I tried to stay positive. If the intruders had been outside all day, they wouldn’t be fresh. And now some of them were dripping wet as well.

Another of the men spoke up from the basement. “There is fresh food down here and it is still warm. They cannot have gone far.”

“Then they must be hiding. We’ll have to go through the house again. And remember, the boss said they will have weapons.”

It was time. Carmen confirmed she was in position on the roof, covering the east side with her infrared scope and rifle. Alex and Jack were hiding to the north, watching the back, and Evan and Logan had snuck out of the guesthouse to take the front and west sides. Those four were ready to pick off anyone leaving the house or come inside if we needed them.

My team took one of the hidden staircases, with Nate and Dan going to the second floor and Nick and me taking the first. Jed kept us informed while Mack did the same for Nate and Dan.

Adrenaline was fuelling me nicely by the time I reached the top of the stairs. My resolve was rock solid, and despite the disaster befalling my house, I had a smile on my face. I know I shouldn’t have enjoyed moments like this, but let’s be honest, I did.

I glanced sideways at Nick, and his lips quirked upwards at the corners too. We were one pair of sick puppies.

It was hard relying on someone else to be my eyes, but I’d known Jed long enough to trust his judgment, and in any case, I had little choice. CCTV covered the whole house, but normally the internal cameras were turned off when the place was occupied. I mean, who wanted their bedroom antics recorded?

Nate had originally planned to install a simpler system, but Black insisted on gold standard. “Just in case the house ever gets invaded, Diamond,” he’d told me at the time. Some might have called it paranoia, but I called it foresight.

The staircase Nick and I took led to a narrow passage that came up between the study and the sprawling master suite Black and I had once shared.

“One’s in Black’s bathroom, the other’s in your dressing room, Emmy,” Jed told us. “He’s looking in your underwear drawer.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah. Pervert. It’s not as if you’re gonna be hiding in there, is it? The other one’s in Black’s bedroom now.”

I slid the panel in front of me open a few inches. It moved silently on hidden tracks, and the large, abstract painting on my bedroom wall shifted a little to the left. When I peered through the gap, I got a good view of the doorways to both Black’s bedroom and my dressing room, but crucially, I wasn’t in line of sight for anyone exiting either of them. Come on, come on. I slowed my breathing and sighted in my silenced .22 on the nearer of the two, the bedroom doorway. The moment a black-clad figure appeared, I took him out with a double tap to the head.

One down.

Even a silenced pistol makes a noise, and his colleague rushed out of the dressing room.

Two down.

I wanted to say first blood to me, but I still didn’t know the fate of Seth and Mick in the guardhouse which was another reason to get this situation resolved as soon as possible. Five seconds later, I’d melted back behind the painting.

On the radio, I heard the zip of a bullet as Nick took out a guy in the study. Now we just needed to deal with his teammate, who’d stayed outside in the corridor, and preferably before he found the body. There was a third exit to the small vestibule I stood in, which led in the right direction.

“Is my exit to the hallway clear?” I asked Jed.

“Confirmed clear. Your target’s around the corner to your left, facing away from you.”

“I’m going for it.”

“Good luck.”

Luck? I didn’t need luck. Not when I had two guns and a megaton of anger fuelling me.

I slid back another panel, this one fronted by a nearly life-size oil-on-canvas of my horse, Stan, painted by an old friend half a decade ago. Half a lifetime, it seemed like. Time had slowed since Black died.

There were no lights on in this corridor, but shards of moonlight came through the windows and a faint glow glimmered from the master suite. Five steps, ten, and I rounded the corner in a crouch. And there he was—visitor number four, walking away from me.

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