Page 93 of A Very Un-Shakespeare Romance
“But you weren’t going to stop anyone from doing what had to be done, were you?” He calculated how long it would take Lily to run back to the house. She would be there shortly. He needed to secure Scotty and intercept her. She and the agents would be walking into a trap.
Robbie transferred Scotty’s wrists to one of his hands while using the other to yank out his shoelace. “I’m tying you up and leaving you here, but if you try and run, I swear it’s not going to be pretty. Got me?”
“Come on, Robbie,” Scotty pleaded, his eyes frantic. “We’re family.”
Robbie spat on the ground as he yanked out his last shoelace and started tying Scotty’s hands together. “We were. You blew it the minute you put Tara and the girls in danger.”
He tied a constrictor knot tightly around his wrists and then did the same to secure Scotty’s ankles together, knowing the boating knot was impossible to untie when done right. He was not chancing him getting up and running. Stripping off his T-shirt, he ripped it in half.
“Open your mouth,” he commanded.
Scotty’s eyes went wild. “No way!”
Robbie only grabbed his jaw and forced it open, shoving half of the shirt inside and then using the other half to secure it in place. “I am not chancing you yelling for help. Now stay put.”
He was up and running moments later, heading toward the yard of the third house down from them. When he reached the street, his heart jerked in response. Lily was coming out of the house across the street with the two other FBI agents. They were all dressed casually, but Robbie recognized the hunched shoulders of Feds going toward a potential crime in progress. He gave a soft birdcall and watched as their heads jerked toward him.
He held up two fingers, pointed toward their rental house, and gave the signal that the occupants were armed. Lily nodded, her face tense, her eyes flat. He started walking along the front of the house, keeping close to it, noting the McLaren wasn’t in the driveway. He had a moment of relief that Scotty’s partner hadn’t gotten the jump on them with surprise on his side.
And then he heard the purr of a luxury sports car.
Shit.
Sheila and Tyler didn’t know about the ambush.
Lily started jogging up the street, her ponytail bobbing. The other Feds made a show of going toward their SUV, popping the trunk like they were looking for something. Robbie knew they were trying to preserve their cover if Janice and her accomplice had gone to the windows to watch the sports car approach.
Robbie paused at the edge of the garage, hiding in the crevice as he watched Summer take her hair down, giving a covert signal to her partner, one she’d taught him. The McLaren passed her, slowing as it reached the house. Lily cut into the adjoining yard and started jogging back from an undetectable position toward Sheila and Tyler while Agents Johnson and Mather closed their trunk and walked across the street, acting like two prospective buyers at a car show.
When Tyler pulled into the driveway, he immediately opened the garage door with the remote. As it was lifting, he popped open his car door, reaching for the pizza and putting the three cartons on top of the vehicle. Sheila peeled out, keeping her back to the house, likely so their perpetrators wouldn’t be able to see she wasn’t Tara.
“Hey!” Agent Johnson called as he sauntered over in a navy T-shirt, tan shorts, and running shoes. “That’s some car. Right, honey?”
“A beaut,” Agent Mathers said, smiling appreciatively in her white tennis outfit. “I hope you don’t think it’s rude of us to ask to take a peek. I’ve never seen a McLaren up close.”
Tyler flashed his killer smile. “Knock yourselves out, right, babe? Hey, where are you guys from?”
“Washington, DC,” the man said, a husband touching his undercover wife’s arm with tenderness. “We decided to take a final summer getaway.”
“DC, huh?” Tyler grinned. “I went to school at Georgetown. How cool is that? Hey, Tara! Isn’t that a coincidence?”
“It sure is,” Sheila said in a pretty good imitation of his cousin’s voice, fluffing her black hair. “I’ve never been.”
“Sometimes I get a little homesick for the Beltway,” Tyler continued. “Hey, you two want to grab a drink? Tara’s kids and their babysitters are still at the playground, but her cousin is coming back soon from a run with his new girlfriend. We’ve got a ton of pizza. It would be nice to talk about my old stomping grounds. I’m Tom, by the way, and this is Tara.”
Nicely played, Robbie thought. This way Janice and her accomplice would be expecting four people to come inside from the garage, but he imagined Agents Mathers and Johnson would circle around the house with Lily to take the back as Tyler and Sheila went in through the garage as expected. He wondered how Janice and her friend would react to the numbers changing. Panic? Would they start shooting? His gut gripped with worry.
“What do you say, honey?” Agent Johnson asked with a wink. “You know how much I love pizza.”
Agent Mathers rested her head on his forearm. “We were actually thinking about grabbing one ourselves.”
“Great!” Tyler boomed. “Come on in.”
Tyler and Sheila slammed the car doors and started toward the garage, pulling out their weapons, while the other agents split off to the right side of the house, also pulling their weapons. Robbie stepped out of his hiding place as Lily sprinted across the yard from the adjoining house in a crouched position, ensuring she wouldn’t be spotted from the windows. When she spied him, he saw a flash of relief in her eyes.
He motioned to her as she reached the edge of the garage. “I’ve got Scotty taken care of for now.”
“Good, then we go in behind Tyler and Sheila,” she whispered to him, pulling her weapon from the back of her running shorts. “Sorry I don’t have one for you. I thought you were with Scotty. Stay behind me.”
