Page 61 of A Simple Mistake
“So are Aidan and I,” Gareth’s voice sounded rough and growly in their headsets, and Nico got goosebumps at the sound.“I don’t want you in the house when I get there.Get up on that fucking roof right now!”
Daniel shot upright as if the profanities had flicked a switch.Gareth never swore.And heneverused that voice.
Nico was just glad it got them moving.
He pulled Daniel off the bed, opened the window, and reached for the ladder that led to the roof.“Go,” he urged.“Quickly.”
Daniel was half out of the window when he turned.“You’re coming with me?”
“Of course I’m coming with you.Go.”
Daniel went first.Nico stepped over the windowsill and onto the ladder.Holding tight, he bent and pulled the sash window nearly all the way down.Then he grabbed the rungs and climbed.
Daniel waited for him on the edge of the roof and together they hauled up the ladder so nobody could follow them.They had another exit on the other side of the house, a ladder that reached all the way to the ground, but Nico wouldn’t drop that one until it was safe.He grabbed Daniel’s hand and towed him into the shade of the wide chimney.
“We’re up,” he said, as they hunkered against the brick, invisible from the ground.
“Good,” Gareth replied, still with that growly edge to his voice.“Stay there.Keep low and quiet, whatever you hear.I’m just coming off the roundabout.”
The black SUV with its tinted windows fouling up his driveway pissed Gareth off.He pulled up behind it, blocking its escape.Then he took a knife to the tyres.Whoever the enemy was, they wouldn’t be leaving under their own steam.
Aidan’s black Jag screamed around the corner as Gareth slashed the last of the tyres.
“Aidan’s here and we’re coming in,” he told the boys.“Don’t worry about any noises you hear.Don’t come down until I tell you, okay?”
He waited for the confirmation, then turned to Aidan.“Two intruders.The one in the red cap is Mitrovic’s brother.”
“How the fuck did they— Not important right now.Cavalry is on the way.Split or stay together?”Aidan brandished a tyre iron and eyed the front door.
“Stay together.They went in through the back.The boys heard glass breaking.”
They rounded the side of the house and found the backdoor forced and glass all over the back hallway.“Jack will be so pissed when he sees that.”
“That the door he had to fix before?”
“Yep.”Gareth slipped into the utility room and waved Aidan in after him.“Let’s see what we’re dealing with.”He opened a cupboard door, revealing a monitor cycling footage from the home’s security system.
“There.”Aidan pointed to the image showing the main hallway.“Coming down or going up?”
“Don’t care,” Gareth growled.“They’re in the wrong fucking place.”
“Yes.”Aidan hadn’t taken his eyes off the screen.“But now they’re coming to us.”The scuffle of feet on tiled floors bore him out.
“Good for us.Shit for them.”Gareth pointed to himself, then the door on the other side of the hallway.
Aidan nodded, and Gareth disappeared, images of body bags flashing through his mind.He couldn’t go that far and knew it, but the thought was soothing.
Goran Mitrovic’s brother was as tall as Aidan.A bruiser with heavy muscles, a mean mouth, and meaner eyes.Aidan stepped from the utility room and smashed the tyre iron into his back.The man stumbled, and Aidan was on him, landing punches.
Gareth wasn’t far behind.He lunged at the second intruder, a shorter man, but no less broad.His opponent spun, threw a punch—and missed.Gareth was already inside his defences, gripping the man’s wrist like iron cuffs, slamming his fist into the wall.He forced him to the ground, his knee pressing into the man’s back as he yanked his arms behind him.
“You’re not getting your hands on my kids,” Gareth hissed through clenched teeth.
The man grunted in Gareth’s hold, then twisted to sneer over his shoulder.His grin showed a broken tooth.“Already did, man.Already did.”
Gareth pulled him up and hit him.Then hit him again.“No one touches my family.”
“Flynn.Don’t kill him.”
