Page 67 of Mad Love

Tyler smirked. “You’re kind of shitty at hiding your tracks. We’d have been here sooner, but we couldn’t risk flying in case Gary was monitoring the airports.”

“I told her I’d get her out,” Charles whispered, sounding gutted. “I promised I’d get her back to you.”

I had so many questions. So much that didn’t make sense and so many answers I didn’t have.

But none of that mattered right now.

I looked at Royal. “We’re leaving.”

He nodded and arched a brow at Charles. “Can you tell us anything about the house?”

Charles nodded and started to stand, using the wall for support. “He’s got plenty of guards around, inside and out. It won’t be easy.”

Bishop and Royal exchanged knowing smiles, bloodlust in their eyes.

“We’re not afraid of a fight,” Knight told him, rolling his neck and popping the joints.

“How many guards?” Court pressed, straightening and coming into the room with a dark expression.

Tyler reached for her computer. “I hacked his security system. I can show you inside and out where everyone is in real time.”

Ash’s brows slammed down. “All the properties operate under a closed loop system. You’d have to have been onsite to get access.”

She rolled her eyes. “Thanks for the astute observation, Captain Obvious.” She wiggled her fingers. “Wanna give me my computer so I can show you what I’m talking about?”

“Give it to her,” I ordered, nodding at him.

With a sigh, Ash handed the computer back. She snatched it from his hands with a glare before twisting away from him. Even still, Ash moved forward and crowded her back to peer over her shoulder.

“Jesus,” she huffed, sparing him a glower over her shoulder. “Can you breathe any louder? It’s like a freaking lawnmower lives in your mouth or something.”

Clenching his teeth, Ash shot me a withering look.

“Here.” Tyler flipped the screen so I could see the snowy outside of the house in Montana we’d already been profiling. But unlike the aerial shots that had been taken by a passing satellite three months earlier, it showed two men stationed in the front of the house. She hit a key, and I could see a third man walking down a line of trees in what looked like the backyard.

Royal rubbed his jaw. “It’s too barren and exposed everywhere except the trees, but we know those back up to a cliff the house is at the bottom of. We’d need to rappel down the side in the ice and make our way on foot through the forest.”

Charles made a sound of protest. “There’s no—”

Royal held up a hand, not finished. “I know. There isn’t time for that.”

“So, we go in guns blazing,” I stated, already imagining the cold weight of my gun in my hand.

“That’s risky, too,” Bishop pointed out. “How far away is the main road?”

“From the drive that leads to the house? A solid five miles, and most of it is in the open. No way they wouldn’t see you coming,” Tyler said, shaking her head. “Plus they have men guarding it to radio up to the others if anyone so much as stops and asks for directions.”

“But there’s a road that wraps around the top cliff,” Knight said slowly, his eyes lighting up. “That old logging track is five hundred feet away.”

A smile crawled across Bishop’s mouth. “And it is a shitty time of the year to drive that stretch.”

Knight shoved his hands in the pockets of his tactical pants and rocked back on his heels. “Gravel road with zero maintenance? It’s an accident waiting to happen.”

Royal rubbed the back of his neck, annoyance flashing on his face. “Why is the answer with you two always to blow something up?”

“Aw, c’mon, big brother,” Bishop teased. “You know you love it, too.”

Court sighed loudly. “You know they live for this shit.”

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