Page 29 of Fight

“Okay, we can explore these more later, but we really should get going and try not to be sidetracked by the cars.” Rome tries to reason although his eyes are stuck on a particularly beautiful mustang.

Malory chuckles, “Here’s the van.”

“Great, Ace and Rip, you take the van; the rest of us will fit in one of the cars easily now,” Rome orders. Ace and Rip both nod as Malory throws a set of keys to them, and they get in, starting the engine.

“We’ll meet you out front,” Rip says out of the window.

Ace adds, “Well, the back because we can’t go down the coastal road.”

“Dude, they knew what I meant,” Rip retorts.

Ace shrugs, “Just clarifying.”

We leave them both to their banter as we walk back out the way that we came in and head straight toward the SUV, the van following just as we get into the vehicle. The drive down, through the back roads, isn’t as tense as it probably should be. I think we’re all looking forward to this. I mean, it’s something that we’re good at, and it’s what we do, what we’re familiar with.

It doesn’t take us long until we’re parking down the road from the twin's estate. There’s not much need for us to hide the cars; no one would be stupid enough to be up here at the moment, only us. All of the town is pretty much in lockdown, trying to avoid all of this.

We don’t bother communicating, we all know what we’ve got to do. Staying silent, we draw our weapons and head up to the gates. We know from security cameras that the house is heavily guarded, so we’re assuming that the gates are as well, and because we need to stay as under the radar as we can, the plan is to take the guards out, we don’t really have another choice, and this needs to be done as efficiently as possible.

As soon as we see the gates though, that plan is changed, and Rome mutters under his breath, “There’s no one here.”

“That’s weird. There should be.” Rip replies.

“But then there should be on the road leading up here as well, and there isn’t,” Ace adds.

“He’s probably got them all at the house. How many armed people did we see on the cameras?” Mal asks as we slowly approach.

“About twenty,” Ace replies immediately while I’m still trying to think of the numbers.

“Well, there you go, unless he’s hired more people, which is unlikely because he’s got massive trust issues, then that’s all of his security team,” Mal explains.

“And he’d seriously have them all guarding him and the house? Not watching the perimeter or the gates, nothing?” I ask this time, aware that I sound incredulous.

“Yeah, we told you before that he panics.” Mase shrugs.

“Everyone climb over,” Rome orders as we get to the gate. “I’ll cover you.”

We all start to climb as I add, “But that means that he’s got absolutely no forewarning if someone does attack? They’re just suddenly there, and he’s got far less of a chance of surviving.”

“Our father is not a smart man,” Malory replies as she lands on the ground next to me. “You know I’ve missed this, recon, and watching cameras is boring as fuck. Even when you are watching this lot.”

“I can imagine, I’ve never been one for recon. It bores me to tears,” I reply.

“Okay, everyone needs to be quiet from here on out,” Rome tells us seriously.

“Got it,” I reply, refocusing.

We slowly approach the house, keeping our eyes on the surroundings, and I am incredibly surprised that he doesn’t have anyone out here. I wrongly assumed that because the house was so well guarded, the grounds and the surrounding area would be too, and it’s not. It’s really poorly planned.

When the front doors come into sight, everyone breaks off to play their parts, and I feel a pang of fear go through me as I watch most of my men walk away from me in a dangerous situation where anything could happen.

I would’ve much rather that we all stuck together, but logistically and logically, that wasn’t the best way to play this, and I knew that. That doesn’t mean I had to like it though.

“They will be fine,” Rome mutters quietly, and surprisingly it helps that I can see the worry in his eyes as well. It’s not just me that finds this difficult, but then I know that from the conversation we had in the van when we were taking in the fucker who hurt Micha and threatened Waverly and the kids. His understanding look turns harsh as a dangerous smile plays along the edges of his lips, and he adds, “Let’s go and shoot some stuff, make things bleed a bit. That’ll cheer you up.”

“It always does,” I reply with a grin as I check my watch.

We’re waiting for exactly ten minutes for everyone to get into position before we all breach at the same time, or at least the plan is to breach at the same time without earpieces, it is really just guesswork and hoping that we’re in sync. Once exactly ten minutes have gone by, Rome and I start to move forward, grateful that there are plenty of statues and, for some reason, giant boulders dotted everywhere that can conceal our approach.

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