Grayson pulled next to a curb. “We’re here, well, just down the road from the friend’s uncle’s house, so they’re not alerted,” he told Rowland. “We’re getting out now. You don’t happen to know if they’ve got security cameras up all over the place, do you?”
“A Ring camera at the main house entrance, but nothing on the building where Billy is,” Rowland said.
Houses were spread out quite a bit from each other, but Ring or other security cameras across the street or at neighbors’ homes might be able to record their movements. Then again, they were here for a fugitive who had jumped bond, so it wasn’t like they were the bad guys.
They just didn’t want anyone to warn the friend’s uncle that they were trespassing, in case anyone saw them and wanted to tell him.
They moved onto the property, which was filled with trees and shrubs, making it easier for them to move about undetected. Kendra just hoped that a neighbor didn’t see Grayson’s SUV parked curbside and worry it was trouble. Though if they called the police, they would assure them everything was fine, or maybe send a unit to check it out right away. Something that didn’t give away the mission.
She really wanted to turn into her bear and scare the kid to pieces after what he’d helped his stepdad to do to the girls they’d kidnapped and attempted to kidnap.
They skirted the property, keeping to the perimeter, and made a beeline for the place where Billy was staying. The barn had been converted into a log house with large windows on either side of the front door and windows above, making it appear to have two stories.
They saw the green car his stepdad had used. Kendra immediately thought of disabling it. They didn’t need to go on a wild goose chase again to capture these guys in case Billy tried to take off in it.
She motioned to the car, and Grayson nodded, and the two of them cut the tires on the vehicle. The lights were on in several rooms of the two-story building. She hoped no one else was there, but maybe Billy wasn’t good at turning off lights in rooms he wasn’t using, like she’d always been taught when she was a kid.
“I’ll take the back,” she said.
“I’ll knock on the front door. You got that, Rowland?”
“Yeah, our ETA is approximately three minutes if you want to hold on.”
“We don’t want to lose him again.”
Kendra hurried around back. There was no fence surrounding the building. It had a window on the west side of the building, a smaller window way up above, and two on the back, one on each side of a back door.
She gently tried to open the back door, twisting the doorknob. It was unlocked. Billy must have figured he had nothing to worry about and didn’t bother to lock it. She hoped he hadn’t left the place already. She had her taser out and sneaked through the house as she heard a shoot-em-up game being played. If asked why she had walked into a house without a warrant or invitation, since Billy didn’t actually live there, Kendra planned to say she thought someone was hurt, the door was unlocked, and she went in to help them.
She got a text from Grayson: Are you in place?
She texted back: I’m in the house, listening to a game Billy is playing.
Grayson texted: I’m knocking on the front door.
Grayson knocked on the door with a solid rap, and Kendra headed toward the room where the game was being played. She recognized Billy’s scent. Her heart was beating hard, and she closed in on the room. She could hear Billy shooting away at the enemy in the game. She suspected he had headphones on and couldn’t hear Grayson at the front door, but she did and could still hear the shooting because of her bear shifter's enhanced hearing.
Then she heard someone approaching from behind at a quicker pace, startling her. She whipped around, taser ready, and saw it was Grayson in his bear coat. She suspected he had thought she had been hurt because Billy wasn’t answering the door, and she wasn’t texting Grayson.
But she smiled, glad to see him in his grizzly form. She got out of his way so he could enter the bedroom where Billy was sitting at a computer with his back to them. He was wearing headphones and didn’t see or hear the bear coming in for an attack.
Grayson growled, but the teen still didn’t hear him. And then Grayson swung at him, striking his massive paw at Billy’s head, knocking him from the black leather gaming chair. Billy landed on the wooden floor and was out cold.
Through the window, she saw two police cars pull up, and a man left the main house to ask them what the matter was. She was glad she and Grayson hadn’t had to deal with him.
She got on her phone to let Rowland know what was happening since Grayson couldn’t until he shifted and dressed.
“Police are here,” she told Grayson, in case he didn’t hear them arrive. She touched Billy’s wrist to make sure he was all right. He was just knocked out. “We got Billy. Grayson struck him with his bear paw. Grayson’s shifting and dressing,” she told Rowland.
“The guys with me are all bears so we’re good. We’ll be there in a second.”
Meanwhile, she zip-tied Billy’s wrists behind his back.
“Can one of you unlock the front door?” Rowland asked.
“Yeah.” She called out to Grayson, “Rowland and the other officers are at the front door.”
“Oh, yeah, it was locked. Got it,” he said.
