“I don’t know yet,” I said, still scanning the leads.
“I’m calling Syrus.” Ronan cursed, swerving over to the side of the road.
“We still have to go,” I pointed out. “If it follows the same pattern, they have an entire security staff, and we have to figure out what’s waiting for us. Maybe if we can figure out who hired them, one of them will surely sing for us.”
“Oh, they absolutely are?—”
“Hello?” Syrus’s greeting cut us off.
“We have a problem,” Ronan barked out, briefing him on what we found. He didn’t hold back, just unloaded everything so they could be prepared. Keeping Widow’s Peak safe was the priority.
“Figure this out. We warned you not to bring trouble to this town,” Syrus growled. “I’ll make sure everyone’s vigilant, but you better handle this, and fast.”
The call ended and Ronan slammed his hand against the steering wheel.
“Drive, Ronan,” I told him. “We need to go in quietly. Whatever this mole has set up for us isn’t good.”
“I already planned to, brother,” Ronan said, his voice even but filled with fury.
“Either way, it’s ending tonight. Nobody’s going to get the jump on us, and nobody is getting back to Widow’s Peak. Not one of these assholes will be left alive to report back.”
“Luca, your job is to snatch one guy. Take your pick, anyone you think looks like they’ll talk. Tie them up, quiet them, and then we’ll kill the rest.”
“Affirmative,” I said, continuing to scour our security network for this rogue operative.
It was going deeper than I thought, but I needed my full setup to truly figure this out. I needed extra monitors, more than I brought with us. I needed a true data center again. If we were staying, what I needed to do was go home and pack mine up.
That meant leaving Widow’s Peak, or taking her with us, and I wasn’t sure which was more dangerous.
“Ten minutes away,” Ronan informed us, turning off the main road and heading to the rundown part of town.
“And here I thought the cockroaches always stuck to warehouses,” Nikolai deadpanned as he took in the houses that looked one strong wind away from collapsing.
Ronan pulled over, glancing at the GPS. “It’s at the end of the road. We’re walking from here.”
He’d already shut off the lights, and we had our guns tucked into our holsters. Mine was in my hand before I climbed out.
I opened the trunk long enough to grab restraints, tucking them into my pocket, then followed Nikolai and Ronan around back.
We moved into the trees lining the road, using them for cover.
Ronan’s arm slung out, stopping us in our tracks. He was silent as he looked around and we didnt utter a sound. I held my breath and listened.
Faint voices sounded off ahead.
I traded my gun for my hunting knife.
They were in the trees, waiting to strike, making it seem like no one was home before they rushed in and took us by surprise.This was an amateur setup, but if we didn’t know what we were looking for, it would have worked.
Nikolai tapped us each once before he disappeared deeper into the shadows of the forest.
Ronan pointed at the house and then himself before taking off that way. I forged ahead, staying on the path I was on.
The first man I found was far too big for me to restrain. He was leaning against a tree, and I easily moved around it, the blade sliding through his throat before he could respond.
He was not one I recognized, but he was wearing tactical gear, an assault rifle tucked at his side.
These weren’t just mercenaries… they were soldiers.
