Page 94 of Ryder’s Storm

“Sun’s coming up in less than two hours,” Thomas warned. “You can take every available hybrid, but no vampires; too risky. Let me check who’s not on a pressing assignment.” Thomas sat down behind his desk and pulled up a schedule. “Take Grayson, Ethan, Isabelle, and Benjamin. I’m sending them messages right now.”

“And what if Derek saw that Dad and I made it out alive? Wouldn’t they be on the run by now?”

Ryder shook his head. “Derek would have only stayed long enough to see the house burning. It would have been too risky for him to wait around. Somebody could have seen him, neighbors, firefighters...”

“I hope you’re right,” Scarlet said.

“So am I,” Ryder replied. “I’ll drop you off with Vanessa. She’ll look after you until I’m back.”

“No! Claudia tried to kill Dad and me; she betrayed us. I need to be there when you confront her. I want to spit in her face, and kick the living crap—”

“Okay,” Ryder said, realizing that there was no use in saying no to Scarlet. She needed to see this through to the end. And so did he. Besides, five hybrids against two humans was no contest. “You can come with us, but no heroics, okay?”

“Okay.”

43

Fifteen minutes later, they were in two SUVs heading down the freeway toward Palo Alto—Ryder, Scarlet, and Ethan in one, with Ethan driving, and Grayson driving the other with Isabelle and Benjamin as his passengers. When they reached Brandon King’s mansion, it was still dark, but Ryder could sense the sun wanting to breach the horizon.

The King residence was a sprawling single-story estate surrounded by high walls, lush vegetation, and mature trees, with a pool and pool house in the back. According to Scarlet, there was an intruder alarm, but Scarlet had the code for it as well as the house key. The key worked for the front door and gate as well as the side door leading into the kitchen.

“Getting in shouldn’t be a problem,” Ryder said over his speaker phone as both SUVs had stopped a few yards outside the property’s high walls, hidden from view. “Let’s do this quietly and quickly. We don’t want Claudia and Derek to get a chance to hear us coming.”

As they got out of the SUV, Ryder turned back to Scarlet. “Are you sure you wouldn’t rather stay in the car, and wait until—”

Her determined facial expression told him her answer.

Ryder sighed. “Then stay behind me, please.”

She nodded.

Ryder unlocked the gate and pushed it open. Scarlet had told him that the gate wasn’t connected to the alarm system to allow for delivery people to be buzzed into the front courtyard. All six of them walked toward the front door, keeping their eyes and ears open. Everything was quiet.

At the front door, Ryder inserted the key into the lock and turned it, then tested the knob. It turned. He pulled the key out, then handed it to Grayson. “Kitchen door.”

Grayson knew what he had to do and disappeared around the corner, Benjamin following him.

“Isabelle and Ethan, you’ll cover the sliding doors that lead out to the pool, in case they’re trying to escape out the back,” Ryder said below his breath. “There’s a gate behind the pool house that leads to a maintenance path behind the walls. They might use that route to escape.”

“Don’t worry, they won’t get past us,” Isabelle reassured them.

“That’s hardly any fun,” Ethan complained in a whisper.

Ryder glared at him. “It’s not supposed to be fun.”

Without another word, Ethan and Isabelle turned and walked around the other side of the house to get to the pool area. Ryder let another few seconds pass, giving everybody sufficient time to get to their positions, and Grayson time to unlock, but not open the side door to the kitchen yet.

Ryder nodded at Scarlet, then pushed the door open and turned to the alarm panel. There was no beeping to alert the person entering to disarm the system. Scarlet had told him that it was by design. Ryder punched in the code Scarlet had given him. But the light on the panel stayed red. He tossed Scarlet a look. She stared at him in surprise, then punched the code in herself. The alarm was still armed.

“She must have changed the code,” Scarlet whispered.

“Shit!” Ryder cursed.

They only had seconds now, until a loud alarm would alert Claudia and Derek to their presence. They had to act quickly.

“How long till the police show up here once the alarm sounds?”

“At least five minutes, but the alarm company will call the house phone first to check if it was a false alarm. If Claudia hasn’t changed the verbal password too, then I can call off the police.”