Page 225 of Diego

One of the attackers ducks behind the SUV. The security guard inside the property stays behind cover and fires only when someone moves into view.

A second perimeter alert appears. Then a third.

“They’re spreading out,” the security guy beside me says into his radio. “North and west now.”

Giacomo answers. “I see it. Keep the interior doors sealed. Nobody gets pulled away from the house.”

The front gate was never their only plan.

Men are moving along both sides of the property now, testing sections of wall, looking for access, probing every place they think might be easier than the main entrance. The sensors catch them before they get close enough to surprise anyone, and the cameras follow them from one section to the next.

For several minutes, nothing happens except movement and radio calls.

That somehow makes it worse.

They are patient. They have tools. They knew enough about the property to cut every outside connection before they made themselves visible, and now they are looking for the weakest point.

One of the west-side feeds shows a man climbing onto the stone wall.

A security person inside the perimeter appears from behind a line of hedges and fires.

The man disappears back over the wall. Another takes his place several yards away.

“They’re trying to make us spread out,” one of our guards says.

Giacomo’s voice answers immediately. “We don’t. House first. Let them waste time.”

The words settle me a bit.

That is the advantage here.

They have to get through everything Diego put between us and them.

We only have to stay behind it.

I glance around the secure area again. The reinforced door. The separate ventilation controls. The backup power readout. The locked cabinets. The feeds showing every approach to the house.

He built this after finding out he was going to be a father.

I press my hand to my stomach.

I picture him standing down here with contractors, thinking of a future with this child. I picture him demanding stronger locks, another power source, more cameras, more supplies, whatever else he thought might be needed if something ever happened.

And then I think about that argument I had with him all those weeks ago when I found out he had people watching me.

This is what he was talking about. This is what he meant when he said that if I wanted to be in this child's life, I had to have security too. This is the kind of danger being around Diego brings.

But this is also the kind of security being under his wing provides.

A warning tone sounds from the security panel.

The gate feed shakes violently.

I turn back.

The second SUV has joined the first. They hit the gate almost together.

Metal twists. One hinge pulls partly away from the stone pillar.