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“Let’s do a comms check,” Nicksaid.
They adjusted their earpieces and tested theaudio.
“I’m taking the back,” Declan said when they were done. The drone had only given them the most basic of information, but one of the things they’d learned was that the single light that came on in the house at night came on at the back of thehouse.
Declan wanted to get to Neilfirst.
“I’ll take the front.” Ronan looked at Nick. “You cover the cellar, come in through the basement, just incase.”
“You gotit.”
“Approach through the trees like we talked about,” Declan said. “I don’t want this fucker seeing us and trying torun.”
The end was in sight. They would deal with Neil, get what they needed, eliminate him. Then Declan and Kate could start building theirlives.
You and me. Forreal.
It was all hewanted.
“Everyone ready?” Ronanasked.
Looking at his brother, his black clothes rendering him almost invisible in the dark, it was easy to forget he was also the man who was so tender with Julia, who rocked his son to sleep when he wassick.
This version of Ronan was like the image on an underdeveloped photograph, his cold eyes and the hard set of his jaw an alter ego behind the man who had emerged under the love and care of his wife andson.
It was comforting. None of them could afford to take their most vulnerable selves into the house where Neil had been hiding. Tonight they had to be the men they werebefore.
Before Kate. Before Julia and John Thomas. BeforeAlexa.
“Ready,” Nicksaid.
Ronan nodded and started for the footpath. “Let’s dothis.”
* * *
They partedways before they reached the road. The trees surrounding the house would probably provide enough cover, but the less movement the better. They would be harder to spot from a window if they weren’t in agroup.
Declan veered to the right of the dirt driveway, disappearing into the trees. Ronan and Nick went left where they would split up when they got closer to thehouse.
Within seconds the moonlight was swallowed by the canopy overhead. Declan walked carefully, both to camouflage any sound and to make sure he didn’t trip on one of the exposed tree roots snaking across the woodlandfloor.
He could hear his brothers’ steady breathing over the comms system, all of them silent, focused on the taskahead.
He glanced at his phone now and then, using the GPS to guide him toward the house, glad they lived in the modern world where he wasn’t in the middle of nowhere trying to find his way with nothing but a compass and a vague idea of how the house and property was laidout.
He was almost to the tree line when he heard a branch crack somewhere behind him. The sound was deafening in the silence and he stopped, putting his back against one of the gianttrees.
The scurry of animals that had accompanied him so far had grown quiet. Declan listened, his ears tuned to the possibility of someone following him, someone moving unseen through theforest.
Movement to his right caught his eye. He spun toward it and was met with two big eyes staring at him through the low-hangingfoliage.
He froze. The doe was tall and stately, her ears standing on alert, gaze wise and calm. They stared at each other before it sprinted off, branches cracking under its feet as it disappeared into theforest.
The scurry of smaller animals resumed. He exhaled a breath he didn’t realize he’d been holding and keptwalking.
He reached the tree line less than fifteen minutes after he’d parted ways with Ronan and Nick. The house was barely visible, a tiny glow emanating from the other side of floral curtains that blocked Declan from seeing anythingelse.
He stepped behind a tree and spoke into the comms system. “Inposition.”
