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“Welcome to the real world.” Spencer gave her an ironic look.
“Let’s pull up a map of Cavendish,” Hartley said, dragging the wireless keyboard over. She arranged the windows on the monitor to allow space for the schematic of the estate.
“Jesus.” Montgomery shook his head. “I forgot how big this place is.”
“Just over fifty acres,” Karol agreed.
The road around the estate looked like a wavy letter P, with the nine properties arrayed around the outside. Farthest out, at the top left, was the security facility.
“We’ll start at the security facility and work our way down,” Montgomery said, pointing at the monitor. He slid his finger down to the top of the P. “If we sweep down, then fan out, Claire can monitor the cameras for movement.”
“I thought our cameras were shit,” Georgia commented.
“Ryder left the cameras his team used for Mags’s engagement,” Montgomery said. “They’re from the front gate of the Spanish Villa, but we can remove and reinstall them.”
“I can work on that,” Karol offered. “Also, I have two handguns I can share. I’m not that great of a shot, so it’s no loss. I’ll just use a baseball bat for protection.”
“I can shoot,” Hartley admitted, and Montgomery watched her give Karol a hesitant not-quite smile.
Karol’s eyes shifted from her to Montgomery, and he could feel the heat rise in Hartley. He knew she assumed Karol was silently asking for his permission, and he couldn’t blame him. The idea of Hartley roaming the estate, feeling safe because she had a gun, had probably drained the blood from his face.
“This is my show,” Hartley snapped at Karol. “If you want back in,I’mthe one who’ll make that decision.”
“I don’t have a problem with that,” Karol said, his voice even, raising his hands. “I just don’t want your husband coming at me because I gave you a gun.”
Montgomery felt Hartley’s glare shift to him, and he kept his expression neutral.
“He won’t,” she finally said. “And for the record, we’re divorcing, and I’m all for it. So let’s all work as if he and I aren’t related anymore, all right?”
Montgomery couldn’t deny that truth, but he clenched his fists on the table, and everybody saw it.
CHAPTER10
Hartley couldn’t take her eyes off Montgomery’s fists.
She had to admit, part of her mentioning the divorce had been to goad him. She wasn’t proud of it, but there it was. And it seemed like it had worked.
While she might have taken pleasure in that, instead she felt empty. Sometime between Karol walking in and the reality of hunting for a killer, her sparring with Montgomery had become pointless. This last time she’d done it out of habit.
“Our relationship is moot, aside from committing to each other in this room,” Montgomery said, his tone one note above a growl. “Let’s split into groups of people with either training or actual fight experience—handling physical alterations, anything like that.”
His words snapped Hartley back to the present.
“I have,” Eli said, raising his hand.
Montgomery chuckled as he also raised his hand. “I can vouch for some of that personally,” he retorted. “I’ll add myself to the list.”
“Me too,” Karol added, lifting his hand.
“Same,” Spencer replied, his smug demeanor intact.
“Same for my guy,” Eli said, raising his other hand.
Hartley folded her arms across her chest, surveying the raised hands around the table. She couldn’t vouch for Spencer, but the other men seemed like they could take down Lucas on their own, from what she recalled of them. The realization that they were all willing to help her sank in.Help us, she corrected herself, looking from Claire to the faces on the video call.
“I’m happy to handle communications, unless you want to, Hartley,” Claire offered.
“I think you’re the perfect point person for communications,” she said, smiling when Claire looked pleased. “I have no actual fighting experience,” Hartley began, noticing that everybody lowered their hands with some trepidation. This would be an uphill battle. “I don’t have training or any physical fighting experience, although I’ve verbally torn strips off people.”
