Kade took the corner too fast, the tires squealing as he made the last turn into the Whitmores’ neighborhood. He had tried calling Renee repeatedly, but it went straight to voice mail every time. Had she turned her phone off, or had someone else?
Too many possibilities played through his mind until his gut was a jumbled tangle of nerves.
His phone rang, and hope sprang inside him. “Hello.”
“How close are you?” Ace asked, his voice clipped.
“Half a mile,” Kade responded. “Status?”
“I drove by the front, and all was quiet. I’m parked three doors down on the east side.”
“Maybe no one is here yet.”
“Negative. There’s a car in the driveway,” Ace responded. “You’ve stayed here for weeks. What’s the best way to infiltrate the defenses?”
“I spent weeks fortifying those defenses.”
“Come on, Kade. There has to be a weak spot.”
Kade pulled up in front of Ace and climbed out of the car. The older man met him on the curb.
“So what is it? Where’s the weakness?”
“I’m thinking.” Kade ran a hand down his face, trying to clamp down the terror surging through his veins.
“When you shut down for the night, what’s the last thing you check?” Ace asked.
“The basement. The doors are glass. Always made me nervous.”
“Then that’s our entry point,” Ace announced.
“What if they have hostages?”
“Renee is the one who sounded the alert. We have to assume if the visitors made it inside, she would have already fled.”
“These men are killers,” Kade said, forcing himself to speak his fears. “If they made it inside, they wouldn’t leave survivors.”
“There’s still a car parked in the driveway.”
Hope bloomed. “They haven’t found what they’re looking for. Who they’re looking for.”
“Let’s go.” Ace took a step forward.
As much as Kade wanted to rush in with guns blazing, something stopped him. “Wait.”
“What?”
“The basement doors are the obvious weakness. If Werthcamp is inside, he’ll know that. Not to mention, with the security cameras, he’ll see us coming. The Saint Squad and I made sure there aren’t any blind spots.”
“What do you suggest?”
“I’m not sure, but I know who might.” Kade pulled his phone from his pocket and dialed. “Hannah, I need you to patch me through to the commander of the Saint Squad.”
“I’ll do what I can.”
A moment later, Brent’s voice came over the phone. “Miller.”
For a brief moment, Kade was at a loss for words. How did one tell a man his family member might be in danger? He swallowed and forced himself to speak. “Brent, it’s Ghost. I have a possible situation at your in-laws’ house.”
For the first time since meeting Brent, Kade heard fear in Brent’s voice. “Are my in-laws there?”
“The senator is at work. I don’t know yet about Katherine,” Kade admitted. “Tell me, if you were going to breach the house defenses from outside, how would you do it?”
Kade heard the quiver in the commander’s voice and appreciated the way he was able to control his emotions and analyze the problem. “If you want to go invisible, straight in from behind the oak tree on the east lawn. A well-placed mirror can blind the camera there and make it look like it’s the angle of the sun.” He paused. “You do have sunlight in Virginia today, don’t you?”
Kade glanced up at the blue sky hazy with humidity. “Enough to get by.”
“Head straight for the security office window. From there you’ll be able to see what you’re up against. The blind spot will also give you an open path to the downstairs guest bedroom.”
“Thanks, Brent.”
“Keep me posted.”
“Will do.”
Kade relayed the new information to Ace.
“I’ll pull a mirror off my car,” Ace said. He returned a moment later with a mirror in his hand. “How do you want to do this?”
“After I place the mirror, you go for the security office, and I’ll head for the guest room. If you can cover me from outside, I’ll try to neutralize whoever is inside.”
Ace nodded his agreement. Together they moved into position behind the mature oak tree, its trunk thick enough to hide Kade as he climbed into the branches. He placed the mirror, taking longer than he had expected to make sure it was aligned with the sun without any leaves getting in the way.
As soon as the path was clear, both men approached the house together. Kade looked through the guest-room window, finding the room empty. When he looked over at Ace, the other guardian was holding up one finger. One person in the security room. One person who wasn’t Renee.
Swallowing the lump of fear lodged in his throat, he pulled out his pocket knife and used one of the tools to pry open the latch on the window. Slowly, he slid it open, glancing at Ace before climbing inside. He drew his weapon and waited a moment, listening for any sign of movement. Silently, he padded across the carpeted floor, hesitating again before opening the door into the hall.
Once again, he was alone. Feeling a new sense of urgency, he hurried down the hall and through the open door of the security office. The man standing inside turned, a stunned expression on his face when he saw Kade.
“If you want to survive the day, you’ll hold it right there,” Kade said.
Kade saw the other man’s intent and nearly pulled the trigger when he reached for his weapon instead of putting his hands in the air. Fear that a gunshot would alert Werthcamp of his presence was the only reason Kade hadn’t dropped him in the first place. Instead, Kade kicked his right leg out, his foot connecting with the other man’s forearm.
The weapon didn’t drop, but the other man’s balance was compromised enough for Kade to strike with his fist and send him reeling back a step. A second fist to the jaw succeeded in knocking his opponent to the ground, the gun finally falling free. He didn’t stay down for long. His eyes darted to where the weapon had skidded across the floor and under the desk in the corner. With no sign of fear, he stood and faced off against Kade.
“You don’t really want to do this,” Kade warned, lifting his weapon into view again.
“Don’t have much to lose.”
Kade recognized the face now. Zane Marzell. The man who had helped Werthcamp escape. The way he shifted his weight to the balls of his feet indicated this man had spent some time in martial-arts training.
With his weapon still gripped in his right hand, Kade struck again with his left. This time, Marzell blocked his punch, and he ducked when the man tried to fight back.
A roundhouse kick to Kade’s ribs followed by a left hook to his jaw knocked Kade’s weapon loose and leveled the playing field. No longer trying to fight one-handed, Kade let his fear and frustration roll through him. He ignored the throbbing in his jaw, struck with his right hand, and immediately followed with his left. The first punch connected with Marzell’s midsection, but the second one found only air as his opponent jumped back to create distance between them.
In the back of his mind, Kade heard the scrape of metal against metal at the window, but he was too focused on the man surging toward him to concern himself with Ace’s success in picking the latch. Fists flying, Kade and Marzell sparred, both men avoiding more punches than they landed. Kade’s foot connected with his gun, and he stumbled backward, his elbow hitting one of the monitors.
He heard the glass crack and wondered how many of the senator’s surfaces he could break before the day was out. That thought had barely formed when Marzell made a dive for the floor and the gun Kade had just tripped over.
Kade kicked him in the throat, and he heard glass breaking again. A moment later, Ace was standing over Marzell, a foot securely over the former guard’s right wrist, a gun pressed to the man’s temple. “That’s enough.”
Breathing heavily, Kade found his footing and scooped his weapon up off the ground. He collected his opponent’s gun and turned to look across the room to where Ace had broken the window to gain entry. “What happened to picking the lock?”
“You know I’m not very good at that.”
Kade shook his head and turned back to the other man. He leaned down and grabbed him by the shirt front. “How many more are there?”
The muscle in the man’s jaw twitched, but he said nothing.
“How many?”
Silence.
Fully aware of how large the Whitmore’s house and property were, Kade turned his attention to the security monitors. All the images were still. Quickly, he rewound the video feed that showed the area by his rig and the barn. He pressed the button to play it forward, his attention fully on the monitor. A surge of relief shot through him when he saw Renee rushing into the barn. She was still okay.
His relief was short-lived when he looked at the next screen and saw a man heading up the path, an automatic rifle slung over his shoulder. The red hair gave him his first clue to the man’s identity, but when the intruder turned to check the area behind him, Kade got a good view of his face. Owen Werthcamp, the man who had nearly destroyed the guardians a year before.
Ace must have seen him too. “Go,” Ace said with a wave toward the door. “I’ll secure this one in the basement and catch up to you.”
Without a second thought, Kade rushed from the office and headed for the door. He only hoped he wasn’t too late.