27

He watched Sabrina and her mom walk out of Sabrina’s house.

The cops never found this spot in the fence. They’d looked everywhere for how Juan had gotten into the gated property to attack Sabrina, but they still hadn’t figured it out.

And how would they?

Unless they took the time to touch every single bar in the fence, they would never notice the one place where two of the iron bars had been replaced with plastic. They wouldn’t be able to see how they twisted right off. They would never know how easy it was to remove them and step through. They would never realize how this spot was out of sight of the security cameras.

This had been one of the first projects he’d taken on when he’d hatched his grand escape plan. He hadn’t known then if he would need it, but he’d been determined to cover all his bases, and making sure he could access Martin’s property had been a high priority.

And thank goodness. He’d thought Juan would be able to take care of that little brat, but Juan was dead and he was freezing his toes off contemplating the best way to make sure everything continued on as planned.

Sabrina and Yvonne paused at the Suburban and Yvonne got her coat. Then they walked toward Martin’s house.

He wasn’t close enough to be sure, but it didn’t look like they were talking. So what were they doing? They could barely stand to be in the same room with each other and now they were going on a winter’s morning stroll?

He stifled a yawn and jammed his fingers deeper into his coat pockets. The only thing keeping him going was the thought of white beaches and hammocks. He could almost feel the rope etching patterns on his back, the sweat on his brow, the weight of his eyelids closing for an afternoon snooze.

But the only way that would happen was if he took matters into his own hands, even though he didn’t want to. It would be messy.

But then it would be over.

Today.