“They won’t be long,” Sharon said before turning her attention to her two sons. “Have you guys finished cleaning up those toys?”
“Ah, mom,” a chorus of two whined.
Sharon took a super mom stance. “I’ve already let you stay up way beyond your bedtime because we have a special guest, but there will be no late night snack until everything is cleaned up.”
“What’s the snack?” The twin on the right clipped.
Sharon cocked her head to the side. “Does it matter?”
The twin on the left elbowed his brother. “No.”
“Good. Luka is going to help too.” Sharon pointed up the stairs to Luka. “When you’re finished and everything is put away, meet us on the patio.”
“Are we doing s’mores?” Excitement pitched the boys tone.
“Maybe.”
“Yea, we’re doing s’mores,” Luka cheered as he raced up the stairs and followed the scrambling twins.
Sharon laughed. “Your son catches on quick. He’s a smart kid.”
Luka had been in good hands. “Thank you. For everything you’ve done. I don’t know how I’ll ...” Nicole dropped her gaze to the floor, clutching her purse.
Sharon took her hand. “The words are enough. I’m just happy I could help you. You’re one strong lady, Nicole. I like a woman with guts.” A smile grew on Sharon’s lips. “Come on, I’ll show you to the powder room and then you help me carry the trays out to the patio.”
“Sure.” Nicole returned the smile, knowing she had a friend in Sharon.
~~
Chapter Eighteen
“Are you fuckin’ nuts?” With his fists planted on his desk, Mike Adams, Will’s superior, scowled down on him. The man’s face grew a deeper shade of red with each tic of the bold-faced clock hanging on the side wall above them.
Gary had used the same exact words just last night, after the kids were tucked in bed, when he and Nicole had laid out their plan to enter Gorgon’s house and break into his safe. This morning, it took him an hour to convince his team there wasn’t a better way for them to get to the Novokoffs and stop the madness now.
With Gary, Chase, and Aden watching their backs and Jolene and Kyle planted underground, Will felt their chances of pulling off Nicole’s idea could work. He glanced over at Gary who shifted uncomfortably on the hardback chair. His friend’s eyes were trained forward. Chase and Aden stood behind him. While his team supported his decision, apparently he was going to have to sell the captain the hair-brained scheme himself.
“I’m waiting, Haus. Are you nuts?” the senior officer spat.
Will met Adams’ glare head on. “No, sir. I am not nuts.”
“She’s a victim, goddamn it.” Adams pounded the desktop before stalking around the office. “We can’t let her go back there, after she escaped. Her parents want her back.”
“No one told them she’s been found, have they?” The wooden armrests of the chair seemed to soften under Will’s clenched fingers. He promised Nicole no one would contact her family.
“No. Not yet.”
Relief washed through him. “Don’t.”
Adams stopped alongside his desk and glared down at him. “Who are you to order me?”
Will lifted his chin. “I’m not ordering you.”
“Sounded like an order to me. Didn’t it, Gary?”
“A request, sir,” Gary said.
“That’s what I heard,” Chase chirped.
Glancing over his shoulder, Will caught Aden’s nod.
Adams chuckled between a sneer. “Your team’s got your back.”
“Yes, sir.” Will relaxed against the chair’s back. “Besides, Nicole is twenty-four. An adult, and able to make her own decisions.”
Adams stopped. “If I okay this hair-brained scheme and anything happens to her, my ass will be dog meat.”
“No one is taking a greater risk than Nicole,” Will replied. “I respect her decision.”
Standing in front of them again, the captain continued his rant for another minute before ending with, “The op is too dangerous. No. No way.”
Fear had prickled Will’s gut from the moment Nicole proposed her plan. The smoldering determination he’d seen in her charcoal eyes told him she would try to get to the evidence with or without his help. Thanks to him, she knew Gorgon’s records were her bargaining chip for a new life for her and Luka.
Will shifted forward on the chair and stared up at Adams. “Do you have another solution to this scenario, because I don’t?”
His captain shoved his burly hands into his pants pockets. “Talk some sense into her. Make her testify.”
“She’s not going to testify, and I understand why. She fears for her family’s lives. If the Novokoffs so much as hear a rumor she’s surfaced and is willing to talk, they’ll kill them, eventually. We can’t stand guard on all of them twenty-four seven forever. I can’t say I blame her for not testifying.”
“And, I can’t see how I can put her life and those of my men in danger.”
“We put our lives on the line every day. As for Nicole, in her own words, it’s her choice.” Will stood so he’d be eye level with Mike. “I got a feeling if we don’t help her, she’ll go on her own. No. I know she will, and I wouldn’t let her go by herself.”
“And if I order you not to help her?”
“Then I guess I’ll have to turn in my resignation.”
Gary jumped up beside him. “Will.”
“No. man.” Will shook off Gary’s hand on his shoulder, knowing Chase and Aden had stepped forward. “I promised Nicole I’d help her, and I will. One way or the other.”
Adams leveled his gaze on him. “You’d give up your career to help this woman?”
“Yes, and to stop others from becoming Gorgon’s victims.”
“How do you know you can trust her?”
“She’s a victim. You said it yourself.”
“She’s also been under the Novokoff’s influence for eight years. She could’ve turned. She could be setting a trap for us.”
“She tried to put Gorgon in the morgue. All this woman wants is her life back, to raise her child in peace and to keep her family safe.”
The captain huffed and then set his jaw. The fire in his eyes dimmed.
Will sensed Mike was working the aspects of the operation out in his head.
“All we need is my team to run interference,” Will said, trying to help cement the plan in Mike’s mind. “I’ll be the only one on the property with Nicole. She says she can be in and out within ten minutes.”
“Ten minutes?” Mike’s gray brow arched.
“Yes. In and out, and we’ve got all the evidence we need to take the Novokoffs down for good.”
Silence, like sludge, hung in the air. Just the breathing of his men provided movement on anyone’s part.
The captain dropped onto his chair, causing its cushion to exhale. He ran a hand over his thinning hair. “Okay. Set things up. But if things go down on the wrong side, internal will have your head.”
Excitement and angst mixed in Will’s veins. As long as Nicole’s and her family remained safe, he was good with taking the fall.
~~
Chapter Nineteen
Nicole’s hot breath pressed against her lungs waiting for the moment she’d exhale and inhale fresh air, while she crawled under the ten foot high chain-linked fence near the lot’s back corner. The ground was soft because that was where Max always buried his bones, and escaped on occasion, to visit his girlfriend—the golden retriever three houses down.
God, she hoped her scheme worked. August fifth was not the date she wanted engraved on her tombstone, or on Will’s.
Once inside the fence, Nicole listened for any movement for a few seconds before she scurried in a crab-crawl to the stand of pine trees near the back of the house. She wiggled below the branches into the soft bed of needles. A foot away, a pair of mice scurried away, disturbed from their nest by her intrusion, and Nicole captured
her cry by stuffing her fist into her mouth. Damn, she hated mice. The only thing she hated more was snakes and she prayed like hell she didn’t see or feel any of them tonight.
A toenail moon hung low in the star studded sky to the west. The heavy scent of pine surrounding her did little to abate the turmoil occurring in her stomach while she stared at the two-story house that had been her prison for eight years. She’d heard the saying ‘knees knocking’, but had never felt the sensation with such power until this very moment. How did she ever think she’d have the nerve to pull this off?
A snap behind her pulled Nicole’s attention. Every nerve in her body tingled, waiting for the moment she’d be drug from her hiding place.
A second later, Will silently inched alongside her right side and she left out a low sigh of relief. She wished he had let her come on her own. If they were discovered, they’d both die. Will was a good man. He didn’t deserve to die at Gorgon’s hand.
“Are you okay?” His elbow nudged hers.
He sounded so calm. How could he be so cool? She felt like a jiggling Jello under her skin. Nicole nodded--afraid a whisper would alarm Gorgon’s men who stood guard over the property a mere hundred yards away.
If she wasn’t scared shitless, she might’ve laughed at his appearance, which mirrored her own. With every inch of exposed skin smudged with black soot and dressed in black from head to toe, Will was barely visible, except for the whites of his eyes and teeth. When he smiled that smile, her heart leaped in her chest.
A cool breeze carried the sweet perfume of her petunias bordering the house across the lawn, rattled her wind chimes and rustled the limbs over their heads.
Will leaned toward her, his shoulder pressing against hers and held her gaze. “You don’t have to do this.”
She worked moisture into her throat and whispered, “Yes. I do.”
“What if the dog starts barking?”
“He won’t. He’ll pick up my scent before he sees me.”
“We’re a go,” Gary’s voice came through their ear plugs.
Will pulled his Glock from his shoulder harness. The light from the pole hanging over the garage doors cut across his face and she saw the concern in his blue eyes.
Nicole swallowed the fear clogging her throat and affirmed she too was ready, with a single nod.
Will nudged her shoulder and spoke into his mic. “We’re a go.”
In the distance, tires squealed and a moment later headlights appeared through the large iron entrance gate. The driver laid on his car’s horn, breaking the silence of the night and sending the neighborhood dogs into an uproar. To cause more chaos, Will’s man, Chase, acting out his part in the ruse, rolled down his window and yelled in the direction of Gorgon’s men. “Goddamn controller isn’t working again. Come on. Open the funkin’ gate, Jill. I’m tired.”
From inside the house, Nicole heard Max join in on the ruckus.
Nicole and Will watched as Gorgon’s men scanned the house, pulled their guns and cautiously moved toward the gate. One guard punched the keypad positioned on the brick wall holding the gate. The smaller walk-through gate opened and the other guard approached the driver. “You have the wrong house, buddy.”
“Who the hell are you?” Chase slurred his words and acted as if he was drunk.
“Go,” Will instructed her while aiming his gun in the direction of the pandemonium ensuing at the front of the property.
Nicole’s pulse throbbed in her temples. She squirmed out from under the tree, pushed off, and sprinted toward the back door. She dropped onto her knees and lifted the rubber covering of the doggie door and then slid the panel up. While holding the heavy rubber in place, she pulled her shoulders together and wiggled through the opening, letting the rubber mat fall back into place. Inside the mudroom, she waited a second, taking in her surroundings.
Max still barked at the front of the house. He probably stood up at the window’s ledge in the living room.
She had to move. Will’s man wouldn’t be able to distract Gorgon’s guards for long.
Not wasting another second, Nicole stood and made her way into the kitchen. As she rounded the corner, she was met with a low growl and in the shadows saw Max, who now stood with his teeth bared in the foyer. She dropped onto one knee and called to him, “Come here, boy.”
The dog’s tail thumped against the wall. He jogged to her side and lowered his head waiting to be rubbed down.
“Good boy.” Nicole buried her face in his coat. “I missed you too.”
Shouts from outside reminded her why she was there and without further hesitation she raced up the stairs, with Max on her heels. At the doorway to the bedroom where she’d spent nights crying for freedom under Gorgon’s hand and where she’d taken a stand, she drew a breath and was assaulted with the slight scent of bleach. They’d cleaned up Gorgon’s blood and other body fluids which had spilled onto the floor after her attack on him.
Gorgon wouldn’t ever hurt her ever again. She pushed away her fear, steeled her nerves and headed to the wall where the safe was housed. Moving her fingers along the frame work, she found the switch and a moment later the bookcase moved to the side.
Her fingers trembled over the numbers on the keypad. One wrong number and she would be locked out for twenty minutes. She didn’t have twenty minutes.
You’re a strong woman. Will’s words came back to her. She inhaled a deep breath. She had to believe in herself.
Tap, tap, tap, tap. Not second guessing her memory, Nicole entered the four digit code. “Yes!” She patted Max’s head as the locking mechanism released and the door clicked open.
She pulled the heavy duty garbage bag she’d brought from her pocket and pulled all the files and a flash drive from the safe and stuffed them inside the bag. A expandable folder remained in the back corner. Gorgon sashed cash in the packet. He would have no use for this money in jail. She, however, would be supporting Luka. Careful not to disturb the wire she carried, Nicole pulled up her shirt and tucked the pouch into her bra between her breasts. She closed the safe and moved the bookcase back into place.
A beam of light swept the room, causing Nicole’s heart to leap into her throat. On tip toes, she moved to the window and drew the sheer curtain back a fiction of an inch. The car had pulled away from the front gate, and Gorgon’s men were walking up the driveway toward the house.
She grabbed the garbage bag and ran down the stairs. This time Max led the way.
***
“Damn,” Will cursed under his breath. Ten minutes had passed.
He watched Gorgon’s goons stroll in his direction. His heart thumped against his arm tucked under him. They were heading in to do a sweep of the house. If so, they’d find Nicole. What the hell was he going to do?
Fuck. He should’ve never left her go in there.
“We have a problem,” he whispered into his mic, knowing she could hear him too.
“What’s going on?” Gary came across clearly.
“Bird is still in the nest and hawks are circling.”
“Don’t do anything stupid, eagle. Sit tight,” Gary ordered.
“Make your way to the front gate,” Nicole broke into the conversation, sounding cooler than a summer cucumber just hanging on a vine.
“I’m not leaving without you,” he growled into the mic, keeping his voice low. His fingers tightened around the hilt of his Glock.
“Do as I say,” she ordered. “I have a plan, but you need to move before they open the door.”
Bathed in the outside garage light, the men stopped in-line with the pines.
“Did you hear something?” One goon asked the other.
With his breath captured in his lungs, Will held his position and his finger on the trigger.
The men scanned the surrounding area, listening beyond the crickets chirping in the night.
A cloud moved across the moon and as if on cue the breeze rustled the wind chimes hanging off the patio roof.
“Nah. You’re he
aring things. Come on. I’ll keep a watch on the gate while you check the house this time.”
Both men walked toward the back door.
“Will, you need to move now. Go,” Nicole whispered into his ear. “The smaller gate code is zero eight zero eight. Trust me.”
She could see him. Will scanned the house and he saw a dark shape cross the kitchen window. She was walking right toward them. What the hell was she doing?
“Do what she says, Will,” Gary ordered.
With his eyes trained on the men, Will reluctantly shimmied back and out from under the branches. Careful to remain in the shadows he made his way toward the front gate, glimpsing over his shoulder every few feet. When he neared the exit, he heard the wild barking of a dog and one of the men bellow, “Get him.”
The dog ran around and under the pine tree, sniffing the spot he’d just vacated. He knew then Nicole had hoped that the dog would lead the men away from the house.
Will hit the keypad and slipped through the gate, holding the wrought iron ajar. He watched as the dog raced in circles around the yard sniffing, undoubtedly picking up his scent. He had to get out of there before the dog led Gorgon’s men right to him, but how could leave Nicole behind?
He couldn’t.
He stood pasted against the bricks like a fly on a wall and sent a prayer up that somehow they’d get out of this mess.
Meanwhile, Nicole watched from inside the back door, waiting and hoping. When Max headed toward the back yard where Will and she had entered the fence, she let out the breath she didn’t realize she’d been holding. “That a boy, Max.”
The moment Gorgon’s men disappeared into the pines, Nicole slipped out the back door, tiptoed along the house and then sprinted across the front lawn, hoping her rubber legs could make the distance, and Gorgon’s man didn’t see her. Had Will waited for her?
As she approached, the gate swung wide. Her grin grew as she raced through the opening and she saw Will.
He grabbed her hand and together they raced across the street and disappeared into the night. She pumped her legs in double time, trying to keep up with his long strides.
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