26. Chapter 25
Your person will make you realize why you had to wait.
There was only one vehicle in front of Hope’s place when they arrived. “I thought the others were supposed to be here?”
“They are…” Bradford frowned and pulled out his phone, but it rang before he could make a call. It linked to the car’s Bluetooth system as he answered. “Hey, we just pulled up.”
“I know. I didn’t want to bother you while you were at Kim’s,” Berlin said. “I’ve been monitoring Edward’s phone and cameras and he’s making another move on Hope tonight.”
“What, I thought—”
“I know,” she said, cutting him off. “We thought Hope was safe, but we’re all leaving now.
Apparently he didn’t hear the rumor that she had people visiting her.
I’ve printed out some plane tickets and a few other travel-related things and I’ll be leaving them in the printing tray.
It’s over-the-top but hopefully once whoever he sends here sees it, they’ll assume she left town. ”
Hope had a lot of questions and it was clear that Bradford did too, but she knew that now wasn’t the time. “What about my bags?” she asked .
“Already packed up. They haven’t left yet, but you guys need to turn right around and leave.”
“Who’s in there with you?”
“It’s just me…wrapping up now.”
“We’ll wait for you.”
“Bradfo—”
“Berlin, I’m not leaving you behind.”
“Neither am I,” Hope added. “Do you need help bringing anything out?”
“No…fine, come on. It sounds like his team isn’t rolling out for another ten minutes.”
Bradford cursed and jumped out of the car, Hope not far behind.
“Did she say ten minutes?” she asked as they hurried up the front steps.
Bradford threw open the door to find Berlin grinning at them. “Oh my god, they’re not really rolling out in ten are they?”
“Nope.” Her grin grew even wider. “They’re waiting until about midnight. They want to make sure it’s quiet out here. I just wanted to see you run.”
“You’re a monster.” His tone was dry.
“All right, let’s see this setup,” Hope said.
She was glad that they had time before another round of assholes showed up.
“And I’m probably getting ahead of myself, but I want to expose these guys.
I know we can’t with the last four…obviously.
But we’ve still got the cameras up. I don’t want to keep hiding. I want to do something.”
Berlin looked a little feral as she turned her smile on Hope. “What are you thinking?”
** *
“Is it weird that I’m excited about watching this?” Hope whispered to Bradford, even though they were both wide-awake and watching the laptop screen.
She, Berlin and Bradford had added a couple more cameras hours ago, before they’d laid their trap and headed out. Now they were back at the rental. She wasn’t sure if anything would come of this or if this alleged team would even show up—
“Someone’s coming,” Bradford murmured.
She glanced over at him, wondering if he’d decided to go shirtless to make her crazy.
They were both sitting up against the headboard, and while she was in her pajamas, he was wearing boxer briefs and nothing else. Yep, he was definitely trying to make her crazy.
It was only partially working, because now an SUV was slowly moving down the driveway. Thanks to the night vision capabilities of the cameras, she could see one… “Two SUVs? That seems like overkill.”
Bradford lifted a broad shoulder. “Four of their guys disappeared without a trace.”
“Fair,” she whispered again. “Not sure why I’m whispering.”
He snickered slightly. Neither SUV parked right up on the house, but about halfway down the drive. Then two teams of four men each got out.
One guy made a bunch of hand motions to the others.
She leaned in to watch them fan out. “So he’s like the team leader, right?”
“Essentially, yes. And if I had to bet money, he’s got military training.”
“These guys seem different than the ones the other night. More organized, I guess.”
Bradford nodded, his expression tense as he watched the screen.
She couldn’t take her eyes off him for a long beat. She might hate the situation, but she liked being with him. She felt…safe with him. Truly, ut terly safe in a way she’d never felt with anyone else. Or anywhere else. Though the location had nothing to do with it.
It was being with him that changed everything.
He was the game changer.
The reality of that dawned on her and she had to turn away from him before it could sweep her under.
“So why do you think he has military training?” she asked, even though she was pretty sure she knew.
“The hand movements—he’s giving orders without words, something you’ve seen.”
“Yeah. I wasn’t sure if that was, like, universal though.”
“Not really. It’s used in all branches, but these guys move like a unit. No talking, not even now.” He chin-nodded at the screen again.
She watched as two men carefully entered her house, looking for any traps, while two others stood guard on either side. Two more moved into the front and back, and then the last two slipped into the woods. Or maybe they were headed out to her dad’s shop, which she hadn’t even ventured to.
“They’re all wearing balaclavas too,” she murmured.
“That’s a Spec Ops thing too. But it’s also a criminal thing, so we can’t be totally sure about the training.”
She snorted, then straightened as the two men inside began a careful sweep, going room to room.
The one she’d dubbed the leader had a small flashlight and was now looking at some of the paperwork they’d left behind. Instead of leaving it in plain sight, she’d tucked it away in one of the kitchen drawers.
A half-ripped plane ticket, which she thought was overkill (who printed their tickets anymore?), and a travel guide with some highlighted parts in the city she was supposedly flying to—Orlando, Florida. A massive place no one would find her in.
In the bathroom she’d cleared out most of her toiletries, but not everything. She’d also left some clothes behind so it would look like she was coming back. She wasn’t even sure if these guys would notice, but they’d wanted to make this as authentic as possible.
For the finale, she’d written a note to an imaginary woman named Carla thanking her for checking on the house while she was gone and asking her to leave the mail on the kitchen countertop.
“He sees the note to Carla on the fridge.” Bradford sounded smug, likely because it had been his idea.
“Let’s just hope they buy it.”
Half an hour later, the two men inside headed back outside. Then the leader guy motioned with his hands for everyone to move out.
And Bradford was right, they even jogged like a team, all in unison. Back at one of the SUVs, the lead guy shoved his balaclava up and pulled a cell phone out.
She was really glad that Bradford’s team had added more cameras.
“She’s not here,” he said to whoever was on the other line. Likely Edward Killeen.
Before she could voice that, her phone buzzed with an incoming text from Berlin saying Click on this link .
When she did, a small screen popped up to reveal Edward Killeen in his kitchen in casual clothing, on his cell phone.
“…the bitch couldn’t have just disappeared. And I had someone watching her place—no one saw her friends show up and she never left.”
“I don’t know about any of that, but she’s not here. There are a couple of sets of tire tracks though. I can take some pictures.”
“Don’t waste your time. What did the house look like?” Edward asked.
She focused back on the screen, feeling like she was watching a tennis match.
“Clean, but not too clean. Signs she might have headed out of town. To Orlando, specifically, with plans to visit Disney. Some lady named Carla is supposed to be checking in on her place.”
“Carla who?”
“I don’t know, it’s the name on a note from the fridge.”
Killeen was silent, his expression contemplative as he sat there at his island countertop, a glass of what looked like whiskey in front of him.
Finally the other guy motioned for his men to return to the SUVs as he spoke into the phone. “This is a waste of our time and resources.”
“Says who?”
“Says me,” the man snarled. “We’ve got a good thing going and you’re getting paranoid. If Hank had anything on you, we’d have found it. We searched his place top to bottom before.”
Her heart rate kicked up at the mention of her dad.
“Not if he gave it to her. I’m telling you, my instinct on this isn’t wrong. Something is off with her. And she’s a reporter.”
“Journalist,” she murmured to herself.
“So what?” the man asked.
“She could be here writing a story about—”
“Her dad just died. There’s only one reason she’s here. And I’ve put myself and my men at risk for nothing. I don’t like exposing myself like this.”
“Four of my guys disappeared and no one has heard or seen them since.”
“Weezer and those assholes are probably wasted in Atlantic City. You’ll hear from them eventually. That’s what happens when you pay morons up front,” he added, and it was clear that this was a conversation they’d had before.
“Something is going on. I’m not wrong about this. ”
“I was willing to give you the benefit of the doubt, but her dad didn’t have shit and neither does she.
And you made a mistake by sending the Tanner brothers out here to check his shop again.
It spooked her…” He paused, his body language tense.
“Please tell me this isn’t about her not dropping the charges against Patrick? ” There was ice in the guy’s tone.
“Jesus, no. That’s just what I told Patrick and Dale.”
Dale Watsky, she remembered from Berlin’s information.
“Why not tell Dale the truth?”
“Because he doesn’t need to know all the ins and outs of everything.
And my suspicions about this bitch don’t concern him.
He needs to stay focused on other things.
Now just plant some cameras and get out of there.
I want to know exactly when she arrives back home.
Because I’m not wrong about her. Something is off. ”
“Fine.” The man hung up without another word, then motioned to the only man who hadn’t gotten back into the SUV. “We need to plant a few cameras, couple bugs.”
“Shit,” Bradford muttered.
“What happens if they find ours?” she asked.
“That’s what I was thinking… The cameras are well hidden though.”
Heart racing, all she could do was watch as the guy slid his balaclava back on and headed back inside with the other man. His body language said he wanted to be anywhere but there.
The two men moved quickly, placing a camera in the kitchen, one in the living room, and another in the bedroom that was clearly hers.
“Perverts,” she muttered.
Bradford snickered. “Or more likely they think you’ll be talking on your phone in that room.”
She gave him the side-eye.
“Or, you’re right and they’re definitely perverts.”
“I like when you tell me I’m right,” she murmured, looking back at the screen. She felt almost detached as she watched them, as if this wasn’t her home.
Once the two men were done, they headed back outside, their body language clear. They were annoyed.
“We searched the old man’s place more than once,” the second man who’d been helping plant the bugs said.
“I know. That’s not what this is about,” the leader murmured as they reached the SUV. “Edward’s starting to get paranoid about everything.”
“Those are some seriously good cameras,” Hope whispered, not wanting to miss any of the conversation.
“Their conversation is so damn clear.” She wanted to ask where they were from, but had a feeling it was from Hailey’s husband.
Or one of his companies, to be more specific.
She knew that the guy was into next-gen tech.
Stuff she probably didn’t want to know about, now that she thought about it.
Bradford only nodded instead of responding, still watching the screen
“I don’t care what he says about her. Killeen is just pissed that his baby boy is doing community service.”
“We should take care of that asshole,” the other man said. Which earned a snort-laugh of approval before they slid into the SUV.
“You think Berlin will get anything from the license plates?” She hadn’t been paying attention when they’d arrived, but when they turned around she tried to get a good look at the plates. They were moving too fast though.
“Maybe, but I have a feeling the plates will be fakes anyway.”
“Yeah. If they went to this much trouble to come kill me… Eight freaking guys. And what the heck were they talking about with my dad having something on Killeen?” It was rhetorical because obviously Bradford didn’t know.
“There’s clearly more going on than the issue with his son, though he seems like a big enough asshole to want to kill you for that alone. I want to kill him and be done with it,” he grumbled as he leaned back on the bed.
She tried not to stare at all that bare skin, at the way his stomach muscles flexed with his movements. Somehow she forced herself to turn away. “I’m going to grab some water before I crash. You want anything?” She couldn’t look at him again as she slid out of bed.
If she did, she was about to make a bad (or really good) decision and proposition him for the rest of the night. And you know, into the morning.
Why had she thought sharing a bed was a good thing?
“Nope, I’m good.” He sounded all relaxed, which just annoyed her.
She felt as if she could crawl out of her skin and he looked as if he could roll over and sleep at a moment’s notice.