Chapter 28
“Listen up.” Sophia heard Clint’s voice through her receiver. “Lydia and I now have the comms merged. Rylie, Angie and Sophia, you’ll now be able to hear both me and Lydia as well as the rest of the men through the comm. Men, you’ll be able to hear the ladies.”
“The women,” Lydia corrected.
There was a slight pause where Sophia imagined Clint glaring at Lydia for bothering to correct him at this particular moment.
“We can see all of your positions, and identify you each individually,” Lydia explained. “Drake, what’s the plan?”
“Finn and Dare were dropped off at the beginning of the vineyard. Their objective was to get to Rylie behind the tasting room, then spread out. Rylie, what kind of night vision and binoculars do you have?”
“Night vision, yes,” Riley responded.
“No to the binoculars,” Lydia said.
“I have binoculars,” Angie interrupted.
“Finn, I want you to circle the building, I want you to determine exactly what we have waiting for us on the roof. Jack, you’re on point with Rylie. I want those two guards taken down without noise. Are we clear?”
“Clear,” Jack answered.
“Understood,” Rylie said.
“Soph, I’m coming your way to the back of the production building,” Drake told her.
“Mason just pulled into the winery,” Clint interrupted. “He’s coming up the drive. Everybody hold while we determine which building he goes in.”
“Okay, Mason just said there are two guards, no weapons visible, in front of the production building front door. He’s getting out of his truck.
” Sophia could hear her heartbeat like it was a banging drum as she waited for Clint to keep talking.
“Ibrahim just greeted him and told him to come in. I think that’s it for now. ”
“Sophia I’m almost to you,” Drake said.
“Mason just said the guards are following him into the building.”
“Angie, this is Dare. Aiden and I should be close to you real soon. Where are you? You couldn’t be seeing the loading dock from the vines.”
“Behind the gas tank.”
“Found it. Forty yards from the vines. You ran out in the open to the tank?” Aiden asked. He did not sound happy.
“I stayed low to the ground. I needed to see the loading dock. Don’t get pissy, Aiden.”
“You know, if shooting starts, that’s not a real good hiding place, don’t you?” Dare butted in.
“And you don’t be a smartass, Dare,” Riley chimed in. “If you’re not helping, you’re hindering.”
Any other night. Any other hour. Any other moment, Sophia would have laughed. But not now.
She jumped as Drake whispered, “I’m here.”
She hadn’t heard him or even felt him come up behind her, and he warned her he’d been coming.
“Lydia, has Mason said anything more?” Sophia asked.
“Neither Mason or Ibrahim have said anything. I’ll report in real time, Sophia. I promise.”
“We only have one sniper. He’s on the tasting room roof,” Finn reported in. “I have him in my sights. He’s focused on the road leading up to the winery.”
“Clint’s got it figured out!” Lydia was excited.
“He’s going to patch in the audio from Mason’s burner phone.
Try to keep quiet when sound is incoming.
He’s got the volume turned down, so they won’t hear us.
Plus Clint has muted it to be safe. Mason hid the burner in his sock, so audio will be rough. ”
Everyone waited.
The waiting was killing her. Sophia couldn’t stand it.
She was crawling out of her skin. She kept her attention on the guard in front of the door, and her hand gripped her Glock.
The desire to shoot the man was overwhelming.
He could actually be one of the ones who’d put hands on her daughter.
One of the ones who had made her bleed. She wanted him dead.
She flinched when Drake gently rested his hand on her shoulder. “Breathe.” He hadn’t said it into their comm system. Just to her.
“I’m fine,” she replied just to him.
“No you’re not. You need to calm down. Just focus on this little part of the mission. Not on Kayla. Just this one step. You’ve got to trust in the plan, and trust Mason.”
Sophia sucked in a deep breath, then let it out. Did it again. Then she nodded at Drake.
“Good.”
“What the fuck, Sula? Look at the way she’s shivering. You couldn’t get her a blanket? It’s damned cold here in the basement and her clothes are wet.” Even through a sock, Mason’s ire came through clearly.
“Stay right there, Mason. No touching. First, we talk. Now sit down.”
Sophia wasn’t clear what she was hearing, until she heard a grunt. It wasn’t Mason’s voice. There was a fight going on. Then she heard a groan. Still not Mason. More scuffling.
“This is tiresome, Mason. You can’t win. Get off the ground and sit in the chair.”
“Three to one odds, and you have my girl as collateral. Wasn’t really a fair fight,” Mason gasped out.
“Five to one.” Ibrahim corrected him.
“You don’t count. Neither does that short little fuck with the notepad who’s following you around. I’m just talking about the real men.”
Good, he had just told them what they were dealing with inside and that Kayla was in the basement.
Ibrahim laughed. Really laughed. “You think insulting my manhood is going to upset me? Take my mind off my plan? You don’t really know me.”
“I know that despite being so rich, well-connected and supposedly smart, my wife and her friends were able to trick you with phony helicopter schematics.”
There was a long pause.
“Chidi! Get me a tablet. Call up those plans that Mary got for us. I want to see them again.”
Mason laughed.
“Yes, sir.”
“Clint, headcount,” Drake demanded.
“One sniper, roof, aimed at the road. Two guards, back door of tasting building. One guard back of the production building. One guard at the loading dock. Three bodyguards inside near Kayla, Ibrahim and some short little fuck.”
“Lydia, are there direct routes from the tasting room to the top level of the production building?” Drake asked.
“Yes.”
“Finn, you still have eyes on the sniper?”
“Yep.”
“He look planted?” Drake asked again.
“Yep.”
“Get back to Rylie and Jack. I’m going to want the three of you to take out the two men with the AK-47’s. I want it done quietly. Then I want you circling back to the sniper and Rylie and Jack into the tasting room. Got it?”
All three of them acknowledged their orders.
From Sophia’s position, she couldn’t see the back of the tasting room, even when she craned her neck.
“Keep down,” Drake whispered to Sophia. “They’ll get it done.”
“Angie’s Team,” Drake said into the comm. “Is there any way that any of you can take out the guard in front of the loading dock?”
“There’s a dumpster beside a set of stairs that the guy is standing on,” Aiden answered. “We need to get back to the vines, which should be okay, that’s not the direction he’s worried about. Then we need to come at him from the side of the house so the dumpster is covering us.”
“If one of us stays here and throws something and has him looking south for a second while someone else is coming at him from behind the dumpster, it should be a quiet take-down,” Angie included.
Sophia watched Drake nod. “I like it.”
“The door from the loading dock leads directly into the barrel chamber,” Lydia spoke up. It’s pretty much an open area, at least according to these fucked-up plans.”
“Got that?” Drake asked. “No entering without my say-so.”
“Roger,” Aiden answered.
“This is all done up close, no noise. Got it?” Drake asked.
“Yes.”
“Those not doing that, are to stay behind and will use weapons to fire on the guards if there is a problem.”
“I think the little ladies were just relegated to back-up roles, did you hear that?” Angie asked.
“Slitting someone's throat wasn’t on my bucket list,” Rylie answered.
Sophia shuddered and silently agreed with Rylie.
“Is everyone a go?”
Sophia listened to everyone report in.
Drake said, “Go.”