Chapter 21
TWENTY-ONE
LELAND
When we get about a mile from Raul Barlow’s estate, we pull off at a place we’d been directed to meet Tucker’s informant. A woman walks over, opens the back door, and slides in.
“The Sandman, hopefully? Otherwise, I’m getting into the vehicle of some strange men,” she says.
“I am,” I respond with a smile. “And you’re Rosie?”
“Yes. I’m happy to do what I can to help, but I’m afraid I won’t have as many answers as you need because I don’t really work directly with Barlow.
It’s more of… an on-call thing. My position is with some other heads in the area, but I’m not getting into that.
I will tell you what I can about Barlow.
From what I’ve heard, he’s put a price on your head of two million dollars.
For a man like him, that’s a drop in the bucket.
“Usually, he’d only send out his own people, but he’s not playing around.
He wants you dead. I don’t exactly know what’s going on here, I’m not in the loop, but I’ve been at his estate before and can tell you what I know of the layout.
Since I’ve worked with him before and he wanted extra manpower, I was called in to help secure the exterior of the estate, so I’ll help you get in through a weak point.
“Now, his wife doesn’t like it when he flashes his guards around. She says that it unsettles people and makes the children nervous, so he generally hides them in plain sight: waiters, doormen, etc. When you walk through that gate, assume everyone you meet is going to want to kill you,” she says.
I smirk. “Sounds delightful.”
“Tucker said you’d also be looking for data from his computer or files?
That’s going to be down in the basement.
He has an area down there where things are locked down tight so someone can’t easily get into it.
I’m not sure you’re even going to be able to get what you need out of there, but I wish you luck. ”
“I’ll see what I can do,” Cassel says.
Rosie nods. “I’m not in the know, you understand; to Barlow I’m not even a face he knows.
He’s not my priority, but I keep my foot in the door just in case.
What I’ve gathered is that they’re going to have at least a hundred people present between staff and guests.
Raul’s people are very well trained, and I can guarantee you that they know the face of every single person who is walking around there, so do not think you’re going to blend in.
I’ll share what I know about the location and the rest is in your hands.
This isn’t going to be easy. I’m not quite sure how you’ll get that bounty off your head.
If you kill him, someone will just take his place. He has another son who is lined up.”
“We’ll be careful. Thank you,” I say.
“Of course,” she replies before she starts going over the layout.
She explains where each guard will be stationed around the exterior of the building at a set distance apart from each other so that no one can sneak up to the wall.
Once she’s shown us the layout, she points out who she believes are the weakest guards.
While she could let us waltz right in at her post while she turns a blind eye, we don’t want to blow her cover, so the plan is to go in through one of the weaker guards.
The issue is that there’s a check-in every twenty-five minutes between the guards, so we can’t simply replace him.
We either have twenty-five minutes to get in and finish this, or we have twenty-five minutes to convince a man to pretend that everything is still a-okay and report when his turn comes.
“So when this call comes through at the twenty-five-minute mark, everyone is set to say something specific? Or just answer?” Jackson asks Rosie.
“Something specific so that no one can replace them and get away with it. It’s different for everyone and I won’t ever hear the others. They also cycle through their code words, so even listening and waiting won’t do you any good. You’re on your own with that.”
“How is it sent to you?” Cassel asks.
“Verbally.”
“Of course it is,” he whispers.
“I wish you all the best of luck,” she says. “You’re going to need it with this one.”
“It creeps me out when Leland thinks too much,” Tavish announces.
“It creeps me out when you breathe,” I mutter as I examine everyone.
We all have gloves and masks on with the hope of our faces staying off any cameras.
“Okay, is everyone good? Just to run through things again, Henry and Ellis, you two are on cameras. We have our earpieces in, so if you see anything, you’ll let the rest of us know.
Jackson and Everly, you will try to get information out of the guard and figure out his code word within twenty-five minutes.
Micah, Cassel, Tavish, and I will enter.
I don’t want too many of us to go in and chance getting caught.
Jeremy will stay with the vehicle and will come get us if shit goes south. Does that sound good to everyone?”
“So basically, we’re running this as if we have twenty-five minutes, correct?” Cassel asks.
“That is correct. Cassel, you think that’s enough time to break into his computer and do whatever it is you need?”
“Only one way to find out.”
“Ellis will inform us when we have twenty, ten, and five minutes left. And Rosie is going to inform us when our twenty-five minutes start.”
“Got it.”
“Please be careful,” Ellis tells Tavish.
“I will be. I promise. And please be careful with Cassel’s laptop. If something happened to it, it’d be much worse than if you had a bad guy after you,” Tavish teases.
Cassel glowers at him but can’t seem to refute it.
Setting off on foot, our group heads over to the location where our next victim lies.
He’s discreetly set up in a neighboring house, a place no one would expect to find him.
He must be a good shot if he’s stationed this far away and is responsible for such a broad area.
But Rosie informed us that as long as you’re not in front of him, your risk of getting hurt by him is extremely low.
Basically, he’s good with a rifle, not with anything else.
Cassel swiftly picks the lock to the front door and swings it open. I slip in and start moving deeper into the house, knowing that the shooter’s best vantage point would be from the window upstairs. Cassel moves in after me while everyone else waits behind.
And once we find the shooter’s location, we quietly wait for Rosie’s signal.
I’m leaning against one wall and Cassel is leaning against the other, our gunman none the wiser.
I glance over at Cassel who makes a funny face at me.
I raise an eyebrow and flip him off. His eyes narrow and he flips me off in return.
I use my own special sign language to convey that I’m going to fuck him up the next chance I get.
He uses his own hand motions to tell me that he thinks Jeremy is better than Jackson. And boy, does that make me want to fuck him up even more.
But before I can do anything, I hear Ellis in my ear.
“Signal has been given. Please be careful. Please. I really like all of you and I don’t want any of you to get hurt. And this is a really bad idea. Maybe the police could deal with it?” Ellis rambles.
“The police obviously can’t handle it or they’d have done something by now,” Henry says. “Proceed.”
Cassel and I slip around the corner at the same time. I reach the man with the rifle and just as I loop a hand around his neck, Cassel plucks the device out of his ear and puts a gun to his head. “Make a noise and we’ll blow your brains out,” Cassel whispers.
The man freezes and quickly drops the rifle he’d been gripping.
I pause while I stare at the beauty and wonder how such an inconsequential man has such a beautiful masterpiece in his hands.
It really is so pretty and definitely should be mine.
My fingers stretch out for the beauty as Cassel drags him back.
“Help me, he’s really heavy,” Cassel complains while his tiny body struggles with the task at hand.
My job is also to pull this man back and signal the others to come, but would it really hurt anything if I just… took his gun with me? Do bad people even really deserve things this nice?
The man is stone still; I think he believes that if he doesn’t move, we’ll forget he exists. I use one hand to help Cassel and the other hand to pull my precious after me as the others join us. Jackson grabs him and begins binding him and Everly takes over holding him at gunpoint.
“What are you doing with that gun?” Jackson asks. Like shouldn’t he be paying attention to his new victim and not me? Why is his eyesight so phenomenally good?
“Nothing,” I say as I look away. “Just… moving it for you guys. I don’t want any of you to trip over it or something.”
Jackson stares at me like he’s very thankful that I was so thoughtful and not at all annoyed I’m taking the gun home with me. I can’t very well tote it into the children’s birthday party, so I tuck her in a nice little spot.
“Be careful,” Jackson says.
“I always am.”
“I love you.”
“I love you too. Grab my baby when you head out,” I say as I point at the gun.
“Absolutely not.”
“If you loved me, you would.”
“Maybe it’s because I love you that I won’t grab a gun that you don’t know the history of. Who knows what crimes that gun is tied to?”
I think he worries too much and decide I’ll have to come back for her myself before hurrying on my way.
Tavish, Cassel, Micah, and I now have a very limited opportunity to reach the wall that surrounds the estate. It’s broad daylight, so we have to rely on Ellis and Henry to keep us safe and guarantee that none of the other sentries will be looking our way when we make it across.
“This is so damn risky,” Tavish says. “And I love it.”