Chapter 30
Micah glanced down at his throwaway cell, saw a text from Clover’s burner. Just sitting tight, how about you?
Still waiting. He paused, debating if he should say more as he killed time in the van with his two brothers.
He’d slept on the couch again last night even though he’d have much rather been next to her. But that was too much for both of them.
And he wouldn’t have gotten any sleep if she’d been curled up against him. Or if he’d been mere inches away from her, wanting her, needing her, so close he could reach out and touch her… He scrubbed a hand over his face.
“Everything okay?” Apollo asked from the driver’s seat, somehow making the fake florists’ uniform he was wearing look good.
“Yeah,” Micah muttered.
“I know that look.”
He tucked his phone away and leaned back against the hard metal interior with a thud. “You don’t know shit.”
“Who’s the one in a committed relationship with a smart, badass woman?” Apollo sounded absolutely smug.
“She’s with you, so I’m not sure how smart—oww!” Cormac shouted when Apollo punched his arm. He rubbed his bicep, frowned. “Not cool. We’re about to breach the Morrow estate.”
Luckily—or probably because of their bullshit conservatorship—Maeve’s parents didn’t have the Feds staying at their place as they worked to bring their daughter home.
From what he’d gathered through recon, the Feds had set up shop at the local sheriff’s station and had routed any unknown calls to the Morrows directly to their phone line on the chance that the family got a ransom call.
Now that Mosker and his crew had been arrested—and were apparently trying to pin everything on Ilena, which was ridiculous—the Feds were actively looking for Ilena.
Mosker hadn’t mentioned her sister Taryn at all to the Feds, which was interesting.
And telling, considering the fact that he’d only gotten Ilena to agree to work with him by threatening her sister.
No wonder he’d left her out. He was probably betting on her getting killed or injured if the Feds caught up to her.
Krystal had told her that the Feds weren’t cutting any deals with Mosker or the guys they’d brought in. They had nothing to deal anyway. No Maeve and no Ilena.
He and his brothers had parked two miles down the road and pulled off into a little hidden spot on the winding highway that led to the Morrow family’s private estate. According to Maeve, around eleven on Mondays was when the morning cleaning crew left.
“Here we go,” he murmured, turning his laptop around.
Last night Apollo and Silvia had driven down the two-lane road, gotten a flat tire, and used the time frame while Apollo replaced it to plant a small camera directly across the street from the gated entrance.
Unlike some estates or gated neighborhoods, they didn’t have someone sitting at their front gate 24/7. They simply kept theirs locked and instructed deliveries to leave things by the gate, or if they were approved, they were allowed through. It was all done through a comm system and cameras.
He and his brothers all watched as a white Toyota 4Runner pulled out of the estate, two women in the front. Just like Maeve said.
The vehicle drove past them a few minutes later, never slowing as they passed the hidden spot.
He texted Clover. Make the call.
A couple seconds later he got a thumbs-up. Then four minutes later, she texted, They’re coming to the sheriff’s station.
“She made the call.” He blinked in surprise as a Lincoln Navigator appeared on his laptop screen, Mr. Morrow driving as he and his wife raced out through the opening gate.
“That was fast,” Apollo muttered.
“If they were concerned parents, this is how they would react.”
“Technically they are concerned,” Cormac said. “About their money train.”
Micah grunted in agreement. He was surprised they hadn’t killed their daughter, but apparently there was some clause that if she died, the money from the trust went to various charities. Maeve’s grandparents had been very specific in their parameters.
“After all this is done, I hope they rot in prison forever,” Apollo growled. “They’re her parents. Supposed to protect her.”
Micah nodded even though his brother wasn’t looking at him.
The one thing all his siblings could agree on was that shitty parents deserved all the karma the universe threw at them.
After their mother had been murdered… No.
He shoved all thoughts of that down because he simply couldn’t think about her right now.
The loss. The devastation of growing up without her.
“We’re lucky we had Krystal,” Cormac said into the quiet as they waited for the Navigator to drive by.
“We really are… Here they come.” Even though Micah knew the Morrows couldn’t see them where they were hidden, he still tensed. “Setting the timer now.” It would take the parents twenty minutes, maybe twenty-five, to get to the sheriff’s station.
He and his brothers planned to arrive at the front gate with a truck full of flowers right around the time the Morrows arrived at the sheriff’s station and were too busy to answer their phones.
As they waited, he launched a whisper-quiet drone to get eyes on the estate aerially. He could see one of their security men sitting by the pool vaping, but no one else was roaming around on the grounds that he could see.
Once they got closer to the house he could hack into their cameras, see whatever security saw, but he had a good idea of the layout of everything thanks to Maeve. And hopefully, if he and his brothers did things right, they wouldn’t ever have to go up against the security at all.
The point of this mission was to get in quietly, do their delivery, and one of them would sneak up to the attic where Maeve had hidden her recordings. One of them being Apollo because the guy was a ghost when he wanted to be.
When the timer went off, Apollo pulled out of his hidden spot and they all got into position. Micah popped off the hidden compartment along the side panel of the van and slid in.
“You good?” Cormac called out after he pushed the removable panel into place.
“Yep.” Uncomfortable, but good. The sooner they did this, the sooner he could fix things with Clover.