Chapter Thirty-Two
Noah
Noah looked at the rest of the team as they parked down the street from the unassuming blue house. “She’s in there.” He said. He could feel it.
“What’s the plan?” Theo asked.
“We need to gain access, but we don’t want him to get to her first if they’re in separate spaces,” Eli replied thoughtfully.
“We could try and lure him out,” Zach suggested, binoculars pressed against his eyes as he looked from window to window in the house.
“What if he took her with him? Or if he was suspicious of her? Given the dead cashier, we have to assume he’s armed, dangerous, and knows she betrayed him on some level.” Eli replied.
“She didn’t betray him,” Noah said angrily. “He kidnapped her.”
“But he’ll see it as a betrayal. You need to take a step back from this man, or you’ll need to sit it out. We can’t have you going off half-cocked in there. It could get her killed.” Zach said seriously.
Noah took a deep breath and nodded.
“Could we get the authorities to come to the door? Maybe the fire department or the police for a welfare check?” Theo suggested.
“If he sees them, he might turn to murder-suicide. We don’t want to escalate the situation.” Noah said, rubbing his hands across his forehead. She was so close. They were so close.
“He could have enough supplies in the house to last for weeks or longer. He may not need to leave.” Eli said.
“We have to figure out a way to get her away from him before we bust him. Could we figure out what room she’s in and extract her?” Theo suggested, weighing all of their previous comments carefully.
“That could work, but we’d need to know what room she is being held in and whether he’s with her,” Noah said.
“How would we do that?” Zach asked, lowering the binoculars.
“We could involve the neighbors,” Eli suggested.
“But what if they’re loyal to him and tip him off?” Peter asked, looking up from the blueprints they had grabbed online.
“We could trespass at the neighbors?” Theo suggested helpfully.
“We could wait until dark and split up. One person on each of the surrounding roofs and one in the car. We can monitor each window and see if we can locate the two of them in the house.”
“What if he’s with her?”
“Then we wait until he isn’t.”
“If he’s hurting her, I’m not waiting. He’s a dead man.” Noah said, his voice low and threatening while his heart constricted in his chest at the idea of Bree being hurt. Or worse.
“Fair enough. If we have reason to believe something’s going on, we’ll storm the place early. If we see him being violent, we’ll storm the fort. But otherwise we wait so we can get her out safely. He hasn’t killed her yet, so we’re assuming she’s still valuable to him.” Zach said.
It was a crappy plan. Noah didn’t want to wait until dark, but it was wise, and they needed to be wise more than they needed to move quickly, even though every second away from Bree was excruciating. “Okay, I’ll take the south roof that looked directly into the back of the house. Theo, you stay in the car and oversee the operation. Eli, you take the east side of the house. Zach, you’re on the west. Peter, I want you monitoring the front rooms.” The men nodded and quietly turned to observe the house, each in his own thoughts.
Three hours later, the sun had set, and it was dark enough that they could move.
“I’m coming for you, babe,” Noah whispered before turning back to the others. “Okay, remember your positions. And be quiet. We don’t want the families aware that there is something knocking around on their roof. Stay out of sight and— “
“Don’t engage until we can make a plan and provide the necessary backup for everyone to get out safely,” Zach added, looking at Noah pointedly.
“Zach—” Noah started to argue. He wouldn’t wait to move if something was happening to Bree.
“Noah. I know you’re the boss and you normally take charge on these things. And I know you”re pissed at me right now.” He said. “But if you go in there blind with rage and whatever else, you’re going to get yourself or Bree killed. Now I know right now you don’t care about yourself much, but we do. Bree does. And if it backfired and he killed her instead, you wouldn’t be able to live with yourself. So, if you see something. You call us. Got it?”
Noah nodded and then hesitated for a moment, working his throat desperately so he could say one last thing. “Bree would want me to say ‘be safe’ to all of us. So there it is.” He choked out. They all nodded.
“He messed with the wrong woman,” Theo said. Each man nodded, fierce determination etched on each of their faces.
“Let’s get our girl back,” Peter said.
***
They split up, and Noah jogged over to the next street, counting houses as he went. Once he came to the house he needed, he slowly walked up the side of their drive, careful to keep out of the way of lights and windows, most of which had the blinds closed. Noah grabbed onto the low point of the roofline and hoisted himself up onto the roof, freezing for a second once he got up, listening intently for any indication that he might have tipped them off. When no sound changes came from inside, He slowly crouched across the roof, hyperaware of keeping each footstep as light as humanly possible. Once he got to the back side of the house, he sat in the nook between the chimney and one of the many angles on the roofline—a lone figure blending with the shadows. He picked up his infrared binoculars and began looking through each window, starting in the bottom left and working his way around.
The giant windows in the back showed the living area and kitchen, which appeared to be empty at the moment, though places were set and there were pans on the stove, so maybe they were getting ready for dinner? Noah scanned the next two windows downstairs, but found no heat signatures. He moved his gaze to the upstairs and peeked into what looked like a recording studio, if the microphone was any indication, and then a room full of art? No. Art supplies. His blood heated, and his blood pressure sky-rocketed. It was an art studio set up exactly like the one they had at home. How long had this lunatic been watching their house? Noah moved on to the next room, and a sound left his throat. Bree.
“I found her,” Noah whispered into the com.
“Where is she?” Theo asked.
“Top floor. Far right window. Looks like her bedroom at my house.”
“Weird way to describe it, but okay. Like size-wise?”
“No, like he copied the furniture, the bedding, the pictures…all of it,” Noah reported, the fiery rage in his veins at odds with the severe nausea in his stomach.
Theo swore, and Noah felt himself nodding along. That about summed it up.
“Does anyone have eyes on him?” Noah asked.
“Negative.” Peter’s reply came through quickly.
“Not here,” Eli replied.
“No,” Zach said.
“He must be along an interior walkway then,” Theo said, the clicking on his keyboard indicating that he was likely flipping through blueprints again.
Noah watched as Bree turned around quickly, her body stiffening.
“I think I found him,” Noah said quietly. Sure enough, Skyler Johnson walked into Bree’s room and was clearly trying to talk her into something. She shook her head, and he lifted his hand and backhanded her across the face. Icy rage settled in Noah’s veins as one thought echoed repeatedly through his head. He was a dead man. Noah needed to get in there. Stat.
“He hit her,” Noah said through gritted teeth, watching Aubrey hold her hand to her face.
“Give us a minute, man. We’re coming to you.”
“No, I need to go in.”
“Noah—you’re not—”
Noah yanked the com out of his ear and moved stealthily to the tree in the backyard below him. He jumped from the roof to the tree and made his way across the thick branch that hung over the neighboring fence line and into the tree in the backyard Bree was in. He stilled as two bodies made their way into the kitchen and sat at the dining table. Noah looked at Bree—her cheek red where Skyler hit her, and determination flowed through Noah. No one was going to stand between him and his woman. No one.