Chapter 22
DIESEL
Movement on the north fence. Low and fast, not much more than a darting shadow in the thin band where the compound lights failed to reach. I’d remedy that.
“I’m going.” I ripped the window open and dove through, scraping my shoulders on either side of the frame.
Hawk’s voice grazed my ears as he called for backup to spread out around the perimeter. They wouldn’t get there in time.
I probably wouldn’t either, but no way in hell I’d stand around while some prick skulked around the property. How had they gotten this far without triggering any of my alarms?
Footsteps danced across the grass on either side of me as Hawk’s men ran for the fence. They spread out without being told, two men heading toward the east gate, one circling behind the shop, and another pushing through the gap between the main house and the secondary building.
Clean and precise, just like we practiced.
I covered the north stretch at a flat run in thirty seconds.
Nothing.
No shadows. No movement. The wire on the fence remained intact, which meant no forced entry from this side. The gravel on the service road remained undisturbed, with no billowing dust or engine noise to announce a departure.
I pulled my flashlight from the holster at my back and ran it along the fence posts one by one. Maybe they’d reattached the wire to keep me from noticing right away.
The wooden fence posts needed to be replaced at some point, but they held up against an impressive amount of force through the years, and I’d checked they would withstand anything short of a tank trying to push through.
But I refused to take it for granted that our midnight interloper hadn’t meant any harm. A light discoloration low on one of the fence posts caused my stomach to heave.
I crouched to check that I didn’t hallucinate the three lines with the scythe curve, the same mark I’d photographed at Callie’s shop.
The cuts were quick and shallow but deep enough to be found.
I turned to check the angle. Yep. This was exactly where I’d spotted them from the window.
Had they planned on me seeing them? Couldn’t have.
No one would have guessed that I’d be in the kitchen at that exact moment.
Then again…none of us believed in coincidences.
I pushed to my feet and turned a slow circle, my flashlight beam cutting across the low grass and emptiness stretching out in every direction.
I had no leads, nothing to follow, so I radioed Hawk using the new handheld I’d programmed yesterday. “North fence clear. Got another mark.”
The other men radioed in one by one with echoes of “clear” tightening the coil in my gut.
Something wasn’t right here, but I couldn’t put my finger on what bothered me.
Why this mark? Why now? I stayed at the fence another thirty seconds, letting all the mental puzzle pieces float around and settle.
Nothing overlapped except knowing the Hellhounds hadn’t used this mark in years.
Either someone in their current operation had history with old methods or they were sending a specific message to us.
I took a picture of the post and walked back to the house.
Figuring out motive and all that was Hawk’s territory, and he was good at his job.
I’d let him deal with the mental game while I took care of protecting the people we cared about.
Callie stood in the middle of the kitchen, her hands curled at her sides and her shoulders drawn up. They relaxed when I closed the door, but her eyes flashed. She’d pulled her hair back, but tiny wisps escaped to frame her face.
Hawk stood at the table, his phone pressed to his ear.
Colt leaned on the doorway with his arms crossed and his jaw locked.
I slid my flashlight back into the loop and set my phone on the counter.
Callie wanted to be kept in the loop, and I agreed with her, so I set my phone down and tapped the screen.
“Mark on the north fence is identical to the one in the alley. They knew how to avoid the motion sensors, and none of my cameras triggered an alarm.”
The kitchen fell into absolute quiet for a full three seconds.
Hawk cursed low and quick and tapped his phone screen. He moved to the main room and the low, controlled cadence of his voice carried even though his words fell short.
Colt stared at Callie, who stared at me.
“They’ve been watching the property.” Her hands curled until she winced.
Colt pushed off the doorway. “I’m going to check on Cody.”
One side of Callie’s mouth lifted, but she waited until he left before she spoke. “We’ve both checked on him already. Guess he’s making up for lost time.” Her expression fell, and the sadness in her eyes ripped my heart right out.
“What do you need?” I almost trapped the question behind my teeth, but I knew that look. She’d sit and stew and nothing good would come of it. If I could get her busy, get her to talk, she might be more prone to stick around instead of tearing out at the first opportunity.
“Something to do.” She avoided my gaze as her chin quivered. “I hate feeling helpless, Diesel. I’m not helpless. I need to be active and take part in making sure Cody and I are safe.”
I understood that…more than she realized.
Standing still while a threat circled ranked way the fuck below what I was willing to tolerate.
The difference between us was that I’d learned how to convert that feeling directly into work.
She was about to learn. She wanted to be active in her own protection, and I wasn’t about to tell her to let us handle it.
Everyone had the right to be part of their own survival.
“I’m making a hardware run at seven. I need to upgrade the lights, cameras, and motion sensors. Son of a bitch won’t get through my line again.” My neck creaked when I turned to stare over my shoulder at the night sky giving way to dawn.
“I’ll come with you.”
I’d expected that. Hoped for it really. She’d figure me out if I gave in too easily. “You’ve been up all night.”
She snorted, some of her snark coming back and showing its teeth. “So have you. We’ll keep each other awake.”
I started a pot of coffee while she backed out of the kitchen, probably to go check on her son.
By the time the coffee finished, she’d returned, her face washed and wearing a different flannel shirt she’d knotted over her belly button.
The green material popped against her eyes and I appreciated her curves as she walked toward me.
Later. Once we had everything secure, I could think about her, about us. But not after some bastard snuck into the property and left that mark.
The trip to the hardware store took two hours.
Callie settled the bill while I carried everything to the truck.
We didn’t say a word the whole way there or back.
Callie, unlike many people, never felt the need to push me into a conversation.
She accepted that I’d talk when I wanted and as far as I could tell didn’t feel slighted by my silence.
The installation would take most of the day, and Callie stuck to my side tighter than sticky paper on a hot day. Cody ran back and forth between us and the shop while Colt kept an eye on him. Every now and then, Callie’s gaze drifted to the shop where she’d spent most of her time.
“You miss it?” I stretched a wire overhead and attached it to the new camera, then started the connection test.
She tented a hand over her eyes and stared up at me. “Need a bit more than that to know what you’re talking about.”
Right. “The shop.”
“I miss working on stuff. It’s my peace, you know?” She shrugged and dropped her hand, her eyes going to the phone she held in her hand. “Shift the angle a couple degrees to the left. There’s still dead spot at the gate.”
I adjusted, watching her for my sign to stop, freezing when she raised a hand.
We never did learn as much as I wanted about Callie.
I’d run a couple searches once she vanished.
Learned about her asshole of a stepfather.
Her reactions to loud noises and belligerent men made more sense once I’d read the man’s file.
I barely had to think about him before my blood boiled.
If I ever managed to get my hands on him, he’d never touch anything ever again.
By early afternoon, we’d added two flood lights to the stretch of service road that curved toward the house and I’d rerouted the sensor triggers to close the gap that had let our visitor through last night. I ran the full system test while Callie watched over my shoulder.
A spot of grease speckled her forearm, but the burn on her neck had started to heal, leaving a pink stain in its wake.
We sat on the porch with cups of coffee and sandwiches Cody had helped make.
He’d insisted mine needed twice as much meat as everyone else’s, and I overheard him tell Colt something about a man named Alfred.
Callie picked at her food until I nudged her knee with mine and raised an eyebrow. She huffed but took a bite. “They’re going to come back.”
Did she need my confirmation? I finished my coffee and opened a bottle of water. “Yes. When they think they have something to gain. Right now, they’re looking for weaknesses, checking our response time and watching how we react.”
“So last night was a test.”
I nodded.
Her cheeks filled with air and she held her breath several heartbeats before releasing it with a rush. The afternoon temps had risen enough to put sweat on her forehead and make my skin sticky.
Cody ran past us, leaping off the steps and sprinting toward the little red tricycle Hawk had brought over the morning after their arrival. He’d gone to their house and brought back what he could, which he admitted later was next to nothing.
Leave it to Callie to suffer in silence.
Callie’s boy threw his leg over the tricycle seat and started pedaling before he’d fully sat down. He rode the same way Callie drove her bike, committed but not exactly cautious. The cowlick on top of his head lifted in the breeze, and he let out a whoop.
“Wait for me.” Colt jogged down the steps, shooting Callie a look as he passed. “You sure you didn’t give him a basket of energy drinks or something? He’s nonstop.”
“Welcome to parenthood.” She said it with a smile that almost reached her eyes. “He’s excited. It’ll wear off in a bit and he’ll sleep good tonight. A tired kid is a blessing.”
Cody zoomed around the yard on his tricycle, leaning forward and pedaling as fast as he could.
Colt followed along behind, never letting Cody get more than two feet away.
An hour later, they all went inside together. I stayed on the porch, my mind too stuck on someone coming after my family to get my body behind a closed door.
Cody had left his tricycle on its side in the shade under the big oak tree, and the low growl of thunder pushed me up from the steps and across the yard to put it away before it rusted in the rain.
I grabbed one handle and lifted the tricycle up to carry instead of scooting it.
The red paint had already flaked in places, and I turned away from my original path, aiming for the shop where I could give it a new coat of paint.
Once I had it on the bench and held the paint gun, a square block of pure black caught my eye.
“What the fuck?” I muttered under my breath and ripped the tracker off the underside of the seat.
My fingers curled so tight the box groaned.
I threw the paint gun back into the holster and stormed to the house, ignoring everything and everyone until I reached the kitchen where Hawk and Callie sat at the table.
It took considerable effort to open my fingers and let the tracker fall onto the wood.
My chest heaved, every cell in my body priming for the incoming threat.
Hawk’s expression went from confused to cold in a blink.
Callie sat back so fast her shoulders slammed into the chair. “They were in the driveway.”