Her brother opened the front door for her. A wave of warmth washed over her from the blazing fire in the great room. Smoky and Stone ran around the living room for a moment, until Justin directed them to sit under the table. Kendra eyed the massive stone fireplace that extended all the way up the cathedral ceiling. A curved staircase led to the second-floor bedrooms, and the hallway loft overlooked the living and kitchen area.
She had no idea how many bedrooms were up there, but this was by far the nicest place she’d ever stayed.
“You feds get paid too much if this is your safe house,” Levy drawled, looking around with his hands on his hips. “We don’t get this level of treatment. Then again, most of our witnesses are scumbags.”
“Not my father,” Dom quickly interjected.
“Whoa, I said most, not all.” Levy looked embarrassed at being called out.
“Okay, let’s talk about how we can draw the shooter out so that we can grab him.” Griff took over the conversation. Kendra could tell her brother-in-law wasn’t thrilled about Levy’s comments either. She imagined Levy had worked with a lot of bad guys, which had likely grated on him after a while. Still, he shouldn’t paint every witness with the same blackened brush.
“I think we need to focus on Bartoli’s known contacts.” Raine reached down to stroke Stone’s soft fur beneath the table. “He’s high on our suspect list. We can also try to see if any of the employees at Dom’s company are involved.”
Kendra glanced at Dom. “Are you sure about your new trick to reroute the ISP address?”
He shrugged. “Nothing is one hundred percent.”
“Okay, that’s a starting point.” Justin moved into the kitchen. “I don’t suppose we have anything to eat here?”
“Check the freezer,” Griff suggested. “Frozen pizza is better than nothing.”
Kendra didn’t feel very hungry, but the hour was going on noon. They’d spent more time at the last rental property than she’d anticipated. “We should have stopped to grab something along the way.”
“Levy, maybe you can head back to pick up lunch?” Raine gestured to the driveway. “You have a clear pathway out of here.”
Levy frowned, then shrugged. “Sure, if that’s what you want.”
“No need, there are three frozen pizzas in the freezer,” Justin said. “I’ll toss these into the oven now and figure out something else for dinner.”
As Justin went to work on their frozen pizzas, Dominic set the laptop on the kitchen table and turned it on. “Give me a few minutes to see if I can get into the network the feds have here.”
“I still think placing Dominic in witness protection is the way to go,” Levy groused. “We shouldn’t have lost his father to a plane crash. I don’t want to be known as the US Marshal who also let his son be killed.”
“No.” Kendra’s tone was sharp. “Drop it. We’re going to work on a way to arrest the shooter. Then you and Griff will convince him to turn on his employer.”
“You’re assuming the shooter knows Bartoli’s real name,” Levey pointed out. “Bartoli is smart enough to use a middleman to make the deal.”
“Fine, then we’ll get that guy’s name and convince him to cooperate.” She drilled Levy with a hard look. “Those are the types of people who end up in witness protection, right? That’s what you just said.”
“Fine.” Levy dropped into the closest chair and crossed his arms over his chest. “You guys take the lead on this. I’ll help in any way I can.”
She didn’t appreciate Levy’s hands-off approach, feeling as if he was just waiting for the opportunity to say, I told you so. Then again, she could maybe understand that he was worried about his reputation, especially if he lost another witness.
Her only concern was to find and arrest Bartoli so he could be held accountable for murdering Dom’s father and her parents. That was the only way to ensure that she and Dominic would be safe.
A few minutes passed while Dominic worked at the computer. But then he abruptly stopped, sat back in his chair, and pressed the palms of his hands against his eyes. “I changed my mind. You need to set me up as bait.” He dropped his hands and looked between Griff and Levy. “Rent another safe house and put me in plain sight. I’ll log into the internet and draw the shooter out into the open. That worked before when we thought Levy was the bad guy.”
“No way,” Levy protested. “It’s not smart for you to be there alone. At the very least, I need to be with you.”
“Yeah, I don’t like that idea either.” Griff gestured to the laptop. “What’s wrong, can’t you bypass the internet the way you’d hoped?”
“No, I can do it,” Dom said. “But I’m not sure I should. I just can’t shake the fact that every single time I bypass the ISP address, we get found. It’s almost like that move alone is drawing attention to our location.”
“Is that possible?” Kendra asked. “I mean, does what you’re doing leave enough of an electronic footprint to make it obvious where we are?”
“No, it shouldn’t.” Dom sighed loudly. “But I’m second-guessing myself now that I’m about to do it again. We’re pretty much out in the middle of nowhere. If this guy shows up, it will take longer for the police to get here.”
“Yeah, but this time, the shooter would have to get closer to the house to try taking you out,” Raine said. “Maybe this is the best place to use to draw him out.”
