“And I’ve always wanted to see a real live psycho up close.” Azrael nodded in solidarity.
Madigan grinned fondly as he nudged Az. “What, looking in the mirror in the morning isn’t enough anymore?”
“Touché.”
“I’m considering leaving the two of you tied up at this cabin once we’re finished. Consider it an early wedding present.”
Madigan snorted and threw open the van doors. “I might just agree to that.”
They checked their weapons in silence, then loaded up, locked the van, and started down the road.
Twilight crept across the sky in mauves and pinks, and the forest was hushed aside from the occasional crack of a twig. About a tenth of a mile from the cabin, Az signaled them, then pointed to a tree.
Soren squinted up at it and exhaled a quiet curse at the tiny red twinkling light. If the guy was paying any damn attention to his feed, they’d be spotted.
Fuck it.
He bent down and picked up a rock, then pegged the camera with it, the glass lens shattering. “Damn, my aim just keeps getting better.” No doubt there were others, though. “Split?” Soren asked.
Madi and Az nodded their approval.
Soren squinted up at the busted camera again. Its presence unsettled him, made him worry he’d read the situation wrong. There’d been no ransom note, no phone call, nothing. Technically, he shouldn’t even assume Toby was still alive, except something in his gut said he was, said that, like Rafferty, if this guy had wanted Toby dead, he’d already be dead.
He took the earpiece Madi handed him before doing a double take.
Madigan grinned. “Told you, I’m gonna do it up if I’m here. That fact that I just surprised you tells me you’re getting a little rusty. Maybe after we get this job done, you’d better go into retirement again. Let that doc of yours make you a kept man.”
Soren rolled his eyes and wedged the earpiece in. In all honesty, he wasn’t sure he hated the idea, but he’d cross that bridge when they came to it.
With another hand signal, Madigan and Az diverged in opposite directions while Soren continued straight ahead. He moved at a faster clip now, keeping his movements quiet and using the trees as cover.
“Spotted some tripwire, so keep an eye out,” Madigan said over the com.
“Guess he’s not quite as dumb as I’d hoped for.” Soren sighed.
“I also sidestepped a rudimentary pit covered in sticks and leaves. William Wallace would’ve wept for the poor construction.”
Az snickered over the com.
Soren kept a close eye on his surroundings, finding no tripwire and nothing else out of the ordinary. Once he was thirty yards from the cabin, he signaled Madi and Az in the distance, and they slowly began converging on it.
“What do you think? Storm the castle in a blaze of glory?” Madi asked over the com. “It’s damn quiet.”
“You were expecting a rural rave,motek?”
“I think I’m gonna check the front windows. See if I can slip in,” Soren spoke over their flirtation. “Y’all come a bit closer in from the sides, just in case.”
Soren moved closer to the cabin, his steps quiet, his profile low as he moved among the cover of trees until he was almost to the steps leading up to the porch. He straightened slowly to full height and peered at one of the cabin’s windows. No movement inside, no light. That didn’t mean jack, though. “All right,” he murmured into the comm. “Let’s see how this goes.”
23
Tobias
“What am I gonna do with you, Doc?”
Why did people keep asking him that? Tobias tried to get his eyes to focus, but that second blow to the head had done a bit of damage. He definitely had a concussion. “You could start by not hitting me in the head again.”
He lifted a hand to feel the bump on his skull, only then realizing his hands were free. His hands were free but his glasses were missing. He supposed that was another way to hobble him. Allen spun the chamber on the revolver before snapping it back into place before pointing it directly at Tobias’s forehead. “You ever play Russian roulette?” he asked, pulling the trigger before Tobias could answer. The chamber dry-fired.
