“Do you hardly know me?” Skyler asked.
The kid was smart as a whip, and Maddox fell into his trap without even realizing where the kid was leading him.
Skyler had him. “No, boy. I know you.” He and Brynn weren’t getting married. Hell, they weren’t even a couple, but Skyler made Maddox think. High-pressure situations brought people together in a way that it didn’t matter if they knew all the details of each other’s histories. It was bonding over the kind of trust it took to hand over your life to someone you didn’t know that brought couples together in impossibly dangerous situations.
“Why don’t you go over there and hang out with her,” Maddox asked.
Skyler took a step toward her and then turned back. “She looks sad,” he whispered.
Maddox nodded. “She’s going to miss you.”
“No one ever misses me,” Skyler said.
Maddox figured the boy was too old for a hug, and hell, Maddox wasn’t great at the whole hugging thing anyway, so instead held out his curled up hand for a fist-bump. “Well, that changes now. And she’s not the only one.”
Skyler smiled before turning and running for Brynn. At some point while he spoke to Skyler, she had turned around and was watching them.
Skyler slammed into her and wrapped his arms around her with a quietoof.
She smiled, her eyes glassy, and kissed the top of his head.
Maddox’s phone went off again. He ducked around the corner into the kitchen before answering. “Reaper.”
“Hey, we’re all set up. We have at team headed your way. Ten guys. They’re going to get situated in the woods. When they’re an hour away from your place, we’re going to leak the info to the tip line. I’d imagine Louis and his guys will be there sometime between three and six in the morning. Are you ready for this?” Grey asked.
Maddox dropped his head back against the refrigerator. “I’ve been ready since the day Brynn arrived.” All the things he needed to do ran through his mind. He knew the house was secure, but he would go through it all again.
He’d make sure Brynn knew where to find concealed weapons, alarms, and he’d never done it before, but he’d make sure she had the code to the self-destruct mechanism. If things went wrong, she was to set off the alarm and get out of the house. Once that mechanism was engaged, a series of chemicals shot through hoses in the walls. They would have ninety seconds before those chemicals combined, letting off a gas that no one could escape.
A gas that, once it infiltrated the place, would render the house destroyed. A hazmat team would need to demolish the structure and dispose of it.
He’d developed the system himself.
He loved the cabin, but if need be he’d see it burn to the ground in order to protect Brynn.
“Good. We’ll call when the guys arrive, but you won’t see them. They’re going to set up in the woods and keep all angles of the house under watchful eyes.”
“So what do you need me to get out of Louis?”
“We need him to spill about Shepherd. We need his confession. Anything short of that and Brynn is still in danger and the mission has failed,” Grey said.
“I’ll get the confession,” Maddox reassured him.
“I have no doubt. Listen, because you have to get a confession out of him, the team won’t be able to do too much to help. They can’t intervene while you’re working Vargas. If you can, give them signals so they know how many men you’re dealing with. We’ve tied into your surveillance. If he confesses they’ll look to intervene, but not until then. Be safe, man.”
“Yeah.” Maddox clicked off his phone and glanced at the clock. Connie would arrive within half an hour. He had about three hours after that before the team arrived.
Three hours alone with Brynn.
Three hours they weren’t in danger.
Three hours he planned to capitalize on.
He’d told himself he wasn’t going there. There was no point. They were from two different worlds, and the two didn’t meet in the middle.
Then he saw her hug that boy as if he were her own. He saw the love for him in her eyes. Love that had grown in such a short time. That told him everything he needed to know. He wanted her. He wanted a piece of the kind of woman who could give herself like that.
Even if only for a short time.
