I waited for Barak and Vinnie to join us before following Marcus and Dmitri through the thick forest that grew all along the edges of the estate. We cut off and went toward the house when we reached a certain point, which I was glad of. The small memorial and grave where Isabella was buried was just a little farther along the edge of the property line, and Vinnie really didn’t need to see that.
Just as we reached the backside of the pool house, Marcus grabbed me and pushed me into the side of the building, covering me with his body. I had no idea what he was doing until I heard two male voices coming closer to our location.
It took me a moment to figure out what they were saying, and then I wanted to laugh. Sal and Brant’s security measures had finally paid off. These guys were arguing because they couldn’t break into the mansion.
That didn’t explain why Lyn had sent me a secret text message instead of just calling me. If he was safely inside the manor, he had every opportunity to call.
There must be a problem.
My eyes rounded when Dmitri and Barak darted out of the darkness, hit the two men with some sort of weird karate chops to the side of their necks, and then carried their limp bodies back behind the building.
I really needed to learn how to do that.
After tying the two men up, Marcus gestured for all of us to huddle closer. “Dmitri, I want you to go with Vinnie and Barak and get in through the kitchen door. Check the safe room in the kitchen first to see if anyone is in there. Lany and I are going to go in through the garage attic to the second-floor safe room. Our first priority is to make sure all of the kids are safe.”
“Once we know the situation inside,” I started, “we need to let Sal know what is going on. He should have figured out something was wrong by now.”
I was so getting chewed out.
“Everyone got zip ties?” Marcus asked as he held out a bundle.
Barak took several and shoved them into his pocket, as did I. I doubted I’d be allowed to do any fighting if it came down to it, but I could certainly restrain people while Marcus fought.
I kept close to Marcus, and as we started moving toward the garage entrance, I was a little confused as to why we weren’t just going in through the kitchen, especially since I didn’t know the garage attic had a passage into the house. I’d certainly never used it, and I didn’t remember Sal ever mentioning it.
When we rounded the far side of the garage, we came face to face with a man in dark clothes and wearing a mask. Marcus struck out with his hand almost before my brain registered that there was someone there.
The guy went down like a sack of bricks, and then Marcus was holding his hand out to me and gesturing. I pulled a zip tie out and gave it to him and then watched as he restrained the man. Guess this fully answered the question about whether this was a dinner date or an emergency.
After making sure the guy Marcus had knocked out couldn’t get away, we quickly made our way into the garage and then to the attic, which was where Sal tended to store the camping gear.
I didn’t notice the door until Marcus pulled a small panel and started typing in a security code. The small door swung open, and by small, I mean we had to squat down to get through it.
Marcus held his finger up to his lips, silently telling me to be quiet like I didn’t already know this, but whatever. He was standing between me and danger so he could get away with a lot when it came to me.
We moved quickly, but silently from the garage to the main house. I was surprised to find out that the doorway on the other side was in an upstairs linen closet. It wasn’t like I was in this closet a lot, but I’d never known this secret entrance was here. Pretty sure I wasn’t supposed to know either. It was called a “secret” entrance for a reason.
Marcus held up his hand, gesturing for me to stay put, and then walked over and cracked the door open just enough to peek out. After a moment, he pulled it open a little more and then gestured to me again.
I swallowed tightly as I moved forward. At this point, I just wanted to get to one of the panic rooms, make sure that my friends and family were safe, and then wait for Sal.
We hurried down the hallway to the master bedroom. Marcus pushed me inside and then stepped in after me, quickly shutting the door behind him. I felt a little relief that we were in the bedroom, but not enough to slow my steps as I made my way to the panic room entrance.
I quickly went through the security protocols to get the door open. Tears sprouted to my eyes when the door swung open and I saw the scared faces of my kids. I wasn’t thrilled that they were scared, but I was ecstatic that they were all alive and safe.
Hearing their mutual cries of “Papà!” never felt so good.
As I hugged them, I scanned the rest of the panic room to see who had made it in. I immediately spotted Angelo and his son Cole, CJ, Uncle Jerry, Skip, and my father. I was a bit surprised to see Supervisory Special Agent Crenshaw and Detective Sparks in here.
“Is everyone okay?”
“We’re good, Lany,” Skip stated. “No one is hurt.”
“Where is Lyn?”
“He stayed downstairs with Brant to help with security,” Skip replied before gesturing to Crenshaw and Sparks. “They are supposed to be keeping us safe.”
He sounded so unimpressed.
