It wasn’t as if I didn’t trust my pop. I trusted him more than any other person in the world, and I knew what he was capable of—but I also knew what his limitations were and that he’d push past them without thinking in order to protect me.
Even if things went well and we took care of the threat, it could end very poorly for my pop. I was petrified that, at the very least, if he lived through this, by the end of the night, my father wouldn’t be using the wheelchair part-time anymore.
The drive took us ten minutes. It should’ve taken closer to twenty. We passed the entrance to the property, watching for signs of sentries, before turning back around and parking in the trees across the road.
“You should post up on the hill,” I said, looking at the old sniper rifle propped up on the seat between us as he cut the truck lights. “That’ll give you the best vantage point.”
“Sure,” Pop scoffed. “I’ll let you go down to the house by yourself and cover you from a safe distance.”
“I won’t be alone,” I said as first one, then two, then three, four, five people stepped out of the trees.
“Erik fucking Boucher,” Pop said, shooting me a look.
“I figured I’d cover our bases,” I said, throwing open my door. “In case you couldn’t reach anyone.”
I hopped out of my seat and grabbed my rifles, slinging one over my back. My hands moved over my vest, checking things were where they should be by habit as I walked toward the newcomers.
I recognized Daniel’s brothers instantly. Both of the clean-cut Vampires were standing next to women who looked a little older than me. His father stepped forward, like he couldn’t stop himself, as I got closer.
“Rosemary,” he said, a smile in his voice.
“Mr. Boucher.”
“Please, call me Erik.” His eyes widened as Pop stepped up beside me. “Gary Whitlock.”
“Thanks for coming, Erik.”
“Your father is Gary Whitlock?” Erik said in what sounded like delight. “Gods.”
“Ambrose. Beau.”
“Good to see you, Gary,” Ambrose said with a nod. “This is my mate, Lucy. And that’s Beau’s mate, Reese.”
“You brought your mates,” Pop said carefully.
“We weren’t too excited for them to leave us behind again,” Reese said dryly. “Don’t worry. We’ll stay out of the way.”
“Reese is a hell of a shot,” Beau said reluctantly. “She’ll post up at a distance.”
“And I’m her security,” Lucy said proudly.
“Her spotter,” Ambrose corrected in amusement.
“Tomato, tomahto.”
“Pop’s going to be up on the hill,” I said, jerking my chin toward the high rise visible on the property across the road.
“Rosemary,” Pop snapped in warning.
“Don’t fucking start, old man,” I shot back, glaring at him.
I had three Bouchers to work with. I wasn’t above pointing out exactly why he couldn’t be down in the thick of things, and I think he knew it from the look on my face because he didn’t say anything else.
There would be hell to pay when we were finished that night, but I’d deal with that later.
Things weren’t moving quickly, and everything inside me urged me to start running for the house, but I shoved the instinct down. If we flew in there without a plan, we wouldn’t be able to help anyone. Whoever had broken through Uncle Dalton’s security team and made their way inside the house had to have been planning for a while.
The only comfort I had was that the safe room was nearly impossible to find unless you knew where to look, but that comfort was slowly fading away the longer those men were in the house and we were across the road. The longer they had to look, the longer they had to find the room, and while they didn’t have a way inside, they could easily burn the place to the ground around my aunt and cousins.
