King restedone hand on the Beretta and the other on the door handle, carefully scanning the darkened road through the tinted windows of the passenger seat in their SUV. Tension coiled through his insides, tightening like a bound screw with each mile of distance they put between themselves and thecompound.
Juarez, just as tense as King, hunched over the steering wheel, scanning the road ahead. Hicks and Diggs were in the blacked-out SUV in front of them. They’d left Reaper behind at the mansion, guarding the women and keeping an eye on theirsurveillance.
Laura hunched in the backseat, her arm around Faith, her gaze excited but wary. King gave her a brief nod without speaking and resumed his surveillance in the front seat. He didn’t like leaving the safety of the compound and its tall, protective concrete walls and infrared surveillance. Especially with an assassin of the caliber of John Dawson on theloose.
He was out there, somewhere, waiting on them to make a mistake. He could feel it in his bones, deep and cold and hard. King hit the communications switch at his wrist and held a mic up to his mouth, “Team one, checkin.”
They were only a few car lengths in front of them. They’d already ran the route, first through satellite surveillance and then physically a few nights before, looking for points they’d be easily ambushed or caught. They were nearing one of those pointsnow.
“All clear, boss. Keep her rolling,” Diggssaid.
So far everything had gone smoothly without a hitch. Dr. Avery, with some help, had gained access to Faith’s medical records at the children’s hospital. After a thorough review, she’d determined what they needed to order and who they needed to complete the process. Juarez had hacked into the hospital administration under the otolaryngologist’s account and placed the order for the processor. They’d bypassed nearly everyone involved in the kid’s treatment up to the audiologist who would have to program the processor. And with her, they’d gotten lucky. Verylucky.
“I can’t believe Melissa went to undergrad with the audiologist,” Kingsaid.
“Yeah, it is perfect. So far, everything’s running like clockwork,” Laurasaid.
Her words should have reassured King, instead they only made him more wary. One thing he’d learned about missions, nothing ever went perfectly. And when you got comfortable, thinking you were in the clear, that’s when the shit hit thefan.
And he couldn’t afford any excessive risk to the precious cargo he had in the car with him. He’d come to realize over the past several days how deeply he cared for Laura and for Faith. The thought of anything happening to either of them made his gut roil. They’d checked the hospital schedule. Tapped into the security cameras and monitored the hallways. Done background checks on all relevantpersonnel.
He’d even put up extra sensors around the perimeter of the compound, half expecting Dawson to pop out in the front yard at any minute. They’d pulled more surveillance on this mission in a shorter amount of time than they had for any one previous. The amount of intel work they’d done should have reassuredhim.
“How much farther?” Laura said from thebackseat.
“Couple more miles. Once we’re in the city, I want you both to keep your heads down. When we park at thehospital—”
Laura grinned. “I know, stay in the car until you secure the area. Talk to no one. Do not leave yourside.”
“This isn’t ajoke.”
Laura sighed, her expression dropping. “I know, I’m just trying to cut the ice a little bit. You two are making menervous.”
“Good, you should be. I want you to be on the lookout too. If you see him, tell me.” He could just imagine Laura spotting her brother in the crowd and completely blowing past him without saying a word. “Remember what we talked about and what you promisedme.”
Before he’d given the final okay for the hospital drive, King had tried to convince her once more about the danger John Dawson presented to both her and her daughter. Laura had politely disagreed that her brother was dangerous, however, she did capitulate to his demand that she stay by his side the whole time and let him know if she sensed John’s presence anywhere nearthem.
Laura reached forward and squeezed his shoulder. “Iremember.”
King gently touched her hand and then resumed his position, ready for anything as the bright lights of the city appeared in the distance. He shouldn’t have agreed to this. He should have put his foot down and stayed strong against her plea. Every inch of his skin crawled with awareness to the danger he’d put themin.
“Juarez, King told me about how you hacked into the hospital system. That’s pretty badass,” Laurasaid.
Juarez chuckled, drumming his thumbs on the steering wheel. “It was easy as pie, sugar. An eighth grader could have cracked thatfirewall.”
King snorted at that. Computer code was like a foreign language to him. If it wasn’t something he could smash or shoot or blow up, King was lost. Thankfully, Juarez and a couple of others on the team were techgurus.
“I think you’re being modest,” Laurasaid.
Juarez practically glowed. “I’ll admit it was a little bit hard printing out the fake security cards to scan into the building and the elevators, but notimpossible.”
“If you’re through stroking his ego, it’s time to sink down into the seat. We’re here.” King didn’t even try to hide his annoyance at their casually light banter. He preferred that Laura only joke with him. Did that make him a little bit of an asshole? Did he care if itdid?
* * *
Laura triedto brush off the ever-tightening nervousness coiling in her system and bunch down in her seat, gesturing for Faith to do the same thing. King’s obvious tension was leaking over into her, but not enough to quash herexcitement.
Getting the new processor for Faith was going to reopen the world of sound to her niece. They could begin working on speech and sounds again. The longer Faith lived without hearing sounds and stimulating her brain, the harder it would be for her to learn how to differentiate between all the sounds in her environment, and the harder it would be for her to distinguishspeech.
