“Good thinking,” Colin said. “I’ve tracked down my share of online criminals, and they’re a suspicious lot. I can’t tell you how many times we lost a suspect in the end due to minuscule things that they blew out of proportion.”
He swallowed away the images from the last pervert who skated. A guy who’d abused twenty children. Mostly in his family. The day he’d snuck away from Colin’s team and vanished for good was the day Colin put in his resignation.
This would not end the same way. Not if he could help it. He wouldn’t let Tarver get away with stealing from so many people, but more importantly to Colin, he wouldn’t let the creep skate on terrorizing Brooklyn.
He reached for his sidearm just to assure himself that it was on his hip where he’d placed it. Sure, he was tasked with hanging back and doing electronic work in the vehicle, but first he and Nick would form a recon team and approach the property on foot to assess the electronic surveillance. they both had to beprepared mentally and physically for an incursion onto Tarver’s property.
“It’s go time.” Nick pointed ahead where Reid pulled the lead vehicle to the side of the road about a mile from Tarver’s house.
A surge of adrenaline flooded Colin, and his hands started sweating. He scanned ahead for any threat, but the moon had moved behind clouds, and the pitch blackness of a country night was the only thing that greeted him.
Nick pulled in behind Reid and shifted into park.
Colin looked at Brooklyn. “Promise me you’ll stay here, no matter what.”
She hesitated but then nodded.
“I mean it, Brooklyn.” He locked gazes with the woman who kept doing funny things to his insides. “I can’t do my best on this recon mission if I have to worry about you.”
“I won’t go anywhere,” she said.
Her tone was so earnest that he believed her and let out a breath. He tapped the seat in front of him. “Let’s do this.”
He and Nick got out. An owl hooted in the distance, and the scent of wood smoke drifted their direction as they moved to the rear of their vehicle.
Nick opened the hatch and looked at Colin. “Smell that?”
Colin nodded. “Could be a campfire or someone burning yard debris. It’s still Oregon’s open-burn season. Runs for another week or so.”
Nick gave him a quizzical look. “A fact you just happen to know.”
“Only because we’ve been doing that for weeks in our spring cleaning of the Shadow Lake Survival compound.”
“They got you doing maintenance work, eh?” Nick reached inside for a backpack filled with surveillance items. “How the mighty has fallen.”
“I don’t mind. I’m contributing to the business, which is still in startup mode. Means we all have to be jack-of-all-trades kind of guys right now. A way to say thanks to the Maddox bros for giving us awesome jobs. Plus it keeps these guns in shape.” He lifted a bicep and laughed to lighten the tension.
Nick quietly closed the hatch, and they started up the side of the road. They paused by Reid’s door and he lowered the window. “You good to go?”
“Roger that.” Colin reached into his pocket for a comms unit that would connect him with the team and pressed it into his ear. “Testing. Testing.”
“You’re coming through loud and clear,” Reid said.
“So don’t say anything dumb,” Dev said from the passenger seat and laughed.
Colin rolled his eyes. Each man took his turn testing their unit, ending with Micha.
“You all should have your cell phone Wi-Fi turned off so he can’t pick up on our signals.” Nick glanced around the guys.
He got an affirmative nod from each one.
“Okay, then,” Colin said. “We’ll keep you updated on anything we find so we can start figuring out a work-around right away. Any questions?”
“Yeah, why you still standing there?” Dev chuckled.
Colin liked his brother’s sense of humor most of the time, and usually when he offered something lighthearted in a really tense situation like this one, but tonight it grated on his nerves. “Then we’re off.”
He started out, traveling at a rapid pace, but cautiously taking in the area as he moved.
