“Hey!” I round on him in outrage. “I’m not part of this bargain!”
Vera laughs, delighted, eyes sparkling with excitement. “No, thank you, but this is really fun. Truthfully, I don’t have any of the dossier with me. You’re only here for one reason?—“
Cormac shifts forward, moving in front of me, as the Baranov soldiers raise their weapons.
“This was a trap,” Vera says, sounding hungry and eager. “How didn’t you see that it was a trap?”
CHAPTER 32
LIAM
The house sits several yards back at the end of a quiet cul-de-sac. From what I learned, the other homes aren’t involved with the Baranovs at all. They’re innocent, and I wonder what they’re going to think after what’s about to happen. They’ve got to know nothing good is going on here though, not with the high walls around the property and the armed guards patrolling the exterior.
Finn watches the guards walk across the front, timing them a few times before nodding. “Thirty seconds between. Should be easy.”
“Hit hard and go?”
“That’s the plan.” He checks his watch and sends a text to the other team leaders. “Heard from Regan?”
“I won’t until it’s done.” I try not to think about my wife. This isn’t how I wanted this to go, but I knew sending her was the only way I’d get anyone important from the Baranov family to show up.
Cormac will keep her safe. If there’s anyone in the city who can protect her, it’s the Whelan ghostman. He’s a beast, truly a monster, and I have to trust that he’ll get her through.
I have my own part to play.
“Two minutes.” Finn puts his phone away, sitting still and quiet.
“How do you do it?” I ask, settling back against a tree. We’re fifty feet away, hiding along a ridgeline at the edge of a forested area.
“Do what? Maintain my skin despite my age?”
“No, I mean, Caroline, marriage, all that.”
“It’s hard, but it’s good.”
“That’s some Hallmark shit. Tell me the truth. How do you do it? How do you do all this… and still go home to be the man she needs you to be?”
He narrows his gaze. For a second I’m afraid I overstepped. “Truth is, this never gets easier. She hates when I go on jobs like this. It happens less now that I’m taking on more of a leadership role, but it can’t be helped. This is the life, right? She accepts it, we both do, but there’s always a chance it goes sideways.”
“I keep thinking about a future with Regan, about fucking kids, all that, and I don’t know how I can do it. How do I keep my edge while driving my fucking children to soccer practice?”
“You’ll figure it out.”
“And if I don’t?”
“We’ll find you an office job.” He checks his phone. “Thirty seconds.”
“Fucking hell.” I go over my gear one last time. Gun loaded, armor strapped. I’m oddly calm, despite what we’re about to do. “Do me a favor. If I ever ask you to sit at a desk, put a bullet in my head.”
“Don’t be dramatic. You’ll do it yourself after a month of clocking your time on a spreadsheet.” He stands abruptly. “Let’s move.”
I follow him across a quiet field. Moonlight brightens everything. We got unlucky with that—clouds were forecast, but they never materialized. I run hard at Finn’s back, angling for the wall, counting down in my head. Thirty seconds around—thirty to close the distance?—
There’s shooting nearby. A shout, a scream of pain, and more gunfire.
“The other team,” Finn says, not hesitating as he reaches the wall. He throws a rope over the side and hauls until the grapple at the top catches the crenellation. “Fucking climb.”
I grab on and hoist myself up. The shooting intensifies, cracks in the night. Finn’s behind me the second I’m at the top. I slip over the side, landing hard, knees bending to take some of the force. He drops down beside me a moment later.
