“Make him promise he won’t kill me,” Toby pleaded.
“He’s not gonna kill you,” Reese said.
“I’m not gonna kill you,” Max echoed. “Not unless you screw me over, Land.”
“I won’t. Swear it,” he said as he pulled off the vest and tossed it at Baz.
Reese believed him. The man looked terrified, but he also appeared resigned to his future. Then again, working for Max Adorite would be a far better outcome than sitting in a prison cell waiting to be shivved by one of Moroso’s informants.
Baz shifted into gear, dressing one of the remains Max Adorite had acquired from a morgue. Which one, they didn’t know, but Max had assured them one of the bodies was the same height and body type as Toby. The other didn’t matter since it was being staged as the FBI agent that had accompanied Toby into the house. Max had also told them the bodies were scheduled for cremation, so they had nothing to worry about. That was yet to be seen, but for this to work, Reese knew he had to trust the guy.
In all fairness, he still didn’t trust Max—never would—but he didn’t have much choice in this matter.
“All set, boss,” Baz noted when he was finished draping the FBI windbreaker over the body.
“Time to go,” Brantley told Reese. “You two head out the back. Keep low. I’ll see you in a little while.”
Reese nodded, meeting Brantley’s gaze. “Be safe.”
“Always.”
“Let’s go,” Reese told Toby, gripping his arm and tugging him toward the back door. “You move when I move. Got it?”
“Thank you for this,” Toby said, his tone sincere.
“Don’t thank me yet. I gotta get you to Max first.” Even saying it sounded like a death sentence for Toby, but again, Reese had to trust that Max would follow through with his promise to keep Toby alive for the foreseeable future.
Standing at the back door, Reese took a deep breath before opening it.
Show time.
***
As soon as the door closed behindReese, Brantley started the countdown on his watch. They were giving him two minutes to get Toby out of the neighborhood to safety. It was a relatively straight shot, so provided they didn’t encounter any people, they should be good.
In the meantime, the rest of the team was creating a distraction outside.
“You’re up, Slade,” Brantley said into the comms. “Two minutes. Make it count.”
“On it, boss.”
Brantley stood by with Baz and Evan as they waited for Reese to get some distance and Slade to make a show of finding something outside.
“You’re up,” Brantley told Evan.
Evan took off out the front door, moving quickly as he hurried to help Slade look for something that wasn’t there. The seconds ticked by painfully slow, but from the sound of it, they were doing a damn fine job of making it look like they’d found a bomb. Pointing fingers, urgent comments into their radios, whatever it took to look real.
“Our turn,” Brantley called to Baz.
They flung the door open and hurried outside. He kept his face averted from the direction of the camera Becs was currently using to film the scene from one of the houses across the street. She’d volunteered to go with Charlie so they could keep an eye on things from nearby, as well as to hang back with APD, who would be checking the scene when all was said and done, part of the agreement RT had made with them.
“Go time,” Brantley instructed.
On cue, Baz turned toward the house, shouting instructions for the others to leave. He was talking to an empty house, but the onlookers didn’t know that. If they’d been paying attention, they would be expecting two more to emerge.
Now for the fun part.
Brantley shouted, waving his arms for the others to get back. Slade was currently on his phone, making a fake phone call to the bomb squad so the neighbors would hear and it would be picked up on camera.
