Selena stopped.“Why?”
“Because I know these roads better.If you follow, we lose time.And if we’re right, Bradley Atkins is out of time.”
She did not have time to get annoyed at that.
Selena ran around to the passenger side and climbed in.Connor started the SUV before she had the door fully closed.The tires spat gravel as he reversed, swung hard, and sent them down the lane toward the county road.
The radio crackled again with Cheryl reading the address.Selena wrote it on the back of an old envelope from the console.
Connor pressed harder on the accelerator.Fields blurred past on both sides.The SUV rocked as they hit a dip in the road, Selena catching the dash with one hand.
“Careful,” she said.
“You want to get there too late?”
“I want to get there in one piece.”
Connor eased back by a fraction, but not much.
The sky ahead had deepened into blue-gray.Porch lights shone from houses as they entered the edge of town.Selena watched each driveway, each sidewalk, each parked car, her mind already building the scene before they reached it.
A house.A wife.A husband.A woman with a gun and a belief that killing could be dressed up as mercy.
Connor picked up the radio.“All units responding to Briar Lane, keep back until Agent Raven or I call it in.No sirens.No visible approach if you can avoid it.”
Arnold’s voice came through.“Copy.We’re two minutes behind you.”
Selena checked her weapon, then secured it again.
Connor glanced at her.“You good?”
“My head still hurts, but apart from that…”
“Hold onto your lunch.”
The SUV turned forcefully onto Lime Street, then took the next right.
Briar Lane opened ahead, quiet and residential, porch lights glowing under the last band of evening.Connor killed the headlights halfway down the street and coasted toward the curb.
At the far end, a brick house sat behind a white mailbox shaped like a little barn.
Selena saw a parked car across from it.
Empty.She pointed at it.Connor nodded.“That’s Renee’s.I’m sure of it.”
Selena keyed the radio.“Suspect vehicle located outside Bradley Atkins’s house.Units stage one block out.No sirens.We’re approaching.”
The front path to Bradley Atkins’s house lay open beneath the porch light.
Connor stopped the SUV.
Selena already had her hand on the door.
“We move quiet,” she said.
Connor nodded once.
They stepped out into the dark and started toward the house.
