Page 26 of Maddening Fixation

Good.

Surprise had always been the deadliest weapon.

Let them eat. Let them laugh. Let them drink the finest whiskey Florida has to offer while convincing themselves that the bastard son they condemned to prison is either dead or rotting behind Ravencliff’s walls.

I smiled without warmth.

None of them knew death was already driving toward their front door.

Keegan hurried ahead, opening the rear door of the armored Bentley waiting at the center of the convoy.

The vehicle gleamed beneath the grey Irish sky.

“This way, Boss.”

I slid into the rear seat without another word.

The leather smelled new.

Nothing like the damp concrete I’d called home for the last decade.

Bodgan climbed into the front passenger seat.

Keegan settled behind the wheel.

The door closed with a heavy, reassuring thud.

Outside...

Engines awakened. One after another.

Seventeen black vehicles rolled into formation with military precision.

The Bentley eased forward first.

The others followed instantly.

From above, we would have looked like a great black serpent slithering through the Florida countryside.

Power rolled through the convoy like electricity.

The roads cleared almost instinctively.

Drivers pulled onto the shoulder. Pedestrians stopped to stare. Even police cruisers kept their distance.

Florida knew what a convoy like this meant.

Someone important was moving. Someone dangerous.

Inside the Bentley...

Silence settled over us.

I leaned back against the leather seat, watching endless green fields slide past the darkened windows.

For the first time in ten years...

There were no walls around me.