Total pages in book: 50
Estimated words: 46895 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 234(@200wpm)___ 188(@250wpm)___ 156(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 46895 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 234(@200wpm)___ 188(@250wpm)___ 156(@300wpm)
He’s right. And my fear is they aren’t done finding those snakes and killing them. If they get to the sources of information before we do, we’ll never figure this out. “I assume Mike was behind the meetup we were supposed to have at the ranch,” Luke says. “If he’s dead, the question is, who is in charge and who, if anyone, is showing up to that meeting?”
Who indeed, I think, and why does that question twist me in knots?
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Luke
By the time we’re back within the Denver city limits, Newman Phillips has left the stadium and gone to his luxury home on Polo Club Lane. We arrive at a security gate that Blake opens remotely for us. We travel a long circle drive with a bunch of sharply cut bushes to part at the foot of a long stairwell. Ana and I both have our weapons easily accessible as we ring the bell. No one answers. We ring again.
My phone rings with Blake’s number and I answer on speaker. “You’re sure he’s here?”
“He’s there, but there’s a weird as fuck formation to his security feed. I have a bad feeling about this. Go in.”
“Happy to please, boss,” I say, disconnecting and scanning the property. “Let’s look for a back entrance.”
Ana nods, we draw our weapons, and split up. I go left. She goes right. We come together at the rear garage where the door is open.
“Damn it,” Ana murmurs, because we both know what we’re about to find.
We ease forward into the garage, Ana on the passenger side, me on the driver’s side. “Fuck,” I murmur.
Newman’s brains are splattered all over the window. He’s dead.
Ana joins me, takes one look, and groans. “Damn it.” But she also immediately kicks into agent mode, lifting her chin toward the house. “Let’s hope the asshole who did this is still here. Someone needs to talk to us.”
Fifteen minutes later, Blake takes over the law enforcement side of things and tells us to get the hell out of the line of fire. Once Ana and I are on the road, I make an executive decision. “They’re coming for us, baby. We need to go where we have the best chance of winning.”
“The Ranch,” she says.
“Yes. The Ranch. Agreed?”
“Agreed.”
“I’ll have Savage and Adam meet us there.”
“And Parker?” she queries.
“Right. And Parker.”
She laughs. “You really turned sour on him.”
“He’s alive,” I say. “If I’d soured on him, and he was involved in all of this, he’d be dead.”
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Ana
We bring The Ranch into view and I swear I feel it like a punch in the chest, the way I did right after Kurt died. Everything feels unsettling where Kurt comes into play. Everything I thought I knew I no longer believe I know at all. Nothing is as it seems. Who knew just how real those words would become. Luke and I are not over, for starters. In fact, we’re engaged again. That alone is one of the wonders of the world.
If only everything I thought I knew, but didn’t know, translated to something as wonderful as finding Luke again.
But it doesn’t and outside of the Darius revelations, there are more coming. Soon. Really soon. I feel it in my bones.
Luke drives us through the gate openings to the property which is miles and miles of land, all of which is a mock battlefield, complete with hidden tunnels, booby traps, and mind games. Kurt was always so good at mind games. He played them with me from the time I was a young girl. I know first-hand that this is a place that makes boys into men and men into warriors and in some cases, monsters. They also made a little girl who loved Barbie dolls into an FBI agent.
The central property, which was Kurt’s home, allows for public entry. A necessity considering the training operation this place housed.
“We won’t have garage access,” I tell him.
“I’ll pull to the rear and after we ensure the house is clear, we’ll pull it into the garage out of sight.”
I nod, that twisty feeling in my belly tightening a bit more. I hate being here today, when this place should be empowering. I know it as I know my own name. Intimately, automatically, perfectly. Luke pulls us to the rear of the house, as the rental doesn’t have a connection to the garage, with plans to hide our presence by moving the vehicle later.
Luke’s phone rings and he answers with, “Where are you?” then glances in his rearview.
I turn to find another SUV headed our way. The rest of our team, I think.
“Pull to the rear,” Luke informs them, confirming their identity.
Once we’re parked, Luke and I head to the door. I unlock it and we step inside and my gut goes wild. I instantly know something is wrong. Or maybe this place just feels wrong to me now, because I don’t know the man who once lived here. He had secrets. I’m not sure what to think about just how deeply they seemed to run. Luke walks toward the kitchen to clear the property. I am drawn to Kurt’s office, almost as if a magnetic field drags me in that direction. I step to the center of the double doors and my breath hitches.