Page 69 of Twilight Tactics

“My partner’s name was Rick,” he finally said. “He was antsy, but that wasn’t anything new. He was always a nervous Nellie. We were holed up in a safe house with a guy who was testifying against a killer. Rick wanted to move. Said he thought someone had followed us and staying made us sitting ducks. But I—” His voice cracked, and he forced himself to continue. “I didn’t notice anything. He couldn’t tell me exactly what he’d seen, so I thought he was just being overly cautious. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing in some instances. Others?” He shook his head. “It can just cause you to jump into more trouble than if you’d staystill. I told him we had our orders, and we’d stay put until backup arrived.”

Elena’s gloved hand touched his and he welcomed the contact.

“I was so sure that was the safest play, and then it all happened so fast. I was outside checking the perimeter, making a wide berth around the house. Looking for any kind of weak area.” His voice came out raw and heavy. “Then the place blew. Just like that. Rick and the witness never had a chance.” He clenched his hands into fists. “I walked away without a scratch.”

“How was that your fault?”

“If I’d just listened to my partner. Trusted him instead of...” He closed his eyes for a second before scanning the area again. “Maybe they’d both still be alive.”

“I’m so sorry, Sully.”

Her compassion just about undid him. He didn’t deserve it, but craved it at the same time. “I should have protected them.”

“You did all you could humanly do,” Elena said. “You did everything right.” She sniffed, and he thought he saw tears glisten in her eyes. “Sometimes you can do everything right, and then everything goes wrong.”

“Escaping the compound?”

“Yeah.”

He slid an arm around her shoulders. Then paused when Javier and Milo made a pass of the open gate, and Milo walked just outside the opening and sat, his nose wriggling, tail swiping back and forth. “Easy, boy,” Javier said, patting his head, then slipping him a treat. “Good boy.” He clicked to him, and they continued their walk like they were on a routine patrol.

“He alerted,” Elena said, her voice so soft Sully barely heard it.

“Yeah. I can’t tell if anyone is watching, though. Can you?”

“No. And we won’t unless they want us to know they’re there.”

A ranch hand passed by on a golf cart with a wave. Sully returned the wave with a two-fingered salute, the signal to let him know that there was indeed a bomb. The driver nodded and aimed the cart toward the barn where he’d report in to Maya and the others.

Elena frowned. “Will it seem weird if we don’t shut the gate at night like we usually do?”

He sighed. “Yeah. Probably.”

“So, how are we going to reopen it without anyone noticing?”

That was an excellent question, one he’d been thinking about. “We cut the power to it,” he said. “Inch it open and let Javier slip through. He saw where Milo alerted.”

“Right. Okay.”

They continued to follow Milo, Felicity, and Javier at a distance so as to look like they were patrolling their own area.

“You really think this is going to work?” Elena asked.

“I don’t know. I’m hopeful. I don’t think we have a choice. We have to go on the offensive, and that means being able to not just defend this ranch but leave and get help.”

“So, tonight, we make that happen.”

“Absolutely.”

They continued on, and within an hour, Milo had alerted at three other places along the perimeter of the ranch, but the bomb they needed gone the most was the one blocking the main gate.

In the inky darkness broken only by the faint glow of a quarter moon, Elena and Sully crept to the gate and, using their combined strength, pulled it open a fraction. Sully winced at the slight groan, but nothing he could do about that.

Javier was already waiting, with Maya and Felicity at his side. He slipped the night vision goggles over his head, then they walked to the area Milo had alerted to and knelt, hands feeling around the area. He paused. “Got it,” he whispered.“Ground is disturbed, but they didn’t bother to hide it very well.”

Sully crouched low just inside the gate, gaze on the tree line. His pulse thudded while he scanned the shadows. He gripped his weapon. Maya, Elena, and Felicity fell back, far enough to stay out of the blast radius—hopefully—if this went south.Please, God, don’t let this go south.Piper would take care of Ollie if anything happened to him, and while that was comforting, he’d rather not put that plan into action.

David and Van had eyes on the east side, watching for any movement that might indicate an imminent attack.