Page 49 of Driven By Impulse

Hanna considered his words carefully, even though she didn’t want to, even though letting Nicco further into her mind was sure to cause her to give up all good sense and submit to him in ways she was certain would bring them all to their knees. But when it came to the tattooed and beautiful biker, she just couldn’t seem to help herself.

“And what about you, Niccolo?” she murmured. “Have you decided where your path will lead?”

“Ah, we’re not talking about me, Hanna,” he replied.

But in a sense, it seemed they were. Because, as it had been the night before, there was one immovable truth between them, the singular thing that brought them together, and seemed to be carving the path into the future each of them might walk. The thing that wasn’t nearly as complicated as it might have been, save that Hanna didn’t want to open the door of possibilities.

It was their tether to each other and the glass that separated them.

Her past, Niccolo’s future.

Nicco’s past, her future.

Ash Rhodes.

Chapter Nineteen

“Okay, watch your left foot, Gray, there are movement sensors every ten feet around the perimeter.” Jinx’s voice came over loud and clear on the new comms he’d given them, knowing that if Iverson had jammer technology for his office, he no doubt had it for his home, too. “Good. Okay, he’s not supposed to be back tonight, so we can take this very slowly. Now, I’m running the gate key with his cloned phone. Here’s the code.”

Ash entered it exactly as Jinx rattled it off, until the red light turned green and the walking gate beside the driveway unlocked.

Ash breathed a sigh of relief. He didn’t know Bryce Iverson personally. The man had grown up in Bitterroot, but he was much older than Ash, and they hadn’t exactly run in the same circles. But Bryce Iverson was a well-known name in oil states like Colorado and Montana, and Ash knew enough to know that their plan to break into his house was definitely one of their worse ones.

“Hate to say it, hoss,” Jinx said over the comm, “but that was the easy part. Single file along the path. Don’t touch the foliage—there are hidden motion sensors—and clock the two security cameras at your eleven and four.”

“Can’t we turn those off?” Nicco asked.

“They’re off-network,” Jinx replied. “But yes. You just need to get to the security office by the eastern entrance. They should have access to interior cameras, as well.”

Ash shook his head. A security office meant security personnel. Hanna wasn’t going to like what they had to do. Already, she was clearly feeling agitated by the breaking and entering. But he could tell how much she needed to help Grace Iverson, and Hanna had never been the type to back down from a challenge.

He wondered, at the worst possible moment, if it had been the right call to leave her behind all those years before, to let her have her freedom, even if she didn’t want it, because he just hadn’t been good enough at the time. Maybe the grand gesture, the martyrdom, maybe it didn’t play as well when he considered her agency and her choices.

“Stop.” Jinx’s voice came over harsh on the line. “Ash, you’re about two inches away from visibility to the southeast camera. Edge a foot to your right.”

Ash did as Jinx directed and mentally pulled himself back to the present. They had a mission, and he would be damned if something went wrong because he couldn’t get his mind off the fiery redhead at his six.

Their party quickly followed the garden path before coming around to the back side of the security office, which was actually a freestanding kiosk at the side of the larger drive.

“I can do it,” Nicco offered.

Ash shook his head. “Just give me one minute.”

“Ash—” Hanna’s tone was warning when it came over their comm. “What are you going to do?”

But Ash didn’t answer. He just stepped around the security office, where two officers sat, one with his back toward Ash, the other looking down at the security feed. Ash reached for the nearest officer, and before the man knew what was happening, shoved a small needle into his thigh, depressing the small dose of tranquilizer.

The other officer turned around at the sound of the man falling backward, but Ash was quicker, getting the needle into his thigh and the tranq into his system before he could call out. It was things like this that made people turn to The Princes over the cops. There were certain lines officers of the law couldn’t and shouldn’t cross. The Princes did what had to be done.

Ash spoke quietly over the comm. “All clear.”

A moment later, Hanna, Nicco, Gray and Xander stepped into the tight office. Gray and Xander carefully propped the two men up, checking their vitals and making them as comfortable as possible for when the medication wore off. Nicco followed Jinx’s instructions about the cameras, putting them on a loop, rather than turning them off, so anyone who looked through the footage wouldn’t know that there had been a blip.

And Hanna glared at Ash.

He glared right back. She had called in reinforcements, and sometimes the calvary wore riding jackets and followed their own rules of justice.

With the path clear, they walked through the shadows to the main house, which could have better been called a castle. It was gaudy in the nouveau rich kind of way, made of white stucco bricks and hard black metal trim, and up lit everywhere Ash looked, which made it that much more difficult to sneak across the driveway.