Page 23 of Blake

Unlike the ornate French doors at the rear of the house, the service entrance was plain steel with no exterior handle. A small keypad was mounted beside it.

Emmett and Draven took positions on either side while Blake crouched in front of the panel. He popped the keypad’s faceplate loose. Six colored wires filled the narrow compartment behind it.

“Interesting,” he mumbled more to himself than the others.

Draven leaned closer. “What?”

“There’s a backup relay.”

“Is that bad?”

“It isn’t good.”

His teammate paused. “How not good are we talkin’?”

With the tip of one of his gloved fingers, Blake carefully traced the wiring. “The alarm company upgraded this part of the system but didn’t integrate the new relay correctly.”

Emmett crouched down beside him. “Meaning?”

“Meaning whoever installed it created a gap.”

Draven huffed. “Please tell me it’s a gap we can use.”

Blake smiled. “Oh, yeah. We can use it.”

He dug into his vest and pulled out two leads. Clipping them onto the exposed wires, Blake connected them to a device barely larger than a flash drive.

Numbers began flashing across its tiny display.

“Come on,” he encouraged the system to hurry.

The device beeped. Blake tapped the keypad. The deadbolt released with a quiet click.

Draven slapped a hand to Blake’s shoulder. “Show-off.”

“Again . . .” He stood. “You’re welcome.”

Emmett took the lead and reached out to start examining the door.

“Wait,” Blake warned.

Their leader’s hand froze.

Blake checked the tablet again and frowned. Something wasn’t right.

“Don’t open it,” he ordered.

The lock showed disengaged, but another signal was still running through the security network.

Draven’s joking expression disappeared. “What do you have?”

“Secondary contact.”

“Where?” Emmett demanded.

“I’m trying to find it.” Blake enlarged the schematic.

Nothing.