“I sent a team to Ms. Anderson’s house when the live video feed showed Robert de Fleur pulling up the driveway. I wasn’t sure what they’d find when they got there, so I sent a medic crew behind them just in case,” Grant said, worrying his bottom lip between his teeth. “I don’t know if they’re gonna make it or not, Aiden. The medic says it’ll be a miracle if they do.”
My heart sank again. I couldn’t help but wonder how many more times my heart could take the emotional beating I’d been put under before it just quite working all together.
The door to Grant’s office opened as Oliver stepped in. “Intel was able to pull some satellite feeds. We know where he is.”
Grant grabbed the phone on his desk. Cradling the receiver between his head and shoulder as he dialed, he flicked a quick look at Oliver and said, “Go get Ace.”
I let it all go in that moment. The hurt. The anger. Everything. It was time to focus on what mattered the most, and that was taking Robert de Fleur down.
I listened to Grant’s one-sided conversation for clues as to where we were headed.
“I want a map on the property. Lists of buildings or any other areas where the bastard can hide. Have them to me in ten.” He hung the phone up and turned to face me. “I’ll give you one good guess as to where he was headed with you when we intercepted him.”
My brows pulled low in confusion. “But why? Brenda said she sold the property. The house isn’t even there anymore.”
“That’s the million-dollar question. I guess we’ll find out when we get there. Before we go, I need to know if you got this,” he said, tapping his finger against my forehead. “Because if not,” he said, trailing the end of his thoughts for me to fill in the blanks.
Oh, I had it all right. There wasn’t anything that would keep me from being there to take him down. That was until Airen walked in, trembling from head to toe, tears rolling down her face. I shot up from my chair, and she stepped into my arms.
“Aiden… I saw them. They’re…”
I cupped her head against my chest. “I know. Grant just told me.”
Oliver stopped short just outside the door, taking in the scene. I could feel Grant’s eyes on the back of my head, watching Airen cling to me.
Grant cleared his throat as he stepped around us. “Aiden, we have to go.”
Airen jerked in response, dropping her arms from around me. “Go where?”
Understanding dawned on her face as she sucked in a sharp breath. The others walked out, giving me a chance to talk with her alone before I left.
“Airen, I know I have a lot to explain to you. And I will as soon as I get back. But I have to go now.”
She pulled her arms tight against her stomach. “I don’t want you to go. I know that sounds selfish, but there it is.”
I couldn’t meet the look in her eyes, so I turned my head away, sighed inwardly, and said. “Robert de Fleur is my mission… my job. I can’t let anyone or anything stand in the way of that. Not even you.”
I hurt her. I know I did. But I walked away and left her standing in the middle of Grant’s office, and I didn’t look back. Because if I would have looked back, I never would have left.
“HE'S GOT A FEW HOURS head start on us, but it’s pretty clear where he’s headed,” Grant said, voice crackling through our headsets.
We’d left the car behind at the small airfield and boarded, of all things, a helicopter used for tourists. It was the only way to go from Glasgow to Ireland on such short notice.
Oliver sat to my right, looking over the map of the land Brenda’s family once owned that Grant had printed out.
Grant leaned in, motioning a white-faced Ace to do the same. I couldn’t blame Ace. If I’d have been involved in a helicopter crash not that long ago, I’d probably look the same way.
“I want the two of you set up here and here,” Grant said, pointing out two spots on the map that were opposite each other. “It’ll give us a clear shot from both areas in case the bastard tries to run again.”
“That doesn’t cover the cliffside. There’s no way either one of us can take a shot from that angle,” Oliver replied.
Grant flicked a glance at Oliver with a jerk of his shoulder. “There’s not much we can do about that. Once you’re set up, Aiden and I will take our positions. I’ll need you to get to your locations as quick as possible to give me a status report. As soon as you get a visual on him, let me know. We’re not leaving any of this up to chance and if we do this right, we’ll cage that bastard in and he’ll have no way out.”
“Unless he has a boat,” Ace said, pointing at the water on the map.
“If he gets in a boat, give him a burial at sea,” Grant answered.
What if we made it all the way there and that wasn’t where he was headed after all? Ireland was an island with plenty of places he could hop in a boat and disappear.
“Maybe he’s not headed for that property. What if he’s throwing a false trail, thinking that’s where you’d expect him to go?” I asked.
“Then we keep following his trail. But there’s something about that land for him, call it a hunch, but I think he’s been using it for something for a long time. He wants it bad enough that he tried to kill his sisters and kidnap Airen for it,” Grant answered.
“It doesn’t make sense though. If the land was sold, there isn’t a damn thing anyone can do about it,” Ace said.
Grant nodded. “Exactly. Which means he had no idea the land was sold and was operating on the idea that he’d force them into turning over the deed to him. From what I gathered, the company that bought the land hadn’t done anything with it up until recently when they moved the construction trailer in on it,” Grant answered.
“Won’t he be in for a surprise seeing that?” Oliver said, snorting.
“If the house is gone and there weren’t any other structures on the land, what the hell could he be using it for?” I asked.
“It’s a pretty big piece of property. There’s a lot of draws to it. Waterway access is the biggest thing. He could have used it for just about anything. Smuggling in drugs, people, weapons. There’s really no limit on what he could have been doing all these years since no one’s been out there,” Grant said, ticking the laundry list of illegal activities off on his fingers.
“It’s the perfect set up,” Ace agreed with a shake of his head. “Which means that he’s had plenty of time to come up with escape routes and places to hide.”
“That means we need to be extremely careful when we go in,” Grant added.
With that said, everyone settled back into their seats. I leaned towards the window, looking out over the patchwork-covered ground of the Emerald Isle.
It took everything in me to keep focused on the mission and not what was happening back at the church with Airen.
No matter how hard I tried, her face kept coming back, haunting me with the look she gave me when I told her I had to go.
I felt like a complete asshole. Like a user. She deserved more than someone worming their way into her life and using her for their own purposes. I’d done that under Grant’s orders.
When she learned the entire truth, she’d hate me. Maybe that was a good thing. Her anger would make it easier to walk away and force me to forget her.
I mentally shook my head to clear it. It wasn’t the time to think about Airen, not when I needed my head clear for the mission.
Robert de Fleur had a sizable list of transgressions, starting with the fact that he was the one responsible for Jared’s kidnapping. Not to mention his disreputable child trafficking history. He was the lowest form of evil, and I needed to remember that.
Shifting my thoughts, I recalled the map Grant had spread out earlier. There weren’t any noticeable places where he might have set up his operation.
That didn’t mean he hadn’t done something underground or even somewhere on the cliffside. Although, if there were something on the cliffside, it would make things more difficult, especially with the c
hange of tides. Getting to him might not be easy at all.
I broke the silence over our headsets, asking Grant, “What are the chances we could get our hands on a boat?”
“What are you thinking, Aiden?” Oliver asked as Grant looked at me like he was lining up my request.
“Well, for starters, the map… it’s an aerial map that shows us everything laid out from above. What it doesn’t show us is the cliffs. What if there’s a cave or something in the cliffside? It’s a perfect hiding spot. The only downfall would be where it might be located and then we’d be at the mercy of the tide, but…” I said, shrugging as they listened to my idea.
“It’s definitely a possibility. I hope that’s not the case though, because if he’s hiding in the cliff’s face and we can only get to it by water, he’d know we were coming,” Grant answered, digging the map back out. “And it would put us at a severe disadvantage with sniper rifles.”
“Yeah, too bad tech hasn’t come up with corner-rounding bullets yet,” Ace said, grinning at his joke.
“I don’t like this, but the only thing we can do is scout the location. Once we know what we’re up against, we’ll make the call. Oliver, pull up the tide report,” Grant said, grabbing his phone out of his pocket. “And I’ll see if there’s a halfway decent 3D map of the coast.”
Grant’s fingers moved over his phone, pulling up the first map he came across as Oliver rattled off, “Low tide right now, but high tide will start in about forty-five minutes. Does anyone know how fast the tide comes in here or how drastic it is?”
“How drastic? It’s water and Ireland is an island. How damn drastic can it be?” Ace asked.
Oliver shot him a dirty look. “Have you ever seen the tides change in New England?”
Ace rolled his eyes at him, pointing at his chest. “Alabama.” he said as if that explained everything.
Oliver snorted. “Well, let me put it to you this way, the wharfs in Maine are built to pivot like this…” His held his hand at a forty-five degree angle. “When the tide comes in, they’re like this…” He held his hand flat, fingers extended straight out.
“No way, if the tide was that drastic, it would cover the whole damn island,” Ace answered, shaking his head as if Oliver were pulling his leg.
“I don’t think the tide here is as drastic, but I haven’t ever really had to look into it. Let’s just remember what Oliver said and be ready for anything. If there is a cave and it’s set up high on the cliffside, we’d have to wait for the tide to get to its highest before we could investigate it.”
“Makes sense though, doesn’t it, Grant? If he’s got something going on there, and knowing his reputation, he wouldn’t want something easily accessible. Something like that would detour anyone nosy enough to go poking around. Less chances of him, and his activities, to be discovered. Unless, of course, someone else had possession over the land. They’d start noticing a boat coming in only at high tide, especially if whoever bought the land was using the same point of entry,” Oliver said, sliding his finger over the map.
Grant’s teeth raked over his lip as his eyes roamed over the map again. “That has to be it. There’s nothing else here, no place for him to set up an operation. No abandoned buildings. Nothing but open land…”
“So who’s ready to go rock climbing?” Oliver asked, wiggling his eyebrows.
“With those rocks? We might as well just toss ourselves into the ocean and call it a damn day,” Grant said, groaning.
Our headsets crackled to life, the pilot’s voice coming over. “Five minutes to drop point,” he said.
Those last five minutes dragged out forever, but seemed to be over in the blink of an eye.
Once the pilot set the helicopter down, we disembarked, jogging out from underneath the rotating blades. The pilot gave us a short wave and lifted back into the air.
“Well, there goes our ride,” Oliver said, slapping Ace on the back.
“Good riddance,” Ace replied, turning his back on the helicopter.
“Let’s get moving before we draw attention,” Grant said, moving ahead of us.
The walk wasn’t a long one, and it wasn’t exactly flat either. The ground underneath my feet seemed to change with every step. One second my boots would sink into the soft grass, and then I’d end up catching my toe on a small cluster of rocks. If I had to run, I’d probably break my damn neck. But I kept myself upright and moved along with everyone at a rapid pace until we made it to the land originally owned by Brenda’s family.
Grant came to a stop and pulled out the map again, taking a knee. We followed suit, putting us behind a crumbling stone wall, keeping us hidden. “We’ll split here. Oliver, you and Ace head over to the positions we talked about earlier. Get set up and then hit us up on the coms.”
Ace nodded, pulling a dangling wire out from under his shirt and slipping it into his ear. I slipped mine in place, and then we did a quick com check to make sure we were able to hear one another.
“If, for whatever reason, com communication goes down, find the closest shelter and wait for one of us to come to you,” Grant said.
Oliver lowered the bag he carried over his shoulder to the ground, placing it by his feet. It amazed me, knowing inside that bag was a weapon that could pick someone off at well over a thousand-yard distance.
“I think we need to rethink this a little,” he said, looking at Grant.
Grant folded the map back up, stuffing it inside his back pocket. “What are your thoughts?”
“I think you should take my position. Before you say no, hear me out,” Oliver said, holding up a hand to keep from being interrupted. “I’ve done a bit of rock climbing, and I know how the cliff face will be. I know you have to, Grant, but if something were to happen on the cliffside, at least you’d be able to work your magic and make whatever calls necessary to keep the situation under control. None of us have your contacts. If something happened to you, we’d be flying blind.”
“I agree,” Ace added. “If something happens, you’re the only one who has the resources available to get us what we need. ‘Cause if that bastard takes off in a boat, I’m damn sure not jumping into the ocean to swim after him. I’m good, but I’m not that good.”
Grant nodded sharply, and Oliver slid the bag over in front of him.
“Once Ace and I are set up, make your way down the hill over there,” Grant said, pointing at what looked like a cutaway just down the hillside on our left. “That will take you down to the beach. From there, you might be able to use binoculars to see if there’s anything worth checking out on the cliffside. I know I don’t have to remind you how dangerous those rocks can be. If it doesn’t look like you can scale the rocks, we’ll just have to come back with the right gear.”
“And take the chance he gets away again?” Oliver asked, shaking his head as Grant opened his mouth to say something. “Don’t worry about us, Grant. We got this. If there’s something in the cliffside, and it’s too dangerous to free climb, I’ll let you know.”
Satisfied with Oliver’s response, Grant lifted the bag and slung it over his shoulder. “We’ll both check in once we’re set up.” He looked over at Ace with a nod, and then back at us. He didn’t have to say the words ‘be careful,’ they were etched along the lines of his face and dancing in his eyes.
As Grant and Ace moved off to take up their positions, I pulled my binoculars out of my bag and found a spot along the stacked rocks that offered a good spot to lean, but still kept me, for the most part, out of sight. There was no telling where Robert de Fleur could be hidden, and the last thing I wanted was for Ace and Grant to be spotted.
Oliver moved over to the far side of the wall, binoculars in hand as he took a minute to look out over the landscape below us. “I’ll keep an eye on this side for Ace.”
It wouldn’t take Ace long to get to his position on the hillside. Once he was set up there, we’d have three sets of eyes scanning the property as Grant trekked his way to his set-up point.
<
br /> At our vantage point, binoculars weren’t exactly necessary since everything besides where the construction trailer was set was visible. But there were areas where rocks jutted up from the ground, making excellent hiding spots, like the one I hid behind.
To the naked eye, someone crouched behind them would be hard to see, but not with the binocular’s ability to zoom in and get a closer look for any telltale sign of movement.
From my peripheral, I saw a truck making its way towards the construction trailer. “Grant, you got an inbound truck at two o’clock. Stand by for the all clear.”
“Copy that,” he replied.
I brought the binoculars up, watching as he slipped down to the ground, using a small swell in the hill for cover.
The truck was moving at a fast clip, the driver’s course never wavering from the direction of the construction trailer.
Ace’s voice came over the com. “I’m in position, setting up now.”
“Copy that,” Oliver answered.
“Report your visual on the driver as soon as you can,” Grant’s muffled voice said.
“Copy that,” Ace replied.
“What’s the plan if it’s him?” Oliver asked.
“Let’s see what the bastard is up to before we drop him,” Grant answered.
“Do you really want to give him the chance to escape?” Ace questioned.
“Four to one says he doesn’t,” Oliver said.
“I still think we should drop him. Once he’s down, we can comb over every damn inch of this property. If he’s hiding something, we’d find it,” Ace said.
I could hear the weariness in his voice. He didn’t want Robert de Fleur to do what he did best. Disappear. The guy was like a greased pig. A slippery bastard, even in tight situations. I couldn’t help but agree with Ace’s logic.
It didn’t matter what any of us thought though. The decision was ultimately up to Grant, and we were to follow his direct orders.
“He’s not getting away this time, Ace. Taking him out would take care of the situation, but even if we did and then spent time going over this property, we could still miss something. I don’t want to take that chance. I need to know what the hell is driving him so hard about this property,” Grant answered.
If Ever I Fall: Book 3 of The Six Series Page 16
