Catch Him(59)

Flynn shook his head. “That’s my point! It already happened.”

“And she survived,” Declan said tightly. “Now I make sure nothing else happens again. You need to prepare that things are going to change for me. With me and Sinead, I’ll imagine we’ll begin to settle down. Less assignment work. More focus on other aspects of the business. Mary can come live with us or stay here. Either way I’ll make certain she is protected at all times. Even if I have to assign a damn body man.”

He wasn’t seeing it, Flynn realized. Too damn blind to his weakest spot.

“I don’t think that’s the right way to handle this,” Flynn said as his last words on the topic.

“I don’t care.”



* * *

Mary stood just outside the doorway to the study. She’d stopped when she’d heard Flynn say her name. She considered it the worst sort of behavior to eavesdrop, but as she was the subject matter she didn’t think she could be blamed.

Quietly she backed away from the room before either man found her. She thought of everything they had said, and in the end she agreed with Flynn.

Her brother’s idea wasn’t the right way at all to handle this.





Chapter 19





Early Morning, Middleburg, Virginia



There was a misty heat that covered the green rolling hills of northern Virginia as dawn broke. A sedan pulled off the side of the empty road. Everyone in the car got out.

Garrett looked to his father, who had insisted on coming with him. Insisted, Garrett knew, because he didn’t trust his son to do the job.

“You should have gone to a hotel,” Garrett said. “I’ve got this.”

“I wasn’t taking any chances,” his father replied, confirming his lack of faith.

“Then at least wait in the car.”

Garrett Huntley, Sr. turned his steel-blue eyes on his son. “Is that concern for me, son? How utterly ridiculous.”

They stood the same height, shared the same build. And much of the same appearance, though his father’s hair was now completely gray. Except the eyes. Garrett Jr. had inherited his mother’s eyes, and for that he was grateful.

Quite frankly, his father’s eyes scared the shit out of people.

The two men stared at the gate. Both with completely different objectives. The mission obviously had changed. The picture was no longer of consequence. The goal now was the live capture of Lucifer. The people interested would pay nearly any price for him alive.

Failing that, proof of death would also come with a fairly significant bounty.

More importantly, Garrett would have what was his back. He wouldn’t be angry with her for leaving. For not taking his father’s offer. He knew he’d been too rough with her. She was small. Tiny. He would promise to be more careful in the future.

No, Garrett didn’t give a shit about the elusive Lucifer his father was keen to capture.

His wife was beyond that gate. That was all that mattered.

Lucifer had misjudged Garrett. Thought him stupid. As if he wouldn’t see that the GPS had stopped at this location for nearly twelve hours before being moved to another only a few hours ago. This was where the cop had spent the night. He looked over his shoulder at the two men his father brought with him.

“Can you get through the security?”

The man to his right stepped forward and examined the gate. Then the access panel affixed to the brick wall adjacent to it.

“It’s sophisticated, but it can be bypassed. I’ll get my tools.”

Garrett nodded as the man headed back to the sedan that had been waiting for them at the private airport. Using his father’s jet, they had been able to transfer all the weapons and equipment they would need without security concerns.

Two fully qualified lethal professionals and the element of surprise. That’s what Garrett thought he would have in his court. The element of surprise, however, was somewhat compromised.

They found the tracker on the car, but their deception had failed.

Advantage to the Huntleys.

The man, whose name Garrett didn’t even know as he had spoken to neither of them on the four-and-a-half-hour plane ride across the country, rolled out a tool kit and started to take apart the access panel.

Two minutes later the gate was sliding back.

“You both understand,” Huntley Sr. said to the men. “If at all possible, we take the target alive. Any shots fired should be to disable only.”

The two men nodded.

“Let’s go,” Garrett said, although the two men were already jogging through the gate. Each armed with a semi-automatic assault riffle, a side arm and blade.

They looked lethal, and Garrett had to trust it wasn’t just an appearance.

He imagined someone with the moniker of Lucifer would be equally deadly. He couldn’t fathom how someone like Mary would ever come to know such a man.