Page 94 of Tyler's Rule
I sat in the passenger seat with my phone face-up on my thigh.
Dixie’s dot pulsed on the tracker. Seventh floor. Safe. Surrounded by women who cared about her.
The urge to have Arran turn the car around nearly made me sick.
She’d given me permission to go, but I half wished she’d refused.
Arran broke the silence. “So, our man. Terrence Harford. What are we expecting? Any security? Any trouble?”
I thumbed the edge of my phone. “Castle Tien has a full perimeter system. Cameras. Motion sensors. Alarm tied to aprivate security company. Good toys sold to a rich man who’s mistaken if he thinks he’s untouchable.”
My friend nodded. “He lives alone?”
“His wife will be there. A housekeeper has a cottage onsite but not close enough to hear anyone shout. If we avoid tripping the alarms, we can be in and out in ten minutes.”
I’d already established their household and had Ash set up a couple of cameras on a scouting mission. Access was easy, a lane with a locked gate no match for a decent pair of bolt cutters.
Shade leaned forward. “We’re storming a castle. I like it.”
I glared out at the dark countryside. Fields and stone walls sped by. Trees stripped bare by winter. All of it peaceful enough to lull a man into thinking the world was safe.
It wasn’t. It never had been.
I continued with the plan. “We go in fast. We don’t get distracted. We don’t engage with anyone else. We take him and we’re gone.”
Shade snorted. “Hard to resist engaging when there’s an actual drawbridge.”
“It doesn’t have a drawbridge.”
“Seriously?”
Arran’s mouth quirked again. “It doesn’t. I know the place. Built for style, not function.”
Shade sat back, the disgruntled killer. “Fuck that. If I die in a castle, I’d just like it noted that as a poor Scotsman, I expected better.”
I shook my head and raised an eyebrow at Arran. “How?”
“Pretty sure my father knew Terrence. Seems the type he’d associate with. I looked up the castle when I heard its name.”
“Small world,” I muttered, though it wasn’t.
Arran’s father, when he wasn’t abusing his kid, had been a lord of the realm and a corrupt public official. Another partof the rich elite who fucked over anyone they chose. It didn’t surprise me at all.
Castle Tien appeared at the top of a long drive, looming above the trees. A fairy tale sort of place. All stone and fancy windows.
We’d already killed the headlights, and Arran drove on, circling the grounds until we reached a lane with thick trees at the edge of the property line.
I checked the time then the security sweep on my tablet.
Arran looked at me. “You’re certain he’s there?”
I inclined my head. “He drove home a couple of hours ago, and his car’s in the back courtyard. Lights in the main house suggest two occupants. One upstairs, one down in a lounge. That’s him.”
Shade sucked his teeth. “With those thick walls, the wife might not even hear.”
I hoped he was right. If I saw her, I couldn’t vouch for what I’d do. I swallowed a hit of adrenaline that had my hands shaking and turned to my friends. “The wife remains untouched. For now. If ye see me deciding otherwise…”
They swapped a glance.
