his way up here with Jess, Ethan’s faithful shadow, not far behind. Finn would probably have to tear down the ladder if he wanted to keep them out.
Carefully and silently, Baby made his way down the steps, dropping the last five feet and landing on the ground in a crouch.
There it was, that third man feeling again. Baby stayed silent, waiting, listening. He knew these woods, had grown up here. It didn’t matter how good of a thug the terrorist boss had sent, it wasn’t going to change the fact that Baby had home field advantage.
He forced himself to stay still and quiet long past what he felt necessary.
This was the time when a life or death chess game could be won or lost with five extra minutes of patience.
The return of the normal sounds of the forest around him assured Baby that there had been someone around, but he was no longer nearby.
It didn’t take him long to find the first man. The guy obviously wasn’t trained in any sort of wilderness subterfuge. Baby had two weapons on him—a tranquilizer gun and his Glock. He used the tranquilizer on this guy, more because it was quieter than because the man wasn’t a lethal threat.
Baby was on him seconds after he hit the ground, securing his wrists and ankles with zip-ties. He wouldn’t be awake for hours, but when he did wake, he wasn’t going anywhere. Baby gagged him to make sure he couldn’t notify anyone if he woke early.
The man had a cell phone that Baby picked up. A text message floated across the screen, but it was in a language that didn’t use the English alphabet. Probably Arabic. He dropped the phone back by the guy.
He headed west, toward where the second guy had been when Baby had last seen him. He wasn’t difficult to track either. The guy was heavy on his feet, leaving all but clear footprints in some of the soft moss near the base of the trees.
The bad news—he was definitely heading toward the house.
“Damn it.” Cade’s voice rang out in his ear again. “Take out your tango, Baby. Shit’s going down. Kendrick found and translated kill orders that were just sent. We’ve got tangoes here too.”
“Roger.”
Baby went silent, as did Cade. The time for talking was over. He picked up speed, no longer worrying about staying quiet.
Because this guy wasn’t the problem. It was the third one Baby had to find.
He pulled the tranquilizer and shot the second man without slowing down as he ran behind him. The guy hit the ground unconscious with a surprised look still on his face.
Now he had to find the third man. That wouldn’t be as easy, and Baby assumed he was better trained or smarter about wilderness survival in general than his two cohorts. Plus, Baby was about to lose the advantage because the sun was coming up.
And damn it, that sunrise meant Quinn was fucking waiting for him at Pike’s Peak, with no idea why he wasn’t going to be there. He pushed that thought out of his head. He couldn’t afford to feel anything right now, couldn’t afford a distraction, even Quinn.
Baby’s one big advantage was that he knew the guy would be heading toward Finn and Charlie’s house. Charlie and Anne were each capable in their own right, opposite in nature but both strong. That wouldn’t be worth much against someone with a blind kill order.
The guy left in the woods had been here since Girl Riley had been taken more than twenty-four hours ago. He’d been waiting on the message he’d just gotten.
The other two were general thugs, but this one was different. Smarter. He hadn’t used the waiting time to smoke cigarettes or text his partner. He’d used it to learn the lay of the land. To figure out the best point for infiltration.
That’s what Baby would’ve done.
It also gave Baby a good idea from which direction the man would come at the house—he’d come toward the back porch with all the windows.
Keeping low and moving quickly, Baby made his way around to that side of the building. He kept his loop wide, wanting to come at the guy from behind, and hopefully, take him by surprise.
Baby hadn’t slept in more than thirty-six hours, but he locked down the exhaustion and forced more speed out of his muscles. There was no way this guy was getting to his sister-in-law and nephews on his watch.