Call You Mine (The Baker’s Creek Billionaire Brothers #4) - Claudia Burgoa Page 0,87
a nervous wreck. I’m glad Nathan is part of the Nerd Herd, along with Lang. It’d kill Mom with a panic attack—or a heart attack—to have everyone in the field at once.
While I wait for Dad, I make sure the house is secured. I lock Beacon’s bunker, setting the alarm too. If anyone enters the studio, they won’t be able to access the underground floor. The tunnel’s doors are locked too.
My father and his team arrive forty minutes later. I had plenty of time to hide knives in most of my armor.
“Hi, Dad,” I greet him, hugging him and waving at everyone who is behind him. “How did everyone make it here?”
He shrugs. “We have our ways.”
“You’ve known this for hours,” I say.
“We thought it’d be best to wait until we were close to let you know what’s happening. Aldridge gets wired up and has trouble waiting for instructions. I assumed it’d be worse if his family was on the line.”
He’s not wrong, but this is annoying. I wait for him to give instructions to his team. “Walk me through the property while we secure the perimeter.”
“It’s secured,” I inform him.
“How well do you know the area?”
“We’ve hiked plenty of times,” I explain. “But Beacon and I haven’t gone too far lately because it’s winter. The surveillance team has been out daily.”
As we walk, I point toward the security cameras Beacon installed when he first moved in. “You can access them through the system.”
We’re further north on the property when he stops and narrows his gaze toward one of them. He clicks on his earpiece and says, “Nathan, please check the cameras around the perimeter. I think a couple of them aren’t working. Find out why, what was the last thing they captured, and when did they go off?”
“Yes, sir,” he answers.
I wonder if anyone is flying a drone for surveillance. That’s usually something Lang or Nathan would be doing.
“Anyone in the family come out here often?” he asks, squatting and touching the snow that’s about four days old.
“Not that I’ve noticed. I’ve only been living here for such a short time,” I remind him. “From what I’ve seen, they go as far as to where the ice arena is being built.”
I point toward the construction with a couple of rooms finished, but everything else still needs walls and a roof. Dad looks around, nods, and we continue walking.
The place is quiet, too quiet. I’ve never walked around the property when it’s so dark and cold. The only light comes from the reflection of the moon against the snow. I wish it was a full moon though.
Nathan calls. Dad turns off the earpiece and answers. He listens for several seconds while he shakes his head. “Can you see their faces? It can be Beacon getting away to piss off his brothers.”
He exhales harshly. “Are you sure?” His voice comes out harsh. “No, I don’t need Lang to verify it. I believe you. I’ll have one of the guys replace them tomorrow.”
“It’s a blind spot,” I remind Dad. “Tomorrow can be too late.”
Right now might be too late. Someone is inside. Goose bumps cover my body. What if they saw everyone leave? No, they didn’t. We did it through the tunnels, and there’s no way they can know about it.
“What do you suggest?” Dad focuses his attention on me. I swear, I feel like he’s quizzing me.
“Send a team to search the area. I think we missed something,” I explain to him. “This guy knows how to be invisible.”
“She’s right,” says Anderson Hawkins, one of Dad’s partners. He’s part of the original team. When he reaches us, he says, “We taught these guys to go unnoticed—the same way some of us learned from our training.”
“You want to lead it?” he asks Hawk, who is great at searching.
“Yeah, but she’s coming with me.”
Dad glares at him.
“I trained her well. Plus, she’s been here more times than any of us.”
Before I can complain that my father has trouble letting me go, there’s a loud boom sound. The ground shakes. Dad grabs me as I turn my body and see Beacon’s studio burning. Flames are consuming what’s left after the explosion.
Dad barks orders, asks everyone to take shelter. He gets a count of the team—no one was inside when it happened.
“Make sure all the Aldridges stay where they are. Tell security to be alert,” Dad commands as he releases me. “We need to find out if there are more explosives.”