single gold bar, then shut the lid on the footlocker.
“We won’t have to worry about it,” he assured her. Once Mack brought the authorities in to clean up, they’d take care of the money—hauling it out and, eventually, returning it to the proper owners. He hefted the bar, which weighed a good twenty-five pounds, putting it inside the pack and zipping it closed. “Let’s go.”
They made it back to the house much faster than they’d taken going out. Lyse was breathing heavy, but she hadn’t lagged behind. They went in the rear entrance, and Fionn marched her to the stairs leading to the second and third floors.
“All the way up, love.”
The word didn’t work its magic on her this time. If anything, the line of her jaw got even more stubborn. “I don’t like the idea of you being out there on your own.”
“I’m not,” he reassured her, forcing the impatience out of his tone. Lyse wasn’t a soldier; she hadn’t already worked through the emotions a fight could bring out in you. Fionn had learned to turn the emotion off a long time ago. “Mack and Deacon are already out there, well hidden. Now get your pretty ass up those stairs and hide it just as well.”
Lyse hesitated for another moment, but she knew what was at stake. And she knew what a distraction could cost a man on a mission. They’d both seen it too many times. “Okay.” From the second step she turned, her face on level with his. “Be careful, Fionn.”
He took her mouth then. Not a sweet good-bye kiss, but a conquering, a bond. He wasn’t about to be getting hurt—he was coming back to her, no doubt about it. “I’ll be coming to get you when it’s safe.”
They’d selected a bedroom at the back of the third floor for her to stay in, one whose lock still worked. It was no guarantee against a gun, but Fionn had no intention of letting anyone inside the house. She would be safe from gunfire within the old stone walls, and the sloping roof outside the bedroom window gave her an exit if she absolutely needed one.
“I’ll be there,” she promised. He turned away as she started up the stairs, knowing it was now or never. His mission was right before him; he needed to focus on it, on meeting his objective: making the women in his life safe. Nothing would be stopping him from that goal. Nothing.
In the front hall he inventoried his weapons and then checked his phone to see if there’d been any contact from his unexpected guest, but nothing had come in. Or his guest was leaving him wondering; could be either one. The gold bar stayed in the backpack, but he emptied everything else out. He was waiting just to the left of the front door, watching through a sliver of uncovered window, when Ferrina and his crew pulled into the driveway.
“He’s here,” he told Deacon. “You and Mack in place?”
“Of course.”
Deacon sounded offended, as if him being in position had ever been in doubt. It hadn’t, though that didn’t mean Fionn was above pulling his best friend’s tail. The two men were stationed on either side of the yard, well back into—and up in—the trees, hidden from sight. Their job was to watch and wait, only intervening if Fionn was in danger. If the timing of the various parties joining them worked out as planned, there would be no need for them.
Taking a deep breath, Fionn let his final concerns for Lyse, his nerves and anticipation, his pulsing adrenaline fade from his awareness until nothing remained but emotionless calm. The number one tool of any soldier. He’d been one most of his life, and that calm was as familiar to him as sex, as anger, as fatigue. He let it come, then…
He opened the door.
Three cars full of men had spread out across the drive—obviously Ferrina believed in being prepared. He’d learned his lesson the other night, too, doubling the amount of men they’d seen at his base camp. Smart. He’d need every single one of them.
As Fionn walked out onto the steps, Ferrina separated himself from the group and moved toward him along the stone path from the drive to the manor. He looked much better than he had in surveillance photos; without the grainy look, he seemed to carry the decade since Fionn had last seen him with ease. And the smirk on his face hadn’t changed a bit.