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By Root 499 0

of the house, well in the shadows himself. Jules watched him for a full ten minutes, but the man never seemed to have moved a muscle. He unsnapped the sheath, then slowly removed the knife. Keeping to the mulched beds, he crept along the porch, then around it. Knowing he must keep the element of surprise on his side, he made a sudden rush and slammed the knife into the back of his unsuspecting target. A whoosh of surprise escaped the lips of his victim, and Jules pulled the knife out, then reached over the slumping figure to slice the man’s throat from one side to the other. He let the body down easy, the rest of the way to the ground, and watched the mulch grow soggy and red. Wiping first the knife, then his hands, on the back of the dying man’s shirt, he dropped the knife back into its holder and stepped around the corner of the house, searching in the dark for his new best buddy.

He spotted him there, at the arbor, gesturing for Jules to stay put. Sinking back into the shrubs, Jules watched for the agent across the way to make his move. After a long seven minutes, he finally did. As soon as the agent disappeared around the side of the house, Jules’s new friend emerged from the shadows. Burt ran toward the back gate of the house next door, waving in Jules’s direction so that he would know it was clear for him, too, to move.

But instead of following the agent to the front of the house, where he was expected to surprise and overtake him, Jules kept to the shadows that surrounded Mrs. West’s house and, standing in the middle of the driveway, fired two shots straight through Burt Connolly’s back.

The shots echoed through the backyard, and just as Jules had anticipated, the back door of Mara’s house flew open. He watched a woman emerge and fly off the deck as two men ran from the front. As they gathered around the fallen stranger, Jules ducked behind the cars and made his move toward the open front door. He figured he’d have, at best, a scant few minutes before his window of opportunity closed. He couldn’t afford to be on the wrong side of it when it did.

CHAPTER

TWENTY-SIX

Miranda was the first to reach the fallen man. After checking and determining there was no pulse, she looked up at Aidan and Will, who’d run down the drive from the front after hearing the shot.

“Nice aim, Cahill,” Will noted. “But we need to talk about the fact that you left the house alone and without telling me you were going.”

“I didn’t shoot him.” She frowned. “I thought Aidan got him.”

“I was on the other side of the house,” Aidan told them.

“Which leaves Rob,” Will said. He cupped his hands and called across the drive. “Hey, Rob. Great shot. You got him.”

When there was no answer, Aidan called out, “Rob? You out there, man?”

Aidan and Will exchanged a worried glance.

“Something is not right,” Aidan said under his breath. “Rob should be out there. . . .”

Aidan crept along the garage and headed for the West house next door.

Moments later, he’d made his way around to the front, where he found what he’d feared.

“Will,” he called across the drive.

“You found him?” Will called back.

“Yeah. Yeah, I found him.”

“He hurt? Need an ambulance?”

“Too late for an ambulance. But put a call in for the local police. We’re going to need them. . . .”

“My God, what happened?” Miranda asked anxiously as Aidan trotted back toward them. “What’s happened to Rob?”

Before he could answer, Annie ran onto the deck and down the steps.

“What’s going on?” She grabbed Miranda’s arm. “We heard a shot.”

“Looks like your ex-brother-in-law showed up right on schedule. We think Rob Flynn took him out,” Miranda said.

“Good thing I made Mara stay inside. I told her if Julianne woke up, she needed to be in there with her, in case she had heard the shot, too.” Annie bent down and peered at the body. She stared for a long minute, then looked up at Miranda and asked, “Who is this?”

“Isn’t it Jules?”

“No.” Annie shook her head.

“Are you certain?” Miranda bent down next to Annie to get a closer look.

“Positive. I don’t know who it is, but it isn’t Jules Douglas.