“Good thought.” A corner of Colt’s sexy mouth edged up and Lissa’s stomach contracted. She reminded herself now was not the time to be thinking about sex, but whenever Colt was around, desire was never far away.
When they were satisfied with the details they had worked out, Lissa and Colt walked the others to the door. Since they would be abandoning Zach’s surveillance gear at the location, Benito insisted on paying for it. Likely he was also paying Zach Bridges a hefty sum for his help.
Lissa understood his motivation. Benito Cortez was a good man. He had plenty of money, and he had lost a son.
“Who do you think Bridges worked for?” Lissa asked once she and Colt were alone.
“Considering the spy gear, CIA would be my guess. Now he’s retired from The Company and working for himself, doing pretty much the same job he did before.”
“Spying on people.”
Colt smiled. “Pretty much.”
Tonight Zach would be bringing the additional gear they needed, then helping them set up the microphone and camera outside the compound.
Tomorrow, at the end of the day after most of the employees had gone home, they would go in. The few who remained would be tired by then, suffering from the lingering heat and wishing their shift was over.
Alex was in charge of “borrowing” a UPS delivery truck. “I’ll take care of it,” he said. “I’ve got a cousin who drives for them.”
Lissa and Colt both grinned. Alex’s seemingly endless list of friends and relatives definitely came in handy.
EVENING ARRIVED, the hot sun sinking below the mountains behind the house, casting long shadows over the city and creeping toward the jagged peaks to the east.
After supper with Benito and Lupita, during which they carefully avoided any mention of the upcoming mission, Colt and Lissa returned to the casita. It was midnight when Alex arrived in his borrowed compact SUV, while Zach drove up in his dark brown Chevy pickup.
As a precaution, they were taking both vehicles. Lissa rode with Alex, which seemed to annoy Colt, who rode with Zach, giving him a chance to review the operation of the surveillance gear. She wondered at his dark mood. Surely he wasn’t jealous. It seemed impossible when their relationship was so uncertain. Still, she couldn’t help hoping it was a sign of his feelings for her.
Whatever happened, she would never regret the time she spent with him. She hoped he would feel the same about her. That over the years, he would remember her with warm affection. Though what she felt for him had become far more than that. The thought made her chest feel tight.
They headed for the compound. By the time they were parked out of sight on the side of the hill, the temperature was much cooler. A gentle breeze rustled the leaves on the trees as Lissa moved silently through the foliage with Colt and Zach toward an outcropping of granite she had spotted on Google Earth.
Alex had headed off to a wide, flat, open area he had noticed when they had been there that morning. He wanted to take a closer look, make sure it would work as a helo exfil location, military speak for extraction point.
Careful to stay out of sight, the three of them reached the rocky outcropping, slipped behind a cluster of boulders, and began to arrange the equipment. The rocks provided cover while they set up the parabolic mic, which, according to Zach, could pick up sounds as faint as fingers rubbing together from as far away as fifty meters, about a hundred and sixty-five feet. Colt moved silently off through the brush, finding a place close enough to the house to pick up the sounds inside.
“All set,” he said as he returned. Zach would be manning the gear, monitoring the info, and relaying it through the earbuds they would be wearing tomorrow. He would also be controlling the drone, their primary source of information.
He turned on the devices, set the drone loose for a test flight, then they settled in to wait. This late there wasn’t much activity. When Zach pointed to a glowing infrared image on the second floor at the far end of the west wing of the house, Lissa’s heart took a leap. Timmy?
“You think it’s him?” she asked.
“Hard to say the way he’s positioned.”
“In bed most likely,” Colt said.
“Can’t be sure it’s him,” Zach said. “But the other images are all larger. I’d say that’s likely the boy asleep in his bedroom.”
“That’s the room farthest from the main part of the house,” Lissa said, remembering the photos on Google Earth. “There’s a balcony with a wrought iron railing off each room on the upper floor. The rooms all look into the courtyard. But the room at the far end has two balconies, one looking into the courtyard, the other facing the mountains. That one’s pretty much out of sight. We could go over the rail, go in through the balcony doors, and bring Tim out the same way.”
“I like it,” Colt said, nodding. “I’ll be driving the truck. If I park under the balcony, you could climb up on top, go right over the rail, and get Tim. In the meantime, I’ll keep the people in the house occupied long enough for you to get the job done.”
“How will you do that?”
He smiled. “I’m a delivery man, right? I’ll deliver some fake parcels, keep them talking long enough to get Tim out.”
She started nodding. “That’s good.”
“I’ll also be your backup,” Colt said. “If trouble comes, inside or out, I’ll be ready.”
“Good plan,” Zach said. “The trick is to do it without being seen.”
Silence fell.
Zach was the first to speak. “You need a couple of stun guns. A guy walks up on you, you hit him. A five-second jolt will put a man down long enough for you to get away. Hit him
