“What if someone’s already there? What if a lot of someones are there? What if they have Adam?”
“That’s a lot of what-ifs.” He raised one finger in the air at the waiter. “We’ll play it by ear. I told you, I’m not going to charge in there like a superagent. If Adam’s there and it looks like he’s in danger, we’ll call the cops.”
“All right. I’ll let you call the shots, but you need to listen to me. I know these people.”
“Don’t remind me.” He plucked the check from the waiter’s hand.
“While you’re paying up, I’m going to wash my hands. I feel like I have barbecue sauce under my fingernails.”
Clay squinted at his nails. “You probably do.”
Back in the truck, April took a deep breath. “I hope this crazy plan of yours yields some results.”
“You’re accusing me of crazy plans? The woman who ran out on two weddings?”
She placed a hand on her belly. “If I hadn’t run out on that second one, where would I be now? Probably scrabbling through some tunnel beneath the border with Las Moscas in my future.”
“Where would you have been if you hadn’t run out on the first one?” Clay didn’t wait for an answer to his rhetorical question, instead cranking on the engine to his truck and peeling away from the curb.
April guided him to Jimmy’s compound. When he turned on the actual street of houses set back from the curb, gates and long driveways protected the residents from curious eyes and casual passersby.
With her hands stuffed beneath her thighs, she tipped her head forward. “I’m going to slump down in my seat. Drive to the end of the cul-de-sac so you can get an idea of the layout and a sense of the house and grounds.”
“How long is the street from this point to the end of the cul-de-sac?”
“Less than a quarter of a mile.” She loosened her seat belt and scooted down. “The houses are not cheek and jowl. There’s some space between them.”
“Is that how Jimmy was able to operate in relative privacy?”
“Uh-huh.” The car veered to the right and her head bumped the glass. “After this bend in the road, Jimmy’s place is on the left. He has a tall white gate around his property, and you can’t see the house from the road.”
“Got it in my sights.”
“Is it all lit up?”
“Nope.” Clay twisted his head to the side. “Some lights on the gate and softer lights down the driveway. Does he have sensor lights?”
“Not that I recall.”
Clay swung the car around. “What’s out there past the end of the cul-de-sac?”
“Nothing. Fields.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.” He didn’t slow down again on his way past the house. “Plenty of pickup trucks, so mine isn’t going to stick out. Do you think it’s okay to park at the top of the road? You’ll have a view of who’s coming in and out.”
“You should be fine. Leave the keys in case I have to make a quick getaway.” She pinched his thigh. “Not that I plan to leave you in the lurch or anything.”
“By all means, leave me in the lurch. Like I said, I can always come up with some story.” He hunched forward in his seat and pulled his wallet free from his pocket and tossed it in the console. “I’m not going to be caught with my badge and ID, either.”
“But you’re keeping your weapon.”
“Have to. It might just get me out of trouble.” He pulled into a dark space on the curb between two big, gated houses.
“Or get you into trouble.”
“Don’t worry, April. I know what I’m doing.”
“I’m glad someone does because this is feeling more and more like a wild-goose chase.”
“Have some faith in me.” He threw the car into Park and left the keys swinging from the ignition. “You never did.”
“Never did what?” She glanced across at him, her chin pinned to her chest.
“Had faith in me. You never had faith in me, April.” He slipped from the car and pushed the door shut.
She popped up in her seat and tried to catch his silhouette in the rearview mirror, but he’d disappeared in the night, melding with the darkness.
She waited several more minutes and exited the car on silent feet. She had no intention of letting Clay creep into the lion’s den on his own. Her brother, her problem.
Hunching forward, she kept to the hedges along the dirt that functioned as a sidewalk.
When she reached Jimmy’s house, she squeezed through the end of the gate and some bushes, the needling branches scratching her arms. She stumbled to a stop in the sudden darkness.
Either Clay had gotten to work already, or Jimmy had sensed company and killed the lights outside. But why would he do that? Wouldn’t he turn on the floodlights to expose the intruder?
Her gaze turned to the corners of the house where she figured Jimmy’s security had stationed the cameras. Had Clay disabled them?
She dropped to her hands and knees near the porch and peered into the cloak of darkness that enveloped the house. The strangeness of the scene caused pinpricks of fear to assault the back of her neck.
Even when Jimmy went out of town, he didn’t leave the house in complete darkness. Clay wouldn’t have been foolish enough to cut off the power to the whole house. That would alert Jimmy and his goons, and if they had Adam, they wouldn’t fall for the trick and fan out to find the perpetrator. They’d be on high alert.
She rose to a crouch and circled around the side of the house to the big windows on the great room that commanded a view of the valley. Nobody stopped her. Nothing tripped her up. She had a wide-open path.
Her heart thundered in her chest, causing a muted pounding in her ears. She dropped to the ground again when she got close to the window and a yellow glow of light from a lamp in the room.
She army-crawled on her belly across the wooden
