Page 12 of Hero Unbound
“I don’t like this, Dad. This person is definitely trying to be covert. Have you had any word of anything happening in this area that I should know about?”
Even as Theo asked the question, he knew he didn’t need to. If Dorian had any inkling that any of his or Ray’s enemies were anywhere near this area, he would’ve already let Theo know. Their family didn’t keep secrets when it came to safety.
They’d learned that the hard way when Theo was seventeen, and both he and his parents had the scars to prove it.
“No,” Dorian responded. “Everything has been quiet for years. But your mom and I are not the only ones with enemies. Not to mention there are a number of people who’d like to see Linear Tactical taken down.”
“Roger that.”
Dorian’s generation of the Linear Tactical team had helped arrest or eliminate too many bad guys for there not to be lingering resentment, even all these years later. Extreme caution like this might seem grandiose, but any of the Linear guys would argue it wasn’t.
Defend first, ask questions later.
And that was only thinking worst-case scenario. There were also people who wanted Linear out of the picture—other private security companies that had tried to buy them out or shut them down over the years. Or hell, this could be a kid about to graffiti the barn. It was almost a rite of passage for every little adolescent fucker in the greater Teton area to try to see if they could get away with doing something annoying here on the property.
“One thing I know for sure,” Dorian murmured. “Friends don’t sneak around in the middle of the night without warning.”
That was the gospel truth. Theo kept his Glock out and to his side. Until they knew which type of unknown subject they were dealing with—the pain in the ass but relatively harmless kind, or the deadly and also pain in the ass kind—he didn’t want to give away his location or that he was armed.
“You guys secure the outer perimeter. Make sure this bastard doesn’t have any friends with him. I’ll find out what sort of trouble we’re dealing with exactly.”
“Roger that,” both Dorian and Lilah responded at the same time.
Theo moved silently around the far side of the shed the unsub had come from. There wasn’t much in that shed worth stealing, but it would make an excellent place to plant some sort of explosive device or hide for a later attack.
It was a hole in their security. That was on Theo. But he would be rectifying it.
He spotted the intruder as he began walking to the east, away from the shed and in the direction of the barn. The guy was wearing a black hoodie, but the skin of his face had been noticeable in the moon’s light.
Once he started moving again, Theo upped his speed. He could take the guy in a tackle but would rather gather more intel on what he was up to.
Theo kept to the left since the trespasser kept checking over his right shoulder. Whoever this was wasn’t great at situational awareness. Which was probably good news—the deadly sort of intruder would be a lot more skilled. Guy wasn’t very big either; this was looking more and more like a teenager.
“You’re all clear out here.” Dorian’s voice came into his ear. “If this guy has partners, they’re not near enough to get to him quickly. We’ll make sure it stays that way.”
“Roger,” Theo whispered.“I think it’s a kid.”
Hoodie guy had made it to the small barn and opened the door. He left the door open and didn’t turn on any lights. Theo sprinted around to the far side of the barn and eased the door open from that direction. He silently entered and watched as the intruder headed toward the far storage door that held the animal feed and supplies. He pulled something out of his pocket.
Goddamn it. Was this guy about to poison some of their animal feed? That would be a great, and mostly untraceable, way of doing thousands of dollars of damage. And the animals would be the ones who would pay the price.
Not going to fucking happen.
“Taking subject down,” he murmured into his comms unit, knowing both Lilah and Dad would circle in.
Normally, he would wait until they were here, but he didn’t want to give this asshole a chance to finish his plan. Theo rushed across the barn, not caring about stealth now, just speed. As the guy reached up to place whatever he’d had in his pocket into the feed, Theo caught him with a flying tackle.
As soon as they hit the ground, Theo knew this was nohim. Soft curves flattened under him.
It wasn’t what he’d been expecting, but he didn’t let that deter him in any way.After all, he’d grown up with a mother who was a trained assassin, so he didn’t discount that an enemy could just as easily be of the female variety.
The soft cry that the woman gave as he pressed down on her was a different story. She didn’t fight, didn’t go for any weapon. She seemed to be trying to curl in on herself—impossible with him lying on top of her. He had her by at least seventy pounds.
“Please, no.”
He recognized the voice immediately.Shit.
“Eva?”