His heavy boots barely made a sound as he edged forward. The short-barrel rifle strapped to his back burned like a brand as he strode their way. Every step ensured he was walking straight into a trap.
This was bad.
Really fuckin’ bad.
He could feel it.
Marcello angled his head in silent communication for them to follow. The four of them slinked along the dense foliage that broke open to the edges of a park. They kept low as they prowled along the short fence that ran the backside of a neighborhood.
Alarm swept through his bloodstream, a pound, pound, pound that drummed as he followed Marcello and his men farther along the backside of the sleeping houses. Marcello looked at them, his eyes dim as he indicated for them to ease up the side of the cover of trees. They paused about five yards beyond the back fence line of a small house.
Anxiety wound through Jud. Those tendrils of alarm closed off his throat as they all knelt within the cover of night beneath the shelter of those trees.
“Just who are we pressin’, Marcello?” Jud’s teeth gritted as he hissed the question below his breath.
Marcello cracked a smug smile. “There’s been a small change of plans. We are now on a retrieval mission. We are here to return a boy child to his rightful place.”
Confusion stormed while rage spiked. That disquieted anger pumped through his veins and sizzled across his flesh.
He’d anticipated bullshit.
But this?
What exactly did that mean?
A recovery mission of a child?
Whatever it was, it didn’t sit right.
It was all off.
All wrong.
Marcello knelt lower, dropped his voice quieter. “There will be two officers standing guard. One inside and one out. Jud, you are here to ensure clear passage into the house. Do it quiet and quick. I will get the child. Kolin and Tony, you ensure no one else gets out.”
They nodded as if they had already been prepped for their roles.
While venom burned on Jud’s tongue, the world starting to spin, the truth that he’d indeed walked straight into a trap.
Coerced into deviance.
“Why am I here? Why would you come all the way to Redemption Hills to drag me back here?” he demanded, attention flicking around, trying to figure the score. What the fuck this was about.
Marcello had hundreds of men at his disposal.
“This mission is of the utmost importance. One in which failure will not be tolerated. Under the dire circumstances, I was charged to find the best. You are the best, no?”
It was pure provocation.
“Who is the target?” Jud demanded, angst lining his bones.
Marcello knew the charge.
Jud only killed if the killing was earned.
“That is none of your concern.”
“You know I don’t do jobs blind.”
“You do now. I’d not question that, if I were you.”
Marcello gestured for them to proceed.
Jud warred. Unsettled. A rattled sensation climbed through his conscience. A warning that called out low at the back of his head. Marcello was manipulating him. It was all bullshit.
The men remained angled down as they crossed the fence line and into the house’s yard. Jud followed, prepared to bolt.
Ready to turn his back and walk.
Shun this life the way he’d promised he would do.
Fuck Marcello and his family.
He had a choice. They didn’t get to control him.
He was prepared for a fight. For this to go south when he walked. He would most likely have to battle it out, but it would be a war worth fighting.
Only he stilled when he caught sight of a silhouette through the window.
A woman.
She paced, back and forth, back and forth. His insides clenched when he saw the clear outline of a child swaddled in the well of her arms as she paced.
His guts twisted and curled.
Nausea swam.
Marcello gestured to move, and the reality of his instructions warbled through Jud’s mind.
Ensure no one else gets out.
“Are you fuckin’ crazy?” Jud spat, his voice still held quiet. “There’s a woman in there.”
A mother.
“Do your job, Lawson,” Marcello stated low. “Ensure my passage and do it now. Five minutes and this is to be done.”
Tony and Kolin started to douse the backside of the house in gasoline while Marcello crept along behind them, looking for the best way to enter.
Disgust burned a hole through Jud’s middle. Conscience screaming. World shouting. His gun was out and cocked.
Marcello grinned back like the bastard thought Jud was doing his bidding. Only Jud pointed the barrel at him. “Not gonna happen.”
Fury burst in Marcello’s expression. “You dare point a gun at me?”
“It’s an honor, actually.”
Marcello’s men dropped the cans and rushed to pull out their guns. The cans clattered against the dry earth, ringing out like an alarm for the guards inside.
A voice echoed from the front. “Possible breach at the rear. Securing perimeter.”
A split second later, it was a blur of disorder. A man dressed in a suit who had been posted out front came around the side of the house. A gunshot rang out from Kolin, hitting the officer in the head.