Chapter 12 - The Breach
My breath hitched in my throat as I watched the two figures on the monitor creep stealthily across our back deck. Cole reached out with a gloved hand, testing the handle of the sliding glass patio door. To our carefully orchestrated setup, the latch had been left deliberately unlocked, though a heavy security deadbolt remained engaged on the upper frame—just enough to allow them entry into the mudroom while trapping them inside a confined space before they could reach the main living areas.
Click.
The glass door slid open with a faint, almost imperceptible scrape. Cole stepped inside first, ducking his head under the doorframe, followed closely by Lena, who was clutching a roll of heavy-duty duct tape and a thick canvas sack in her trembling hands.
"They're in, Mark," Detective Vance’s sharp whisper echoed in my earpiece. "Hold your position. Do not engage. Let them move into the kitchen hallway. Tactical team is moving in now."
I stood up slowly from the kitchen island, my legs trembling slightly as I gripped the wooden cane. The air in the house suddenly felt ice-cold. I could hear their muffled footsteps padding softly across the hardwood floor of the mudroom, drawing closer and closer to the kitchen archway.
"Check upstairs first," Lena’s harsh, grating whisper drifted down the hallway. "The kid’s room is at the end of the hall on the left. Grab him quickly before his uncle realizes he forgot his toolbox and comes back."
"Relax, Lena, nobody’s here," Cole grunted, his voice dripping with arrogant overconfidence as he stepped out from the hallway and into the open kitchen.
He stopped dead in his tracks.
I was standing right there at the center of the kitchen island, holding my coffee mug in one hand, staring directly into his bloodshot, startled eyes.
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Cole froze, his hand dropping instinctively toward the crowbar at his waist. Behind him, Lena stepped into the kitchen, her face turning an absolute, ghostly shade of white when she realized she wasn't walking into a quiet, defenseless trap, but rather staring straight into the eyes of the man she had tried to destroy.
"Surprise," I said, my voice dangerously calm, carrying a cold, unforgiving edge that cut right through the suffocating silence of the room. "You're trespassing, Lena."
