Drake Sisters 03 - Oceans of Fire

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    either do it from here, up on the captain’s walk, or you don’t do anything at all. I’m not even going to argue about this. And if you do go up there, Hannah, you stay the hell back from the railing; you nearly fell over it the last time you collapsed.”
    He straightened and stalked toward the kitchen. “Sarah, I’m holding you responsible. You know damn well what we’re walking into. I’ll have Aleksandr and Jackson out there, that’s it. Anyone else is an enemy.”
    “No one will leave the house,” Sarah said. “We do our best work from a power source and this house holds tremendous power. We’ll be up on the walk. You’ll feel the wind on you and that will be us.”
    Aleksandr framed Abigail’s face with his large hands and bent his head toward hers. “I won’t be careless, Abbey, you know me better than that. When I come for you, be wearing that ring. I miss seeing it on your finger.” He kissed her as tenderly as possible, trying to pour as much love into it as he could convey. “I’m not about to lose you again,” he added, pressing small kisses from the corner of her mouth to her eyes.
    “We’ll go out the cliff-side door into the backyard,” Jonas decided. “Just in case someone is watching the place. Keep Sylvia here. She’s liable to try to get a gun and launch a rescue herself.”
    “Libby’s with her,” Sarah assured him.
    Abigail walked with Aleksandr to the door, her fingers tangled with his. “You come back to me.”
    “I will.”
    There were no lights on in the kitchen and Jonas exited the house in darkness, sliding quickly to the cover of the shadows and waiting for Aleksandr to join him. They made their way through the thick brush to the waiting car. Jonas examined the area around the car carefully while Aleksandr checked all the high positions where a sniper might lie in wait. When they were certain they were in the clear, they slipped into the car and took off, Jonas using the radio to call his deputy, Jackson Deveau, a man who had served as a Ranger with him and, more importantly, a sniper with a deadly accurate aim.
    “We don’t want to be using a marked car,” Jonas said. “Jackson will bring his. He knows the highway and his car can take the road fast if we need speed.”
    “They won’t be there. They’ll have moved him,“ Aleksandr said.
    “Yeah, they’d be idiots not to, and I don’t think they’re that stupid. But we might pick up a few clues.
    Jackson is hell on wheels with tracking. He’ll be able to read who was there and what was going on.
    He’ll also be able to see where Sylvia was and if it was possible for her to get away from Prakenskii.”
    Jonas glanced at Aleksandr. “I take it this Prakensü is a badass.”
    A brief, humorless smile curved Aleksandr’s mouth. “You could say that.”
    They met Jackson just north of Caspar and exchanged vehicles on one of the many back roads. “The road the barn is on is narrow and sweeps around in a big loop. There’s only a couple of houses off of it, so if someone is waiting, the minute they see the headlights, they’ll know we’re coming,“ Jonas warned.
    Jackson shook hands with Aleksandr briefly. “Drop me a distance out and let me work my way into position to cover you. I’ll signal you when I’m secure and then drop Volstov a little closer so he can go Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
    through the grass to the barn.”
    “I’m the decoy,” Jonas said. “Great.”
    “I’ve already gotten rid of the overhead lights and I’d advise driving without headlights,” Jackson said.
    Aleksandr watched the deputy’s hands smooth over his rifle. It was a sniper’s rifle and well kept. Earlier in the car, Jonas had told Aleksandr a little bit about his deputy. Jackson Deveau had served with Jonas as a Ranger and then gone on to do other things. Aleksandr was fairly certain those “other things”
    involved being dropped into “hot zones” and completing a lone mission before being extracted. Jackson Deveau didn’t seem too far removed from Ilya Prakenskii, a man with his own code, lethal, loyal, and a good man to have on your side when going into battle.
    Jonas grinned at his deputy. “If anything happens to me, move out of town. The Drakes will most likely turn you into some kind of really ugly toad.”
    “They’ll give me a medal,” Jackson muttered as the car slowed. He opened his door and