Gabe (In the Company of Snipers, #8)(43)
Gabe followed where Zack pointed. A finger-sized metal cylinder on the neighbor’s fence post aimed a bright red light at camera nine, the one Gabe had personally situated under the southwest corner of the Stewart’s eaves. A laser.
“Mark will want to know about this.” Gabe scoped the fence line for additional camera placement to make sure this didn’t happen again. “He’s looking for any reason to pull Kelsey out of here. That will do it. Someone is definitely stalking her.”
“The dogs didn’t make a sound, though,” Zack said. “They let this guy get in close.”
Gabe looked at the kennel. “You’re right. I was up most of the night with Kelsey. I’d have heard them. These guys never made a peep.”
And she swore someone was in her bedroom with her. Was she right?
Conversation stalled. Gabe wasn’t going to say out loud what had to be on both their minds. There was one person who could’ve easily disarmed this security system. He would’ve known TEAM protocol, too, and where the new cameras would’ve been installed. And the dogs wouldn’t have made a sound when he showed up.
Nope. Dead men don’t visit their widows, not like this.
“Let’s eat,” Zack said.
“You bet. Let me finish up here and I’ll be right in. You mind checking Kelsey’s bedroom window the first chance you get? Make sure it’s locked and secure like we think it is?”
“You bet.”
It didn’t take long to bag the wisteria debris, rake the odds and ends, and stow the clippers, but the puzzle remained. Somebody had gotten inside their perimeter and maybe the house.
After double-checking the immediate area around the entire house, then walking the perimeter, which he expanded to five houses just to be extra safe, Gabe wandered inside. “How’s the rest of our stake?” he asked.
Zack sat in the front room at the laptop, a mug of his usual flavored cream with a touch of coffee in his big mitt. “Good. Window is secure. Whoever our intruder was, he knew exactly how to approach the house and get under the eaves without being seen. Except for a couple of bright flashes, which had to be that damned laser, I’ve got nothing. This guy’s good.”
Just like the boss.
“We’ve got a clear set of boot prints, though. I’ll make plaster casts soon as I’m done eating.” Gabe glanced down the hallway. “Are the women in Kelsey’s room?”
Zack nodded, one brow lifted. “Speak.”
“Why would anyone stand outside her locked bedroom window? It’s not like a guy could get in from there without making any noise,” Gabe whispered.
Zack lifted one shoulder. “It doesn’t matter. That intruder just blew our one and only chance to stay here. Hit the shower. I’ll call Mark, but I’d plan on moving before night falls.”
“I’m good with that.” Gabe rifled through his duffel, grabbed his shaving kit along with another set of the prescribed uniform of the day and hit the head opposite the guest room. A good breakfast wouldn’t hurt, but he needed a shower first.
After he turned the faucet to hot, he kicked off his boots and stripped out of his dirty clothes. His holster and weapons went to the top of the hamper outside the shower, just in case. A sniper never let his weapons out of reach.
While steam warmed the glass-enclosed tub, he shaved at the sink, his mind filled with reasons their intruder couldn’t be Alex. It made no sense. People didn’t come back to life. Good husbands didn’t torment their widows. And wishing something didn’t make it so.
The fact remained. This encroachment felt like an inside job. Too bad Whisper and Smoke couldn’t talk.
Of course, Kelsey wanted to stay in her own home. It made a difference in her recovery. At least she believed it would. Now he wasn’t so sure. Was there any way in hell somebody had gotten into bed with her last night, that she hadn’t been having a nightmare? That she was right?
Acid pitched up his throat at the thought of an intruder inside her bedroom. Predator or ally, it made no difference. No one would get that close to her again, not if Gabe had anything to say about it. The time had come to button up any holes that might still exist in their defenses and hunker down. Or move the hell out.
When Gabe told Kelsey at the hospital that he believed, it hadn’t seemed like a lie at all. He’d meant it as encouragement, but now that he’d seen her fall apart after a dream, he understood exactly what he’d done. He’d tossed her a lifeline, and she was hanging on for dear life. She desperately needed someone to stand with her until... Alex came home.
Yeah, right. Gabe pursed his lips to one side as he shaved. His loyalty for Kelsey ran deep. She deserved all he had to give and he would do no less, but if she wanted to stay? That was a tough one. This little home was fast becoming an indefensible position.
TEAM safe houses were out of the question. Anyone with inside intel, like Alex, would know right where to find her again. Hotels were full of innocent civilians, another no-go. That left one place that no one knew about, because it had just been remodeled prior to Gabe signing a seven-year mortgage.
Hell, Taylor and Maverick didn’t even know that a one-level rambler on the outskirts of Silver Springs was his yet, and they were his best buds.
He was lost in plotting a strategy for Kelsey’s safety when the bathroom door banged open. He thought he’d locked it, but Sullivan stood there with an armful of bath towels and her mouth wide open, her teeth all but falling out of her head.