“Yes. I do.” Aubrey nodded.
Smoke leaned back, cool as ice. “Then give me a few minutes and we’ll form a plan.”
I raised my hand. “Excuse me, please. We don’t know where Uriah and the kids actually are. Aubrey herself said she just drove until she hit 90 south, and wasn’t allowed to go into town for even groceries.”
“Gerry is in with the wrong people. He’s a fairly decent criminal if he’s got Five Eyes on him for the Germans. But he’s also exclusive. He doesn’t rely on technology, and he doesn’t think about it as more than a means to an end.” A sly smirk appeared on his face and he pulled out his cell phone, turning it towards us. “And Uriah is a part of the modern world, employing technology.”
On the face of his phone, was a green dot on a map.
Noah started laughing. “His smartwatch. He turned on the GPS.”
Smoke nodded, slipping the phone back into his jacket. “Give me a few. I’ll have a plan.”
* * *
Smoke pulledthe bolt back on the rifle and chambered the round.
“Now, who said they can use one of these?”
Chase, Marcus, Nelson, and Aubrey all raised their hands. I was still floored that my sweet sister could use just about any gun she was handed. From a small caliber pistol to a damn AK, she’d been taught to use all of them.
She was tight lipped about who had taught her, and I immediately suspected she had a lot more secrets than even she’d thought.
Chase and Marcus didn’t shock me, they’d both grown up on and around farms—Chase had gone hunting a few times, and Marcus had had to spook bears out of his family’s orchards.
Nelson was a bit of a surprise all the way around. He’d admitted he was rusty with anything but a prop, but he’d gone onreindeerhunts with his father in Finland.
“What? How do you think the Fins survived? Berries and beer? No. Reindeer is delicious.”
“You ate Rudolph,” Vincent said.
“No, I ate a delicious steak with mashed turnips and green beans.” He licked his lips and made a slurping sound.
Vincent turned his nose up at him and sat back down. He was going to be staying in Troy, hanging back with the deputy section director, at the Romano Farm, to make sure all the legal edges were covered.
Noah and I were the muscle, which was hilarious considering how not muscled we were. Our job was to unlock, grab, photograph, distract, and find the kids and Uri.
“I just don’t have time to show you how to use a gun the right way. Sam is taking a risk giving us these rifles and I don’t want to chance you not knowing what you’re doing.”
Noah held up his hand. “I am completely cool with not having a gun at this point.”
I held up my hand. “Same.”
The four of them had inspected the guns carefully, and Chase took the bullet back out of the chamber. “I am not riding with a chambered projectile, even with the safety on.”
Opening a box in the back of the FBI field agent’s car, Smoke came back out with a handgun and offered it, and a holster to my sister. “You know how to use that one, right?”
“It’s a pretty Ruger, so yes.” She smiled, clipping on the holster.
“Christ, I don’t know you,” I mumbled.
“I’m a mother and this bastard has my children,” she said. “So, yes. I’m going to smile when I buckle on a handgun that gives a clean through-and-through at twenty feet.”
“A woman who knows her guns.” Smoke shivered. “God, that’s hot.”
I nailed him in the arm. “That’s my sister.”
“And what? That means I can’t find her attractive?”
