Page 69 of Killer Honeymoon

“Does the keypad beep or make noise when it unlocks?” Royce asked.

“I think the buttons beep when you push them, and the lock makes a whirring sound when it disengages, but it’s on the outer garage door, not the interior one off the kitchen.”

“That’ll have to do,” Royce said. “Tell me about the layout of the house.”

Evan gave them a detailed description of the house’s layout. The garage opened into the kitchen. The center of the house was the dining room, and in the front was the living room. The archways between areas were wide, but there was a decent wall length between the garage door in the kitchen and the entrance to the dining room.

“You could both hide behind the kitchen wall. Gary wouldn’t see you until after he walked into the room. I can create a diversion to lure him to the patio door. You could bring the clubs down on him.”

Royce leaned into Sawyer and said, “The kid makes sense.”

“How are you going to lure him to the patio door?” Sawyer asked.

“Uh, knock on it?” Evan asked.

“I don’t like it,” Sawyer said. “Gary could turn and shoot toward the patio door without seeing who was there.”

“How about this,” Evan said. “I’ll stand off to the side and run like the wind after knocking on the door.”

“Which side will you stand on?” Royce asked.

“The one closest to the corner of the house,” Evan replied.

“It’s the best chance we have,” Royce said. “Evan, do you understand how incredibly dangerous this is?”

“Yeah, but they’re my friends, even if they don’t want me.”

“Okay,” Sawyer said.

They finalized their plan. Evan would wait by the edge of the sliding glass door where he could see into the kitchen without Gary discovering him. He’d knock as soon as Royce and Sawyer were in position and gave him the signal.

“Gary will enter the kitchen with the shotgun extended,” Royce said. “We’ll wait until enough of his arm is exposed, and then it’s ‘Swing away, Merrill’ time. I’ll bring the big club down on his arm, hopefully breaking it. Ideally, he’ll drop the shotgun, and you can execute the final blow to take him out.”

Sawyer nearly snorted. “Signs? That’s the Mel Gibson movie you’re going to quote at a time like this?”

“What movie should I quote?” Royce asked.

“I figured you’d do Gibson and Glover’s famous countdown debate.”

“Oh, that would’ve been good too,” Royce said.

“And you guys told me to focus,” Evan grumbled.

“Sorry,” Sawyer said. “It’s how cops deal with stress. It doesn’t always make sense to people who don’t see the same horrible things we do.”

“You’re cops?” Evan asked.

“Not now, Evan,” Royce teased. “We have a takedown mission to execute.”

Evan huffed out a short breath. “Let’s do it.”

Sawyer’s heart was pounding so hard when they rounded the side of the garage that he didn’t even hear the keys beeping when Royce punched the code in. He took some steadying breaths as they crept through the garage, then held it when they opened the door and stepped inside the kitchen. He was immediately relieved to hear Clint’s, Chrissy’s, and Jen’s voices as they pleaded with Gary just to let them go.

“We won’t tell anyone,” Clint said. “I’ve got some cash if you need it.”

Gary’s laugh was downright cruel. “There’s nothing you have that I want.” He paused. “Unless it’s your girlfriend.”

“Fuck you,” Jen snarled.