Page 133 of Protecting Peyton

“Where to?” Terry asked.

“Maintain OPSEC. Follow Yates.”

Terry’s face fell. “Copy that.” He didn’t like being left out of the loop. None of us did, but he knew better than to question Lucas’s directive.

I pointed at the big SEAL. “Duke, you’re with me, Terry, and Peyton.” I wanted all the firepower I could get in my car.

“I call shotgun,” Duke replied.

But Terry’s face changed completely when Yates threw him a key fob. “You follow in my car. I’m riding with Zane.”

“The Aston?” Yates had arrived in a literal James Bond car, an Aston Martin Vanquish, one of the few cars that could keep up with our Porsche Cayennes. I doubted it had any of the armor Joe had added to ours, but the Cayennes also didn’t cost as much as a house, and weren’t decked out in butter-soft leather, or a V-12 that sang like an angel.

I drove away from the house with Yates, Peyton in the back and Duke up front, and then stated the obvious. “Now I’m going to need an address.”

“First stop, One Century Drive,” Yates said.

“Stopping is not a good idea,” Duke pointed out. “We should go straight to the safehouse.”

Yates stood his ground. “Trust me, cousin. I know what I’m doing.” Mentioning the blood connection was probably the only reason Duke didn’t continue to fight him.

“Any signs of a tail?”I asked Jordy over the phone as we approached our destination.

“Nothing obvious, but there are a few possibles quite far back.”

It wasn’t surprising since I’d driven a straight line here on a major road.

“We’ll be making a right at Avenue of the Stars. Keep me informed.”

“Roger that.”

Yates spoke quietly into his phone. “We’ll be there shortly.”

A few minutes later, we rolled up to the entrance of the huge condo tower. None of the possible tails had followed our turn. One Century Drive was the address of the prestigious Century building, a full thirty-four floors of elegance.

Duke and I were the first ones out of the car, searching for anything out of place. When all appeared clear, I opened Peyton’s door for her.

Duke opened Yates’s door.

Yates spent a moment with the doorman and valet. “Hand over yourkey. They’ll park for us. I wouldn’t be worried about being followed after we switch vehicles.”

Inside, Duke grumbled when Yates hit the button for the top floor instead of a garage level.

We exited onto the roof to find a waiting helicopter, its rotor already spinning.

Yates opened his arm to the shiny Sikorsky S-76 with the nameSinclairpainted on it. “They won’t be following us in this.”

Duke stopped his grumbling. “You own a helicopter?”

“My company does,” he answered.

“Wow,” Peyton exclaimed after we lifted off. “The view is amazing.”

Yates looked very pleased with himself.

“Not bad,” Terry agreed.

Duke nodded.