Page 99 of The Vigilante's Lover

“You will not!”

“Mia, taking you with me puts me in great danger. I have to thinkabout protecting you as well as myself.”

This gets to her. She stares out the window.

“We’ll talk the whole time.” I park beside a big roll of hay and open the console between us, where I stashed the most essential of my gear. “Here’s a secure videocam. You can see what I’m doing and we can talk the whole time.”

It’s a terrible idea, but I have already learned to hate disappointing her.

This is why I don’t do relationships. It interferes with the job.

She takes the video chat device.

“Press this to see me.” I punch a button on the top of the cam. The roof of the car shows up on the display.

“Okay,” she says quietly.

I know I should do something comforting, so I lean over and kiss her. It’s a mistake, because once I start, I don’t want to stop. My protectiveness surges as she clutches at my shoulders.

“I’ll be right back,” I finally say.

She touches her lips. “You’ll let me know when it’s safe for me to come in?”

“I will.”

The quiet surrounds me as I step from the car. Country life. A rabbit or some ground rodent darts through the grass. Amazing what you can hear out here.

I reach for the bag I packed. “I’ll be on the chat,” I say to Mia, then close the door and secure it.

The house is about three hundred yards away. I pull out a monitor to use when I’m scanning the house. I no more power it up when it starts going off. Six traps in the field.

Interesting. They went all out on this one.

I don’t bother to diffuse these, but go around them. They are basic land mines. But another reason for Mia not to leave the car. I pick up the video chat.

“Mia, there are six land mines in your field. Don’t get out of the car.”

Her face shifts to panic. “Really?”

“Klaus is a real peach,” I say.

She looks out the windshield. I turn back to the car, but naturally I can’t see her with the false screens showing an empty car. Still, I know she’s there. She’s sensible and smart. She won’t get out of the car now.

I pass close to one of the mines, so I go ahead and bend down to disarm it. There’s nothing special about the tech they are using here. It’s almost as if they don’t have access to anything that isn’t standard issue.

With Sutherland in on their game, I would expect better.

When I’m about fifty yards from the house, I start to see some of the traps inside. Looks to be three. Kitchen, hallway, her bedroom.

There’s nobody in the house, not as far as my sensors can see. They could be cloaked, though, and they could be completely still. When I get in a room, I can look for carbon dioxide emissions. I’m not especially worried about a personal attack, though. Klaus is a security guy, and Jovana, well, I overpowered her many times, in bed and out of it.

I glance at the screen on the video, a pinch of guilt nagging at me just for thinking it. Mia is staring straight into the screen, anxious and silent.

“It’s going fine,” I tell her.

She nods but doesn’t look any more relaxed.

I step onto the porch. The kitchen trap is an air pressure bomb, designed to go off when I open the door. The cool air moving inside triggers it. I move to the kitchen window and cut a neat circle in the pane over the lock.