Chapter 50

Chapter Fifty

The tension inside the little cabin had been particularly heavy since first thing the following morning. The silence seemed to amplify each sound inside and outside the wood, wherever it creaked, and the wind rustled. Four knew the game was up. Fiona, Julian, Victor, and Emma, knew how to turn the crossfire and his network into a full, brutal response the instant they learned what had happened.

Fiona paced back and forth in the cabin while her mind ran with all the possibilities. They had presented their evidence to Sarah Mathis, and now it was a waiting game. Could Sarah get the story out before Cross was able to shut them down? Or, even worse, would he come for them first?

Julian pounded away at his keyboard, glancing up only to see the feeds of information coming in from the security cameras they had hacked. He kept typing, clacking away on his keyboard, without looking up. "So, have got the warehouse in sight," he said. The Cross still has his people run a sweep of it; so far, they haven't found out that it is just a dummy and boiled over it.

"How long do you reckon we have?" Fiona had stopped pacing and turned to face Julian.

"Not long. Maybe an hour or two before they start putting it all together," he answered, his voice steady with grim foreboding.

Emma, who had been mum so far, eventually let it out. "We need a plan for when they do. We can't just sit here and wait for them to come to us."

At this juncture, Victor peeped over the top of his window curtains, serving to sanction his acquiescence. "I agree; it's time we go on the offensive. If we sit on our hands, we're dead ducks."

She felt a surge of determination. She had let this thing with Cross go on too long now, and she was always one step behind him. She had to change the game. 'Julian, can you trace any communication between Cross and his key people? We need to know where they are and what they're planning.

Julian's fingers were already flying across the keyboard as he worked to one-up Cross's encrypted channels. "I'm on it. Give me a few minutes away."

Victor turned to Fiona, his face gone suddenly serious. "What's the play here? We can't take them all on head to head."

"We need not," Fiona said, her thoughts running fast. "In case we can cut him off from all support, isolate Cross, we can force his hand. He's powerful not because of him; it's the people around him. But if we take them out of those equations, he's going down."

Patting her forehead, Emma answered, frowning, "But how do we even isolate the man? He is always surrounded by his loyalists."

Fiona nodded and exhaled a breath at the difficulty involved. "We have to arrange things so Cross has no option but to come out into the open. If we might be able to hit where it hurts him most: financially or otherwise, we could just draw him in."

Julian's eyes lit up as he accessed Cross's communications network. "I have something. It looks like Cross is planning a meeting for tonight. It's at one of his private properties just on the fringe of the city. The security will be tight, but this is not his usual crew. He's making some big calls for favors—probably laying down his next plan of action."

Fiona's pulse quickened. "That may be our only opportunity. If we can just manage to break up that meeting, we may catch him on an off moment."

Victor watched Kingsley as he explained his plan to break up that meeting. "We'd have to be very, very fast. We wouldn't have the manpower to take out all those attending that meeting, but it's just possible if we're real bright, we may be able to create enough chaos to flush Cross from his hole."

Emma looked to Fiona, who had a grimace on her face. "That is dangerous, Fiona. Should we fail…"

Fiona did not let her finish her sentence. "If we fail, we're dead anyway. We have to take this shot."

Julian nodded and brought his gaze back to his screen. "I'm going to start pulling up the blueprints of that property—entry, exit points, and where security is probably posted."

Victor crept forward toward Julian. He looked over his shoulder. "I will organize the logistics. We will have to put the security systems to sleep—at least for a while—to provide a window that would allow us to drop in and out."

Fiona turned toward Emma. "Can you work out a diversion? Something to pull some of Cross's people on-site. It doesn't have to be big; just something to make a dent in his defenses."

Emma nodded, already calculating the best means. "I can stage a fake incident in the city, maybe a fire or an accident. That should draw some of the heat away from us."

Fiona inhaled deeply, the weight of the plan settling across her shoulders. This was it—their best and only chance to take Cross down. "Let's do it. We move in three hours.

Three hours later, the group had run through the blueprints, the entrances that they were going to take, over the plan; every detail burned into their brains. Emma had set the distraction in motion. Julian had gotten them past the security levels. Their window of opportunity was open.

It was an expedition on Cross's private land, and tension laced through their drive. It was after sunset already, and the darkness was both their friend and their enemy in equal measure. It would cover them for ways of travel and yet complicate matters further. Shadows might just as easily be their enemies' shields as theirs.

Lights were now twinkling far away as the vehicle got closer to the property. The place was well fortified. In Fiona's opinion, it wasn't impenetrable. They parked quite some distance from it. Julian disconnected the security cameras around their vicinity, and they easily made it to the perimeter.

"Remember the plan," Fiona whispered to him as they crouched low, stealing through the undergrowth toward the main buildings. "We get in, we create enough chaos, we get out. No extra risks."

They had arrived at the wire perimeter fence of the compound. Without any hesitance, Victor ran up to the fence wires and gave them a deep cut. He made the size of the cut wide enough that they could slip in. They went into the compound, still running so fast that they completed their scam. They were indeed a slick machine.

As they neared the building, they heard voices, bloated by Cross and his gang on all the great things they were going to do in the future, not knowing a time bomb was being set for them. Fiona's heart pounded as she stationed herself beside the rear door to wait for the signal.

Julian nodded to her, a sign that the systems were out. Fiona took a deep breath, gripped her weapon tight, and readied herself. This was it.

She kicked the door open and barged inside, with Victor and Julian at her back. It came out as an advantage to them. The element of surprise had worked, proven by the fact that movements were sure, swift, and precise, taking out the guards that were inside at fast speed.

Cross and his entourage had their guards let down as Fiona and her men continued to whirl around the room. Papers lined the floor, tables overturned and a series of gunfire and yelling ensued.

And, amidst all of this, Fiona's eyes locked with Cross's. It felt like it had frozen in time for a moment there. Here was the man who had caused her so much misery, the man who had tried to take down everything that she loved.

All the while, Cross's face screwed into a snarl as his eyes adjusted to see who had just crashed his meeting. "You!" he spat, gripping for his weapon.

But Fiona was faster. She cocked the gun out, her finger poised an inch over the trigger and leveled it at him. "This is it, Cross. You're done," she said, her voice shockingly even compared to the amount of adrenaline coursing through her veins.

He had no chance to answer. Julian shot at him but only grazed him, so he was forced to duck behind an overturned table. The whole room erupted, and Fiona knew it was only a matter of moments before additional backup arrived.

"Fall back!" Victor roared, and he switched his fire, covering their retreat as other members of Cross's team entered the fight.

Fiona hesitated, her eyes still fixed on Cross, and would have given anything for it to be over with then and there, but she knew they couldn't afford to be reckless. She regretfully looked at the man who had brought her so much trouble, following her team out of the building.

They hadn't donned painstakable speed, doubling back toward the fence. Julian tripled the security systems when they got through them, giving Cross's men at least that added obstacle between them.

At the sound of distant, diming sirens, Julian thought Emma's distraction at least partially worked. They'd sewn enough confusion to break Cross's concentration, ensuring that his meeting would be interrupted for a while and he with peace very little.

"We have to get out of this place," Fiona panted heavily, breathlessly, as they clambered onboard the car.

Julian floored the gas pedal and the car lurched down the gravel driveway, pulled out onto the main road, racing off the property. At this rate, the horses of hell wouldn't be able to catch them, leaving the sick glow of the burning building far behind. They'd struck a blow against Cross, but Fiona knew better. No, this was far from over.

They drove into the night; Fiona felt grimly satisfied. She had rattled Cross and forced him to come out of the woodwork.