Page 62 of Nikki Sinatra: For Her Lover
“Which means its boobytrapped,” said Mick. “If we go in, we go in from the left side door.”
They all looked at him. They hadn’t even considered that possibility. “That’s why you’re the boss, Boss,” said Reno.
“Are we even certain Jackson Reeves is on that property?” asked Sal.
“We have Juda’s car on that property,” Nikki said. “He was the driver of that car according to our guys. But if you’re asking me have I eyeballed him on that property? No. But the car is the best we got.”
Sal exhaled. “I don’t like going in blind,” he said. “And if we don’t know this character is inside, we could be in for a world of hurt.”
“I know that,” said Nikki. “That’s why I have to go in alone. If you hear gunfire, get out of the area. Don’t come to my rescue. Just leave.”
Reno, Sal, and even Monk still on the phone all looked at Nikki. Was she insane? Did she really think they’d hear gunfire and run? And leave her there?!
It was Reno who spoke for all of them. “You got life bent lady,” he said, “if you think we’re going to turn tail and run from the action when one of our own is inside that place. Ain’t gonna happen. You can forget that.”
Nikki knew that would be the response. But it still was exactly what she didn’t want to happen. It was exactly what she was hoping wouldn’t happen. “Let’s hope he’s in there alone,” she said.
Then Monk got off the phone. “Drones are on their way,” he said with a thumbs up.
“Once they get here and confirm,” said Mick to Nikki, “then you can go in.”
But Monk shook his head. “Teddy would skin us alive if he knew we were letting his wife go in there alone.”
“It’s Nikki’s call,” said Mick firmly. “Get used to it.” And he didn’t just look at Monk. He was staring at Reno and Saltoo. They never thought of themselves as sexist, but if you asked Nikki they were. They, and most of the men in the Sinatra and Gabrini households, were sexist as hell.
But when drone support finally arrived and confirmed all that Nikki had observed, they all got on one accord. Nikki got in the Bentley and Mick and the others got in his SUV, and they all headed for the compound. Their goal was simple: Get the bastard that got their men. Get the bastard that almost took Teddy away from them.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
“What’s the easiest way to get inside a residence?” Mick asked Nikki before they drove off.
Nikki stood with her car door open, moving from side to side the way she often did when she was in deep thought, as all the other men watched her too. Then she looked at Mick. “The easiest way to get inside is to be invited inside,” she said.
Mick inwardly smiled. Very few people he respected more. She had the intellect to be great, he thought. He nodded. “Go get invited,” he said to her. “You’ll be our distraction, and then we’ll be yours. If they’re unfamiliar with guard work on this level the way I believe they are given their movement patterns, then they will overreact to your arrival.”
“And if they aren’t green, Uncle Mick?” asked Reno. “And if they don’t overreact?” He was onboard with the idea of Nikki, a woman, going in first, but it was still scary.
“If I’m wrong, although I’m not,” said Mick, “but if I am, then Nikki will know how to improvise. She’s my underboss. She knows what she’s doing.” Then he looked at Nikki. “Go get invited inside.”
Nikki was beyond pleased to have Mick’s full support. This was her problem and she had to solve it. She got in Roz’s Bentley even as the other men were wary of the plan. They couldn’t understand how Mick would have such an outsize confidence in Nikki’s abilities. She was a good, smart, levelheaded girl, they all would admit that. But she was a still a girl. Reno and Sal especially couldn’t get over that little fact.
But Nikki didn’t need them to get over it. The decisionmaker made the decision. She was going in.
That was why she got into Roz’s Bentley as Mick, Reno, Sal, and Monk piled into Mick’s Escalade. They drove the two miles to the farm. But as Nikki headed for the gate entrance, Mick turned down a side road to head around the back street that would lead them to the back of the property. Mick’s heart was pounding. He didn’t show it, but he had his concerns too. No mission was without concerns and Nikki, though a woman of great judgment in most situations, sometimes missed the boat. And those times infuriated him. He was relying on her natural instincts that would allow her to forget everything, including Teddy’s recovery, and focus like a laser beam on getting it right.
But as Nikki drove toward the property where Jackson was believed to be holed up, she couldn’t help but think about Teddy. All those hours he had to endure in surgery. All those machines that surrounded him. How could she not think about her husband? Her soulmate? He’d go through fire for her and she knew it. The least she could do, she felt, was to go through that gate and take care of business.
With her game face on, she drove right up to the property gate where the guards she had already spied were laughing and talking and hanging around the booth.
When they saw her car approaching, they immediately pulled up their rifles and aimed them at her.
Nikki stopped outside the gate. The man she assumed to be the lead guard, the only one in fatigues, walked around to the driver side window with his rifle aimed at her the entire time. She pressed down the window as he began barking out orders. “Put your hands where we can see them!” he yelled out.
Nikki quickly did as she was told and placed her hands in the air.
“Now step out.”
Nikki unbuckled the seatbelt, slowly opened the door, and stepped out of the Bentley.
