Page 61 of The Last Grift
Gabe rolled his eyes. “Aw, I just can’t win with you, can I? At least your dog seems to like me.”
“There’s no accounting for taste,” Casey responded, shooting the dog a dark glare.
Bowie’s tail swished back and forth once before he padded to the door.
“Right, let’s get going.”
Greta-the-coworker livedin a relatively isolated part of the island, which was saying something seeing how sparsely populated it was in the first place.
“Nice,” Gabe remarked as he took in the three-story craftsman home with the big front porch. The house sat at the back of the lot, and had what, in daylight hours and in the city, would be a mini woodland for a front yard.
Ranger Man leaned across and opened the glove box, grabbed his fancy ranger flashlight and shut the compartment with a bang.
“It is. It’s one of the older homes on Heartstone. She and Abby have done a nice job fixing it up. Abby’s in cybersecurity, she makes the big bucks.”
“Cool,” Gabe said as he climbed out of the Wagoneer.
There weren’t any lights on that he could see inside the house. The three-story structure sat on slight a rise above the road that crossed in front of the property, and during the daylight hours, the owners might even have an incredible east facing view.
“Gordon’s truck was down the road that way.” Lundin flicked on his light and pointed toward a spot off in the distance.
“You think Gordon’s here?” Gabe asked. “That seems close, walkable if he was mobile.”
“Maybe. It would be the tidiest solution.” Which meant thatyes, Ranger Man hoped Gordon was there and the reason the alarm was going off. “Yeah, that hasn’t worked out for me lately, so luck and easy are all on you.”
Lundin shot Gabe another one of his indecipherable looks. Gabe didn’t how to interpret them. Was he tolerating him? Or did it mean that, when Gabe wasn’t paying attention, he’d push him down a hill? Could go either way.
“Bowie, stay by me,” Lundin commanded the dog. Bowie looked like he’d been considering snuffling off into the shrubbery that lined the driveway and was offended his owner had called him on it. “Come on, let’s see what’s going on.”
Gabe wasn’t entirely sure why Lundin had agreed to let Gabe tag along. Maybe he thought it better to know where Gabe was than to leave him behind at Elton’s where he could get into trouble. Not that he could get in much more trouble than he already was in.
Let’s not tempt the fates, Chance.
“Let’s check around the perimeter house first and see if a window or door is open. Then we can check inside, I know the code. I’ll go this way”—he motioned toward a corner of the building—“and meet you on the other side.”
“Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine without a light of my own,” Gabe said, heavy on the sarcasm. He would be fine. It was dark but the path that led around the house was made of what seemed like river rock so it wouldn’t be hard to follow.
Gabriel was, by his calculation, almost halfway around the imposing house and had seen nothing unusual except the occasional flare from Ranger Man’s flashlight on the other side of the home when he heard a muffled thumping. Then something inside the house fell and landed with a thud. Gabe paused for a second next to a gigantic rhododendron and waited, listening; there had to be someone, or something, in the house. After a moment, he started moving again, thinking—well, he wasn’t surewhat, but probably Lundin had heard it too and together they could form a plan.
Seconds later, a figure burst out of the darkness, coming right for him. Probably because Lundin was shining that damn flashlight everywhere and the intruder didn’t expect Gabriel to be there.
“Hey, stop,” Gabe yelled.
Whoever it was did not stop or slow down. Gabe set his feet, grounding himself, but had a premonition that this had the potential to end badly. The trespasser lowered their shoulder and ran right at Gabe, smashing into him, knocking them both to the ground and most of the air out of Gabe’s lungs.
Gabe grabbed for him. He had the impression it was a guy, and he was strong. He wrestled out of Gabe’s hold to jump back to his feet. His booted foot caught in the fabric of Gabe’s jacket, and Gabe grabbed wildly for his ankle, anything he could reach. For a second, he thought he had him, but his grip was weak, and Gabe was rewarded with a grunt and a vicious kick in the ribs instead.
“Motherfucker.” His arms flopped to the ground and Gabe rolled to his side, wanting nothing more than to relieve himself of the contents of his stomach. His attacker thudded away. Gabe heard Lundin shouting for the person to stop and then Bowie barking and Lundin ordering him tostay the fuck put.
Then, for just a second, Gabe closed his eyes and rested his sore body back against the cold damp earth and waited for the pain to recede. Had the intruder kicked him on purpose or was it a panic reaction? Had the need to escape overwhelmed their common sense?
There is no such thing as common sense, Chance. If there was, we Karne’s would be forever out of luck.
“Karne, you okay?”
Gabe opened his eyes again. Lundin was squatting next tohim, his expression concerned. It was better than the pissed-off one Gabriel normally saw. A car’s engine started up and then faded into the distance. Bowie trotted over and stuck his nose in Gabe’s ear.
“Thanks, dog. Yeah, I think I’m okay. Except for being run over by a human freight train.” He started to sit up, but a wave of nausea washed over him and he decided to hang out on the cold, wet ground for another second or two. “Did you see who it was? What are you looking at?”
