Page 25 of Honor ’N’ Duty

Now her lips trembled with the effort it was obviously taking her not to lose it. “Okay, but hurry.”

He went out to meet the officer waiting for him by his patrol car. The cop said something into the microphone clipped to his shoulder strap.

“Kade Sampson,” he said as he approached, shifting aside his overshirt to clearly display the badge and holstered Glock. “I called this in.”

“Sergeant Morales. All windows and doors are intact,” the cop said. “Do you have an alarm system? We didn’t get any notifications.”

“Yeah, me, either.” Which didn’t mean much. Standard domestic alarm systems were meant to prevent break-ins by run-of-the-mill burglars with no skills. The Colon Cartel had people with skills on their payroll. “I’m going in. Back me up.”

“Copy that.” Morales fell in step as they went to the front door, clicking his mic. “We’re going inside.”

Kade caught movement at one of the windows on Ashley’s house. She’d pulled back the curtain and gave him a reassuring wave. Smoke’s ears were visible over the top of the window ledge.

He pulled out his keys, unlocking the door, then unholstering his weapon. He turned the knob and pushed the door open. The system began beeping. With the muzzle of his gun, Kade did a quick sweep of the interior of the house, then punched in his code. The system went silent.

Both he and Morales remained in the hallway, listening, but the house was quiet. Kade led the way through the ground floor, then up the stairs and into the bedrooms and bathrooms. There were no signs that anyone had breached the security system. He holstered, as did Morales.

“Let’s go talk to my neighbor.” Kade led the way downstairs, then out the door. “Give me a second.”

Kade headed to his SUV to let Laia know everything was secure. He opened the door. “Laia—” The passenger seat was empty.

He looked up just in time to see Laia going in the front door of Ashley’s house and the door closing behind her. He pressed his lips together, more annoyed than he thought possible that she didn’t trust him enough to heed his warning. He hitched his head to the cop, indicating he should follow. Knowing it was locked, he rapped twice on the door. “Ashley, it’s Kade. Open up.”

The door opened. Laia sat in a chair, holding Rosa in her lap as the child yawned. Smoke raced to his side, his tail wagging, ears alert. “Good boy, Smoke.” He scratched his dog behind the ears and was rewarded with a soft groan, telling him he’d hit the right spot at the base of his ears that Smoke loved.

“Everything okay at your house?” Ashley asked as Morales shut the door.

Kade nodded. “Tell us what you saw.”

“I can do better than that.” Ashley picked up her phone from a small table next to where Laia rocked Rosa and handed it to Kade. “I took photos.”

Kade held the phone for Morales to watch as he began scrolling through the photos. The first few shots were of a white van with the words Somerset Cable Company in green lettering. The next showed two men wearing ball caps tugged low enough to cover their faces as they went first to the front door, then headed around to the backyard.

“Sorry,” Ashley said. “I couldn’t get any shots of the license plate without going outside, but if you keep scrolling, there’s a fun little video.”

He swiped again, then hit play and watched one of the men creeping around the side of the house while the other remained at the front door holding a clipboard in one hand and a toolbox in the other. Naturally, the guy wore gloves. The wail of sirens came from the phone. As the sirens grew louder, the guy at the door shouted something, then ran to the van and got in. As soon as the other guy jumped in the passenger seat, the van raced off.

Kade scrolled back to the photo. “Somerset Cable Company. Ever heard of them?” he asked the sergeant because Kade hadn’t.

Morales shook his head. “Nope. I can put out a BOLO for the van. We might get lucky before they ditch it.”

“Maybe.” He seriously doubted it. Colon’s people weren’t stupid.

Laia continued rocking a sleeping Rosa in her arms, the same way she’d held her daughter at the cemetery while Josh’s coffin was lowered into the ground.

Jesus Christ, Josh.

Kade had loved his brother, but if he were still alive, he’d punch Josh’s lights out. The legacy he had left behind in the wake of his death was snowballing into something ugly.

Smoke nudged his hand, snorting as he looked up at Kade. Even his dog knew something was about to go down.

“Sergeant.” He turned to Morales, who’d already taken out a pad and was making notes. “Can you finish documenting this incident? My place has been compromised, and I need to get them out of here.”

“No problem.” Morales turned to Ashley. “Ma’am, can I get your name?”

As the sergeant spoke to Ashley, Kade knelt beside Laia. “We can’t stay at my place anymore.”

She nodded. “Where can we go?”