Enthralled: Tainted Book Four

12. A Little Incentive

Spin

We made it to Maryland shortly before midnight and decided to get a room and catch a few hours of sleep before scouting out Ashton Bancroft's place.

And what a place it was.

A real mansion, complete with security guards and cameras.

"Well, that looks like Fort Knox," Chance muttered as he lowered his binoculars and cut his eyes over to me. "Going through the front door does not seem to be an option."

"Definitely need another way in," I agreed, then turned to Chessie, who was, as usual, fiddling on her phone.

Thank God Kerry was smart enough to get them all burners, I thought to myself. Otherwise, she'd light up our location like Vegas on the Council's tracking system.

"Chess, can you see if your biblio friend will look up some info for us?" I asked. "I can track and learn his movements on my own and plot out the exterior easily enough, but a blueprint of the interior would be helpful."

"Travis can do more than that," she scoffed. "In fact, he's already hacked into the security system and has control of all the cameras. John and Tara are with him, and John's going to use the cameras to build a map while Travis looks into public records to see what he can find. Mr. Bancroft has audio with the video, so Tara is listening to see what she can hear. "

"Sounds like a great plan," I said with a nod, then glanced over to make sure my girl was still good and had to smile at what I saw.

I'd found us an observation point on a nearby hill where I could see every foot of Bancroft's estate, which was nestled in the center of the small valley in front of us. I'd hidden my team in a copse of trees while I scoped it all out, chuckling smugly when Chance had to dig out a pair of binos to see as well as I naturally could.

While we were busy with that, and Chessie with texting Travis, Monkey had gathered a pile of wildflowers and was now sitting on the grass as she wove them together in a long string.

As a muse, she found great comfort in nature, and if this was helping her, I was content to sit here on stakeout for the rest of the day.

I didn't need to, though.

"Travis found some information on the property," Chessie said, staring at her phone screen. "It was a plantation back in the day, complete with slaves, and shows up in several historic records of the Underground Railroad. He's pretty sure if we can give him a little bit more time, he can find us an alternative way in through one of the old escape routes."

"Perfect!" Chance went back to watching through the binos. "Even if he can control the security and cameras, that leaves all these guards to deal with. If we can get inside undetected, it should be smooth sailing."

"Well, time's not too much of an issue, I guess, so tell him to have at it," I said. "Maybe we'll get lucky, and he'll find a secret entrance that everyone's forgotten about."

"Pfft!" Chessie scoffed and shot me a look of contempt. "I highly doubt that, Spin."

#

Travis found a secret entrance that everyone had forgotten about.

It took a little bit of work to clear away the brush and undergrowth down by the river that cut through the back part of the property, but once we did, we easily found the mouth of a tunnel that stretched into the darkness. Surprisingly, the tunnel itself seemed in good repair, and I noticed it had been braced in places with wooden beams that were fairly new looking.

"So I guess everyone hasn't forgotten about it." Chessie raised her eyebrow at me.

"If I were this guy," Chance jumped into play peacemaker before I could respond to her jab, "I'd keep it a secret known only to myself just to have an ace up my sleeve in case of an emergency."