But…not everyone who owned a box collected their mail from here. There were forwarding services for PO Boxes to deliver to street addresses. What if someone had learned of the training and managed to get a box, then had the mail forwarded?

It could explain the leak of the timing for the training, without Jeb or someone else playing the role of traitor.

Deep down, Audrey didn’t want Jeb to be a traitor. Even unwitting as he would have been. Partly because she hated the idea of him being killed by the very men he’d unintentionally abetted.

Not that it mattered. He was dead either way. But there was something a little extra horrific at the idea of being duped into sharing information and then being killed by the same people who’d manipulated him.

She continued with her lawbreaking, going through the mail of each box, not for any purpose, but to pass the seconds that ticked away to the moment she both anticipated and feared.

Still, the clock hands on the wall behind her moved achingly slow, yet somehow, she found herself lost in emotional spirals that made her lose track of time.

It was during one such lost brain spiral that she heard the first explosion.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Light flared behind the second-floor library window as the first roar of explosives split the air.

Like fireworks, more booms followed, each lighting the night before the other had fully faded. Xavier didn’t know how George did it, but he’d managed to rig his lightbulb igniters in a series so they went off in succession.

Beautiful and deadly.

From his position, he could see the flashes of light from the dining room explosions reflected on the water.

Nine SEALs had breached the lodge—entering from both the octagon window and unlocked bigfoot door. Because he lacked body armor, Xavier was among the SEALs tasked with watching for escaping mercs. The lodge had exits through the game room, deck, ballroom, dining room, plus in the service areas. Too many doors for only four men, but with minimal weaponry, they needed a full force in the lodge to secure the hostages.

Plan B went into action: the main generator went on and interior and exterior lights flared bright, lighting all the dark corners outside the lodge.

A mere fifteen feet away, a suddenly exposed balaclava-clad merc crept along the side of the building. The man stumbled, thrown off by the flare in his NVGs. Xavier took aim with his match gun, which he’d test-fired in the woods before they set out. The reload time meant he only had one shot at this man who wore body armor and carried an AK-47 that Xavier very much wanted to add to their limited arsenal.