Brody's Vow (Colebrook Siblings Trilogy Book 1) Read Online Free Page A

power being off, they should have come on because they had backup batteries in them.
    At the back door, located on ground level next to the stairs that led up to the back deck and into the kitchen, he stilled when he noticed dark splotches on the concrete stoop.
    Drawing his weapon, he crouched down for a better view, ignoring the sharp protest from his injured leg. There were definite partial, wet footprints outlined there, as though someone had stood here on tiptoe recently, either barefoot or in socks. But when he glanced up to check for signs of forced entry, again the doorknob and window appeared untouched.
    He pushed to his feet to look up at the sliding glass doors that separated the kitchen from the upstairs deck just in case, but didn’t see anything suspicious there either. So, back door it was. He was sure whoever had come here was long gone by now, but just in case…
    After retrieving the spare key from the hiding spot DeLuca had told him about, he carefully slid it into the lock and used the bottom of his T-shirt to grip the knob so he didn’t erase any fingerprints. The door cracked open a few inches, releasing a slight breath of air tinged with gun oil and leather.
    But no series of beeps indicating the alarm was on and had registered the door opening.
    On guard, Brody stepped into the game room with his weapon aimed dead ahead, and swept the area. Nothing caught his eye or seemed out of place but when he looked down, he instantly spotted the wet footprints gleaming in the dim light on the hardwood floor.
    Son of a bitch.
    Easing the door shut behind him, Brody kept his pistol up and headed through the room in the darkness, moving by memory toward the doorway that led into the downstairs hall. He paused to one side of it, waited a few beats, then whipped around the corner, checking the long, narrow space. Empty, but with the streetlights shining through the transom windows on either side of the front door, he saw the trail of wet footprints continuing down the hallway.
    His shoes were silent against the hardwood as he cat-walked his way toward the door, staying close to the wall as he moved. Just as he neared the landing at the bottom of the stairs, a cold female voice came from the shadows to the right.
    “Stop right there and drop your weapon.”
    He whirled then froze at the sight of the woman standing there, the pistol in her grip pointed directly at his chest.
     
    Trinity aimed the Glock at the intruder’s center mass, her finger securely around the trigger even though she felt frozen to the core and she could barely keep her teeth from chattering. He was tall, built, and he’d been favoring his left leg as he moved. If he was one of Tino’s contacts, it didn’t make sense that he hadn’t tried to shoot her yet.
    “Put it down, now,” she ordered in a low voice when he didn’t move, the ache in her head hurting worse as she spoke.
    “You first,” he shot back, his stance and posture just as unyielding as hers.
    In the light coming through the thin, rectangular windows on either side of the front door, he looked wary but not afraid and right away she recognized that he was a seasoned operator. Somewhere in his thirties, he had short dark hair and dark whiskers on his square jaw. And his gaze never wavered from hers.
    “Not happening,” she said, survival instinct making her alert in spite of her injuries and fatigue.
    “Who the hell are you, and what are you doing in here?” he demanded, a distinctive Virginia drawl lacing his voice.
    She didn’t know who he was, but figured if he’d been sent here to kill her, they wouldn’t be having this conversation because one of them would already be dead. A sobering thought. “You first.”
    “Special Agent Brody Colebrook, FBI. Now why the fuck are you in my commander’s house?”
    So he was HRT. She vaguely recognized his name from a past conversation with Briar, remembered he was on one of the sniper teams. She relaxed a fraction. Just