Looking around the exterior of the home he had to admit again, it was impressive. This actually could be a great partnership, if Jax could reign in her attitude and her emotions. Typical woman to get all emotional over little things.

Damned women!

Climbing in his truck, he stopped and turned his head as the sound of a motorcycle sounded in the distance. Sounded fantastic with the low grumble of the pipes. He'd like to be on his bike right now, the weather was perfect for a ride. Then maybe the tension in his shoulders, which started last night, would ease. There was nothing like getting outside, letting the wind hit your face, and feeling the rumble under you as the growl of your pipes erased any other sounds.

He waited a few minutes, checked the time on his phone, and waited another couple of minutes. The growing irritation did nothing for the tightness in his shoulders so he stepped from his truck and walked to the house. Entering the front door, he was again struck with the opulence of this place. Everything was immaculate. Not sure if he should make his way upstairs to find Jax or head back down to the conference room he was stuck by indecision. Then the voices of Ford, Lincoln, and Gaige carried from the back of the house, somewhere behind the staircase and he decided to head in that direction.

Entering the kitchen his impression was again ramped up at the gleaming white marble countertops and the dark wood floor. His friends sat at the kitchen table, which looked more like a large wooden dining table, tucked into a nook at the far side of the kitchen. Gaige's brows furrowed. "I thought you and Jax left for the house where Mangus was seen."

He shrugged. "I'm waiting for her to come back down so we can leave."

Gaige's jaw tightened and his shoulders pulled back. "I'll go find her. Sit down and relax, I'll just be a minute."

He sat uneasily and captured Lincoln's eyes. "I don't know, man, this might be more of a pain than it's worth. The last time I waited for a woman to get ready, I was married to her and we all know how that turned out."

Ford leaned in, his forearms on the table. "We haven't even given this a try yet, Dodge. Let's at least do that. Just talking to Gaige and Josh, I'm impressed with their operation."

Lincoln nodded and continued. "It's quite the set up here. I can see a long career with these guys and this unit. I like how they do things."

He exhaled, "All but one."

Ford leaned forward, “Right and on another note, did you catch that their client is a billionaire? Rory had the impression it was a disgruntled arms dealer. I’ll have to give him a call and see if he has changed that opinion.”

Lincoln responded quietly. “I wondered about that, too.”

Gaige entered the kitchen. "Okay, I have to apologize, which I don't like doing, but it appears Jax left on her own. "I'm sorry, Dodge, this is not how we do things."

Shaking his head, he stood and began walking toward the front door. "She seems a bit self-centered if you ask me. I'll head out there."

He heard Gaige apologizing again to his partners, "Sorry guys. It appears there will be an adjustment period."

Hopping up into his truck he decided all bets were off on this one. She wanted to play this game, he was in. The gloves were off. Keeping himself in check with this woman was going to test him in every way imaginable. She'd ducked out on him and dammit, he wanted to know where that damned diamond was before she blew this whole thing out of the water. Going off half-cocked like she did proved to him she wasn't a team player.

Focusing on relaxing his jaw as he neared the house at the East end of Lynyrd Station, he rolled some of the intelligence through his head. Four people were seen entering the house around an hour ago. That meant a minimum of five people inside, could be more, depending on the number of occupants. Since one of the guests was Mangus Santarino, according to the informant working with GHOST, he had to assume they were all armed and on high alert to any action, that meant danger.

Closer to the house, he saw a full front porch lit only by the light coming from the large window on the right side. Curtains were drawn and no visible movement could be seen. Assuming they were watching the street, he didn't want to slow too much and draw attention so he continued by, watching for movement.

At the end of Fourth Street he saw a lone motorcycle parked on the street, a black helmet perched on the right mirror. No other vehicles were on the street and the overhead light directly across the street was burnt out. Convenient. Driving past the motorcycle he parked in front of it and quietly exited his truck. Making his way in the dark to the bike, he felt around the motor and noted that it was still warm. Making a mental note to admire the wicked looking murdered out Night Rod special, he set off toward the house at an easy pace, wanting to look like a man out for a walk.

One house away he noted movement at the back of the house in question and wondered if his eyes were playing tricks on him. Deciding to walk past the house and duck in around the neighboring house to the right, he trained his peripheral vision on movement and his ears on sounds.

Ignoring the adrenaline creeping into his muscles and his rapidly beating heart, he passed the house and inwardly smiled to himself when he noticed the neighbor had a large boxwood hedge between the two homes. Darting behind the hedge on the neighbor's side, he inhaled deeply and stood motionless for a moment hoping the neighbor didn't have a dog.

When no sound came, he looked for a break in the hedge that would allow him a visual if not an entry point to the subject house.

Finding a decent sized opening he looked through the hedge to the backdoor of the house, and from the corner of his eye he saw movement. Zeroing in on the movement he clamped his jaw together, gritted his teeth, and silently swore as he saw a small woman jack-rabbiting across the backyard. Jax!