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Two hits. One was a fucking senator. He was a shitbag slimelord. But a senator nonetheless.
Three plans to surveil places. One, a government agency. One, a fortune five-hundred energy company. And one was a dog park. No fucking shitting... a god damn dog park.
And then there was a collection of pictures of crime operations with small thumbnail pictures of each member of the organizations.
“That's the fucking compound,” Cash said, nodding his head in the direction of the picture.
And it was. She had been keeping tabs on us.
As well as what seemed like every other organization in a two state radius.
Including V's.
And Lyon's.
I moved over toward the board, seeing a picture of Richard, in a suit, unsmiling. Beside him, a picture of Summer. A candid picture of her sitting at some outdoor cafe in a white sundress, a huge smile spread across her face.
I saw it with a kick to the gut.
Because she didn't smile like that anymore.
Open.
Unconcerned.
She smiled. Mostly with me. Different smiles. The lazy ones when she woke up and murmured something before snuggling into me. The sly ones when she was going to do something to get her way. The surprised ones when one of the men said something ridiculous and she wasn't sure if she could laugh or not.
But they were never like the one in the picture.
Because when she smiled now, it was full of the strong knowledge of how easily all the happiness could be sucked away from her. It was full of her demons.
I ran a hand down my face, staring at the picture, trying to memorize it, swearing to myself that I would do whatever was in my power to get one of those smiles out of her again. No matter how long it took.
“Dude, she's got a whole board full of government conspiracy theories. About like vaccines and the food supply and shit. She's fucking out of her mind.”
I sighed, looking away from the picture.
He was right.
She was crazy.
But it was too late to back out.
“Well I guess it's good that her crazy is on our side,” I said, shrugging.
“Alright,” Lo said, clapping her hands once as the men (and one woman) filed inside and took seats. Cash, Wolf, and I stayed standing. Legs wide, arms crossed over our chests. “We have a problem with V,” she delved right in. To their credit, there wasn't even a flinch among her people. I was pretty fucking sure I would get more than a few explosions from my men if I brought that kind of information to them.
“What kind of problem?” one of the men asked.
“The kind where I need to go in with these men,” she said, gesturing toward us though no one turned to look. They had all glanced at us when they walked in. “So I need six of you on the grounds. Two more from somewhere higher. And Janie, I need all the intel you have on her operation,” she said, looking at the tall girl with long black hair and pale skin, her eyes hidden behind cat-eye glasses. She was young. No older than early twenties and I couldn't help but wonder where the fuck Lo found her people.
“Honestly, Lo,” Janie said, shrugging, “eight men seems a bit much.”
“You fuckin' serious?” Cash interrupted, making the girl turn casually around and look at him. “She lives in a fucking fortress.”
Janie smiled slowly, like something he said was ridiculous but she was trying to spare his feelings. “I live in a fortress. She lives in a house with a fence.”
“And her own army,” Cash shot back.
“Oh, please,” Janie said, rolling her eyes, then turned back to Lo.
Cash turned to me, brows raised. “The fuck? They're all fucking nuts.”
“Anyway,” Lo went on, “The Henchmen and I will walk up to the gates at oh-nine-hundred tomorrow. You will all have already been long in place. They'll take our weapons then we will be led inside. I will try to negotiate something peaceful. If that fails, when we walk out, if my hand goes up... you go in. The only person who needs to make it out alive is Summer Lyon.”
“Summer Lyon?” Janie asked again, her head snapping up. Then she turned, her eyes falling on me. Intense. Way too intense for someone so young. “Because he's fucking her?” she asked bluntly.
“Because he loves her,” Lo corrected. “V is trying to gain control of Lyon's containers to bring girls in. She took their daughter as leverage. You yourself told me yesterday that the Henchmen took Lyon, Janie. V is going to start getting itchy with him gone. There's no telling what she'll do to the girl. We need to get her out. She's an innocent. You know that.”
Janie sighed, nodding her head. “Alright.”
“Alright,” Lo agreed, nodding.
Then it was hours. Fucking hours of them planning and plotting.
Everyone seemed to be allowed to have their say, to contradict anything that Lo said without her so much as raising a brow. Twice, it got heated between two of the men until Janie made a weird growling noise and told them to take it outside and measure them or quit it with their 'macho testosterone bullshit'.
After that, we were led into the kitchen again. Fed. And then shuffled toward the gates by Lo.
“Try to get some fucking sleep,” she said, looking at me. “You'll be no good if you're tense and unfocused. She'll get out tomorrow. One way or another.”
With that, the gate was opened, and we made our way to our bikes.
I looked at Cash who shook his head.
Then to Wolf who shrugged. “Gotta get her back.”
I nodded.
He was right.
We had to get her back.
Even if that meant we needed to put her safety into the hands of some conspiracy theorist with her crackpot team who thought eight of them could take on three dozen of V's men.
Fuck.I slept for about an hour and a half, waking up swearing I heard Summer screaming. But my bed was empty.
I showered and made my way toward the main room, finding equally showered and haggard-looking Cash and Wolf chugging down coffee. I was handed one. And we sat and waited in silence until ten before nine and made our way outside.
