“How long?”
“Two weeks.” Cable meets my gaze. “To complete the security rotation mapping, confirm all entry and exit points, and identify the cleanest approach. If we move before that, we’re going in with incomplete intelligence.” A pause. “And we all know what that costs.”
Nobody needs him to elaborate on that.
“Two weeks.” My eyes move around the table, both clubs, every face. “Cable completes the mapping. No movement until it’s done. Then we reconvene and finalize the plan before anyone goes anywhere.” A pause. “We do this right. We do this once.”
Looking Rhyder directly in the eye, I make sure he hears the next part. “When we go in, Lawrence does not walk out.”
Rhyder holds my gaze.
Quill nods once.
The gavel comes down, church is finished..
Finding Rhyder outside, I cross the lot to where he is standing alone at the edge of it, a beer untouched in his hand, looking at nothing with the stillness of a man who has too many things running through his head.
Standing beside him, I let the heat press down around us both before speaking.
“I’m going to do everything in my power to bring them both down… Clemente and Lawrence. That’s from me to you,directly.” I take a moment and continue, “I should have confirmed the kill. That’s on me. And I’m going to make it right.”
Rhyder is quiet for a long time, with the clubhouse noise behind us muffled through the walls.
Then he turns. “I know you will.” Something in his face goes deeper than the fury, something that had lived underneath all of it for a long time and had never quite found its way to the surface until now. “But Tate, I need to be there. Right beside you when it happens. Need to look that man in the eyes and be the one who pulls the trigger.” The words sit between us in the heat. “For Lexi. For everything she went through. I need to see it for myself.”
Looking at him, I feel the weight of that promise settle into me the way important ones do, not lightly, not with any uncertainty.
“You’ll be there. I promise you that.”
He finally lifts the beer and drinks.
Standing beside him in the heat, I do the same, and neither of us needs anything more than that.
***
Flame fires up the grill around two.
The smell of it drifts through the clubhouse and out into the yard, and the whole atmosphere shifts. The yard fills up slowly, tables come out, music floats through the open clubhouse doors, and noise level climbs back toward something that resembles an ordinary evening.
When the yard begins to fill, I call Sophia.
Two rings before she picks up, her voice carrying that quality it gets in the afternoons when she’s been working for hours, slightly distracted, coming back from somewhere in her own head.
“Hey.”
“Hey. How’s the day been?”
“Good, actually.” I hear the sound of her chair shifting and papers moving. “The meeting with Victoria Chen went well. She loved the concept direction. We’re moving forward.” A pause, and the smile is audible. “Trevor called after. He was pleased.”
“Good.” And I mean it.
“How are things there?”
“Good. Blood Brothers are here. We’ve been in meetings most of the day.” There’s a pause. “How do you feel about coming to the clubhouse tonight? There’s food. Quill’s here.”
A silence, and the quality of it tells me everything. She wants to say yes and is working out how.
“Quill’s there?” she softly questions.
