Page 46 of Defending Van

8:36 P.M.

He wanted a plan now. A foolproof, detailed plan that outlined everything they were going to do step by step, ready to be executed as soon as they landed.

So far, they had nothing close to that. Mostly because they really had no idea where Makayla could be right now. As far as they could guess, she was likely somewhere out in the forest surrounding the house where Asahi Watanabe lived. There were miles of it, and she could likely walk it for days without ever finding her way out.

At least Van was holding on to the hope that she was still free, because he’d gotten no word from Griffin telling him that Asahi Watanabe had contacted him to say his people had found her. If she was still out there, she was still safe. But it was going to be hell trying to find her. There were just too many places for her to hide, and the area was too large for the eight of them to cover in a short period of time.

The longer she was out there, the greater the chance she wouldn't still be alive by the time she was found. Hypothermia could get to her despite it being summer. It got cold in the mountains at night. She had no warm clothing, and no way to keep herself warm, build a fire, or build a shelter. She had no food, which was going to start taking a toll on her body pretty quickly, and although she could find water and stick close to it, that would also make her easier to find, so he couldn’t really hope that’s what she’d do.

Then there were the armed men hunting her. From what Griffin had told him, Asahi Watanabe had given his people orders to bring her back alive. He still wanted to keep her, but once she was back under his control, he’d lose access to her. And Van desperately needed to get eyes on her to reassure himself that her heart was still beating.

At least they had an address. If the worst happened and Asahi Watanabe found Makayla first, then he and the Delta Force team here with him could still plan a raid and get her out. But he wanted her safe now, and that would take time.

“We’ll get her back,” Walker “Trigger” Nelson said from the seat beside Van’s.

The Delta Force team was posing as his personal security for this mission. Since Azure was sending him to do damage control for Makayla’s escape, it made sense for him to bring security. There was no way Azure had the manpower to spare to send in more men than him, especially with Nathan and Mateo recently abandoning them, Josh out of commission thanks to Makayla, and them wanting to start rebuilding their product catalog. So when he’d suggested hiring himself a team, Griffin had readily agreed.

Now they were all here, sitting around a table in one of Prey’s private jets, trying to figure out a plan for when they landed, without anywhere near the information needed to build much of anything. They were going to head straight to Asahi Watanabe’s estate, and after he’d offer apologies on Azure’s behalf, they’d head out to help search for Makayla.

Griffin hadn't confirmed for him, but Van still believed that Asahi Watanabe was one of the heads of the operation, which meant he wanted access to the man’s house at some point. He needed to be able to look around, see what he could find, or at the very least hide some cameras he could use to gather intel over the coming days and weeks.

“We got back Emma and Ally,” Fred “Grover” Groves added.

“From what I heard, you almost got taken out by Emma,” Van said with a smirk in an attempt to distract himself. If he focused too much on what Makayla was going through, what she might be experiencing this very second, he wouldn't be able to function.

Going from not allowing himself to experience a single emotion for two-thirds of his life, to being unable to stop himself from feeling, was a shock to his system. Makayla had done that to him, changed him. While part of him wanted to be angry and resentful about her doing it against his will, the other part found it couldn’t. Because feeling things again wasn't all bad when it included feeling things for her.

Grover chuckled. “Yeah, she tried to shoot me. Needs to work on her aim, though.”

It was clear that the man wouldn't have minded being shot if it meant the vulnerable woman, who had also managed to do the impossible and escape from the man who had bought her, had protected herself. If it had been someone other than Nathan or the Delta Force team who had gone in to rescue her, who had managed to stumble across her, then she would have found herself recaptured and possibly executed.

“Azure needs to realize that not everyone they take is going to go down quietly,” Craig “Doc” Wagner mused.

“They think there’s no one they can't crush,” he said. “If the women turn out to be too much work, then there’s always an auction that specializes in that to pass the women off onto. Reputation means everything to Azure, and Makayla just blew that out of the water.”

“If you're right about who Asahi Watanabe is, it’s probably a good thing that’s who bought her. The man is less likely to retaliate both against Azure and against Makayla,” Troy “Lucky” Schmidt added.

That was true at least. If Asahi Watanabe was one of the two heads of Azure, it wasn't like he could blame his own organization. Only Van knew that Makayla had managed to escape twice already, although everyone else knew about the second attempt. Which meant Asahi Watanabe was really the one responsible for letting her get out. He should have expected that she wouldn't give up and accept her reality and taken appropriate precautions.

This was on his own head, and Van hoped that meant that Asahi Watanabe would go easy on Makayla if his people found her first.

“We need proof while we’re here,” he said, hating that this wasn't all about Makayla, even as he knew that she’d want him to topple Azure, not just rescue her. “I need something to link him to the other head of the ring, that’s what I've been looking for all along.”

Porter “Oz” Reed cocked his head to the side, examining him, and Van met his gaze squarely. Maybe he was relearning what it meant to feel emotions again, but he had enough of a hold on the emptiness that had ensured he survived his childhood and the years following, that he didn't shy away from the probing gray eyes.

“You know who the other head of the ring is,” Oz finally said.

“I have my suspicions,” he confirmed. He’s known who one of the heads was from pretty much the beginning, but that knowledge didn't help him if he couldn’t find out who the other one was and then find enough proof to destroy them both.

“You know,” Oz corrected.

Because he wasn't going to lie to the men who had once again dropped everything to come and help Prey with this case, Van gave a single nod.

“You gonna share?” Kane “Brain” Temple prompted when he didn't say anything.

“Andy Finch,” he said. They needed to know so that if they got time to wander Asahi Watanabe’s house, they knew what kind of intel they were searching for.

“Second in command is Griffin’s father?” Trigger asked.