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“I’m with Wylder on this one,” Gideon said. “And with the new information we’ve gotten, I have been able to identify a few locations where the Storm may be storing vital equipment. It’s not clear what exactly is in each place, but we’re talking weapons, vehicles, possibly stashes of Glory.”
Kaige growled at the mention of the drug. Gideon brought up a map on his tablet and pointed out four buildings he’d marked with a red X. Two of them were deep in the Bend and two others near the border of Paradise City.
“I’m not sure yet which one is most active, since I’ve only just narrowed my search down to those,” Gideon went on. “But I’m keeping a close eye on them, and hopefully by tonight we’ll have a solid idea of which would make the best target. That seems like a reasonable direction for our next attack.”
“So, I’ll get to punch or shootsomeonethen?” Kaige asked. “Just to be clear?”
Wylder gave him a baleful look. “You didn’t spill enough blood last night? Yes, I’m sure there’ll be guards, and someone will need to dispatch them.”
Ezra had remained silent for this part of the conversation. He turned abruptly toward the doorway. “My advice to you? Don’t get killed.” He strode out of the room, muttering under his breath something about needing a drink.
Anthea sighed. “Should I go talk to my brother?”
“Don’t bother,” Wylder said. I could tell from his tone that his patience with his father was at an all-time low. “The longer he wallows, the less he can interfere in what we do.”
Anthea nodded reluctantly. Things had gone so wrong between Wylder and his Dad that I couldn’t help but feel a little responsible, knowing it was in part because Ezra disapproved of his son’s relationship with me. But I had to admire the change in the Noble heir at the same time. He finally had enough leeway to take charge for himself, and he was making good use of the opportunity.
He clapped his hands. “All right. I’ll send out a few small teams on foot to investigate those buildings and the activities around them—from a distance, without alerting the Storm’s people. Gideon, you keep crunching the data, including the reports those teams send in, to figure out our best target. Kaige, maybe you and I could—"
Gideon cut him off with a sudden exclamation and a loud ping of his tablet. We all jerked toward him. “Is something wrong?” Rowan asked.
“No.” Gideon’s gray eyes had lit up with an eager gleam. “We’ve finally got something—from the tracker stuck on Xavier’s boot. He’s left the county, going somewhere new. He’s got to be doing something to prepare forhisnext attack against us. Maybe he’ll lead us to an even better target.”
We all gathered close around to peer at the tablet’s screen. Gideon had switched to a different app with a map view. A little blinking dot moved across the road at a quick pace.
“He’s in a car, obviously,” Gideon said. “Driving fast. Taking a lot of sudden turns like he wants to be sure he isn’t being followed.” He chuckled to himself almost gleefully. “Little does he know.”
Rowan leaned on the back of the sofa to watch. His hand drifted over my shoulder, and I raised mine to squeeze his fingers in return.
“That’s a good sign,” he said. “He wouldn’t care about being followed unless he was going somewhere important.”
“Exactly.” Gideon watched the screen avidly. “No sign of slowing down yet. I think we should see where this leads before we make any decisions. But it could take a little while. I doubt he’d gotoofar from the county while we’re on the offensive, but it could still be hours.”
Anthea stood up with a brisk swipe of her hands. “Well, it’s just about lunchtime. I’ll whip something up so we’ll all be well-fueled in every possible way.”
My mouth immediately started watering at the thought of one of Anthea’s meals. “Count me in.”
We ended up gathering around the island in the kitchen, Gideon leaving his tablet propped up in the middle so we could all follow Xavier’s movements. Wylder sat close enough to me that our knees touched, and a quiver of warmth ran up my leg remembering our passionate interlude in the car after the funeral. And more than that, the words he’d said to me.
Love wasn’t something that came up all that often in our kind of life. My dad sure as hell hadn’t been in love with my mom or any of the other women he’d brought around. I wasn’t sure I’d have said it to Wylder if he hadn’t said it first so I knew it was something he’d have wanted to hear. But damn, was I glad it was.
These were good men, all of them—the four I’d found myself tangled up with. I leaned against Kaige’s shoulder for a moment, and he pressed a quick kiss to my temple. Anthea clucked her tongue at us, murmured something about “young love,” and got to work over the stove.
Xavier’s dot didn’t stop until we’d all polished off the juiciest hamburgers I’d ever eaten along with a heap of Anthea’s famous fries—or at least, they should have been famous. I was just licking ketchup from the corner of my mouth when Gideon leaned forward.
“He’s stopped.” He cocked his head to the side, giving the screen a puzzled frown. “There’s nothing on the map there. It’s way out from any town—no buildings even showing up.”
“I guess it makes sense that the Storm would have some kind of secret bases set up,” I said, studying the image. “These people are obviously very good at staying under the radar.”
“And he’s got to realize how easily someone with the right skills can use traffic cams and so on to spy on his movements, like Gideon already has,” Anthea pointed out. “Somewhere way off the beaten track would be hard for anyone to trace.”
“Right,” Rowan said, shooting a smile at Gideon. “We’d never have known about this if you hadn’t managed to get the tracker on Xavier.”
Gideon’s laugh sounded a little raw. “I’m glad something good came out of that SNAFU after all.”
“The Storm has got to have some pretty important stuff stashed there if he keeps it so carefully hidden,” Wylder said. “Especially if Xavier’s going there now while he’s gearing up to get his revenge for the bridge ambush. I say that’s our target. We hit it tonight.”
All of us around the island nodded. I hopped off my stool. “I want in, but I should check with my men back in the Bend and see how many Claws are up for another mission. Let me know when you’ve worked out our best approach.”
