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Blaze hummed to himself. “Then in a way, we’re already partway there.”
“His need for control is a strength and a weakness, then,” Talon said. “Being pissed off at us hasn’t toppled him on its own. How are we going to use his control-freak tendencies to stop him?”
Garrison—always the schemer—stood and began marching across the room as he contemplated. “We can’t go straight at him because of his protections… so we have to lure him to us, into a scenario where he’s vulnerable. We need bait that matters so much to him that he’d keep chasing it even while we’re stripping him of his guards along the way. What would compel him like that?”
“His daughter,” Dess said quietly. “We take her. He’d do anything to get her back.”
“I’m not sure that’d be quite enough,” Garrison said, but a glint had lit in his eyes that told me his own manipulative skills were coming out in full force. When Garrison really understood a person, they’d better fucking believe they were in trouble. A smirk played across his lips. “We might need a little help, but I think I know exactly what’ll make this chase totally irresistible to him. He’ll come running, all right.”
“You figure out how to make it happen,” I said, a greater calm filling me alongside my sense of resolve. Icouldlead my crew from here in this barn if I needed to. I could lay out the pieces and figure out how we’d take them down without needing to be charging into the field alongside them, as much as I wished I could.
Looking at each member of my crew, I could feel the loyalty and determination that emanated from every one of them. They trusted me, and that meant more than they’d ever know. It didn’t matter how many bullets I took. I could lead them, and I could do it well.
And that was why the Blood Hunter wouldn’t stand a fucking chance against us.
“You’re still going to have to deal with his bodyguards and whoever else he brings with him,” Talon pointed out. “There’s no chance he’ll set out on a quest alone just because we ask him to.”
Garrison snorted. “We’re not even going to ask. That would be showing too much of our hand. But if we make a sort of treasure hunt out of it, have him racing from one clue to the next, we should get opportunities to pick off his protections bit by bit. Dess can handle a lot of that, and we’ll set things up so Blaze and I can manage the rest. You two can keep sitting on your asses.”
I couldn’t hold back a guffaw at that remark. “Be glad we are stuck on our asses while you’re making comments like that.”
“He’ll need to be really invested to keep going even after we start eliminating his guards,” Blaze said. “Or he’ll just wait until he can call in more.”
Garrison’s smirk stretched wider. “Oh, this’ll do that. He’ll be slavering at the bit to get to the bottom of it, distracted beyond all rational thought. It’s going to befun.”
Dess prodded him. “Are you going to tell us what this magic ticket you’ve figured out is?”
He aimed his grin at her. “Magic is right. We’re going to bring a man back from the dead.”
