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“Aww.” She scrunches her nose up. “You looked me up?”
He doesn't respond, just arches a brow and waits. She shrugs. “Romano isn’t the biggest fish we want to fry,” she admits. I’m not the only one’s mouth that parts open. I wasn’t sure if she would ever let them know there’s more to her story, more to this war than what they know.
“What do you mean?” Rachel asks slowly as she sits up straighter.
“Joe is going to be leaving a camera on the body so we can see Romano’s reaction. He’s also going to be hiding a tracker in Romano’s belongings so we can follow him wherever he runs.”
“Why?” Rachel asks, sitting on the edge of her seat. Jade holds her arm tightly, worried about the way Rachel is going to react. It’s unnecessary. We have no intention of dragging her into our larger mission, which is the only reason we would owe her more. We all know she still has her own secrets. Doesn’t affect us or our relationship.
“Romano has a top tier, elite circle of clientele. That’s who we are really after. The ones who would never show their faces at an event like tomorrow. The ones too careful, too secretive to be enticed by the glamor of it all. Tomorrow is about pushing Romano so low, he has no choice but to run to those men and hide behind them.” She surveys the room. “I don’t expect the tracker to lead us to our targets, but it’ll be the next step in the right direction.”
“You don’t know the clientele?” Nicholis asks to clarify.
She shakes her head. “If I did, we could just kill Romano and be done with this war.”
“How do you know this elite circle exists?” For once, I don’t think he’s being an ass just to be an ass.
“My father was one of them,” she answers simply.
“So was mine,” Declan adds.
Scar’s hands drift over the scar that starts on her sternum. “I found evidence once,” she starts her dark story. “Got caught red handed,” she trails off, getting one of her twisted little smiles. It shouldn’t be funny, but it kind of is.
“Ever heard of The Fallen Prom Queen?”
There it is. I chuckle. I can’t help it. It’s like with each reveal, she enjoys it more. I’m not mad about it.
Alec chokes on his beer, spitting some of it down his chin. Nicholis stays impassive, but I can see the flare of his nostrils from here. He’s not unaffected at all. Rachel’s reaction is the most shocking though. Her face softens, a look of concern painted on her sharp features.
“Scar,” she whispers, heavy with the weight of the sadness she feels for my girl.
“Don’t worry, Rach. I lost a lot that night, but I’ve gained a lot since. There were other men in my father’s office that night. Four of them. I’m looking for them, and Romano is going to lead me to them.”
Nicholis studies her impassively before lifting a shoulder casually. “Let me know if you need help carving any of them up like a turkey.” His lips twitch before falling back into his usual stoic expression. “Just don’t expect me to do the Macarena.”
"Are you sure about this?"I look down at her, my unease running over. Everything about this plan is crazy. Completely and totally fucking crazy.
She looks up at me with a fire in her eyes that I hardly ever see. There's usually only a cold merciless storm brewing in those green eyes of hers. Not today. She's all flames and chaos over this plan.
My fingers shake as I reach up and trace her cheeks. I've learned my lesson about holding her back, but this seems like too far. How can I let the only woman I've ever truly loved, the only woman I will ever love, put herself at risk like this?
"Scar," I whisper. There's no anger in her eyes as she looks back up at me. It shows just how far we've come. There is a fierce stubbornness that burns through. I know she won't abandon this plan, not when we've already come this far.
"It's a good plan," she assures me.
I pin her with my eyes, fighting the urge to roll them at her confidence. "It's an insane plan."
She grins. "We are insane, Kade. It's about time we reminded everyone of that."
I huff a sigh. She isn't wrong, but I am pretty sure everyone is already aware that we are insane. She argued for this plan, fought for it using logic and reason. She didn't go behind our backs and make her own decisions. We all agreed to this, even if she did have to bulldoze through all of our opposition.
Holding back in a war will only ensure you lose. We can't risk that. There's far too much at stake to let Romano live. None of our other messages have been enough. We need to make a statement. To instill a fear into the hearts of every bastard that thinks to ever make a move in front of us.
We need to be ruthless.
Merciless.
Fucking vicious.
