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“Great,” Trick replies, “those of you that need to put your bags in the car, do it now we’re leaving in ten.”
“Got it,” I reply, and then turn on my heel, taking the steps two at a time and rushing into my room to grab my bag before I rush back down the stairs and follow everyone else out to the cars.
I throw my bag into the back with the rest of them and then turn to face Lyric, Jonah, Dominic, and Lucien, who are all staying behind. I hug the guys first, promising that we’re going to bring him back.
I then turn my attention to Lyric. As I hug her, I say, “We’re going to bring him home. I am here for you, and you can text me whenever you want. If I can reply, I will. I will also message you as soon as we’ve got him.”
“Thank you,” Lyric replies simply, her voice watery.
I step back so that I can look at her and add, “I do think you need to be aware that he may be different. He’s been captured for years, and we have no idea what kind of effect that’s had on him,” I feel like I have to warn her because I think the shock of realising he’s not the same would be worse if she weren’t prepared for the possibility.
She nods, steel resolve overtaking her features, “Yes, I know. I’m prepared, and I think I’ll be more worried if he comes back and pretends that he’s okay. I’ve got Mr R’s therapists on standby. I have their numbers, and I’m ready to call as soon as he agrees. Jynx also gave me the numbers of the therapist who is on D’s payroll, which he might feel more comfortable with. We’ve dealt with trauma like this before, and although it hasn’t been years worth of capture, we know we can help and support him through it all.”
“He’s not alone,” Jonah adds, pulling her under his arm and holding on tightly.
“Good,” I reply, smiling softly, “I just wanted to make sure that you were aware, that’s all.”
“Thank you,” Lyric replies and then steps out from under Jonah’s arm and pulls me into a tight hug. When she steps back, she says, “Now go bring the last piece of my family home.”
“I will,” I reply.
I wave as I jump into the car that’s already loaded, and we head down to the airport. For a long time, this case was going nowhere, and I honestly thought that we weren’t going to find Rylie, but now, finally, we’ve got a massive breakthrough, and by this time tomorrow, hopefully, Rylie and Quinn will be safe and back where they belong.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Once in the air, Trick pretty much orders us all to try and get some sleep, but even his tone says that he knows that’s going to be pretty much impossible to do tonight. We’re all amped up and raring to get this fully started so that we can get them back. This just means that the flight is long and tense. I think some of us manage to drift in and out of sleep sporadically, but none of us got a good night's sleep.
“We’re coming into land, guys,” Luc announces to the plane, and we all sit up in our seats as I check the time and find that it's four in the morning.
It’s still winter, so we have a couple of hours before the sun comes up, which should mean that we can still use the cover of darkness to our advantage.
“When we get out onto the tarmac, I need everyone gathered around one of the vans that Mr R has gotten for us so that you’re all aware of the plan as far as Alaric and the other teams are concerned.” Trick says as we all start to gather our stuff and get off the plane.
“Sounds good. Our team is happy to be wherever you need us,” Marty replies as we head toward the vans.
They have been relatively quiet on the plane ride here, listening when we gave them all the information that we have so far. They all understand the connection we have to this case, but since they are outsiders because they don’t know either of them, it puts them in a somewhat unique position. As always, when we do jobs, Pete will be with us, and Elijah will be with his team.
As soon as we get to the first van, Trick opens the back, and we put our stuff inside before he makes sure that everyone is close enough to hear and then calls Alaric.
“Hey Alaric, you’re on speakerphone. We just wanted to let you know that we’ve landed, and we’re going to be heading into position for the surveillance as soon as this conversation is over,” Trick starts.
“Good. We’re here. I have teams placed at every escape route that you sent to us, although we’ve had to spread ourselves a little bit thin to cover everywhere equally.”
“That’s not good. Hunt is someone that we want to be able to throw everything at,” Atlas replies, sounding worried.
“We can head out there and cover a route so that everyone doesn’t have to be so spread out,” Elijah suggests, checking in with his team, who all nod in agreement.
“Yeah, that would work great unless you need them to breach the main house with you?” Alaric asks.
“No, we’ve got Ezra and Creed, as well as Jynx and her men. We’re covered,” Trick replies.
“As soon as you give us the go-ahead, we’ll all converge on the building to make sure that no one escapes out of the exits. When we do that, we will be leaving a skeleton crew on the roads leading out. We should be able to catch everyone at the house. I’ve got a lot of people here,” Alaric replies.
“Yeah, that works. We can then try and flush some people out of the house toward you as we clear the house and look for Rylie and Quinn.” Rage replies.
“I’ll message Elijah our location and let the others know that they will be arriving. The breathing apparatus that you requested is in your van, and they’ve written short instructions, although they said that if you had any questions to ask Pete since he was the main designer on it.”
I turn to look at Pete and raise my eyebrow because with all that explaining yesterday, not once did he mention that he was actually the leading designer. Pete just shrugs with a smile; we all know that he doesn’t like to toot his own horn, but seriously? I will be having a word later.
