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“She doesn’t have a chance of that happening regardless of whether or not I’m with you or anybody else.”
He was angry and hurting and Miley felt out of her depth. She knew there was nothing she could say to him that would make him feel better. She knew that he’d been in battle. It wasn't the violence or death that was bothering him. It was feeling that he should have done something to change it so that if anyone got hurt or died, it was him.
Without giving it much thought, she took his hand in hers. “I’m so sorry, Damon.”
His hand closed around hers, clutching it fiercely as he stared out into the night.
Miley rolled down the sound barrier between the front and back of the SUV. “Brock, get on the horn to Fitz. Find us a safe house. Seth?”
“Right here, sweetness.”
“I’m going to assume you got Hattie and Percy out of there.”
Seth chuckled. The only person whose chuckle was better than Seth’s was maybe Fitzwallace’s, but most definitely Damon’s. “I did. I’m putting them on a plane to Chicago and will then join you. Miss Hattie told me she was holding me personally responsible for anything happening to the house.”
Squeezing Damon’s hand, she said, “Hattie is threatening Seth about something happening to the house.”
He glanced at her and gave her a smile. “Tell him to be careful. I don’t think I’d want Hattie’s wrath coming down on my head. Where are they?”
“Seth is putting them on the plane. Once they are safely airborne, he’ll join us, and no, I don’t know where we’re heading. Brock is calling Fitz. He’ll find a safe place for us. Then we’ll regroup, go over what we have, and devise a better plan.” She tapped her ear. “Seth, did you report what happened to the cops?”
“I did. They’re just now getting there. It occurs to me that they used the gala to cover the attack. He knows it’s not his fault, right?”
“Intellectually? Yes, but he’s hurting, just like the rest of us.”
“Rest of you?” said Damon. “You can’t possibly believe any of this is your fault.”
“Believe? No. Feel? Yes, as does everyone else on the team. I also know that you are at less fault than we are. I’m the head of this team and so it falls to me. But I also know that’s foolish, defeatist thinking. It falls to Frannie or her father. I’m not convinced it was Frannie. It may have been done in her name, but I don’t think she has the authority within her father’s organization to order a hit of that magnitude. One guy, maybe two, but that was a well-trained team. They would not have moved against you at that level without Franco’s okay. Seth, how are we doing on getting more intel on Frannie?”
“We’re working on it. The feds want our help but aren’t being as cooperative as they might be. We’re reaching out to the Brits and to Interpol. I should have more by the time I catch up with you and I shouldn’t be too far behind you.”
“We should come back for you. I don’t like you being out there on your own.”
“I won’t be here. I’m just getting ready to board a plane. I’ll join you in the morning.”
“Check in when you get there.”
“I’ll let Brock or Jimmy know. Damon needs you tonight whether he wants to admit it or not. You focus on him. We’ll take care of the rest. Trust your team, Miley. You did one hell of a job tonight.”
“People were killed.”
“The bad guys were killed,” said Seth. “And they killed one innocent; that’s on them. But none of us were killed. Brock got grazed but he says it’s nothing that some antiseptic and a Band-Aid won’t fix.”
She laughed. That was a running joke amongst Cerberus employees. No matter how bad you were hurt, your response to the question as to how bad was ‘antiseptic and a Band-Aid.’
“That’s my girl,” said Seth. “It could have been a lot worse without your calm hand at the helm. You did good.”
“Thanks, Seth. We’ll see you in the morning.”
“What did he say?” asked Damon.
“He said Hattie and Percy are en route to Cerberus in Chicago. He’s on an outbound plane and will meet us at the safe house.”
“What else did he say?”
“He tried to tell me I did a good job…”
“He’s right,” said all three men in the SUV.
