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“What are you thinking, Little Shadow?”
“What if he’s trying to get us all here for a reason? One singular place to strike where we all convene when something happens?”
“She’s not wrong,” Lev says after we all think about it.
Sweat starts to build in my palms and on my back thinking about him catching us here together. One carefully dropped bomb would end this war as quickly as the atomic bomb ended World War II. Alexi grabs his phone as he starts the car and begins driving away from the property. After two rings, Laney answers.
“Um, hello?”
“Laney, this is Alexi.”
“Yeah, that was pretty clear when your phone number came up on my phone. Why are you calling?”
Alexi’s grip tightens on the wheel until his knuckles turn white. He takes a long inhale and blows it out through his mouth before answering.
“Evie thinks this might be a trap to make a move against us all in one place. I will be texting you an address, and I want you to leave fifteen minutes apart, each taking the different routes I send to you. Since you have just experienced a traumatic event, Dr. K will be there for you to talk to while we sort out the prisoner.”
“I don’t need to talk to anyone,” she snaps, interrupting him.
He grits his teeth while I hold back laughter over his drama.
“You do, but Evie will talk to you about that.”
He gives me a pointed look while Laney huffs into the speaker. I nod in agreement with him. She’s seeing Dr. K so she doesn’t end up like the three of us. Alexi cares about her; this is just the only way he knows how to show it.
“Alright. Any other orders, Hades?”
Damien and I burst out laughing at that, and I can hear Laney give her hum of approval over our response.
“Yes,” Alexi finally says. “Tell Havoc I will be sending him instructions on transporting the intruder. I do not want to risk anything if she has a tracker in her to target us. Adrik is too much of a fan when it comes to those things.”
“Yes, sir.” Laney hangs up the phone with that final attitude. Alexi glances at me.
“She better be glad you love her. If not, she would be dead on the side of the road somewhere.”
I slap his arm. “Don’t even play that game with me, Batman. I know you love Laney as much as the rest of us.”
He shakes his head even if his face softens a bit. I text Dr. K to start getting things in order. Alexi has been setting up random safe houses in case the mansion was ever compromised. They sold the old ones that Rostya could have known about. It was one of the first things we started doing after they got to Boris.
It feels like nowhere other than our house is safe anymore, and the only reason that feels safe is because it’s a fully illogical place to attack. But everywhere else we go, it just feels like we’re taking a chance, and I don’t like that feeling.
We pull into our recently purchased warehouse district. It was perfect for us because of the sub-basement parking area, secured by a three-foot-thick concrete barrier that we can collapse with a press of a button at any time.
Tunnels lead into various storerooms, making it a maze to navigate from below ground, but we memorized the routes quickly. Alexi already had one of the storerooms converted into a torture house and another into a cozy space we could get away to should we need to hide out.
It was all finished just in time too. We get out of the car and head through the tunnels to the makeshift safehouse. It has four bedrooms all with extra large beds. We planned for a situation should we need to disappear as we prepared to attack.
The plan was to have enough rooms for everyone to stay in and use the other warehouses for training. Only a few are set up, but I’ve contacted Lizz and Mac to come out and help finalize the rest of the spaces.
Alexi grabs the tablet from the counter and pulls up the security footage from outside onto the big screen in the middle of the room. We watch with bated breath as our friends arrive one by one. Laney and Arrow are in the first car. Five minutes later, Dr. K’s shiny red Corvette comes on the screen. An armored truck, driven by Havoc and carrying our prisoner is next. Then finally, Nessa pulls up in a deep purple Mustang.
I can finally breathe when we’re all here and safe. Lev has already got the high-tech security ready so that an alarm will sound if a helicopter veers off a scheduled flight path toward us or if any overhead surveillance were to attempt to look in on our buildings. The grounds are protected, and the gates are nearly impenetrable around the property.
We are safe here.
It helps that the place we’ll be staying in for now was built to withstand an atomic bomb. We should be able to rest easily here and stay quiet. After witnessing this woman kidnapping Laney, I think we all agree it’s time to go dark.
Once everyone is situated in their rooms, we gather to discuss our plan. Alexi, Lev, Damien, Havoc and I will talk to our little prisoner. Laney will stay back with Arrow and Dr. K. Nessa will wait for Lizz and Mac to arrive and then bring them to us.
