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Jase helped me to stand, never leaving my side as we made our way to the hidden door. When we pushed it open, Tiffany stirred. She went from mid-turn to bolting upright. Seconds passed as she blinked and took us in.
“Jase? Rian?”
“He’s okay. Come on. Let’s get out of here. The bathroom is all yours.”
Tiffany pushed to her feet, racing past us without a word. Jase pulled me into his arms, hugging to me tightly once again.
“This isn’t over, is it?”
“Shh. You know nothing,” he whispered. “You need food and more water. Eat. Calm your friend. Once these agents are gone, then we’ll talk.” His finger pushed under my chin so that I had to face him. “We have a lot to discuss. It’s not good, but…we’ll figure it out.” I nodded, turning to obey, only for Jase to pull me back in his arms. “I can’t let you go yet. I’ll walk you to the kitchen.”
“Is it safe to be here?”
With the way his jaw flexed repeatedly, he didn’t like my question.
“For now. The building is crawling with cops and FBI. After Dominquez and his men, they’re all over this case again.” His head shook. “I can’t believe you’re really here. Vitor’s men broke in, the firefighters and investigators did their thing, then me sitting my fucking ass not rooms away for almost two hours, working with Agent Sullivan to try to track you down…and no one found you. Not even me. You’ve been here the entire time.”
“If I would have had water, I would have been hiding out a lot longer. Next time you build a room like that, invest in a mini fridge and bathroom.”
Jase laughed as he hugged me into him. “It’s my gun room, not a panic room. Although…it sort of works as one, obviously.”
“Except there’s no lock on the inside. You need one of those too.”
“You’re right. I may have been paranoid, but I never thought I’d actually be using any of this. It made me feel safe. I thought I had the perfect system.” His lips pressed together, and we stopped as we entered the living area. “I didn’t. This is what I know, what I live, and they beat me at my own game. I almost can’t believe it. I don’t know how. I tried to watch the tape but…everything’s gone.”
“We can’t stay here anymore, can we?”
Jase shook his head. “We’ll talk about that later. We have lots to discuss. Go eat. I need to talk with Agent Sullivan. I’m sure he’ll want to talk to you too.”
I could read Jase like a book. He said we had to talk, but I already knew what he was going to say. His night was planned, and come the early hours of morning, Jase would leave again. He and Rush both. No feds. No army to back them. They’d go into the night, and they wouldn’t return until they or this leader was dead.
“He can talk to me all he wants. It all happened so fast. I didn’t see anyone. I didn’t hear anything but gunshots.” Jase’s lips twitched, tugging back on one side as he leaned down to kiss my lips. I cupped his face, moving to rest my forehead against his. “I know nothing.”
Chapter 41
Jase
It wasn’t what I’d planned. It wasn’t even what I had wanted. It was better. Where I was all hot-headed vengeance, Kody was calculated reasoning. Inside that reason though, sat explosives. Ones so powerful, her plan was guaranteed to work. After all, it’d worked before. Plus, it sure as hell beat what I planned.
Rush and I weren’t making it out alive if we went after Vitor at his estate. He had guards, dogs, and the best security system known to man. I found out firsthand. I’d explored to see if I could shut it down. I could, but not without it triggering complications. Our skills, both physically and technologically, weren’t enough to win against a man whose professional life centered on perversion and death. Vitor was prepared for an attack. He was ready for an invasion on any behalf. He was cocky, powerful, and that was going to be his downfall.
“I don’t like it.” Rush’s head shook. He sat next to Tiffany on the loveseat as I kept my arms around Kody on the couch. “We were lucky as hell last time. There’s too much risk. We don’t even have Rian to help. A lot of things could go wrong.”
Kody shifted in my hold. “And things wouldn’t if you and Jase showed up at his house Rambo’d out? Neither of you would make it out alive. At least this way you’re both in control. How prepared would he be if we gave him a few more months? The FBI left our apartment for one hour this morning, and he tried getting me and Tiff. We can’t even afford to drive now without a detail worthy of the president. Time is our enemy. He is our enemy, and he’s going to kill us if we don’t finish this now.”
“Agreed,” Rush stressed. “But there has to be another way.”
“Maybe there is,” I cut in, “but this is only one host, and think about it; it worked before. Sullivan mentioned to us earlier that they’ve been watching this guy for years. He even hinted that V works nights. The bastard and his men are all over the city once the sun sets. I say we wait an hour or two after midnight. When he gets the news or realizes what we’ve done, he’s going to be pissed. He’ll react and reach out to me like before. The moment he calls, we’ll be ready and we can track him. If he’s at home, we know what to do. But if he’s not…surprise is on our side, and we have him.”
I pulled Kody in, not liking that there was space between us.
“I still think getting him at home is the best way.”
“Vitor’s seen what we’re capable of, Rush. Especially me. The fact that he might expect us to show up at his place is the exact reason we can’t. We’re dead if he has the upper hand. Kody’s plan is our best shot.”
Rush rubbed his hand over his head as he looked down to his boots. When he sat up again, he let out a deep breath, nodding.
“Fine. I still don’t like it, but I’ll do it.” He cursed. “He’s going to be home, and then…cowards. That’s what we’re going to look like.”
