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Jackson looked at me, and I him. I had no clue. All the options were bad. The house in Nashville was a no-go. They knew where that was. I refused to go to my dad’s. I didn’t want to endanger anyone else. And there were still the issues of how Caleb could always find us and where the two of them were.
I sighed. “Gather the team. We have some decisions to make if they’re releasing us.”
Nine
Jackson
Our room overflowed with people. We were two capable adults who made decisions daily that impacted us and numerous employees, but everyone had a fucking opinion as to where we should stay.
Marcie, with Glenn on speaker phone, wanted Katie in Nashville.
Detective Blanchard told us to stay local.
My parents wanted us in Seattle, as did Liam.
My grandparents wanted us in Texas on the ranch.
The security team was also voting for the ranch. That was fine with me, but my career and business could be run from anywhere. Katie’s couldn’t. She spent the last month working on her next album and needed to be available for publicity spots for the awards.
I was seconds away from losing my shit. The sound in the room echoed off the walls, bouncing around, making the noise level migraine-inducing. Finally, I’d had enough.
I put my thumb and forefinger in my mouth and whistled until everyone shut the fuck up. When the room settled and everyone looked toward me, I said, “Listen. We can weigh the pros and cons of every fucking location, but, and I say this with the utmost respect, Katie and I are fucking adults, and we will make our own damn decisions.”
Katie seemed as overwhelmed by them as I was when she said, “Jackson and I will discuss things with each other and then with the security team. Once we’ve decided, we will let everyone else know.”
Mama looked at us with pride as she stood, ushering everyone out of the room. “Alright. You heard them. Let’s get out of their way.”
When everyone was gone but the team. I looked at Katie, raising my eyebrow.
Katie nodded but said nothing.
I kissed her forehead and did as she silently requested. I took control. She was overwhelmed and ready to be done making decisions.
“Seattle. We’re going to my parents, at least until Liam says otherwise. When he says we’re medically ready, we’re coming back to Nashville. Katie has the awards ceremony to get ready for.”
Everyone nodded.
I added, “I also want to add some people to the team. We need a bigger show of force until someone manages to find these motherfuckers because I for damn sure don’t wanna get snatched and tortured again.”
Adam DuBois said, “Brock and I will be staying on. We’ll track the bastards down, but…”
Foster interrupted him. “Adam, no.”
Adam looked at him and then turned back to me. I stared at him until I noticed Brock shaking his head.
“What is it?” I asked.
“It will be easier to track them down if you aren’t hiding out. If you’re in the wild, doing your normal shit, they will think we’re idiots and come looking for you on home turf.”
Adam and his husband, Brock, had served with Foster but left the SEAL teams because they’d fallen in love before Don’t Ask Don’t Tell had been repealed. They’d been regular fixtures around the ranch the last few years my dad was on active duty in the Marines. Brock was fucking funny and impulsive as hell sometimes, but he was cool as fuck. Adam was just the opposite. He never met a rule he didn’t like, and while he could be funny, it wasn’t his default.
I nodded. The month between New York and the shit that went down in Nashville, we’d pretty much hidden out. Granted, Iwasrecovering from a gunshot wound that nearly did me in, but still. We laid as low as possible.
Then how did they find us?
Foster, Celeste, and Hayden all started talking, and I silenced them. “No, I wanna hear what Adam has to say. What we’ve been doing isn’t fucking working. We need a new game plan.”
Foster held his hands up and motioned to Adam. “Sorry, Lieu,” Adam apologized.
