Chapter 59 Slade
Slade
Len walks into the cabin, as cool and aloof as the first few times I’ve seen her. She looks ready to take on the bad guys: black tactical pants and jacket, knife strapped to her thigh, and I glimpse her holster under her jacket.
Unlike the other times, though, she’s not alone.
What I’m assuming is her team files in behind her.
Three men and one woman. One man is even taller than Bane and is just as solid and muscular.
The next is Bane's height but slightly less broad, and the third guy is the leanest of them all and reminds me of a playful playboy—the kind where he knows he’s hot and doesn’t have to try too hard to captivate people.
There are serious vibes coming from them all, but it’s not the guys who have my attention; it’s the woman.
She has shoulder-length, caramel-colored hair with a mix of reds, browns, and blonde, and gray eyes.
I stand still in shock that the songwriter-musician, Severyn Andrews, is standing in this cabin with Len and her team.
She fell out of the spotlight and public eye a while ago, and no one knew where she had gone.
How she got from there to here, with a team that works with an ex-CIA agent to take down the bad guys, I’m struggling to comprehend.
Severyn steps forward, and I don’t miss the shift in the one guy’s stance, as if he’s ready to protect her.
From the look on his face, I’m going to say, protect her at all costs.
She casts him a side-eye, as if telling him to stand down, before turning back to me and extending her hand.
“Hi, Slade. I’m Severyn, but you can call me Ryn.
” I shake her hand, still a bit shellshocked.
She smiles, and it’s kind. “I’m a member of the team Len works with. ”
“You’re the ones who worked with Creed Santoro and saved Sophie?” Bane asks, staying close to my side.
“We are. This is Rolf, Tag, and Nexin.” Ryn indicates the men in the size order in which I had first noticed them.
Tag moves to Ryn’s side, and the same possessiveness and protectiveness that I feel from Bane emanates from him for her.
“Normally, we keep our identities hidden, and during a mission, if we need to meet someone in person, we wear disguises.” He glances at Bane and then back to me.
“But we’re coming here, revealing our identities to you. ”
“In an effort to make us think we can trust you,” Bane deduces.
“Yes,” Ryn admits. “But not to make you think; to let you know you can trust us.”
“Len’s plan,” Bane growls, “is fucking insane.”
Nexin smiles easily. “You don’t even know the specifics yet.”
“I don’t need to know all the details because any plan that suggests using my woman as bait is fucking insane,” he snaps.
I rest my hand on Bane’s forearm, trying to calm him. It works…somewhat.
“Let us lay it out first before you shoot it down completely,” Len says.
Bane regards her, then gives a jerky nod, and pulls me tighter into his side.
“Should we sit?” Nexin indicates the couch and chairs.
“Be my guest.” But Bane’s tone makes it clear we’ll remain standing.
Nexin shrugs and sits on the couch and relaxes. Rolf crosses his arms over his tank-like chest, and Tag and Ryn remain standing.
Len paces as she speaks. “Army gave you all the intel we’ve been able to pull together with Digits and Sam’s help?
” At our nod, she continues, “Since Digits is rather…occupied at the moment, and Sam is helping him there.” Guilt rears within me that the Havoc Guardians are being attacked because of me, but I push it down for now.
“Our tech guy has been flying solo for this part; however, he’s made additional headway regarding the chatroom. ”
“What do you mean?” I ask.
“He’s unearthed the identities of almost fifty percent of the people involved.”
My head spins at the speed, efficiency, and skill of Len’s team member for unearthing this in less than fourteen hours.
“These are rich, entitled pieces of shit from around the globe,” Len continues. “Powerful and connected, just like the Vanderalls. We can’t assume they won’t have connections with law enforcement agencies to thwart any allegations.”
“You’d be stupid to think they didn’t.” Bane is rigid with tension beside me.
“Exactly. So we need to beat them at their own game and expose them, in as real-time as possible.”
“Like some sort of onsite news crew, reporting live, for an exposé?” I ask.
“Bingo.” Nexin grins.
Bane inhales deeply, as if trying to remain in control. “That sounds risky as fuck for Slade.”
“It will be,” Len openly admits. “But she’s at greater risk if we do nothing.”
“Fake her death,” he orders.
“No, Bane.” I stare up at him, knowing he means to fake our deaths. “I won’t allow you to lose your family. Your place is leading and protecting the Havoc Guardians.”
He cups my chin. “My place is with you, wherever that may be.”
My chest clenches tightly with a mix of love and guilt.
Len pulls our attention back to her. “With the reach and span of this network, Slade would always be at risk of being found, taken.”
His jaw clenches, and that tick is back. “The vague plan I’ve heard so far is far-fetched. It will never work; it will just put Slade in Randolph’s hands.”
“It can work,” Rolf rumbles quietly, and I hear a faint German accent. “I’ve been part of a similar op, and it worked.”
“And whoever was bait, did they survive?” Bane presses, clearly skeptical.
“No.” Rolf drops his arms and flexes his hands as sadness flashes over his features. “But only because that was Annelou’s end goal. She had a terminal illness and wanted to go out her way…doing some good.”
“Slade isn’t terminal or suicidal,” Bane snarls.
Rolf holds up his hands. “I know that; I’m just being straight with you. Our op was designed with Annelou’s end goal in mind.”
“Whereas, with Slade,” Tag counters, “the end goal is survival.”
“At any cost,” Bane grits.
Tag and Bane have a brief stare down before Tag concedes with a dip of his chin.
“How would this work?” I ask.
This time, when Nexin motions for us to sit, we do, and he moves over to make room for us. Tag and Ryn sit in the chairs as well, while Rolf and Len opt to remain standing, as if they do most of their thinking on their feet.
Tag regards me. “We reviewed the drone footage and know how well you can drive, Slade. We’ll use that to our advantage and lure Randolph to the site where we’ll have everything set up to broadcast. We know where he’s staying, and this would start with you going there, seemingly like it was an accident. ”
“So…” I force my nerves away. “I’d cross paths with him, and then run, making him think I'm trying to get away from him but secretly I'm hoping he'll chase me while I lead him to where you're set up?”
“Exactly,” Nexin chimes in with a big smile.
“We’d control the traffic lights and direct you, just like yesterday,” Tag continues.
“We’d need some of the Havoc Guardians’ allies to pretend like they’re not allies at all and are trying to capture you to collect the bounty themselves, just to add to the chaos and strategically influence and control the path you’re taking. ”
“There’s too many that we can't control.” Bane is vibrating with tension.
I lace my fingers through his. “Just let them lay it out.”
Len eyes Bane before she continues. “We’ll take care of the broadcast feed, which will be sent to the international law enforcement agencies that we have trusted contacts with to take as many into custody as possible in one fell swoop.”
“There’s no way you can coordinate all the takedowns and captures everyone involved,” Bane argues.
“Correct,” Tag interjects. “And that isn’t the primary endgame.
Our primary objective is to expose Randolph Vanderall and eliminate the threat against Slade being removing the bounty.
For the global network, some of them will go to ground, some will be taken into custody.
But we’ll have exposed that this sick network exists and put it on international law enforcement radar to bring it down. ”
“Others, like the CIA and MI6, will take over to fully bring the bad guys down,” Nexin adds, drumming his fingers on the back of the couch.
“In terms of the FBI—”
I cut Len off, fearing she’s going to suggest I involve Granger and Camber further in my mess. “I would think someone like you and your team would have an in with the FBI.”
“Granger and Camber have already talked to their father,” Len says, making my gut sink.
“What? Why?”
“As soon as they discovered what you were facing,” Ryn says softly, “and that it was way bigger than only Randolph, your friends contacted their fathers.”
“FBI Director, Andrew Glass, is on board to help,” Len takes back over. “Given the Vanderalls’ high connections to the DOD, he’s keeping a tight lid on this and only bringing in a very small trusted team. They’ll be ready to take Randolph into custody as soon as you make him confess, Slade.”
Sounds so easy.
“This plan will work,” Nexin reassures. “And Slade will be comm’ed up; we’ll have contact with her always.”
“She’ll have a tracker, and I will be on the comms with her,” Bane grits, finally seeming to concede to the plan.
Len nods. “Slade will be protected with the best tech—tech that’s not even on the market yet.”
Bane looks at me, and I squeeze his hand. I’ve been on board since I knew there was a plan, even without knowing the details. To me, it’s not about the risk to myself, it’s about doing whatever I need to in order to protect Bane and my family.
He turns back to Len and her team. “If Andrew Glass is only bringing a small takedown team, I’ll coordinate with the police commissioner to provide a team of his most trusted officers.”
Len frowns. “Glass will already be reaching out because of jurisdiction bullshit.”
“Commissioner Talon will need to know what’s at stake and who’s involved,” Bane says simply. However, the unspoken message is crystal clear: the Havoc Guardians hold a special standing in the city, and the commissioner would do well to remember that.
“What do I do to try to make Randolph confess?” I ask.
“This is where it gets a bit dicey,” Nexin says cautiously.
Ryn leans toward me, looking concerned. “We think the quickest way to make him expose his intention and guilt is for you to make him believe you’re trying to save yourself. Do you think you can do that?”
I understand what she’s asking, and my gut churns at the thought. “You want me to bring him a victim?”
My throat is absolutely parched at the thought of someone else being hurt…no, tortured because of me. Having to watch.
“I’ll do it.”
I stare at Bane in horror. “No.”
I know having Bane physically with me will allow me my greatest strength to prevent me from spiraling and being consumed by my demons, but I can’t risk him. I can’t risk anyone, but especially not him.
“Word is out that she’s your woman, Bane.” Tag shakes his head. “Randolph will see it as a threat.”
“Plus, there’s no way you’d fit in the trunk,” Rolf adds, and I can’t help the fear-induced laugh that crosses my lips.
“We’ve discussed this at length.” Ryn scans her teammates before turning back to me and Bane. “We feel a woman would be ideal. Someone smaller but with the ability to fight, defend, and protect you, Slade, if it comes to that.”
Tag’s hand clenches, but he remains silent, clearly not happy if she’s the one to be the sacrificial lamb.
“Pix.” Bane looks at me. “There’s no one else I’d trust to protect your back other than me. And she’s strong; she can take a bit of torture until Randolph spills his guts.”
My own guts almost spill at the thought.
“Would she be willing?” Len asks.
“I’ll talk to her,” he says. “But yeah, I’m certain she would be.”
“Do we have agreement on the parameters of the plan?” Len waits until I nod, and Bane finally gives her the green light. “Good. Now we construct it, look at it from every ‘oh shit we didn’t think of that’ angle, and pick it apart and revise it again before we pull the trigger.”
“What about weapons?” Bane asks, then smirks. “We just happen to have prototype EMP grenades.”
“What the hell?” Nexin says, wide-eyed, looking a bit like a kid in the candy store.
Tag eyes Bane warily. “How did you get your hands on that?”
He shrugs, then looks around the cabin. “If this is Adamus Jones’ cabin, then I’m sure you have your own in with a dangerous arms dealer.”
“Our team’s rule of engagement is no lethal force unless absolutely required,” Tag grits out.
Bane stands, making Tag stand as well, and Bane warns darkly, “And we’ve agreed ‘at any cost’ in order to ensure Slade’s survival.”
The two very alpha males have a stare down until Len intervenes, clamping a hand on each of their shoulders. “Play nice, boys. We’re on the same team.”
Both Bane and Tag’s nostrils flare as they continue to glare at each other.
“We don’t just kill people because they look at us wrong,” Tag snarls.
“Newsflash: neither do we,” Bane snarls back. “So eat a fucking bag of dicks.”
Nexin’s bark of laughter breaks some of the tension, and Tag’s lips twitch. Then he scoffs with a small smile.
Bane isn’t placated, though. “I need to know that restraint won’t be used in order to save Slade from Randolph.”
Tag’s smile disappears and he nods. “Her safety is our priority. We’ll do what needs to be done.”
Ryn stands and pulls Tag back, his rigidness seeming to diminish as she touches him. I do the same with Bane.
He leans his forehead down against mine. “I refuse to lose you, Slade.”
And I know in my heart and in my soul, he has spoken no truer words.