Chapter 24 #2
“We get there early, set up inside before Randall arrives. When he shows for the meeting, we take him.” Lincoln indicated entry points on the schematic.
“Primary team enters here, secures the main floor. Secondary team covers this exit in case he runs. The clients are not of primary importance—we can deal with them later. What’s important is making sure Randall doesn’t escape.
He’ll be hunting for Morgan as long as he’s free. ”
“Why not just call the feds?” Derek asked. “Anonymous tip, let them handle it?”
“Three reasons. First, Morgan is still on their most wanted list. We show up with this intel, they ask how we got it, and suddenly, she’s in custody instead of Randall.
” Lincoln pulled up the next display. “Second, we don’t know who Randall has inside the agencies.
Tip off the wrong person, and Randall gets a warning instead of a welcome party. ”
“And third?” Theo asked.
“Third, no one’s going to believe us without proof.
A fugitive and her boyfriend claiming some shadow operation is destroying federal evidence?
” Lincoln shook his head. “Randall has the evidence that clears Morgan—records of the actual hackers, proof she was coerced, documentation of his operation. We need that.”
“So we get the proof and wrap the bad guy up in a pretty little bow to hand over to the feds,” Bear summarized.
“This is our only chance. Randall doesn’t know who I am. Doesn’t know Morgan is with me. Doesn’t know we’ve cracked his system. We hit him fast, we hit him hard, and it’s over before he understands what’s happening.”
Bear shifted in his chair. “Speaking of Morgan—she staying here?”
Lincoln glanced at her. She was already shaking her head.
“I’m part of the team,” she said. Not a question.
Bear looked over at her. “I don’t mean any offense, but are you sure that’s a good idea?”
Lincoln wasn’t going to leave Morgan behind, not if she wanted to come. She was the one who had lost the most and whose life was currently in shambles because of Randall.
“She knows the operation better than any of us. She was inside it.” Lincoln kept his focus on Morgan.
“If she sees something—recognizes Randall’s people, identifies anyone from her captivity—that matters.
And when we have Randall, she can verify whatever he tells us.
Her memory is the one thing he can’t lie around. ”
“She’s also the person Randall’s looking for,” Derek pointed out. “If something goes sideways, she’s a liability.”
“Nothing’s going sideways. Randall thinks this is a routine client meeting. He’ll have minimal security—one, maybe two people. We’ll have five tactically trained men, plus the element of surprise.”
“You’ve accounted for everything,” Theo said. It wasn’t quite a question.
“Yes.”
“Every variable.”
“Yes.”
Theo and Bear exchanged a look. The kind of look that said they’d known Lincoln long enough to recognize when he was in full control-freak mode.
“What?” Lincoln asked.
“Nothing.” Bear held up his hands. “Just remembering the time you planned Derek’s surprise twenty-fifth birthday party down to the minute and then forgot to actually invite Derek.”
Lincoln could feel his teeth grinding. They brought this up every time. Every damned time. “That was a scheduling error.”
“You scheduled the party. You did not schedule the guest of honor.”
“The system had a flaw. I corrected it.”
“After we’d been waiting at the restaurant for an hour,” Theo added.
Derek grinned. “I was at home watching TV. Very surprised when Bear called, screaming about cake.”
“This is not the same situation.”
“It’s exactly the same situation,” Bear said. “You get so deep in the details that you miss the obvious thing.”
“There is no obvious thing I’m missing.” Lincoln gestured at the screens surrounding them. “Entry points, contingencies, extraction routes. Simple operation. We get in, we grab Randall, we get out.”
“Uh-huh.” Bear leaned back in his chair. “Just like Derek’s birthday was a simple party.”
Callum cleared his throat. “Can we focus on the operation that involves actual criminals instead of the one that involved sheet cake?”
“It was ice cream cake.” Derek chuckled. “Which melted. Because someone—”
“Moving on.” Lincoln pulled up the final tactical display.
“We leave in two hours. Drive time puts us in Denver with enough buffer to get positioned before Randall arrives. Bear and Derek, you’re with me on primary entry.
Theo and Callum, secondary position covering the north exit.
Morgan stays with our group until we’ve secured Randall. ”
The briefing continued. Questions about equipment, communication protocols, contingencies if they were spotted. By the end, the plan existed as a complete architecture—positions mapped, timelines synchronized, every scenario accounted for.
They were ready. Randall didn’t know it yet, but he was about to go down. About to pay for every mark he’d left on Morgan—physically and emotionally. “Let’s gear up.”
Bear stood, stretching. “I’ll start loading. Try not to forget anyone this time.”
“That was one time.”
“It was twice. You also left Theo at a gas station a few years back.”
“I came back.”
“After forty-five minutes.”
“The timeline was—” Lincoln stopped himself. “This is not productive.”
Theo patted his shoulder as he passed. “We love you anyway, Linc.”
They were teasing, trying to lighten the atmosphere. Lincoln appreciated it even as he dismissed it. He didn’t need entertainment. He just needed to take Randall down.
The room began to empty. Derek and Bear headed for the armory, their bickering fading down the hallway. Callum paused at the door, exchanged a look with Lincoln, then followed.
Morgan remained at her workstation.
Lincoln crossed to crouch down beside her. The displays still glowed with Randall’s network, the Denver location, all the data he’d assembled. She was staring at the building schematic with an expression he couldn’t quite read.
“You don’t have to do this,” he said quietly. “If you’d rather stay—”
“No.” Her voice was steady, but her hand had drifted to her forearm, fingers tracing the faded scars through her sleeve. She caught herself doing it and stopped. “I’m not sitting this out.”
He understood. Some things required showing up. Required facing the thing that had tried to break you.
“I’ve planned for everything,” he said.
“I know you have.” She looked up at him, and something in her expression softened. “That’s what you do.”
“It’s what I’m good at.”
“Among other things.” She reached up and touched his face.
He leaned down and kissed her. Not brief this time. Thorough. The kind of kiss that said what words couldn’t convey—that she was the variable he’d never anticipated, and he was grateful for it every day.
When he pulled back, her hand was still on his face.
“We’re going to end this,” she said.
“Yes.”
“And then I want to reorganize your bookshelves properly. The Asimov is still wrong.”
He almost smiled. “Noted.”
They walked out together. Past the kitchen, the living room, all the spaces that had become theirs. Outside, the others were loading vehicles—gear and equipment, everything they needed.
Lincoln paused at his SUV. Looked back at the compound he’d built as a fortress against uncertainty. For years, this place had been his refuge.
Now, it was simply home. The place where Morgan was.
A little less than two hours later, he climbed into the driver’s seat. Morgan settled beside him. Behind them, Bear’s truck and Callum’s vehicle pulled into formation.
The convoy headed for Denver.
Lincoln drove with his hands steady on the wheel, his mind cycling through the operation one final time. Entry points. Contingencies. Scenarios. He’d prepared for everything.
The road stretched ahead, dark and empty, carrying them toward whatever waited in Denver.