Chapter Seventeen #4
“Well, some of us say it. Others say they don’t. I think she knows exactly who loves her and who thinks she’s good in bed,” Kala replied.
Charlotte sighed. “It’s more complex than that, and you know it.”
But was it? “I have a hard time with that word, but you should know I’m going to say it because I’m not going to be afraid anymore. I’m going to put in the work I need to in order to give Kenzie everything she needs. I’m not going to freak out and go off script unless I absolutely have to.”
“Our versions of necessity are two different things,” Kala countered.
“Hey, I’m not the only one who needs to handle how I feel about Kenzie. If that tape wasn’t fake, then I worry that’s what she believes everyone else thinks about her. She’s not overly dramatic. She feels things more sharply than the rest of us,” Ben argued.
“Do you think I don’t know that?” Kala got in his face.
“Do you think I’m not going over every single time I ever joked about it?
Every time I accused her of fading like a fairy princess?
She’s in there and I know what she’s going through, so trust me, I understand that she was talking about us.
I love my sister, and I’m going to be better to her. ”
“I love your sister, and I’m going to be better to her, too.” Ben wasn’t going to back down. Kala was the hard case, and he had to make her believe him.
She stared for a moment before handing him a rifle. “I’ll kill you myself if you hurt her again.”
“I love it when my family hugs it out,” Big Tag said and he stood. The van was way too small with two large men and two tall women in it. “Ben, you memorize the place? Tris will be working from the comms van, but I want you to have good knowledge of what we’re walking into.”
“We’re going in via the delivery door, which is on the west side of the building.
Tristan will take out the security cameras, but it won’t take Manny long to figure it out.
We go in and then split up. We believe Kenzie is going to be held in the lower levels.
” Kenzie had done a lot of research, including discovering that the castle had undergone extensive renovations.
She’d managed to track down the company who’d done it and gotten the schematics.
It was very industrial. They believed this was where Manny would do his medical research and make his bombs.
“Lou should be down there, too, but we’re not sure which wing is for technical research and which is for medical, so we’ll have to take a chance.
Manny’s residence seems to be on the top floor, and like Nepal, it’s got some serious security around it.
He’ll try to get there. There’s a helo on top of the building, but the only way to access it is through Manny’s apartment or climbing up, which is how Lucy will ensure the fucker can’t fly. ”
Tag reached for a handheld radio. “Lucy, how’s the climb?”
The radio crackled. “Easy peasy. Lou’s C-4 is in place, so blow this sucker when you will. Although we might want to think about how it’s going to affect the environment…”
Tag shut the radio off. “She’s excellent at her job, but her mother has infected her with a deep desire to save the planet.
We’re working on it. Everyone should be ready for that fucker to have the place wired with explosives.
I don’t think he’ll blow them before he knows he has a path to the helo, but he could do it early.
Be careful. Our prime mission is our people.
And it’s go time. Charlie, baby, are you ready? You’re with me. Kala, don’t kill him.”
Well, this was going to be fun.
Ben entered third, Kala at his back and Big Tag at his front. His heart pounded, but he took a long breath as they moved across the loading dock. He had a comm in one ear and could hear Tristan’s and Tasha’s calm instructions.
“Lucy is almost on the ground. Sami’s meeting her, and they will be causing some chaos in the east wing.
The shift change is on, and I expect a good portion of them will head that way.
You have roughly three minutes before the new guard takes his first round if he doesn’t run off to see what’s going on.
I don’t think these guys are particularly well trained, but there are a lot of them.
Wait. I have movement. Stay put,” Tasha said.
Big Tag stopped at the end of the last dock, a wall separating them from the five or six guards who were huddled around what looked like the office portion of the loading dock. There was a computer system and a desk where the men were signing in or out, depending on their schedules.
It was good to know Manny kept all the proper records for his evil empire.
It was taking too long. He needed to get to Kenzie.
This was why the military guys were way better at this. They’d been trained to wait and not go strictly on their guts. His was telling him that Kenzie was in trouble, that she needed him, and all he wanted to do was run screaming for her.
What had she already been through? What had Manny done to her? It didn’t matter because he would do everything he could to help her heal. He just wanted her alive. He would deal with everything else.
He was going to trust. It was a start. He was going to trust one person, and that person was Ian Taggart. He was going to trust Ian and not allow himself to panic, not allow himself to give in to the need to meet Manny so they could finish this.
He didn’t want to finish because he now knew what he would be finishing was his life, and that wasn’t acceptable anymore.
He’d spent years working toward a point—defeating Manny—and not seeing anything beyond that moment.
He wanted a future now. A future with her.
Kenzie needed him. He saw her in a way no one else did. They were meant to be, and he wasn’t going to fight it one more second. He was going with it, and if his heart got broken then at least he’d fucking used it, given it to a woman who was more than worthy.
“Oh, we have a friend. Looks like Zach made his flight,” Tasha said. “He’s coming in with Cooper and TJ. Unit two, you have a go.”
“Zach, welcome home,” Big Tag said.
“Happy to be here, sir. You should know Henry Flanders is taking care of everyone we have in Bliss, and he’s monitoring the situation,” Zach said over the line.
From what he’d learned Henry Flanders was Big Tag’s mentor and Lucy’s father. “How did Zach get here so fast?”
Taggart kept his voice down, his eyes on the door about forty feet away. “He asked me to call him when I thought it was going down. I called the minute Lou was taken. He’s been making his way here for two days. I wouldn’t leave him behind, and he won’t leave Lou.”
The ground beneath them shook slightly.
“That’ll be Lucifer,” Kala said quietly. “She was going to blow two of the vehicles. I tried to get her to take down that weird wall thing, but I got a lecture on pre-Christian European architecture and why we shouldn’t explode it. See, that’s her real evil superpower. The power to bore me.”
He heard a whooshing sound as the door came open and then booted feet on the concrete floors.
“All right. You lost four of seven,” Tasha informed them.
“And they left the laptop on. So if someone would like to murder a couple of assholes and take a look, that would be great. We need key cards. Tris is having some trouble with the interior security system, and that’s where we’re sure they’re keeping Lou and Kenz. ”
“I’ll take the laptop. Tim’s taught me a lot.” Ben looked to Kala. “Don’t let them kill me.”
Her eyes rolled. “Like I would. I want to do it.”
She was going to be such a fun in-law.
There it was. The future. He was thinking about it more and more now, and without fear. He thought about marrying Kenzie and starting a life with her.
He wasn’t sure how they would do it, the logistics and all, but they would work it out because they were end game.
Tag nodded his way and then looked to his wife. “You got a spot, Charlie baby?”
She gestured to the stairs behind them. “I’ll take out the guy on patrol. Kala can get the two by the desk, and then I’ll have a perch for anyone who comes in. We’ll meet back here for extraction.”
“Mom, they’re not watching. You can take the perch on the west side without too much trouble.
” Tasha proved she’d worked with her parents and knew exactly what her mom would do.
“I’ll move the van in once we get this party started.
Tris says he’s got eyes on the lab and we need to move.
Kenzie is in a medical lab. It’s the fourth door on the left.
He says it’s bad, so Coop, you might want to make your way. ”
“Does he have eyes on Huisman?” Ben asked. He wasn’t going to call him Manny anymore. Manny had been the dude who was his friend. He might never have really existed, but Ben wasn’t going to argue that now. Huisman was a target. Nothing more.
“He’s in the medical wing. Lou’s got three guards on her. She’s in a lab working with some dangerous shit, from what Tris can tell,” Tasha replied. “No weapons should be fired in that space, and now Tris is worried about oxygen tanks. He’s got Kenzie on one.”
“Is she awake?” Ben forced the question out of his mouth.
A pause and then a quiet reply from Tasha. “She is aware of what’s happening to her.”
Then he felt it. A hand on his shoulder. It wasn’t Big Tag. It was Kala.
He was still for a moment, letting the emotion between them settle, and then he turned. “Let’s get her out of here.”
Kala nodded. “Let’s do this thing.”
The moment her mother was in place, Kala took off and Ben followed, ready to get his girl.