Chapter 85
NOVA play: This Is War by Thirty Seconds To Mars
The blueprints of the cabin just further solidified my theory that Jay’s father had suspected Luke might one day be a problem. He’d built this place to be exactly the type of safe space we were currently using it for.
The cabin was designed in such a way that the rock of the mountains around us offered us quite a bit of natural cover and would make it difficult for even professionals to ambush us without us knowing about it.
There were only three ways to access the cabin without needing to scale down a literal cliff to get to us.
There was the gravel road we’d taken to get to town, another narrow footpath that led to the garden in the back, and then there was the open air that the glass wall of the cabin looked out over.
I’d almost made the mistake of overlooking that side as a viable entry point until Jay had assured me it was more than possible that Luke would equip his team with at least one chopper.
Despite the natural defences the environment offered us, I still had my work cut out for me when planning our traps. We only had so many bombs, and I knew we’d need to use them strategically.
I wasn’t exactly trained in military strategy, but between Jay and me, I felt like we had a pretty good advantage by the time we were done.
Jay said that with twenty guys, they would likely break up into teams of five or more and come at us in waves. This would increase the likelihood of success on their end. If the first team didn’t make it, maybe the second one would, and so on.
So, we made our defense plan based on that assumption.
There were a couple of Bluetooth speakers in the house, and Jay had some tactical strobes that I spent some time syncing with NOVA.
I hid one of the speakers in some overgrown brush in the mountain paths while Jay lined the enclosed rocky space with four of the six bombs he had left over from infiltrating Neurovance.
NOVA recorded my voice so we could play it on the hidden speaker, hopefully tricking one or more of the teams into thinking I’d escaped the cabin. Then, once they’d gone to intercept me, I could detonate the bombs from the lab.
We also laid several rows of retractable spikes across the wide driveway.
We hid them with a loose layer of dust and gravel so they wouldn’t be spotted before I had time to activate them.
This would hopefully take out the tires of any vehicles they might use to drive up, and force the men inside to approach on foot instead.
If that happened, the plan was to detonate the remaining two bombs and set off the strobes, blinding the shit out of the men and driving them toward the cabin so Jay could take them out with his MP5 from the house.
Our weakest point of entry was still the glass wall overlooking the cliff.
If they came in with a chopper, we didn’t have anything high-powered enough to take it out, and we’d be forced to wait for it to land before we could do anything offensively.
Jay told me they would likely rappel down onto the roof and use the skylight over the den to get inside, and it was a massive weak spot in our plan.
Jay couldn’t be in two places at once.
If he was busy on the porch taking out the teams stuck in the blind traps there, and another team hit us from above at the same time, we would definitely need to freestyle a little bit and do some on-the-spot thinking.
Jay spent some time teaching me how to use a handgun, but it wasn’t exactly just ‘point and shoot’.
It took a lot of training to be able to confidently handle a firearm…
training that I just didn’t have, but Jay insisted I still keep one on me, saying it just made him feel better knowing I was armed.
I had agreed, though I hoped I wouldn’t need to use it. For some reason, I didn’t have a problem with remotely blowing up a bunch of dudes on a screen. I could trick myself into believing it was one of those violent video games Jay and I had always avoided.
But sighting down a gun and shooting someone right in front of me?
That was a little too personal for my nerdy ass.
Though if I needed to do it to protect Jay, I would. He’d been through enough, and there was nothing I wouldn’t do at this point to make sure he was finally free from the monster that had kept him as a prisoner for such a large portion of his life.
We would make it through this.
We would make it through this, and I would spend the rest of my days fixing all the broken parts of the man I loved.
“NOVA, how much more time do you think we have?” Jay asked, once we’d checked in on my mother and made sure she was comfortable and fed.
“Likely a few more hours, at least four. Last ping I got from Luke’s N-phone put him in Fresno.”
He nodded, his expression grim.
“You should try to get some sleep,” he said to me, and I rolled my eyes.
“We should try to get some sleep. You’re not superhuman, Jay.”
“I’m not going to be able to,” he replied, his tone flat.
“Then come lie down with me. Even if it’s just for an hour or two,” I insisted, and he pursed his lips but nodded, gesturing for me to lead the way to what I was now affectionately calling ‘our room’.
“Remember when I used to be in charge of things? At what point did you start calling all the shots?” He sighed as he followed me up the stairs.
My mouth twitched, and I glanced over my shoulder, smirking down at his scowling face.
“Hey, I still let you pick out my outfits every day. That has to count for something.”
He ghosted his fingers up my back and tugged me into his chest as we crested the landing to the main floor. I shivered, and he ran his nose and lips gently up the back of my neck, nipping softly at my sensitive flesh.
“Mmm. I do like doing that,” he rumbled into my ear, steering me toward our bedroom with two large hands on my hips.
“See? It’s not my fault you can’t seem to say no to me. You’re not a very good brat tamer.”
He huffed out a laugh, kissing me firmly on the side of the head before smacking me affectionately on the ass.
“You’re the furthest thing from a brat, Milo. You’re my good boy. Always have been,” he hummed, and I felt my cheeks flush hot at the praise.
He hadn’t called me a good boy since his mind had been modified. My entire body reacted to it, and when I glanced up at him, the small, sly smile on his face told me he knew the effect he had on me.
“You gonna be a good boy for me tonight, Milo?” he asked softly, and I nodded, biting my lip in anticipation.
“Y-yes,” I whispered, and he tugged my lip out from between my teeth with his thumb.
“Then get washed up and meet me in bed. I want you naked and on your knees. Face in the pillows, please.”
“Y-yes sir.” I stumbled, earning myself one of his rare smiles before scampering off to do what I was told.
He was right.
I was terrible at being a brat. I just wanted to please him, and if this was possibly our last night on this planet, I was going to spend whatever time we had left together doing just that.