Chapter 24 Cole #3
"He's been casing the school for at least a week." Kade's voice sounds distant. "Xander caught him in the visitor logs. Did a parent tour four days ago. Said he was considering the school for his daughter's transfer."
Parent tour.
He walked where she walks. Breathed where she breathes. Stood in the hallways she runs through, the cafeteria where she eats lunch, the classroom where she learns to read.
"He's not a parent." My voice comes out flat. Dead.
"No. But diplomatic credentials open doors."
More photos. Adrian documenting routines, pickup times, security gaps. His face calm and patient in every shot. Calculating.
Angelina's voice comes strangled. "He saw her once. At the fields. He didn't care about her then—"
She stops. Understanding blooms across her face, ugly and horrified.
"He doesn't want her." The words taste like ash. "He wants leverage."
"He's not getting near her." My voice doesn't sound like mine, too quiet. The rage has gone somewhere past hot, into the cold place where plans live.
Jax straightens off the wall. "Alina's running background on Adrian's hotel, daily patterns—"
"I don't need his patterns. I need his location."
Kade meets my eyes.
"You have it."
Angelina's hand moves to the edge of the table. "Cole—"
"Angelina. Don't."
"I wasn't going to stop you."
Her voice is steady. Her eyes are not. They're holding mine with something that bypasses words, something that says I know what you're about to do and I'm not asking you not to do it.
"I know."
Kade's voice cuts in. "Remy, take Judge Castellano to see Chesca. Give us the room."
Remy moves immediately. "Your Honor? Alina makes excellent coffee."
Angelina hesitates. Her eyes stay on mine for a long moment before she follows Remy out. I watch her until the door closes with a heavy thunk of steel on steel, leaving silence and my own heartbeat loud in my ears.
Kade waits. "You're sure?"
"He photographed her school. Documented her routine. Filed custody papers in a country where his father owns judges."
"That's not what I asked."
My fingers curl against the table edge.
"I'm sure."
Kade nods once.
"Call Damian when it's done."
"Understood."
"Cole." He pauses. "Make it clean."
"I wasn't planning on making it anything else."
Jax pushes off the wall. "Hey, so—" He stops. Starts again. "You need a wheelman? Because I can have the car ready in like two minutes, and I know a route that avoids every camera between here and the Fairmont—"
"No."
"Right. Yeah, okay, cool." He jams his hands into his pockets. "Just putting it out there. I'm ready when you are."
Kade swipes his tablet. Adrian's hotel information populates the screen: address, room number, security details, diplomatic status.
Everything I need.
"He's at the Fairmont. Suite 1847. Diplomatic security detail rotates shifts at 1400 and 2200."
I memorize it. The numbers burn into my brain alongside every photograph of him standing near my daughter's school.
"Copy."
The elevator opens on B3.
The common area is warmer than B4 with softer lighting and the kind of comfortable furniture that makes you forget you're underground..
Chesca sits cross-legged on the floor with a controller in her hands, Aaron Bear forgotten beside her hip.
"—and then the blue shell, and Xander SCREAMED—"
Vanessa laughs from the couch, her monitors arranged on the coffee table, fingers tapping queries without looking at the keyboard.
Chesca sees me. Her face lights up. "Cole! Xander is TERRIBLE at video games."
"I know. It's embarrassing."
She giggles. The sound hits somewhere behind my ribs, innocent and uncomplicated and exactly why I'm about to destroy someone.
Angelina stands near the kitchenette with a coffee cup in both hands. Her eyes find mine across the room.
I cross to her, weaving between the couch and the coffee table where Vanessa's monitors glow. Angelina sets down her cup as I approach, reading something in my face that makes her own go still.
"You're leaving." She's stating a fact, not asking a question.
"I have to."
Her hand finds my elbow with gentle pressure, pulling me aside and away from Chesca's hearing range.
"Just come back."
"I will."
"You better." She tries to smile but it doesn't quite land. "Chesca's going to want to show you that butterfly."
"I know."
"And I'm going to want—" She breaks off, shakes her head. "Just come back."
I kiss her forehead. Let my lips linger there for a moment longer than necessary.
"Cole?" Chesca's voice cuts through. Small hand tugging my jacket. "Can I show you my new butterfly later? I made one with purple paper."
My daughter.
I crouch down to her level. "Yeah, Hime. Show me when I get back."
She nods. Releases my jacket and returns to her game. I watch her settle back onto the floor with Aaron Bear tucked against her side and her controller already in hand. Vanessa catches my eye and gives me a barely perceptible nod. I've got her.
Angelina and I move toward the corridor.
"I need to grab gear. I'll come back through before I leave."
We take the elevator down one level. C2. The team is still there, monitors casting blue light across tactical displays, everyone very focused on their screens.
I stop Angelina near the door.
My hands frame her face. Her breath catches. Mandarin and rose and something warm underneath.
I kiss her like I'm memorizing her.
She kisses me back and holds on too long. Her fingers grip my jacket with desperate strength.
Behind us, Jax becomes extremely interested in a monitor displaying absolutely nothing critical.
I pull back. Her eyes are wet.
"I'll be back."
"You better be."
I walk out.
My boots echo on concrete as I pass the equipment lockers and the armory. I stop long enough to grab what I need: suppressor, backup piece, zip ties, gloves.
My motorcycle is waiting.