33. Preliminary Planning
33
Preliminary Planning
Jessica
It feels like we’ve been waiting for days rather than hours.
Antoinette keeps fidgeting with some tracker she has since apparently having tabs on Darius is the norm.
I’m about to get my sixth or seventh espresso when a ruckus at the door draws my attention.
Lilith strides in, looking as disgruntled as ever as she says, “I found this asshole skulking around outside.”
She steps to the side, revealing a disheveled and bloody Kaian, and I jump up, running toward him as I exclaim, “What the fuck, Kaian? Are you okay?’
He waves his hand dismissively as he replies, “I’m fine. It looks worse than it is.”
Marieka appears at my side, concern on her face as she asks, “What happened? How did you get here?”
“Where’s Matt?” I interject hurriedly.
Kaian shakes his head. “They got him and the others. Matt made me promise that I would bail when things started going to shit. I tried to talk him out of it, but he wouldn’t have it. So here I am, fucking pissed.”
Antoinette joins us. “Sounds like Matt. Did he say why?”
“He wanted me to be with you guys, so you’d have one more person who knew the ins and outs of the organization.”
Lilith pipes up, “That makes sense. We all know quite a bit, but you can never know too much.”
Camilla appears on the other side of Marieka, and she says, “How are their disguises holding up?”
Kaian looks over at her and then does a double-take, his eyes narrowing as he looks between Marieka and Camilla in horror. Then he looks back at Camilla and asks, “Why do you still look like my sister?”
Camilla laughs, and I smile. Marieka grins, eying Camilla proudly as she says, “Isn’t it amazing?”
Kaian shakes his head and sighs. “The last thing I need is two of you.”
Marieka punches him in the arm, narrowing her eyes. “You could only be so lucky.”
We all twitter with laughter, and after a moment, Lilith interrupts, “I don’t want to be the buzzkill here, but we probably should focus on what appears to be another Darius kidnapping.”
Antoinette’s eyes widen, and then she laughs again as she says, “You’re right.”
“Another?” I ask.
Antoinette turns to me and smiles as she responds, “Oh, yeah. Darius is the king of getting kidnapped. We’ve had to save his ass so many times.”
“You’re kidding,” I say in surprise.
“Totally not kidding,” Carolina answers. “Actually, I think the only one who hasn’t been kidnapped is Matt.”
Now, Lilith laughs as she says, “There ends that streak.”
Kaian’s tired voice interjects, “I see they weren’t fucking kidding about you people.”
Antoinette gives him a suspicious look and then asks, “Did I not warn you?”
He raises his brows and nods. “You did. You sure did.”
“Warn him about what?” I ask curiously.
Kaian goes to answer, but Antoinette puts her hand up and responds, “Our fondness for misplaced humor and ridiculous taglines.”
I snort because I would have thought those two things would be obvious at this point.
“And big words that sometimes come off as unnecessary,” Carolina adds proudly.
Then Lilith adds, “And the deep tendency to go off on tangents and completely overlook the seriousness of the situation.”
Kaian and I look at each other, and he shrugs as I shake my head. Then Camilla says, “I’m going to go find my face while you guys figure it out, and I’ll be right back.”
She takes off in the direction of the bathrooms, and Kaian frowns after her, still shaking his head and muttering to himself.
I jab him with my elbow and say, “The bathrooms are that way if you want to get cleaned up. I don’t think a few more minutes delay is going to make or break this whole mission.”
He smiles gratefully and then slowly walks off in the direction Camilla just left.
The group of us return to the workstation, and Antoinette picks up her phone, glaring at the screen as she says, “Still no movement.”
Lilith glances at the screen and then says, “It will take them a bit to move them anywhere. Then again, they may not need to, considering that facility is generally secure.”
I frown and then ask, “What do you think they’re doing to them?”
Lilith makes a dismissive motion with her hand as she says, “Probably nothing at this point. It always takes them a while to get their shit together. And most of the time, they call in someone else to do the dirty work.”
“So, they don’t just go right to hurting them?”
She shrugs and replies, “Well, they might smack them around a little bit, but nobody’s going to do anything that would truly offend them or hurt their feelings or anything if that’s what you’re worried about.”
“I’m not necessarily worried about their feelings so much as their physical person, but I get what you mean.”
Carolina speaks up from my other side, resting her hand on my arm as she says, “Those guys are used to this shit. They can handle it.”
I frown and ask, “But don’t you worry about them?”
She laughs almost bitterly and then says, “Well, of course. Every fucking day.”
“Then how do you stand it?”
Carolina gives me a closed-mouthed smile, but it’s Antoinette who answers, “We don’t have any other choice. This is the life we all signed up for.”
Carolina adds, “Hence the inappropriate humor and completely ridiculous coping mechanisms.”
I smile, knowing the truth behind those words.
But I didn’t necessarily choose this life. I try not to think about this fact as I contemplate how I might handle the loss of the man I just got back.
“Stop that,” Antoinette’s voice breaks through. “Never think about how you might survive without them.”
I meet her eyes briefly before returning my focus to the floor as I nod, swallowing the lump in my throat.
A door opens from across the room, and I glance over to see Kaian walking through the doorway. Camilla is a few paces behind him, and he looks over his shoulder, shaking his head and muttering something that has her grinning rather deviously.
I frown, glancing at Antoinette, whose expression mirrors mine. She looks at me, and we both raise our brows at each other and shrug.
At least that might be a story for another day.
The two of them join us at the workstation, and then Antoinette says, “There’s still no movement, so I’m starting to wonder if they’re just going to keep them in the facility they’re at.”
“It’s likely they will,” Lilith responds. “Any dirty work they want to do can easily be done from there. Moving them would actually cause more problems than anything else.”
“They may be concerned about another breach, though,” Camilla responds. “I’m sure they have no idea how we all ended up getting in there.”
“Do you think they’re going to question my father?” I ask.
Lilith speaks up, “Doubtful. Some of them may want to, but I don’t think that’s a hornet’s nest they’re willing to poke just yet.”
“And all the boys will give them is trick answers and jokes and likely get themselves punched a few more times than necessary,” Antoinette says.
I turn to Kaian and ask, “Do you think they’ve noticed you’re gone?”
He shrugs, then replies, “Hard to say. It may take them a while to do a full headcount, given all the bullshit that’s gone on recently.”
“So, worst case, you might be able to sneak back in?”
He pauses, obviously contemplating my question before answering, “Probably. The difficulty will be me getting back out in order to relay any messages to you.”
“What are the odds they’ll be able to escape on their own?”
Kaian gives me an incredulous look, but it’s Lilith who answers, “Nil. The boys are pretty wily, but the odds of them giving them even the tiniest chance to escape is none.”
I sigh, worry twisting in my guts at the thought that they’re locked up and being tortured. I may have been out of the life for quite a bit of time, but that doesn’t mean I’ve forgotten how it works. I also know while my father might have done something to help me, it’s highly unlikely he’ll step up and help anyone else.
“So, we have to go get them then,” I state. “We can’t just leave them there.”
“We’re definitely going to have to go get them,” Lilith says. “First, we need to take a moment to go over a game plan, decide if we’re going to try to sneak in under the radar, incognito, or just go in as our true selves and blow shit up.”
Kaian laughs and says, “Blowing shit up is probably the right thing to do.”
Lilith smiles. “Abso-fucking-lutely. The key is timing all that blowing shit up to not blow ourselves up or anyone else we don’t want dead.”
Antoinette adds, “And not knowing exactly what we’re going to run into when we get there means that timing could easily be fucked.”
“So, you need to run on a timer instead of a detonator?” Kaian asks.
“Yes, timers are more foolproof in the sense that sometimes, detonators are faulty, or whoever holds the detonator ends up dead and can’t push the button. A timer is a timer. You set it and eventually, it goes boom.”
“So, you want to blow up the entire facility?” I ask.
Kaian and Lilith both nod emphatically. Antoinette says, “We’ll try to send someone in ahead of time to give a heads up to the few people in there who we would prefer to escape.”
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Lilith asks. “Sometimes, a heads up means the wrong people live.”
They all look at me, and after a moment, I ask, “What?”
Carolina answers, “You’re the only one who might have someone in there to warn. So, really, it’s up to you.”
I frown, completely unsure of whether I give a shit if my father lives or dies.
And then I remember that if given a choice, he would most likely leave me to die.
“No warning,” I reply firmly. “If we happen upon him while we’re in there, he can be given a choice. Come with us, or die.”
Antoinette frowns and says, “If that’s what you want. But are you sure?”
I meet her gaze unflinching as I reply, “Yes. He hasn’t been my family for the majority of my life. So, either he’s with us, or he’s against us. I expect you all to act accordingly.”
She nods and turns back to the computer screen. Zooming in, she turns to Lilith and says, “You go get our supplies sorted. This place is fucking big, and it’s going to take a lot to take it down. Also, reach out to Agatha and see where she and the other guys are.”
Lilith says nothing. She just turns on her heel and takes off across the room.
Antoinette turns to Camilla and asks, “Do you feel like playing the decoy?”
Camilla’s eyes light up, and she grins and says, “Always.”
She takes a step back, running directly into Kaian, and from the coy expression on her face, it’s obvious she did it on purpose. She turns back to him and rests her hand on his bicep as she says, “Oh, excuse me. I didn’t see you there.”
He glares down at her, and I cough back my laughter, pressing my hand against my lips to hide my smile. I glance at Antoinette to see that she’s doing the same.
He doesn’t say anything in response but backs away, putting some space between them, and her coy smile turns smug. She turns to Antoinette and asks, “Who do I get to be this time?”
Antoinette’s smile broadens, and her eyes light up as she says, “Me.”