Chapter 26
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
VALEN
The text goes out at exactly four p.m.
Sterling hits send, then sets the phone gingerly on the table between us, as though it might explode.
I don’t remember ever feeling true fear like I do now. It’s invaded every molecule of my body—an infestation created by my own mother, an inherited disease that’s slowly eating away at my resolve, my honor, and even my moral compass because my mind is full of murderous thoughts.
And not the kind Clover dreams up for her fictional worlds.
No, this is the kind where I practically taste the blood of vengeance on my tongue.
I glance around at my family, all staring at the phone.
Seven people holding their breath, waiting for three dots to appear. Waiting for Terra to take the bait.
One minute passes.
Two.
Five.
Nothing.
“Maybe she didn’t get it,” Chase says.
“She got it,” Clover says quietly. She’s been sitting on the edge of the couch for the last hour. Wrecks is in front of her with his head in her lap, but she stares at nothing. “She’s deciding whether to respond or not. Everything with her is about control, and she despises taking orders.”
“Or she’s already on her way,” Roman adds, checking his tablet. “I have cameras surrounding our meeting point and a guy stationed at all four corners of the property. We’ll enter from the west. If she’s anywhere near it, we’ll know.”
Ten minutes pass.
Twenty.
Still, she keeps us waiting.
“This is bullshit,” I mutter, jamming my hands into my pockets so I don’t lash out. I can’t sit still anymore. “She should’ve responded by now.”
“She’s playing mind games,” Sterling says. “It’s a tactical trick that emotional terrorists excel at. She’s hoping to make Clover sweat, doubt her decisions, affect her reactions so she’ll be easier to manipulate, easier to manage.”
“I’m not doubting,” Clover says, but her voice is small. This is the Clover I first met, not the woman who has blossomed since. “She’ll come. She won’t be able to help herself.”
Unable to stand the distance—in her voice, between us, in the air—I muscle Wrecks out of my way and crouch down in front of her. “Hey. Look at me.”
She does, and the rest of the world fades around us. Her eyes are huge, the pupils blown wide with fear. I hate it.
“If she doesn’t show up,” I say, “then we regroup. We’ll find another way. This isn’t our only option.”
“I need it to be though.” Her hand finds mine with a painful grip.
She’s spent decades of her life living with shadows and ghosts chasing her.
It’s clear they’re breaking her down now.
“If she doesn’t come tonight, she’ll come another night, when we’re not ready.
When I’m really and truly alone. When—” She bites her lip so hard I fear she’ll draw blood. “This has to end, Valen.”
Fuck me. Everything in me wants to tell her no. I want to call this whole thing off. To bundle her into the borrowed SUV and drive until we hit the highway, then never look back.
But that’s the last thing she needs.
And it’s not what she wants. Under all that fear, she desperately wants to face her demons and take control of her life.
It’s the very least that she deserves.
My cousins all nod as though they’re mind readers.
“We’ll go tonight, even if she doesn’t respond,” I say.
“Agreed,” Grant says. “We stick to the plan. If she’s there, we take her. If she’s not, we’ve lost nothing but a night.”
“Except maybe our sanity,” Roman mutters, but he’s already checking his gear. Emotions are at an all-time high for everyone because nothing has ever mattered more.
The phone remains silent while we run through our protocols. At six, Sterling pockets it.
“She’s not going to respond,” he says.
“Doesn’t matter.” Clover stands up. Wrecks whines, pressing against her legs. “She’ll be there.”
I hope to God she’s right.
“Would you like to check in with your friends before we go?” Grant asks.
I know he’s trying to be supportive, but the muscles in my neck lock up. I don’t know if I want her to talk to them so they can talk her out of this plan, or if I want her to say no so we can just get this fucking nightmare over with.
“I—” She’s a deer in headlights.
“Y’all call them now, and they’re going to drag in everyone, including the FBI, to keep you from bein’ the bait,” Chief says.
His words aren’t unkind, but they don’t mask the fact that he’s fully against our plan.
“There’s a reason y’all haven’t involved the authorities yet.
You need answers, but if she calls those girls now, this plan goes up in smoke. ”
Clover wraps her hands around her elbows. “Chief’s right. If I talk to them, they’ll know something’s wrong. I don’t—I don’t want to worry them any more than they already are.”
Grant puts his phone away, but I can tell he’s on edge. He cares about Clover. They all do.
“Everyone should try to eat something before we head out,” he says. “It could be a long night.”
No one makes a move toward the kitchen. In fact, my stomach revolts at the mere thought of food. That’s never happened to me before.
I really am scared out of my fucking tits.
We leave the safe house at seven. The sun has already sunk behind the mountains, casting everything in moonlit shadows, but I barely acknowledge our surroundings because I’m too busy trying not to vomit.
Me, the guy with the iron gut who’s run into battles, toward bullets, fires, and even a damn exploding building to save strangers.
But you put me with the one person who means more than my own life, and I can’t even load my gun without dropping the bullets—something that had worry etched deeply into Sterling’s face as he watched me.
Clover rides in an SUV with me. Grant, Sterling, and Chase follow in another vehicle. Chief insisted on coming, despite Roman’s protests, and is riding with the cousins. I’m sure he’s worried about one of us doing something stupid.
Smart man. It’s a much different war when your entire heart is at stake.
Against Wrecks’s whined protests, we left him behind at the safe house. I only hope the building is still standing when we return.
Roman left to meet his team an hour ago. His guys have been in position for hours, holding steady, ready for any and all signs of life. The motion sensors have been calibrated, and cameras are recording from all three hundred and sixty degrees.
We’ve turned the clearing around our tree into a fortress disguised as wilderness, yet I can’t stop the sinking sensation that it isn’t enough.
“Stop thinking so loudly,” Clover says softly.
I glance over at her, but she’s still staring blankly out the window with her hands folded neatly in her lap. She’s perfectly still except for her right foot that’s tapping against the floorboards.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
“I’m scared.” Her words barely kiss the air.
“I know, baby,” I say, and she finally turns her honey-colored eyes my way. “But I need you to trust me. Can you do that?”
“I always have, Valen. That’s never been in question. I trust all of you.” Once again, she finds Grant’s car in the side mirror. Chase, who’s in the passenger seat, gives her a thumbs-up as if he’s been waiting for her to seek them out again. It gives my fear a momentary reprieve.
They’ll protect her with everything they have.
“It’s her I don’t trust.” Clover’s voice wavers between rage and fear.
No one can trust the woman who birthed me. Least of all Clover.
“That’s good, Honeybee. We can’t trust anything she says.”
She holds out her hand, palm up, and I meet her halfway. “But we can trust Roman’s guys. Grant’s planning. You. You won’t let her hurt us.” She sounds so confident, I do a double take.
Even with our history, she has a faith in me I’m not sure I deserve. It floors me. Guts me. And rebuilds me into someone worthy of that kind of trust.
“Damn right, I won’t.”
She smiles, but it doesn’t reach her eyes. “Then we’ll be fine.”
If only I could have half her faith.
The drive to the compound is too short, but we park a mile away from the tree, forging an off-road path where no one would think to look for us.
Roman insisted.
While I have the field experience, he has the type of mind that was built to strategize for war, and he insisted that we approach on foot to control our exposure. I stopped processing around his fifth command because all I could hear was the blood rushing in my ears.
The walk through the woods is silent except for the crunch of leaves under our boots and the occasional breathy gasp from Clover. Her shadows are creeping back in, and they’re having a physical effect on her.
She hasn’t been this jumpy since the first time she saw me again and damn near convinced herself that I was a ghost.
She walks between me and Grant. Sterling and Chase flank us at two and eight o’clock. Chief brings up the rear, moving surprisingly quiet for a man his age.
Roman remains concealed in his hiding spot, but his voice crackles through our earpieces every few minutes with an update.
“Perimeter secure.”
“No movement detected.”
“Clover, you’re going to see Johnson at your two o’clock in about thirty feet. Don’t react. He’s one of ours.”
Sure enough, there’s a man in tactical gear partially concealed behind a tree. He doesn’t move as we pass, but I feel his presence. Feel the weight of a rifle barrel tracking us, and I’m thankful that Roman had the wherewithal to warn her.
Fuck, I needed the warning too. I’ve never felt so ill-prepared for a mission in my entire goddamn career.
The only mission that truly matters.
Get your shit together, Stone.
Having visuals on our men should make me feel safer, but it doesn’t. If anything, it brings our reality into stark, terrifying color.
“You’re approaching the break point,” Roman says in my earpiece. “Thirty minutes and counting.”
The break point is where I’m supposed to leave Clover, but it might actually be where I lose my mind.
How am I supposed to let her walk into a potential ambush all alone?