Chapter Forty-Three
Creed
I’m sitting in a rectangular-shaped room with Maddox, Jensen, and Caleb. Satellite monitors are on the wall to my left, based on where I sit. Maddox and Jensen are side-by-side, MacBooks open and in use, while they work to breach the Taylor Industries servers.
It’s a steep hill to climb, and they’re determined to make it happen. They’re both skilled enough to test the tightest of security walls. Maddox’s family owns a tech empire, and he grew up writing code, while Jensen’s hacking is legendary. The two are polar opposites—Maddox is Mr. By the Book. Jensen, on the other hand, tried to hack the government and was given the ultimatum of either going to jail or enlisting to hack for the Army.
He enlisted.
At this point, we can see the Green Hornet shipments live on radar, and we wait on Mommy Dearest to move them, which she will. She’s not going to give me the chance to come and get her stock when she’s making bank on them.
Jensen’s laptop beeps, and he eyes the alarm and then me. “Addie is getting a call from Brock West.” He hits the volume button, and the ringing sound fills the room. “I’m sending it to voicemail,” he announces a moment before Addie’s voice says, You’ve reached the voicemail of Addie Lawrence. Please leave a message, and I will call you back as soon as possible .
West’s message follows. “Addie, this is Brock. I’ve talked things over with your father, and he’s willing to bring you into the loop on Red Dart. I know you are still out with that migraine today, but he told me about dinner tomorrow night. I’ll be joining you, but there are some things I want to discuss in advance. Call me.” The line goes dead, and Jensen punches the sound button to off.
I grind my teeth at the idea of Addie being inserted back into that spiderweb of monsters. West being one of them. He’s plotting to fuck her and kill her, and he will not live to see that day.
Caleb’s lips compress into a hard line, and Maddox says what we are all thinking. “Is it me?” he asks. “Or is the timing on that call mighty suspect? The bullets move. West calls Addie.”
“I heard Lucian order Brock to kill Addie. It’s a trap. He’s a liability. And it’s long past time we accept that we need to lock Lawrence up. We can keep saying we’ll find Red Dart and that we need him to do that. But what else is he brewing that we don’t know about? We left him alone for two years, and Red Dart emerged. We cannot make that mistake again. We need to cut our losses.”
Maddox shifts in his chair. “We cannot act rashly—”
“While you’re sucking your thumb, considering options,” I snap, cutting him off, “Lawrence could make a mistake that allows Julian, not us, to get his hands on Red Dart. He’s scrambling now. Using my mother. Moving bullets. Trying to get his daughter back. Now is the time to move in. We’ll find the evidence we need once we have him in custody. We’ll find Red Dart. And even if we don’t, we’ll have rid ourselves of the hazard Lawrence represents.”
I fire all my attention at Caleb. “I know you worry that we’ll create enemies in our government if we take out Lawrence, but he’s creating their fear of us. They think all GTECHs are the same. Walking on eggshells isn’t going to make that go away. We take him, and no one knows we have him. We’ll hit Lawrence’s house, my mother’s place, and Taylor all in one night. We leave with everything we can, including Lawrence. Throw him in a cell here at Sunrise City. Force him to help us shut down Red Dart before Julian gets his hands on it and comes after us all.”
“Those bullets we now have in our possession have leveled the battlefield,” he argues. “Zodius knows we have them. They’ll hesitate to attack.”
“Which doesn’t end this. It simply opens a door for us to do that ourselves. Let’s get rid of one of the enemies. Let’s take out Lawrence.”
Caleb’s brow furrows, and then he nods sharply. “Tomorrow night.”