Chapter 16 #2
“Yeah, well, just because a big part of that failed doesn’t mean it was the only goal I had. I wanted you to be there to witness what pushed over the last domino—”
“Or snapped the last thread of sanity and restraint of those who think they’re better than us,” Kyle said with an amused tone as he held out his fist to me.
Yeah, I bumped it. We’d had this ready for a while.
“But there’s going to be a lot of bullshit—” I nodded when Kyle snorted. “And because of that, we’re not going to follow any of your rules since we’re the German government and so on. All the bullshit and anything they can throw at us. I want you to—”
“You’re never fully going to play by the rules, so don’t even try to tell me otherwise, Jasmine,” he drawled.
“Naw, I don’t lie to people I respect,” I admitted with a shrug, flinching when Dylan went tense. Yeah, well, I hadn’t lied to him.
And fuck him.
“But we take our word seriously and don’t boast bullshit,” Kyle added and he nodded to my left.
I swallowed a sigh when Gavin and several of the vampire councilmen walked in… Including Aidan. “Why?”
“Best to know what they risk given we have four now that have been fucking with our vendors,” he told me.
“Confirmed? With proof?” I sighed when he nodded. “Fine, we’ll turn that over to ISLE too.” I felt Ally and the others join us when their power danced all over me. “I warned you I was doing this. You cannot yell at me this time.”
“You do so fucking much and talk so damn fast that I cannot even keep up with it all, and—what now, Jasmine?” Arthur demanded.
“Just watch the show,” I purred, pointing to the first set of monitors in the far right corner.
Someone from ISLE moved in closer. “They are not fucking around. That’s enough explosives to level—a lot.” He turned towards me with wide eyes. “Where is this?”
“A swank mansion corporate owns that the cheetah council thinks is my private residence,” I told him honestly, nodding when he blinked at me. I blocked when Elijah came for me, moving so there was distance and space between us because Ally was on me next.
Then I handled Arthur, careful not hurt any of them as they tried to basically smack me. Joshua, Rita, and Natalia next.
And to say everyone there was stunned—especially the ancient demons they’d called in to help and were with them at the moment—was an understatement.
“I told you she’s been training more,” Elijah groaned from the ground. “She was pulling her punches.”
“Naw, she gave me that last one because I cuffed her upside the head that last meeting,” Joshua moaned.
“Oh, I forgot about that,” I admitted. “And I warned you that I was setting traps.”
“Not like this,” several of them bitched.
Well, mostly groaned in pain.
Their tantrum had made enough time pass that things had progressed nicely. I moved back to the monitors just in time to hear two of the cheetah councilmen give the order from our wire taps to blow it all and the people inside… Who they thought included me.
Right as the cheetah team was going to set it, our people took off their cloaking and the main one had a gun to the head of the leader with the explosives. “We’re jamming your radios now and even you can’t survive this close of a shot. You get that, right?”
“Yes,” the cheetah hissed, his cat wanting to come out and protect him.
“ISLE is going to see all of this so you can all go down for attempted murder of a councilwoman—which we know your council will throw you under the bus for—”
“Or just kill you as witnesses,” one of our other guys said.
“Or that,” the first agreed. “Or we’ll get you out of this alive as long as you help us get the real monsters. Once ISLE clears you, you and your families can relocate to Germany with legit jobs. We know you’re under orders.”
“Yeah, not this one,” someone drawled. “He wants Jasmine dead and—you’re fucking disgusting. This one’s out.”
There was a grunt and I was pretty sure our guy knocked a problem unconscious. Yeah, I would have done the same.
“Take the deal,” one of the other cheetahs hissed at the leader. “I got kids, man. We wanted out anyways. Fuck this shit.”
The leader sighed and undid the device, handing over the detonator. “What do you want us to do?”
Our guys took over, using their glamours of voices even to be on their radios saying the explosives interfered with the coms and video but it was done.
It was blown and they were pretty sure they had proof of my body…
But they weren’t sure since it was different than what I normally looked like.
Did they want to come see or like get a sample?
Yes, yes, they did. The councilmen were so greedy and jealous that they didn’t want to risk their minions getting the goods or information. They asked about any fingerprints and… Fucking monsters.
Seriously.
But knowing how disturbed bad guys could be was one of my best qualities and exactly how I was so good at my job.
And it was how we caught three cheetah councilmen and several aides, their shock beyond amusing as Elijah went himself and scooped them up.
And then we had a repeat performance with another council.
And another.
A fourth was a bit delayed but went off without a hitch.
“How in the world did you manage to get it—no one is so good you got it to be like this all in one night,” Phil muttered, scrubbing his hands over his face.
I saw the other confused expressions and desires to seriously sit me down and get to the bottom of a lot of my secrets.
Too many of them.
I shared a look with Kyle and nodded.
“After the head of the tiger council took the shot at the councilwoman at Christmas and made it clear she was on their radar as a target, we knew she would be the one they’d go after,” Kyle explained as he crossed his arms over his broad chest and stared down several of the ISLE brass without fear.
A penis would do that at times.
Mine was just being an idiot. Not really, but I was still cross about how things hadn’t worked out with my last plan.
“No one on the councils is stupid,” Kyle continued. “They might have gotten fat off the riches or lazy—drunk on power even but—”
“We heard whispers about your private residence being in the US, not Germany, just before New Year’s,” Gavin admitted.
“Yes,” I confirmed. “That was when we started this. ISLE has the most power in the US and the councils do as well—the best relationship and they’d be stupid to risk that.”
“You set it all up,” Dylan muttered as he studied the screens.
“But how did you get it all to…” He blinked for a moment and then slowly looked at me.
“You used the issues of the meeting to say you were going to move back to Germany. That the other council members spanked you or whatever and you were packing up to go to another residence.”
I looked away from his intense gaze and focused on the monitors. “Yes. Kyle and his team made it clear the ones we’ve been watching were all going to make a move after that meeting because even Phil said that the demon council couldn’t fall while I was alive.”
“That was not what I meant nor—”
“Of course not,” I told Phil gently. I gave him a wink. “We know. Assholes hear what they want and what works for them.”
He swore under his breath. “But I know better than to be so stupid. I’m sorry. I’m really stupid—”
“She wanted someone to say it, boss,” another guy comforted, clapping him on the back. “And it worked. They got the right message from her. I heard what you meant that night. It would be suicide to try and take her out with angels fucking protecting her, but—we’re all buried.”
“You are, and there’s no bad blood here,” I promised them. “One of the angels was going to say it specifically if you hadn’t. I wanted this even if the rest didn’t go to plan.”
Nobody could have a perfect batting average after all, right?