Chapter 27
Chapter twenty-seven
Raegan
Aiden and I stand at once, our metal chairs scraping the floor and cutting through the hushed voices.
It’s then that I notice Reid following behind him, expressionless as usual.
There are a few flecks of red on his jaw and cheek as if he’d been close enough to receive some of the spray.
But the one who dealt whatever damage was definitely Jack.
“What happened?” Aiden demands. “Where were you?”
Jackson stops a couple of feet from us, his sapphire gaze eyeing the crowd gathering around us. Some move back when he looks at them, and a small smile forms on his lips. “In the basement,” he replies coolly. “Taking care of a loose end.”
“Excuse me.” Elias taps on a couple shoulders to grab their attention that’s pinned on Jack before they realize who’s speaking and hurriedly move aside. “What’s all this about?” He freezes when Jackson glances over his shoulder at him.
“He killed Bea,” Reid supplies.
Dane curses. “Dammit, Jack!”
“Let’s take this upstairs,” Aiden says in a tone that brooks no arguments.
“My apartment,” Elias adds, garnering a look from Aiden, who’d probably wanted us to handle this between the five of us.
Aiden begrudgingly nods, and Elias leads the way. I grab my napkin and go to Jack. He immediately takes my free hand while I wipe some of the blood from his face.
It doesn’t bother me. The crimson color he wears is a reminder of what he’ll do to keep me protected. I do it out of respect for Elias and his home to make sure he’s not leaving evidence of what he’s done behind.
Jackson grabs the back of my head and pulls me into a kiss before I can finish.
He kisses me like the God of Death as he takes my breath away.
Takes my mouth with a ruthlessness that has my knees trembling.
Violence radiates from him like a dark energy that prickles along my skin. It demands more blood, more death.
I push back, meeting his savagery with my own. I dig my nails into the back of his neck. Bite his lip so hard he groans, and that bloodlust shifts to desire.
Hold my leash, the words he once told me whisper through my head.
Gripping his hair, I yank him back. “Upstairs. Now,” I command, trying to keep my voice firm even though I’m breathless.
Kellan and Dane stand behind me, blocking others from watching the show. I grip Jack’s hand and lead the rest of us to Elias’s apartment on the top floor. It takes up the entire floor, which means there will be plenty of room for us without being on top of one another.
Which is for the best.
I knock at the door, and Aiden opens it for us.
As soon as the door closes, Elias sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose. “Please explain what happened.”
Reid looks at Jack, and when he doesn’t offer up an explanation, replies, “Bea was causing trouble in the basement.”
“The girl you’d taken prisoner?” Elias clarifies, and Reid nods once. “How does someone who is locked up and giftless cause trouble?”
Jackson cocks his head, regarding Elias with a dark stare and a smile. He looks dangerous and unpredictable right now. “By trying to cut her hand off to get free.”
Elias blanches.
My stomach curls. I’ve dislocated my thumb to get out of cuffs, but I’m not sure I could do something as terrible as that.
“How did she even get something to do that?” I ask.
“Aside from the cuffs, she wasn’t restrained in the basement. I had Cassandra heal her injury. I wanted to see what she would do with that little bit of freedom,” Aiden explains.
“A normal person would’ve tried picking the lock or breaking the door down,” Dane mutters.
“She’s brainwashed by Charles,” Reid says. “She’ll do anything to get back to him.”
“Then why did you have me carrying her around?” Dane snaps at him. “You should have just killed her then.”
Reid levels him with an unbothered stare. “It was worth a try to use her gift against them.”
“Portia could have convinced her,” I murmur softly.
“We don’t need Bea,” Jack counters mildly. “The plan was always to kill her.” He locks his blue eyes on mine. “Alive, she was a threat. And I’ll kill anyone who threatens you.”
Fuck, I should be worried. Concerned, at least. I shouldn’t stare obsessively into the eyes of a man who says something as unhinged as that and feel heat swimming through my veins. Or feel the need to wrap myself around him and kiss him until I’ve robbed us both of air.
Elias’s brow cinches. “That’s not how we do things—”
Jackson’s eyes snap to him with a look that would have any normal person shitting their pants. He wraps his arm around my chest, pulling me against him protectively with his cheek pressed to my temple. “I do. If someone is a threat to her, I’ll kill them. No questions. No mercy.”
I can’t help but lean into him, drawn to the calm confidence in his husky voice even as he promises death on my behalf. I’ve never felt safer or more at ease than when he’s wrapped around me.
Elias looks at Aiden, who doesn’t refute Jack’s statement.
“There’s no need for you to be concerned, Thorton. So long as you and those at Hype don’t wish her harm, we can continue working together to take down Gifted Enterprise.”
“Of course, I don’t.”
Aiden nods. “Then, there’s no problem.”
Elias sighs, rubbing the back of his neck.
“Your body, your clean-up,” he finally says, which honestly shocks the shit out of me.
I’d expected him to be more... disgusted?
Angry and upset? Then again, I shouldn’t be surprised after what Portia told me.
“Hype opens in one hour, so that takes priority. We’ll reconvene once you’ve finished. ”
Once the dance floor has been thoroughly bleached and washed as per Elias’s standards—and the body removed and the basement cleaned—we return to his apartment to figure out our next move.
“There are still seven board members alive,” Aiden reminds the group. Cibrina, Reid, and Tinsley have joined us, spread out across the large living area and kitchen.
“A few have gone into hiding after our last attempt,” Dane reports. Which was exactly what we were afraid of and why we’d gone after them all at once. Kill them before they get skittish and disappear.
“But that doesn’t matter now, right?” I ask, shifting between them. “Alice gave us private cell phone numbers of her siblings. We didn’t need them for our last plan, but now...”
“Even if we know where they are, there’s a high probability they’re somewhere more secure or with agents protecting them. It won’t be as easy to get to them,” Aiden counters.
Elias nods in agreement. He’s sitting in one of the living room chairs opposite Aiden with an ankle resting over one knee and his hands gently clasped and resting on top. “Have you made contact with these half-siblings yet? Are they on our side?”
I sink into the couch, chewing my lip. He has a point.
Look how long it took Alice to come around.
How can we expect the others to go against Charles when Alice had been—and still is—adamant she doesn’t have to fight him?
None of them want to be on the receiving end of his fury if he realizes any one of them betrayed him.
Dane squeezes my hand. “Alice can convince them.”
I frown, doubtful.
“She’s seen the Guild and the people in it. She wants to be a part of it, and I’m sure she wants that for her siblings, too. If anyone is going to persuade them to help us, it’s her. She was in the same position as them not that long ago,” he presses.
“Our last failed attempt isn’t going to look good to them,” Kellan remarks, his arm thrown over the back of the couch behind me.
“No, but the destruction of one of their headquarters and the underground facility will,” Dane retorts.
Kell grins at me, and my neck crawls with heat. “That’s right. They’d be fools to not see the winning side now.”
Aiden taps his fingers on the armrest, a sign of his mind working in overdrive.
“We’ll offer them our protection as well.
Regardless of the outcome, if they can get us to the board member, we’ll ensure their escape and protection.
” His hand stops. “That can give us the intel we need on where they are and what protections are in place, but it’s still messy to deal with. It would be easier if—”
An idea hits me.
“If they’re all in one place?” I breathe, a rush of adrenaline surging through me as the idea solidifies.
All eyes are on me.
“What if we could draw them out? Get them all in one place? Maybe another HQ like the last one just as a big eff you to Charles?” I rush out.
Aiden frowns. “Slow down. How would we draw them out?”
“I’m not sure yet. Maybe lure them out with Charles somehow?
Make them think he wants them to meet him at a specific location?
And then I destroy it like I had the last one.
Charles didn’t hesitate to cover it up, so I’m sure he’d do the same for another GE building.
” He can’t have officials sniffing around and finding evidence of Gifted Enterprise’s true nature.
“If we have the invisible spy network on our side, I just need information from one of the board member’s phones,” Dane tags in.
“I can spoof Charles’s number to the board members’ phones so they think it’s him texting them to meet.
” He glances at Reid. “Reid can help me write the message so it sounds like him.”
Reid nods. “He usually makes the board meet him wherever he is. It wouldn’t be out of the ordinary.”
Kellan scratches his beard. “How are you going to bring the building down without being seen, beautiful? I’m all for the plan up to that point. The building could fall on you, and people might see you.”
“I’ll cover her,” Jackson calmly interjects.
I nod, then answer the second concern. “We’ll have to rely on Alice again.”
Dane shakes his head. “She doesn’t know how to make other people invisible.”
Damn.
But I’m not giving up. “Then we train her. Or maybe one of her siblings. I’m sure between them, someone can do it.”
“We’re putting a lot of hope in the girl who killed her own brother out of fear of Charles,” Kellan drawls.
“She saved me, and she didn’t have to,” Dane argues, surprising me.
“We need to see if she can make others invisible first. The rest of the plan falls apart if she can’t do that,” Aiden intervenes.
“Dane, you and Jackson will help her figure out how to do it. Kellan and Raegan will focus on training and stamina to prepare for the building’s demolition.
The rest of us will put together the full plan on how we’ll execute this trap for the board while minimizing risks. ”