Chapter 39
Chapter thirty-eight
Raegan
I’m so distracted by the text and Alice’s answer that the slight squeak of the door opening catapults my heart from my chest. I whirl around to see if we’ve been caught.
It doesn’t cross my mind in that second of surprise that we’re still invisible as long as we’re quiet.
My thoughts are too stuck on shit, shit, shit.
Aiden frowns at me when he enters. The shadows caused by the dim lighting only make him look more intimidating, but I breathe a sigh of relief when I realize it’s him.
Dane tries to wave him over to talk, but Aiden shakes his head and points to the floor.
He’s saying to wait until we’re in the tunnels.
Kellan and Jack arrive at the same time, anti-teleportation devices in hand.
Finally, we can go.
Aiden doesn’t let anyone talk until we're on the other side of the bunker in the tunnel that takes us to the bar.
Kell leans his arm on my head, and I swat him away. “Were you the one causing all the ruckus, beautiful?”
“Nope. Not me,” I reply, casting a side-eye to Dane, who, in turn, throws a glare at Alice.
“Don’t look at me. Ask Harriet the Spy,” he grumps.
Alice returns his glare. “Are you so old you forgot my name?”
Dane drags a hand down his face, then slides it through his hair. “Never mind. The professional teenage spy here touched something she shouldn’t have.”
“Hey, you said it was fine,” Alice argues.
“I said that so you’d stop panicking and making things worse.”
She gives him the middle finger.
Aiden sighs. “Let’s hope it’s not reported in, or Charles doesn’t bother with it. Nothing says it was us.”
“Was that why the guy on the radio called my patrol guy downstairs?” Kell asks, and I wince.
“Oh, yeah. That one was me,” I admit. “But he didn’t see us. He ran after the noise from Dane and Alice.”
“Which was before Alice’s phone blew up with text messages from Charles,” Dane adds.
“What were they?” Aiden inquires.
“A threat.” She looks over her shoulder at the rest of our siblings. “He has Tobias.”
The others’ expressions are divided between fear, resignation, and anger as three of them speak at once.
“—should’ve gone for him first—”
“—no way he can handle Dad—”
“—we’re all screwed—”
Aiden’s phone rings while they bicker. He holds his hand up, silencing the others.
“Who is it?” I ask, craning to read Unknown Number flash on the screen.
“Charles,” Aiden answers, immediately switching the call to speakerphone.
“Guild Master,” Charles greets, his pleasant tone icier than usual. “It’s time we end this, don’t you think?”
Aiden’s smile is malicious. “I couldn’t agree more. If you’re calling with the terms for your surrender, however, it’s too late. We’re coming for you, Charles.”
I wait for the GE president’s laugh that usually follows whenever he or his company is threatened.
He doesn’t.
“You’ve stolen assets, destroyed my properties, killed the board, and murdered Gifted Enterprise employees.
I hope you’re prepared for how I’ll bleed out every member of your Guild before you.
I’ll break my mistake of a daughter as well as the other useless defects with you.
But first, you’re going to have to make a choice. ”
Dane’s glaring at the phone, his hands clenched and jaw grinding while Kellan looks a breath away from exploding into his new draconic form.
Jackson watches the phone with an intense stare, listening to every word like he’s memorizing each threat he makes so he can mete out the punishment for it.
Alice, Sam, and the others are clustered around us, fear sitting heavy in their postures and stares.
“A choice?” Aiden questions.
“I’m going to send you two coordinates. One will lead you directly to me.
The other has some assets of mine being offloaded due to the shortage you’ve caused me.
Alice has a third location, where you’ll find the final spy child.
Choose to save the others, or come for me.
There won’t be time to do all three. You have twelve hours before I go underground to rebuild Gifted Enterprise.
I’d rather start this fresh with you lot gone, so I’m giving you this opportunity.
I’m curious to see which you’ll choose.”
The call ends.
“Every time I think this guy can’t get any worse, he proves me wrong,” I mutter, glaring at Elias’s TV in his living room.
“He’s trying to split us up,” Dane growls as we watch three real-time satellite views across the globe in three boxes.
That’s right.
The locations are on separate continents, just to be sure we’re as far away from each other as possible. And the satellites all conveniently allowed Dane to access these exact spots with crystal clear viewing.
The first one is an ocean port, where it’s the middle of the night.
On it, people in collars and chains are being loaded into a shipping container.
His offloaded assets. Once they’re in a shipping container and on a ship, it’ll be impossible to find them.
The ship coincidentally leaves the port in eleven hours.
The second is a building with a retracted roof on an island.
Inside is Tobias, tied to a gurney and feeding blood into a large collection bag.
The sun’s only rising here, which means he's going to burn to a crisp by midday while his body is already drained.
Charles is taking his gift for his use and killing him at the same time.
The last box shows a large house in a tiny island town. The location where Charles is supposedly waiting.
“That one’s mine,” Portia bites out, a sharpness to her tone that I’ve never heard before.
I snap my gaze away from the screen for the first time since Dane pulled it up to look at her.
She’s leaning forward on the couch, her hands gripping her thighs as she focuses on the first one.
She’s dressed casually today in mini shorts and a halter top, her long brown hair falling in soft waves to her mid-back.
As if sensing my stare, her vibrant green eyes meet mine with unrelenting will.
“Let my group handle the one at the port.”
I shouldn’t be surprised she’d jump to help the ones about to be trafficked after what she went through. But hearing her story and seeing exactly how formidable Portia is when she sets her mind to something are two completely different things.
“Hold it there, Rainbow,” Kellan drawls, his arm thrown over the back of the couch at the end while he fiddles with one of Jack’s knives pointed into his thigh.
Elias casts him a look of disapproval for the nickname, but Kell is already continuing.
“Splitting up is exactly what he wants us to do. If we jump when he says, we’re just walking into another one of his traps. ”
Portia pops up like she’s ready to fight him. His grin sharpens. “I don’t care if it is. We can’t let them get away before they disappear to who-knows-where! This is their best shot to be saved.”
“It’s already too late. You’d never make it in time,” Aiden counters.
She jabs a finger at Reid. He’s standing behind the large couch, where Tinsley’s sitting, his arms crossed with an expressionless mask in place as he regards the screen. “We would if he took us there. We could be there in minutes, right?”
Aiden frowns. “And take away our only teleporter until you’re finished? I can guarantee it won't just be this one container. He’ll throw everything he has at you to keep you occupied, if not to make you prisoners as well.”
Portia’s hands fist. “Then Reid can leave us there. We’ll handle whatever he throws at us.”
“I can arrange transportation home for us and the prisoners,” Elias intervenes. “However, that would exclude us from your fight with the president, as I doubt we’d return in time.”
Portia spins to me, her hair flying behind her as she bends and clasps her hands in front of her. “Rae, I know I promised to be there—”
“No, don’t apologize,” I say, stopping her. “I know you need to do this. And you are helping us. I don’t think I could live with myself if we ignored them to go after Charles. I’ll feel better knowing you’re there to save them.”
She pulls me into a hug. “Thank you! Thank you!” she breathes, her relief palpable.
Portia stands and points at Elias. “Call the others and tell them it’s time to kick some butt.
Get ready and meet me at my apartment in ten.
” Kellan cackles at her ordering Elias around, and Dane coughs behind his hand.
“Oh!” She spins to Reid. “I didn’t even ask!
Would you mind dropping us off there? Rae kind of already said yes, and I know you’re her half-brother and would do anything to help her, and so this is kind of like helping her by helping me—”
Reid’s eyes flick to mine while she rambles on. I give him a small nod—my way of agreeing that I'm asking for this, too. He puts his hand up. “Only if you stop talking.”
“Yes! Thank you!” she gushes, already breaking that request as she runs around the couch to the door. Portia somehow stops on a dime in her heels at the door. “Oh, I didn’t tell you where to meet us. My apartment is next to Rae’s. The one on the right. ’Kay, bye!”
Elias sighs. “If you’ll excuse me, I have some phone calls to make.
Good luck with your fight. If you determine the resources you need, feel free to send me a message.
I can’t guarantee when I’ll see it, but I will as soon as I can.
” He smiles at me and bows his head. “Be safe, Raegan. For Portia’s sake and mine. ”
I can’t help but return his smile. “Thank you, Elias. For everything.” The words don’t seem like enough after all he’s done to help us, to help the Guild, when he didn’t have to.
“Thank you,” Aiden offers him just before he leaves.
Elias pauses, glancing over his shoulder with a polite smile. “Of course. Don’t die, Adams. Once this is all over, you owe me quite a few favors. We have a lot of work to do, you and I.” He leaves without further explanation, the rest of us stunned into a moment of silence.
“What the hell does that mean?” Dane demands.
“We’ll worry about it after this is done. There are two locations left,” Aiden points out.
“We need to save Tobias,” I point out what feels like the obvious answer.
“We’d lose Charles,” Reid states flatly. “This is a taunt. Choose him to end this—and lose innocents—or try to save them, and he’ll go underground and come back to kill us later, once he’s rebuilt GE stronger than before. We need to kill him now.”
Dane pulls a document up on the screen. “Remember how I said I’d uploaded a bunch of data from that island Charles had me and the others on?
Well, it had the schematics and location of the machine my sister warned us about.
That location matches where Tobias is.” He faces Aiden.
“Charles inadvertently led us there, and we could destroy that machine before more items are made. Even after he’s dead, his scientists could keep making those things.
We have to destroy it before they realize GE is done for and try to move and hide it. ”
I didn’t need convincing to go to the island where Tobias is, but Dane brings up a good point. That machine should get destroyed while we're there so some scientist doesn’t decide to use it against us after Charles is dead.
“Say we take Charles out now,” I begin slowly. “What happens to the rest of GE? There are still agents and scientists out there, testing and brainwashing gifted. Those don’t go away just by killing Charles.”
Aiden answers without hesitation as if this has always been the plan.
“Once the leadership has been removed, Dane can isolate each of the facilities from communicating with one another. They won’t know anyone is gone and will continue to operate as usual.
That will give us time to clear them out one after another.
It may take some time, even with Guild teams assisting, but we will get it done.
And with no Charles, the corrupt cops and politicians won’t have guidance from him any longer.
We’ll keep eyes on them, but they should settle down. ”
Kellan snorts. “After Charles and the board are gone, the rest are probably just scientists and grunts. They’ll be easy to finish off. So how do we save our girl’s half-brother and kill Charles?”
“We split up,” Aiden replies smoothly, saying the one plan I didn’t want.
He doesn’t continue right away, before he shares the details with us.
“Reid will take the Guild members prepared to fight with me, Raegan, and Dane to Charles’s location.
Then he’ll bring Jackson, Kellan, and Tinsley to rescue Tobias and destroy that machine. ”
Jackson’s head snaps to Aiden. He’s been silent this whole time, letting everyone else talk and plan. Now, he’s eyeing Aiden with cold, dark eyes. “No.”
“There’s no goddamn way I’m not going with you. We don’t split up, Aiden,” Kellan snarls. Small scales break out along the back of his clenched hand.
Aiden nods. “That’s exactly what Charles believes. If he sees you or hears that you’re there, he’ll assume the rest of us are as well. He’ll have his guard down. That will give us time to sneak in and plant the anti-teleportation devices somewhere in that building.”
“I’ll plant them,” Jackson counters, refusing to back down.
“No. I’m sending you two because I need you to be in and out. Let him see you, kill anyone who’s a threat, but then make a mess and get out without him realizing it. Then meet us before the fight. I don’t plan on fighting Charles without you.”
“You’re making them a distraction,” Reid muses aloud.
“It'll be more than that,” Aiden continues, his expression firm. “Charles loves his traps. It’s about time he falls into one of ours.”