72. Kiera
KIERA
The whack of the soccer ball hitting into Caleb’s foot pulled me from my haze. Watching them from the patio table, the kids kicked around the ball in the grass. Lady zipped around, trying to catch the soccer ball as the kids launched it into the air.
My eyes darted down to their shoes, stopping short and scuffing the grass. Dom would hate that, the new marks that would be left on the perfectly manicured yard.
But as I looked over at her, I knew she was far too distracted to give a shit. The impending doom of Spencer being identified had rattled all of us. I barely slept last night. And from my captors tossing and turning, I could assume they hadn’t either.
Dom had gotten to work hunting for a safehouse as soon as the shock passed enough for her to make a call. Last time we’d pulled every string we could, and it still took us days to get one. And now we needed a safehouse that would be able to keep the kids safe.
Plus, there was the question of how the fuck we’d move there without being followed.
Spencer’s elbows pressed into the metal patio table as she held her head in her hands. “I just don’t know how this happened. All the details are fuzzy.” She squeezed her eyes closed. “Maybe I lifted it in the tunnel?”
As soon as she said it, the memory flashed back to my mind — my heavy breathing, my feet planted in the asphalt. I couldn’t move, and we had seconds to work with. And then Spencer’s eyes, the only thing that could ground me in the panic.
Spencer put her identity at risk in that tunnel, trying to calm me down. All because I couldn’t get my shit together and complete the mission.
A rush of guilt filled my body, sending a wave of nausea to my gut.
From my face, Dom knew that I had remembered it. But she shook her head and smacked Spencer’s arm. “Hey, it doesn’t matter anymore. All that matters is getting this over with.”
We had less than a week before the wedding. Thanks to Leo and Dom’s countless hours, the email cache was almost entirely collected. They’d arranged the files in an order that would give the public the clearest picture of what their fathers had done.
It had come at a cost, Leo barely able to keep her eyes open as the warm early summer sun beat down. I wanted to wrap my arms around her, let her sleep on my chest until she was ready to get up.
The plan was fully in motion now. Dom had given Viv the go-ahead to send in the share transfer paperwork. With any luck the administrative processing time would give me my inheritance just as we were taking Isaac down.
With all of his resources focused on the wedding, he and his cronies wouldn’t have time to stop us. The shares would be in my possession and Dom and I could hostile takeover the entire company.
Another whack of the soccer ball brought me back to the table.
Dom nodded. “Let’s run through this again.
” Starting at the beginning, Dom walked us through Doomsday, keeping her voice hushed to avoid the kids overhearing us.
“On the morning of the wedding, Spencer and Leo will escort Caleb and Abi to a safehouse. There, three of our allies will keep an eye on them.”
The babysitters wouldn’t be just anyone. The Oracle had offered to bring in their own people. But Dom didn’t trust anyone that she didn’t choose herself. All alone, she’d called in her favors with the Violence and the Oracle allies.
Dom went on. “Once we know the kids are safe, Kiera and I will drive to the wedding in a separate car — dressed as guests. Neither of us will be able to carry in weapons. Security will be too tight. Which means that Leo and Spencer will have to get me one once you’re inside.”
Turning to look at them, Dom laid out what they would do.
“You’ll sneak inside, take advantage of how distracted security will be when Kiera and I walk in.
While you two covert op your way through the building, taking out as many guards as you can, groups of Oracle allies will move on the underground Zeus hideouts. ”
Leo nodded. “All the higher ups of the trafficking ring will be in attendance at the wedding.”
“Correct.” Dom went on, her voice growing louder and projecting over the lawn. “Between Violence, Laniidae, and Apidae, it shouldn’t be hard to dismantle the ring.”
“Shh.” Lifting my finger to my lips, I tried to get her to lower her voice. In a hushed tone of my own, I asked. “What happens when we get to the wedding? What’s going to stop Isaac’s guards from grabbing us and killing us immediately?"
Dom took a deep breath. “Nothing, really.”
“Comforting.” Spencer chuckled.
“Except for the fact that there will be dozens of reporters and paparazzi. And my father loves a show. He’ll want the press of me bringing Kiera to him.” Jaw tensing, Dom looked furious at the thought.
I knew now that Dom would rather die than ever betray me, even if she tried to hide it still. What we’d shared in Seattle had stuck despite how she still used my body to take out her frustrations when we had moments alone.
As the plan was laid out, all of us stared forward. It was risky, far more so than any of us were really comfortable with.
Leo looked up at the sky. “Spencer and I will get situated on the balconies overhead, assemble the guns.”
Gritting her teeth, Dom added. “Our show begins when the vows begin. You two will signal to the Violence that they can move into the lairs and we’ll make our stand against Isaac. He won’t know what’s happening until it’s too late.”
“At the same time as we grab Isaac, the cache of emails will be leaked by LD’s Teresa Mendez, ruining my father’s public persona along with all of his sycophants.”
We all knew the rest, but this was the part none of us could say.
Then we’d eliminate Isaac.
Despite the reality of what we planned to do, we couldn’t bring ourselves to say it. This was Dom’s father, not some random dirtbag at a club.
He was a man even I remembered, playing tag in the summer heat in this very yard just over a decade ago.
From the lawn, Caleb scooped up his soccer ball. Game’s over.
Dom let out a sigh. “Any questions?”
Endless.
We could have sat around that table for years fleshing out every single second of the mission. But it wouldn’t stop the fact that none of us had the answers.
What was left to play out would. And the rest would require panicked solutions in the chaos.
In the meantime, all I could do was lean back in this chair, look up at the light blue sky, and hope that we could make it out the other side.