37. Thad
Thad
Everyone was back at the hotel gathered in Brooks’ and Tatiana’s room. I wasn’t stepping foot back in that other room and Emerson wasn’t either. There was zero chance I was taking her back to the place where her nightmare started.
It would take a long time, if ever, for the images of Emerson’s unconscious body being carried out of that room to leave my mind.
As soon as we’d walked in, Tatiana demanded I set Emerson down—not even the feral growl that slipped out made Tatiana back down.
She’d continued to press me until I finally gave in.
She yanked Emerson to her and hugged her tightly while tears streamed down her cheeks, muttering how happy she was to see her.
When Tatiana stepped back, I reclaimed my woman and planted my ass in a chair with Emmy on my lap. No one said a word about my behavior. Not that I would’ve given a shit if they had.
Worst two hours of my life and that was saying something. Bar none, it was the scariest. The cold detachment I’d tried so hard to hold onto splintered when Emerson came flying out of that box like a wild animal going in for the kill.
Not the fear I’d felt, not the fury, but I couldn’t hold my emotions in check any longer. I couldn’t pretend any longer Emerson was a target to acquire. When I saw the terror on her face, everything fell away, leaving only my need to hold her.
“I ran the names Garrett sent me,” Tatiana shared.
She’d stayed behind to help Garrett and Tex continue to find the men responsible for Emerson’s kidnapping.
“Both are tied to Harry Landry,” she continued.
At the mention of Landry’s name all of my senses went on high alert.
I was going to kill the man. It was going to be slow, it was going to be up close and personal, and he’d know why my blade was piercing his flesh.
And if I had it in me, it would last four hours.
The same amount of time my woman had to endure hell.
“Where’s Landry now?” I asked and Emerson’s arm around my shoulders tightened.
“Connecticut. Meeting with Emilio Ruiz,” Tatiana answered and passed her tablet to Declan. “That image was captured outside of a hotel.”
Declan turned the screen toward me and I saw Harry Landry shaking hands with a well-dressed, older Mexican man.
“That makes no sense—”
“I also talked to Zane,” Tatiana spoke over me. “This meeting was why we had the stand-down order. Word is, Emilio is not happy his daughter was targeted. Families are supposed to be off-limits. Ashaki Maloof checked in and word is, Emilio wants out of Omni.”
“Ashaki Maloof? How credible is her intel? Thought she turned,” Max questioned.
Ashaki Maloof had been a loose end none of us understood.
Her role in our last op was still unknown.
Brooks and Tatiana had both witnessed the CIA agent intimately engaged with the prince who’d tried to convince his peers Ashaki was his daughter, and one of the prince’s sons, who under that ruse was supposedly her brother, had also been seen kissing the woman.
“With the info-dump she turned in, I find it unlikely she’s turned. Garrett gave it to Violet to go over as well. With her connection to the agency, I’d be interested to hear her take on it.”
Violet had worked at the CIA until she’d been blackmailed. She was extremely smart and had a great eye for bullshit and data analysis.
“Where’s Ashaki now?” Declan inquired.
“Connecticut. After her father died, she reached out to Landry asking for his protection,” Tatiana informed us.
“Good play. Assuming Landry doesn’t know she’s really not the prince’s daughter. Which I gotta tell you, with what we know about Landry he seems to be omniscient. My bet is he knows and is keeping her close until he can get rid of her,” Declan concluded.
“Not our problem. The woman has proven to be committed, and by that I mean, really fucking committed to her job and she’s resourceful,” Brooks said, and his brows pulled together, probably remembering seeing Ashaki in a full-on make-out session with a man who he’d thought at the time was her father.
The door to Brooks’ room opened and Kyle came through with my pack slung over his shoulder, Emerson’s dangling from his forearm, and he was carrying something in his hand.
He also looked pissed.
“What’s that?” Max beat me to the question.
“Found this on the kitchen table. ”
“Kitchen table? In my room?” I queried.
“Yep.” He dumped our bags on the floor, made his way to the sitting area, and placed a piece of paper down on the table. On top of that, a peacock feather.
“What the fuck?” Brooks exploded and I knew why.
Tatiana had been left behind unprotected. If someone had been in my room again, that meant they were close enough to his wife to snatch her for a second time in one evening.
My eyes scanned the note and bitter fury raced up my spine.
“Thaddeus…”
Emerson may’ve said more but I couldn’t hear a damn word she said as I read the threatening note a second time.
May this serve as your only warning. Your unwelcomed intrusion has been noted and is not appreciated.
We would hope you now fully understand how vulnerable you all are.
If it was this easy for us to procure Ms. Pierce while Mrs. Miller was so close, think how easy it would be for Mrs. Lewis or Mrs. Anderson-Doyle to disappear.
Their safe returns will not be guaranteed.
We are watching.
We are watching.
They’re fucking watching?
Hell to the motherfucking no.
I got to my feet and Emerson held on like a monkey.
“Get down, Emerson.”
“No.”
“No?”
“Stop and think, Thaddeus. Let’s sit down and think about this.”
“She’s right, sit down,” Declan barked.
Hell. No.
“They took my woman,” I thundered and felt Emerson jerk.
“With his wife in the next goddamned room.” I stabbed my finger in Brooks’ direction.
His expression mirrored my own. “And they’re fucking watching?
Ivy? Erin? Zane, Colin, and the president are going to lose their ever-loving minds. And you want me to sit down ?”
“That’s exactly why you need to sit down and we need to regroup,” he explained.
“Call Garrett, we need a flight to Connecticut,” I told him.
“No. You’re not going to Connecticut tonight. We’re getting married tomorrow,” Emerson protested.
“That’s—”
“No!” she shouted and unwrapped her body from around mine. Her hands went to her hips and her pretty green eyes were shooting fire. “You’re not going. Even I know you do not go into a mission half-cocked and full of rage—that’s suicide. We’re getting married tomorrow.”
“Emerson—”
“You promised,” she whispered. “You promised me you’d give me the future we always dreamed of.
All I had to do was believe. I believed, Thaddeus.
If you leave now with your stomach full of vengeance you won’t be safe.
Your head will be full of hate and wrath, and that’s too dangerous.
You won’t come home to me. I know it. I know you’ll be blinded by the need to eliminate the threat and you’ll be on a collision course with death. ”
Watching the panic in Emerson’s gaze overtake her entire body snapped me back to reality.
I wasn’t alone anymore. My decisions had repercussions, ones that could greatly impact her life.
There were chances I would no longer take, because she would be waiting for me to come home.
The children we’d have would be depending on my safe return.
Fuck.
We needed to regroup.
“Em—”
She cut me off again and cut me deep. “You promised. You said you weren’t gonna let me go. You said you almost lost me. Now you’re gonna make me go through losing you ?”
“No, Emmy, I’m not. Come here.”
“No, Thaddeus. You need to—”
“ Agápi mou, you’re right. I’m not going anywhere. Now, come here.”
Emerson didn’t move but her shoulders did sag in relief. Damn. I’d done that to her. After everything she’d gone through tonight, I’d upset her.
I didn’t wait for her to come to me. I scooped her up, kissed her sweet lips, and sat back down.
Declan picked his phone up off the table and made the call I knew he was dreading.
Zane Lewis.
He had a flair for drama and devastation.
When he could combine those two and get creative, he was scary as fuck.
And a direct threat against his wife would be the ultimate kick to his balls.
I didn’t have to wait for the conversation to know he was about to go thermonuclear and the Omni Group would be a wasteland when he was done.
Declan quickly gave him a verbal, after-action report of Emerson’s rescue, including that Autumn had been there as well. Then with his tone flat, trying his best to keep his own reaction to the note from Zane, Declan read the warning.
When he was done, the air in the room went electric. Zane didn’t need to be present for the rest of us to feel the vibrating anger rolling off of him.
Then Zane spoke, and when he did, I’d never heard a man so full of icy malice.
“Careful precision,” he said with great acrimony. “Surgical op.”
He paused and I figured it was to gather himself.
Then he started again with a promise I knew he’d fulfill even if it took him the rest of his days.
“They. Are. Done. We pull back. Reorganize our efforts. I’m pulling Red Team in.
This has now become a companywide operation.
We’ll hit them all at the same time. Full frontal assault.
Overwhelmingly and forcibly remove them from power.
We’re not fucking around dismantling them piece by piece anymore.
In the meantime, we stand down. The next time we hit them, they crumble.
Every last motherfucking one of them will burn. ”
He fell quiet again. Then with some of the harshness out of his voice he said, “Glad you’re safe, Emerson. It won’t happen tonight, it won’t happen tomorrow, but I promise you the men who took you will not be breathing when we’re done.”
“Okay,” Emerson whispered.
“Brooks?” Zane called.
“Yeah.”
“Stand down.”
“I heard you, Zane.”
“I know you’re feeling it. Not the same way Thad is, but you are. Tatiana was mentioned and she was there. I need to know you’re straight.”
“I am as long as the end game is they’re all in the ground.”
“They will be,” Zane told him.
“Thad?”
“I get it. I’m cool.”
“No, you’re not. But you will be. I swear it, brother, been where you are and I don’t know what I would’ve done if I had to wait to kill the fucker who took my woman and was a hair’s breadth away from violating her in the worst way a woman could be violated.
But tonight, your woman’s with you. By some stroke of luck you convinced her to marry you tomorrow.
And soon, I promise you, you’ll get the rest of what you need.
Stay with me. It will be taken care of.”
He was correct on all fronts. I wasn’t cool having to wait .
But tonight with Emmy pressed close, I would get what I needed to get there.
And tomorrow when she agreed to be my wife, I’d get even closer.
And the next day, when I took her to the doctor to get that thing out of her arm so I could plant my kid in her belly, I’d get another step closer.
But it wouldn’t be until I put the fucker who took her into the ground that the burn in my gut would finally extinguish.
Luckily, I was a patient man.