3. Jude
Itoss back the painkillers Dr. Ranlen supplied.
They’re over-the-counter, because I can’t afford to be incapacitated with the good stuff right now.
But even if they don’t make a dent in the headache pounding at my temples, they’ll hopefully help with the pain…
everywhere else. Fuck, I don’t think there's a part of me that doesn’t hurt in some way, and I’ve spent the last thirty-odd hours doing a whole lot of sitting around—part of the problem, of course.
My bad leg protests over being immobile for so long.
The short walks and pacing I’ve done lost their effectiveness a long time ago.
But there hasn’t been a single available Family member who hasn't been working since Daniel ended up on our doorstep with his news. Add in the timeline Doc was able to extract from Javi… Fuck.
Part of me almost wishes the doctor didn’t agree to Javi’s deal, but the rational side is grateful for the time. It means we could actually put a plan together. One that will bring us one step closer to ending this.
“You know,” Roman says slowly, as we all gather in the conference room that looks more like a war room now. “I’m kinda mad we didn’t think of this before.” He cringes. “Atticus made a point that hitting what’s left of their crumbling Organization should have been on our list.”
“They kept us busy with the cops, raiding and burning our warehouses, fucking arresting one of us, and kidnapping two different sets of Bosses,” Carter points out. “They didn’t want us to have time to breathe, so we couldn’t turn the tables on them.”
“They thought us weak,” Lio says. “They thought by taking the Old Bosses, we would crumble and they could pick us off. When that didn’t work, they took it a step further and used the law to try to take Tennant.
And when that still didn’t work, they kept throwing shit at us in the hopes we would break.
” He purses his lips, meeting the eyes of everyone gathered around the table.
“We’ve proved time and time again that we may bend, but we don’t break.
We’re not starting now. The Senator wants to play with fire?
He wants to prove he has what it takes to live in this blood-spattered world?
We’ll give him our best welcome.” The smile he gives is strained, but there’s determination in his eyes.
It's a promise of violence and bloodshed that only Death can bring, and it helps knock back some of the exhaustion tugging at me.
The door to the conference room opens and Tennant strolls in, calm as can be, not a hair out of place. If I didn’t know any better, I wouldn’t think he’d spent the last day torturing people, but then, that’s why he is so calm and collected. Torture is Ten’s happy place.
He kisses Roman and Lio, before taking the empty seat beside me. He doesn’t hesitate to reach over and turn my chair towards his, meeting my gaze steadily.
“You look like shit, Agnellino,” he signs.
I snort. “Such a romantic, Ten.”
He raises a brow. “I hope you’re not planning on going into the field…”
Before I can argue, he grips my chin and kisses me. His touch is firm and his kiss is hard. Neither of us gives ground to the other, but touching him, having his mouth on mine, the scent of blood wafting off him…it grounds me. When he pulls away, I take my first deep breath in hours.
“Remove your hearing aids,” he tells me.
I shake my head. “I can’t—”
“Roman, Carter, and I are here. We can interpret, or I can call Dominic or Dmitri. Hell, Doc will be here in a minute. We have you covered. I can see the strain on your face…” He places a cool finger against the corner of my eye, as if emphasizing the visible cues that I’m pushing myself beyond my limits.
Before I can argue further, the door opens again and I catch snippets of Javi’s bitching. “...can pick these,” he says as he walks into the room, hands cuffed in front of him.
Doc follows a step behind him, one hand wrapped around the shorter man’s bicep. “I’d like to see you try… I will fucking kill you…”
Fuck. Tennant is right. The addition of their voices is too much for me. My headache gets worse from just the thought of having to pay attention to everyone currently in the room as we outline the plan.
Thankfully, Soren accompanies Doc and Javi—even though this is technically a closed meeting, I don’t blame him for wanting to be near his Boy right now.
Catching his eyes, I gesture to my ears and he nods, understanding my question without me having to speak or even sign it—being best friends with Donovan comes in handy because he can read the silent cues better than anyone else.
I toss my hearing aids onto the table, not quite letting out a sigh of relief because my residual hearing can still pick up the noise in the room, even if I don’t bother focusing to try to catch what anyone says.
Nothing but sleep and food that isn’t coffee, maybe even some of the good drugs, can fully alleviate the pain of my aching body, but taking away the pressure of trying to process spoken language helps immensely.
“Now that we’re all here, we can discuss what we’ve learned in the last twenty hours or so,” Carter starts.
“This better be good because your time is almost up,” Javi interjects. “I’ll have you know, I’m counting down the minutes.”
“We’re not here to hinder you,” I reply. “Despite what you believe, we are here to help.”
I can’t hear his scoff, but his distaste is clear on his face. His mismatched eyes glow with a fire that promises to burn the world down should we stand in his way. “Considering this has been going on for close to a fucking year now, forgive me if I am not very confident in this Council’s plans.”
“We’re doing the best we can with the information we have,” Roman tells him, signing and voicing at the same time.
“In case you didn’t notice, we’ve had a lot of shit going on.
You have only been here near the end. You have no fucking idea what we’ve been through.
” Roman’s signs are sharp. He stands from his chair, the pain, anger, and exhaustion on his face is as plain as day.
“They didn’t kill any of you!”
The way Soren interprets Javi’s words is flat, almost clinical, giving way to the blankness on the psychiatrist’s face.
Doc wraps an arm around his friend, seemingly unbothered by the way Javi flinches away from him.
“No,” Roman agrees, his features softening.
His signs are almost gentle. “They haven’t killed any of us.
Not for lack of trying, but we’re not as easy to kill as they once thought.
I know this won’t mean much to you, not now, maybe not ever, but I’m sorry, Javi.
I’m so fucking sorry you and your family got caught in the crosshairs of our war.
But I promise, on my life, on the lives of those I love, we will end this.
“We will take that bastard down, and he will pay for what he’s done.
He thinks he’s untouchable, but he’s not.
We have a plan, one that puts everything on the line.
” He gestures to me and Keegan. “We’ve had the best minds put this plan together, with help from Ignacio and Marcus—who can’t be here because, well, I’m sure you understand why this subject is sensitive to War.
“But between them, Tennant, and Leandro, we are making our move, because fuck if they think they can steal the lives of those around us and not suffer the consequences.” There’s a determination and sureness in Roman that ignites a newfound hope in me, and I can see it in the eyes of almost everyone around the table that they feel the same.
For as insecure and hesitant as Roman can be, he’s more than grown into his own as a Boss. He’s someone I’d follow anywhere, even into the hellscape we find ourselves in now.
“I’ve spent the last day interviewing the final moles,” Tennant says.
“We kept them around to not overplay our hand, but also to see what was being fed back to the Senator.
One of them was almost useless. With Sandro spending so much time in the kitchen recently, she wasn't able to sneak around or ask too many questions of the other kitchen staff in case he picked up on anything suspicious.
“I did learn she and the former nanny were recruited together, and their motivation was money. We’ll need to do another, deeper look into all staff, but she didn’t believe anyone else was compromised.
” One bit of good news at least, if you could call it that.
“The other mole…” Tennant glances at Roman before he continues, “Well, he was full of fun things.”
Roman leans into Lio as he watches Ten speak, his distress clear. Knowing one of your bodyguards, someone you trusted with your life, is a traitor can’t be easy. Hell, it makes me a little wary about my own guards, even though we’re confident no one else is a mole.
“I took part in Thomas’s training myself,” Tennant says.
“So breaking him took work, but I got there; I always get what I want.” He smiles, a twisted thing that under different circumstances would excite me.
“He pretty much confirmed that the locations and other information Atticus gave us were accurate. He claims he doesn’t know where the Senator is hiding, but that the man’s arrogance will lead to his downfall if we show him we’re not afraid. ”
“People will say anything while under duress,” Javi argues.
“Are you questioning me?” Tennant asks. His signs are as smooth and steady as I imagine his tone is, and there’s something to say about a man who can be unflappable in a high-stakes situation such as this.
“I think you’re too close to the situation,” Javi bites back.
“And you’re not?” I ask, voicing even though my head is still killing me. But I want to make sure Javi doesn’t try to ignore my words, so I stand from my seat and lean over the table a little. “You’re one of us now, Javi, whether you fucking like it or not.
“You’ve put your hands and mouth on us, you’ve rooted around in our heads, you’ve turned our entire house into a Goddamn zoo, and we’ve allowed it. Because you’re family. Not just part of this Council, but in it.
“I don’t have to express how no one else is allowed to get close to us, but you did. You and your ridiculous outfits, and your flair for drama. We brought you in because we needed you, and now that you need us, we will not let you down.
“I know you’re hurting, that you’re itching to break out of those restraints and hunt the bastard down, but you’re not standing alone. We are a family, in all the ways that matter. So sit there, shut up, and I’ll get you another fucking cat if you survive long enough to end this war.”
His gaze burns into mine, and I see the predator in him, just waiting to make its move. But it doesn’t scare me. He’s not the only predator in the room, and if he’s forgotten that, I will happily remind him.
Javi may not be mine—hell, given the way both Soren and Doc are watching me carefully, I’m pretty sure they’ll have something to say about my heavy-handedness—but I don’t give a shit right now. It’s not going to stop me from trying to save the psychopath from himself.
We might not see eye to eye most days, but sometime in the last month and a half, or however fucking long it’s been, he’s turned our entire world upside down and carved a place for himself in it. Which means I’ll protect him, whether he wants me to or not.
“I won’t be kept out of this,” he says.
“You won’t be,” Lio replies. “We all want a piece of that bastard. You’ll get your chance to take revenge. Now, are you going to listen to the plan our Voices put together? Or will Doc have to drug you again?”
Javi’s face goes blank once more as he locks down his thoughts and feelings, and I hate it. “I’d say it’d be in your best interest to drug me anyway if you think you can stay my hand when that clock ticks over…”
I’m pretty sure the entire room sighs in exasperation, but Keegan jumps in to take the lead in outlining the plan we put together.
It’s risky as hell, but the Council members did their best in pulling together the people we need for this mission.
We're targeting three of the most important places in order to flush our friendly Senator out: his public residence, the house most don’t know about since it has ties to his mafia Family, and the largest of his warehouses.
All three are risky as fuck targets, but…our Ghost and his protégé are preparing for their part, and I’m trusting in their skills to bring all three of them back to me.
Because while Javi is right in saying that none of us have died in this war…we’ve still faced other types of casualties, and I don’t know how we’ll ever recover should the threads holding us all together fray any further…