“Huh?” I faced him and raised my brows.
“Sadie. How will she adjust to not doing…” He lifted his hand at the wall. “All this?”
I smiled, thinking back to how Sadie and I had talked about our future last night. I wasn’t the odd one out anymore. I was just as in love and obsessed with starting and growing my family as the others were. Maybe not Alexsei, but he already had Misha.
“She won’t,” I admitted. “She’s excited to be a mother. We’ll be busy with that, and I’ll let a couple of the others handle my hits. But I don’t think she can shut off this analytical mind of hers.”
Alexsei shrugged. “She shouldn’t.”
“It’s not only obvious that she’s good at this research and project management for an operation, but she’s also dedicated.” I’d never forget how vulnerable she sounded when she explained her drive to do her job as well as she could. She missed her parents and was slowly but consistently avenging their deaths by chasing after criminals on the Most-Wanted lists. She just happened to hit a snag while falling for one—me.
“Where is she now?” Ivan asked.
“Sadie is in the lounge with my wife, talking about babies and placentas and tearing and…” My father held up a hand as lowered his head in defeat, entering the room behind us and clearly hearing what my cousin had asked. “I don’twanttoknow. All I can do is respect the fuck out of them for being this strong and handling all of that.”
“They are kind of born to handle it,” Ivan said. “Motherhood is a force none of us will ever understand.”
I agreed. But I was awfully excited about what it meant to be a father.
“However, I was able to pass along the message that just came in. Not that Sadie seemed to really listen, more stuck on what Gabriella was telling her about how much ice helped and—” He shook his head again.
“What message?” I asked.
“It just came in from one of the crews in Madrid.” He sobered up, all serious now. “Haiti it is.”
I glanced at my cousins and shared a knowing look with them. It was time to lock this down and get it done.
The rest of the day was spent double-checking the plans and moving men into place. Sadie came into the meeting room, too, making sure we were ready for the plans and the precise goal of ambushing the men trying to start up this Obsidian Eye group.
Yesterday, she was adamant to be included and lead this thing. Today, she was more reserved and like a spectator. I supposed she didn’t need to redo anything. We’d covered all the bases. Everything was lined up to move and everyone knew their roles.
The smaller steps of following the decoy leaders were completed earlier. With the results of what happened, we now were secure with the location that had to be reached and who we would eliminate.
It was the confidence she could bank on that had her showing more of a hands-off approach. It was good to see that she was able to stick to her word. She wasn’t trying to ride along with anyone at the last minute. She wasn’t changing anything after second thought. Sadie was a woman who made a plan and didn’t budge from it after seeing how tested and researched it was.
I liked that.
And I looked forward to the next time she could be a consultant.
Hours remained before “takeoff”. Men waited, available to leave as expected.
This period before a mission could be tense and wrought with anxiety, but we had trained for this. We fought for this. And not a single man heading to Haiti would flinch or shirk from their expected duties. Teamwork was often a baseless concept to brag about, but the men I called my family, all of the Dubinin forces, truly operated as one.
“No room for error with this one,” Ivan said as I sat with him and Alexsei on the back patio after dinner.
I shook my head. “No, there isn’t.”
If we failed to stop the Obsidian Eye alliance at this preliminary stage, they would gather and be a bigger force to contend with later. Fighting a group of enemies was the last thing I wanted to think about when I was about to welcome my son or daughter to the world. When I would be getting ready to find a home to settle in, then to marry Sadie. Too many things were falling into place, or would be soon, and it was a fine time for peace, not more war.
“It’s not only about stopping this group from meeting. It’s to get revenge,” I reminded them. Too many people had interferedwith Sadie’s work on this case. Too many had attempted to have her killed during it. That shit stopped now, for good.
“I still can’t believe this is where we’re at,” Ivan said, almost smiling.
“What?” I asked, not sure how he’d find anything comical about this situation.
“Yeah, what do you mean?” Alexsei asked, glancing at me as if he’d missed something.
I shrugged.
