“Your birth mother left me a note. It was stuck to my driver’s side door. Right where only I could see it. It had an address and time. Last night at three in the morning.”
I gaped at him. Was he being serious? She really had been right there?
“Seriously?”
“Yes. I didn’t want to say anything to you until I had it figured out. The note also said only I was supposed to come. Not you. Felipe and I went late last night. She wasn’t in the house when we got there. What we did find was another envelope.”
I gritted my teeth in irritation. “More envelopes? What is this? Can’t she come out and say it for once?”
Nico gave me a sad smile. “That’s sort of what I said, but that doesn’t matter right now. What was in that envelope was huge. Gabriella somehow managed to get a massive amount of security info on the royals’ safe houses. Stuff we’d never have known without her. Maddy, your dad was moved to a different house. It’s not just two safe houses now; it’s three. She also got us the bypass codes for the security systems at each house. Biggest of all, she got us the names and schedules of all the guys working security at the houses. We’ve got a real chance here. She gave us everything we needed.”
My jaw was open. I couldn't have been more shocked if the Easter Bunny had come hopping into the room. First, how had she managed to get that? Second, did this mean we’d be getting my family back safe? I’d prayed that we would be successful, but a small part of me still thought I’d be attending funerals in the near future. The excitement I saw in Nico’s eyes gave me genuine hope for the first time since they were taken.
“You didn’t see her at all?” I asked.
Nico shook his head. “No, I didn’t see her. I did hear her, though.”
“Hear her? What do you mean?”
“As Felipe and I were leaving, she yelled at us. She had to be at least a couple of hundred yards away. It was faint but audible. She told me I had to protect you because she couldn’t anymore.”
My eyes were locked onto Nico’s. My body seized up tight like a bowstring. “What do you think that means?”
“I’m honestly not sure. It’s probably the fact that she can’t get us any more information. She’s leaving your safety in my hands now that she’s exhausted all her sources.”
A deep, inexplicable sadness spread within me. It was almost heartbreak. Something about this whole thing felt so final. Formy entire life, I’d never had any desire to meet my birth mother, but once all this started moving like an unstoppable freight train, my thoughts changed. I wanted to meet her now. It was like I’d been cheated out of something. Would I never get to talk to her? Each day that passed seemed like it was less and less likely.
Closing my eyes, I tried to push those thoughts away. Instead, I tried to focus on what was happening now. “Show me what she gave us.”
Nico gestured to the kitchen island and showed me the stack of papers. I saw the pictures of Mom, Dad, and Abi. There were blueprints that had been blown up until they were almost the same size as the island itself. They showed each building perfectly.
Nico pointed at them. “She gave us the standard sizes. I called a guy in town who makes banners and signs and stuff. Paid out of the ass to get him up early to blow these up to size for us. It makes it easier to see what we’re looking at.”
Nico’s father walked over, holding a notepad. “Nico?” he asked. “I think I’ve got a good plan started. Do you want to go over it with me?”
Before Nico could answer, the front door opened, and Luis barged in, looking harried and exhausted. “Made it!” he called as he stepped inside.
Nico glanced at his watch in confusion. “How the hell did you get here so fast? I called you barely four hours ago.”
“Got lucky with flight times. Landed about forty-five minutes ago and hauled ass over here. Let’s see what we’ve got.”
We all sat around the living room going over the intel. Nico and his father went back and forth on how best to orchestrate the rescues. Luis gave them the information he and the lizard shifters were able to glean from their infiltration. The plan wascoming together, but there was one bit of information we didn’t have.
Nico looked at Luis. “Those guards said they were moving Abi soon? Right?”
Luis nodded grimly. “They did.”
Nico’s dad leaned back on the sofa and put his hands on his knees. “So, the real question is, are they moving them all to the mother’s location, the father’s location, or an entirely new fourth location that we don’t know?”
“We have no way of knowing,” Nico said. “That means we’ve got to move fast. This has to be done before they move them. My guess is it’ll be a totally new location.”
“What’s the play?” Felipe asked.
“I don’t think we’ll need a ton of manpower,” Nico said. “Not with the information we have. It’ll still be complicated getting three different operations to happen at the exact same time. It’ll be three teams, and we need to move in the next thirty-six to forty-eight hours. If we wait longer than that, we may find ourselves breaking into empty houses. Our one shot will have been pissed away.”
“We can do this. I know we can,” Nico’s brother Rafael said. He looked driven and ready. I’d spent more time with Nico’s friends than I had his brothers, but all of them sat around the room, and each one looked as ready to go into battle as Nico did. It filled me with happiness and comfort to know this entire pack was ready to fight for my family.
One part of the plan didn’t sit right with me. Throughout all the discussion, there was no mention of me. It was easy to see that I would be left behind.
