Wes gets a drone up in the air and starts scouting the woods between us and the hunting lodge.
“So, um, what exactly do you do?” Rafael asks him.
Wes replies, “I run a sex fantasy service.”
“Ah,” Rafael says, as though that somehow explains the weaponry.
“A honey trap?” Dominic asks.
“Yes.” Wes doesn’t look up from his screen. “Four men outside, none in the woods. They’re not expecting us. It’s a goodtime to move, but we’ll have to be fast. There are almost certainly more men at the house. It won’t take long for them to arrive.”
Pulling up his black gaiter to cover his face, Noah says, “Once we’re in, we sweep in pairs. Dante, you’re with Wes. Andre, you’re with me.”
As the rest of us cover our own faces, Noah hands comm devices to someone in each pair.
“Rocco,” Dominic calls to the man who was driving the second van. “I need you tailing me and Rafael. The rest of your team is on perimeter.” More comm devices get handed out.
“Dominic,” Rafael complains. “I’m perfectly capable—”
“I know what you’re capable of. And I know how reckless you are, so you can shut the fuck up. Ain’t nothing fucking happening to you, Angel.”
Rafael sighs in obvious frustration and makes a point of checking his guns. Dante is still and ready. Wes is hyper focused on his task. Noah shoulders the rocket launcher and gets us moving.
We stalk through the woods, predatory and quiet, like a sort of pack. I’m still calm. So are the others.
But I know how fast their switches might flip. And I know that mine is going to, very soon.
TWENTY-EIGHT
Elias
Nothing has gone right.
Instead of coming to meet me himself, my father sent men to pick me up, and they took my gun.
I really thought he would come. I thought there would be an opportunity. But five years made me forget—no,Andremade me forget—what it really means to be invisible.
But sitting in this office in the lodge, not even having been taken to the house, I’m starting to remember. One of my father’s men is in the room, but he won’t look at me or speak to me. None of them would, though a number of them are present in the lodge. But my father isn’t. I’m beneath his notice.
It doesn’t hurt me like it used to, but it does scare me. If he doesn’t come, there will be no opportunity to kill him. Totryto kill him, I should say. Without the gun, I don’t have much hope.
There’s an antique pistol mounted on the wall behind the desk, but I’d have better luck with the letter opener.
It makes me think of all the opportunities I surely had over the years. Guns lying carelessly on tables. Steak knives. Kitchen knives. Scissors.
How long will it take for me to have such opportunities again? Days? Weeks?
Years?
When I decided to do this, I only thought of the action, the end result. I didn’t consider any timeline butnow. And I didn’t say goodbye. I didn’t leave a note. I barely even looked at Andre as I left because I didn’t allow myself to consider that I wouldn’t be back.
God, what will Andre think when he wakes up? Will he think that I was working for my father after all? With the tracking on my phone, he’ll know where I’ve gone. I thought my phone might be taken with the gun, but I guess I’m not really under suspicion. A gun is pretty standard in my family after all, and I’m the pathetic one that ran away. I’m not considered a potential threat.
I hear a door somewhere in the lodge, then my father’s familiar footsteps come tromping my way. It’s my second time hearing them today, but when he walks into the room, it’s the first time I’ve seen him in five years.
He’s wearing a suit like it’s not three o’clock in the morning, but that doesn’t surprise me. He’s a little grayer with a little bit of a paunch, but he otherwise looks the same. Handsome. Cold. Remote. He stops in the doorway.
“So,” he says. “You’re back.” He doesn’t ask why. He doesn’t care. “I’m sure you realize that you don’t get to slide back into the comfortable place you once enjoyed.”
