Tuck’s voice doesn’t waver, and the scowl on his face doesn’t change. “Wherever she goes, I go.”
Mason follows that with, “Where he goes, I go.”
Jax only waggles his eyebrows and winks with a smile.
Rhys and Tuck have a stare-off for a few moments before he responds. “I can’t stop you from being there, but you will get pushback.”
The gentle pressure of Tuck’s hand on my neck is in complete opposition to the possessive anger in his voice. “What’s the course of action, and we’ll stay in the periphery.”
Rhys stares at Tuck for a few moments before he answers. “We need to send her in with a wire.”
“No.” Tuck’s voice is deep and clipped.
“You know this is how it works?”
The room is silent as the battle of wills stare-off continues.
Tuck breaks the silence. “If he so much as looks threatening, I’m going in.”
“You also know what happens if you interfere before we get what we need.”
“Don’t fucking care.”
Swinging my head to look at Tuck, I ask, “What happens?”
He’s pissed, but when he looks at me, his face softens. When he hesitates, Mason speaks up. “Tuck, I’ll keep him in my sights the whole time. If he lifts a hand, he’ll lose it.”
“And we’ll have eyes on with a secure perimeter; she’ll be covered.” Jax says, his smile is gone.
The talk of sights, losing hands, and violence is making me nervous, and my eyes flick from Tuck to Mason and back. “What happens?”
“You have to get him to admit he set you up, otherwise, the paperwork you signed is legally binding, and you are an accomplice.” Rhys says behind me.
Accomplice?
Swan looks up from my laptop. “We can give you a list of things to say and questions to ask to steer him into giving the answers we need.”
Everyone else in the room might be used to this type of thing, but I’m not. Panic and anxiety are sliding up my spine like ice-cold water, and I slide even further to the edge of the chair, my fingernails digging into my palms on my thighs.
Closing my eyes, I clear my throat and slide my shaking finger up my nose to my forehead to put pressure on the dull thumping between my temples. “S-So, can you walk me through this?” I open my eyes and look at Rhys. “Keep in mind that this might be your every day, but it’s not mine.”
Some of the tension swirling in the air between Rhys and Tuck thins as Rhys leans on his elbows, linking his fingers in front of him with a nod. “Agents from D.C. will be here tomorrow, it will get a bit chaotic and busy pretty quickly, don’t let that scare you, it’s standard. They will talk you through what they want you to do and will attach a wire to you. When you meet your ex at the gas station, it will feel like you’re alone, but we willbe all around you listening to everything. If it helps, we can give you a safe word.”
My mind has been spinning with scenarios the entire time he’s been talking, and the one that scares me the most, since the robbery at the pub is so fresh in my mind, tumbles out on a whisper. “What if he has a gun? A safe word can’t stop a gun.”
“Don’t worry about that,” Mason says, and my head turns to him. “I’ll have you covered.”
“How will you have me covered?”
“Mason’s a sniper, sugar, one of the best.” Tuck’s thumb softly caresses the skin on my neck.
Rhys clears his throat, and we all turn to him. “You can’t shoot him, Mason. We need him alive. The fact that you are saying this in front of me is creating a huge conflict of interest.” He leans back and looks away.
“Oh, really?” Mason barks. “I think I remember our way of doing things didn’t bother you when it saved my sister, aka, the womanyoulove.”
Swan coughs into his fist and sets my laptop on the table as he stands and leaves the room.
Rhys stands up, his shoulders square. “I didn’t say it bothered me; I said you shouldn’t say these things in front of me, it puts me in a bad fucking position.”
