After some coaxing and a thorough sweep of the dining room and kitchen, Marcus joins us at the candle-lit table.
We’re served course after course, taste flights of wine, and we enjoy each other’s company. For the night, the resistance and the facility are forgotten. All of our careful preparations are put on hold for a night spent at the highest point in the city, looking out over its splendor.
By the time we finish with dark, heady espresso, my heart is full of love for the men around me.
Saints, if only it could be like this forever.
CHAPTER37
Following the Feast of Saint Valentine, we return to our preparations. Ian and I work night and day, detangling line after line of Cadigan’s warding. The wards are complex, and it takes us hours to work out each line of the counterspell. It’s some of the most brilliant spellwork I’ve ever seen, and if it wasn’t Cadigan’s work and keeping us from the trapped omega test subjects, I might appreciate it more.
We pick the weekend after the feast day for our attack, and Sienna, knowing what the resistance is doing in the dark hours between Friday and Saturday, excuses me from my assistantship on Friday afternoon. Though Cassian insists we all try to get some rest before the mission, I’m far too agitated to sleep—and so are my men.
Cassian walks us through a plan that all of us have already memorized, pacing the length of the kitchen. Simon checks and rechecks his tech, since jamming the mage tech will all come down to his actions, then works with Marcus and Luca to load everything he’ll need into the SUV. Ian and I review every single line in his counterspell to dismantle the wards, and he practices casting the lengthy, complicated spell with every moment we have left.
My nerves are frayed by the time we gather in the kitchen to make our final preparations, and I nervously shift from foot to foot as Ian covers me from head to toe in the most powerful shielding spells I’ve ever seen.
Saints, there are so many things that could go wrong, so many lives held in the balance. If we don’t succeed tonight, Rad will be able to regroup, strengthen the mage tech and warding around the facility, and prevent us from ever being able to free the omegas held within.
The element of surprise isn’t the only thing we’re counting on. If even one thing goes wrong, the mission could fail—and quickly. If Ian can’t dismantle the wards, if I can’t read Nathan Wickman’s mind…
Cassian must feel my anxiety through the bond, because he comes over to me and presses a kiss to my forehead. He then tucks my hair behind my ear and slips a small earpiece in my ear. Every single resistance volunteer will have one, so we can easily communicate and coordinate on a private satellite channel Simon set up.
“We can still find another way to unlock the collars,” Cassian says quietly, but I know this is our best bet.
I shake my head. “I’ll be okay. I’ve just… I’ve never done anything like this before.”
“Saints hope this is our firstandlast time raiding a clandestine facility to destroy a bunch of government-sanctioned mind control technology,” Luca says, coming up behind me and dropping a kiss on my cheek. “About ready, princess?”
I force a smile. “As I’ll ever be.”
We reach the dockside warehouse in what seems like an instant, and we quickly coordinate with Graeme and Alena.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” she mutters under her breath as she eyes the alpha and beta pair who are loading up the van she’ll be taking to the site. “Hey!” she calls out. “You’re handing delicate fucking explosives. A little care, please, or you’ll blow the whole damn block!” She rolls her eyes, taps her earpiece on and then goes after the mages loading up her home-brewed explosives.
“She’s going to blow us all the way to hell and back, isn’t she?” Graeme asks lightly. “Right. I’ve got each member on my team driving a passenger van to the scene. We’ll be able to get all the omegas out before I call in the authorities.”
“You’re going to catch hell for that,” Cassian says, blowing out a sharp breath.
“Oh, I fully expect to have to surrender my badge after this.”
“But—” I protest.
“But some things are more important than being a royal detective inspector. I’ve come to peace with it. I’ll fight it like hell, but I’m ready to accept the consequences of my actions. Getting those omegas free before we get law enforcement on the scene is paramount.”
I cock my head and study him for a second. “You got the ten omegas who attacked Fairhaven out of police custody, didn’t you?”
He smiles brightly. “I did. Not using legal means, mind you. But the Soldiers or even the Prime Minister would have had them killed.”
I want to ask him if he’s the one my sister was corresponding with about omegas, if he’s been helping get omega test subjects from Rose Pharmaceuticals labs to safety, but before I can ask, Simon jogs up and gives us the thumbs up.
“Jammer’s loaded in the van and I’ve got the best satellite signal on the planet on my laptop. Ian will take down the wards, and then I’ll jam the mage tech on the guards. We’ll each give a signal.”
“If this goes sideways and we all end up hanged for treason, it’s been an honor working with all of you,” Graeme says with a dry smile. “Now, shall we move out?”
My pack loads into the van with Simon’s equipment, Luca behind the wheel and Marcus in the passenger seat beside him. They’ll be my first line of defense. I tried to protest that my men could do so much more if they weren’t babysitting me, but every single one of them quickly relieved me of that foolish notion. If I’m not in their line of sight, unharmed, they won’t be able to focus on anything else. So while they may be of greater use to the resistance on the other teams, they’ll be by my side for the entire mission.
We arrive before the other groups, and Simon gets to work immediately. As the rest of the vans pull in, parking on the shoulder of the two-lane highway, Ian hides each of them under a concealment charm.
