Yes, as in both sleeves.
15
Things were at a breaking point in a lot of ways. People were waiting to see what we did next with the moves made against our vendors. Others knew we were distracted with reorganizing and how many demons we rescued. The meeting with those ancients went well and it was clear that they now knew they didn’t want to fuck with us.
But they didn’t think we were the future and impressive enough to make it.
All except that woman. She was smart and understood the reality of things.
So as much as I knew it was a risk, it was time for part two that Mason had already gotten started on. I walked into Sebastian’s house where the angels were waiting along with Kyle, Kyria, Mason, and Tracey. I told them what I’d done, what was next, and asked for their help.
But basically, I was doing it with or without them.
“This is risky,” Kyria sighed when I was done.
“Yes,” I admitted, shrugging when the range of expressions was less than positive. “But we’re there and it’s time to stop playing so much defense. It will hit the pride of a lot, but we already are. So time to show the right people how easy certain things are for us so at least they know we’reimpressiveand this isn’t a failed experiment. That is the goal.”
“Not the only one, but it has to be the main one to make progress with so many circling you,” Sebastian agreed as he looked over several things. “There is no ‘putting this back in the box’ so to speak. Only idiots think they have a chance of making things go back to the way things were. ISLE alone has new leadership, and even taking out Director Stevens won’t change that.”
No, because Dylan and those after him would take up the mast and make sure Phillip would be the martyr needed. They believed in the good of ISLE with their souls not just a mission. They wanted ISLE to be the beacon it should be.
“I agree, but by checking the councils and getting their people in line by impressing the people they’re scared of, you risk other scarier people coming out and now becoming threats,” Kyria whispered.
“Yes.” Again I shrugged. “But we risk that now. Ancients are cautious. Those demons were rash and…” I sighed. “I don’t know. I’m the last person to ask about mental health. Probably thought if they got first crack at us they could take over. That Bella chick wanted to be Natalia. I saw it. She’d always wanted that spot in life and—”
“Pride gets them every time,” Tracey chuckled, giving me a wink. It was a line we shared over and over again. Most demons even.
And Mason didnotlike that we had something to share like that.
Not. One. Bit.
Which was actually pretty damn sexy that he valued me enough to be possessive. He wasn’t jealous because that’d involve blame or acting like I’d done something wrong.
No, and he wasn’t even feeling that. But he did make it clear that I sat by him, not Tracey.
Fine by me.
After outlining a bit of what Mason already had, people realized it wasn’t just to put on a show or potentially poke some dangerous people… But we could do some real good. They were on board then.
First, Kyria got someone trusted to take over for me at the club undercover. It only worked because of the stupid policy that we just had to get our shifts covered. We worked out that she needed money to get away from her abusive ex-boyfriend and I was setting her up with a new gig, but she wanted to pay for her own ticket.
So I was letting her cover for Maya for a week and I could be back with my hot British lover. Done and done. She wanted all of the shifts and would take all the lap dances… And get all the dirt she possibly could. We also had people hitting up the salon. It was what was needed while security was scanning footage and more.
Plus it was also smart since the archangel had found me there for a “talk,” Dylan also. Which I hadn’t really even told anyone about.
From there, Mason, Tracey, and I dug into every corner of the dark web we could for what we wanted. Kyle and his best team used their laptops and backup equipment for a second home base at one of my private residences once we looped in Lewis that we needed logistics help. It might be smart to keep this part going, and I knew Kyle was on the same page as me on that.
Something for another day, but Lewis didn’t want to know because he wanted plausible deniability.
Fair enough.
The twins realized something was going on too. At first, they thought I was brushing them off because they wanted to talk business with me as if I was sending the message they had gone over a line using our relationship selfishly.
Except then they’d gone to the angels to talk to them and found them a bit squirrely and suddenly super busy and focused.
So they couldn’t help as much as they wanted, but one of them came with me several times as backup and to read the room. It was nice to have the safety net, but I’d long since learned how to handle a lot on my own.
Then again, I’d also messed up a lot, so I was too smart to let my pride get the better of me when so much was at stake. Yeah, so I took the backup.
