“Gabe, we can’t draw a baby into this.”
“Really? They killed your baby, in cold blood. Then they held a gun to my brother’s forehead and to Lincoln’s before they knocked them out. And what do you think would have happened if they got you?”
“But innocents?”
“And what did you ever fucking do, Lennon, to deserve what they did to you?”
I ignore that because while it is entirely accurate, it’s a lot to unpack. Gabe himself said we’re unpacking later, once we’re all back together. “Did you go through my setup?”
“Umm, that ain’t a set-up, that is a take down. Which is pure fire, but along the way, Len, we’re making people pay. And some will pay the ultimate price, I won’t pretend they won’t either.”
I guess we’re talking about some of it now. “Cool, but next time you fuck with someone, make sure it’s them we target and not someone not at all connected that gets dragged into our bullshit.”
He grins again. “Babe, everyone knows that fucking with someone’s head is way harder to bounce back from. Besides, he could have said no to going to your place, he could have declined the promotion he was offered, but he didn’t. I was never going to let the dogs in the house, but does he need to know that? No chance. The baby is safe.”
And then we both turn and smile like a couple of lunatics when Tony interrupts us to announce, rather desperately, that the holding cells are unlocked. With a salacious and ballsy wink, Gabe picks up the feed, talking to Tony again.
“We appreciate your help, although I’m sure you’ll understand that I’ll keep everyone where they are until the people I’m waiting on get picked up by my friends. Good thing Marnie fed the baby in the car, isn’t it?”
I mouth, “huh,” but Gabe waves us on and mutes Tony, though he keeps an eye on what Tony’s doing.
“Who’s out there to pick them up?”
“One of the friendly packs. They’ll get rushed to a local airstrip. I’ve wired funds over for them to book a charter flight or helicopter, whichever gets them home quickest.”
“Home?” I ask slowly.
“Here to us.”
“I don’t want to stay here.”
Gabe grimaces. “Neither do I with the nutter inside. But until we’re all together again, this is where we will be.”
“Stop arguing, Lennon,” Noah growls, using his alpha bark. And Jesus, a part of me should be arching up at him silencing me like that, but another part of me is thrilled. “You need to go talk with Bailey, she’s your best friend. She’ll understand why you did what you did, but in the same context, you don’t have to tell her everything.”
I glare at him, being overly dismissive of my girl, but I’ve got shit to do. “She’ll want tears, and I don’t have time for that.”
“Lennon, you cried a river last night. But I know you held back.”
“Yeah, but then you put me back together with about a trillion orgasms.”
“Do you want to talk about Ares then?”
“Yeah, no,” I offer quickly before leaning back to give Noah a kiss and another one to Gabe.
“It’s going to be a few hours until we hear anything about Lincoln and Val, so I guess that means we’re meeting Bailey?”
They both look back at me a little cocky. “Fine,” I concede. “But… I am not facing her alone. First though, I want to show you how I think I want things to go.”
“‘Bout time, Len,” Gabe teases as he slings his arm over me, but I push him off until we’re all lying on our stomachs. I hijack Gabe’s computer since mine is back at my house, but that’s the beauty of the software program I had built for me. The website for my business has a few different features that need special login to access. And it’s done in the way, so depending on what login I use, a different screen appears.
As I key in my insanely long, encrypted password, Noah gasps in horror while Gabe snuggles up closer and bites my jaw. “So fucking sexy how boss you are, Len.”
Then he shuts the hell up and watches me do my magic. Noah moves closer to see better, and while waiting for another screen to load, I turn to look at him.
“Lennon, how have you done this? It’s incredible. All this information, your strategy? You’ve done a risk management graph!”
“Yeah, and those assholes blew that out the water when they killed Ares.” It’s so hard to say his name, but he gave his life for me to do this. So I’ll keep saying his name and falling apart every now and then as I finish the deal I made with him.
