Plus, we had to wait for him to arrive at the building. According to the schedule the asshole had kept while the other team was on recon, it should be in about an hour.
“Ready, babydoll?”
I nodded. “Let’s go.”
We headed down the stairs, but I paused on the bottom step when I caught the scent of something familiar—or should I say, someonefamiliar?
Quickly, I walked the rest of the way into the kitchen and paused again. Holy shit, what the hell were they doing here?
“Dad? Tan?”
Both of them turned toward me with smiles.
“What the hell? I thought you had that dinner thing?”
Dad shrugged. “We changed it to a lunch thing and flew here as fast as we could. We’re only here for one night because we have to meet with the dignitaries again tomorrow afternoon, but we wanted to help.”
“But… but why would you risk angering them by changing things around? You’ve had this thing planned for months.”
Dad walked over to me and pulled me into a tight embrace. “Because you needed me. So here I am—here we are.”
I gave him a squeeze, a thousand emotions rushing through my body and getting caught in my chest. Warmth, affection, love. So much love for both of my dads.
Dad let go, and Tan grabbed me next, not even giving me a moment to breathe between tight hugs.
“You let us know if you need anything at all, kiddo.”
My heart warmed and melted at the same time. What had I ever done to deserve these two amazing people—amazing dads? After a few seconds, I said, “I’m glad you’re here, Daddo.”
He froze for only a brief moment, then kissed the side of my head. “Me too.”
Tan released me, looking down at the ground, but I still saw his watery eyes.
Dad draped an arm over Tan—over Daddo—and offered me a grateful smile. I shrugged because it was about time I acknowledged that Tan was my dad too.
Turning to Roman, I said, “I’m ready. Is everyone in the car?”
“Yep. Just waiting on you guys. But no rush. We can wait a few minutes.”
I shook my head and looked at my dads. “Are you guys ready? I kinda want to get this over with.”
They both nodded, and we all trooped out to the car.
Everyone was pretty quiet on the short drive, but the tension in the air was so thick, I could’ve cut it with a knife. Everyone was anxious about this raid, and I knew everyone was worried about our family and friends getting hurt and about keeping those hostages safe.
We met at the base of operations where someone had set up a bunch of monitors to watch all the cameras Hiro had set up yesterday. There were a shit-ton of them. I was honestly impressed. He had one in each of the top-floor offices, several inall of the hallways on every floor, several in all of the stairwells, and a few in the basement. I wasn’t even sure how he’d managed that, but I hadn’t exactly been paying attention to him while I was freaking out yesterday.
All in all, once we were in the building, whoever was on overwatch would be able to direct us and warn us of incoming combatants, no matter where we were in the building.
We went over the plan one more time, making sure everyone—including the twenty king’s guard Dad and Daddo had brought with them—knew exactly what to do.
Roman, Dad, Tan—I mean, Daddo—Bas, Hiro, and I were assigned to hunt down the grand master while pretty much everyone else was supposed to go down to the basement, secure the hostages, and take down the soldiers.
It was probably a good decision to have me in a different place after what’d happened, but on the other hand, I really wanted to make sure Isidore was safe.
We all took our places and waited for the countdown from overwatch—Ryo Greynore, a gargoyle that worked for my dad.
He came over the comms, saying,“Hold your places, everyone. Brinik Norfiel is on the move with his second in command, Calarel Kelhorn. Let’s see where he ends up before we go in.”
