Zeke nodded, and then one by the one the others did as well until only Shadow and Isaac remained still.
“You’re right. It sucks,” Isaac bit out. “But I won’t risk Jenna in any way and if that means holing up here for however long it takes until they fuck up, then that’s what I’ll do.”
Shadow merely nodded, remaining silent, though his eyes burned with anger and frustration.
“Who are you putting on the women?” Brent asked, speaking up for the first time. “They’ve been through enough fear, pain and horror. This doesn’t need to touch them in any way.” His eyes burned with the memories of all the women who’d come to mean so much to all of DSS, not just their husbands, who had suffered but survived. He was angry, and yet there was clear worry reflected in his expression.
“They’re strong, no doubt,” he continued. “But even the toughest nut will crack under repeated trauma. I don’t like Caleb having both Ramie and Tori to look after. His attention absolutely can’t be divided, and neither woman deserves to be the one who gets the short end of the stick. Tori wouldn’t ...” He inhaled sharply. “I don’t think she’d survive it again,” he said quietly.
Dane’s face was a mask of cold fury, his entire body tense, his jaw bulging with the strain of clenching his teeth so tightly. “I’m taking over Tori’s protection. I don’t have a wife, no choice to be made if the worst happens. Isaac will take the lead here and all of you will remain for his backup and above all, Jenna’s protection. When I said that Tori was with Caleb and Ramie, I meant, but didn’t state at the time, that it was a temporary situation until I can get as much protection in place for Ramie, Ari and Gracie as possible. But Tori will be with me and Sterling has enough manpower that he can spare the muscle to add to my protection of Tori. No one knows where I’ll be taking her. It’s one of the few secrets I have from Caleb and Beau, but it wasn’t meant to be a safe house until now. Given the fact that no one, not even a single DSS member, knows its location, it’s the obvious choice. Sterling’s men are going ahead to more heavily fortify the place and then they’ll take position so they completely surround the facility, and should anyone make it past them, I have an impenetrable safe room with a meticulously stocked arsenal at my disposal. No one will get to Tori on my watch.”
Isaac frowned. “If this place is impenetrable and so heavily fortified, then why not bring Jenna there?”
Shadow spoke up before Dane. “Because it would require moving Jenna and she would be easily recognized by Jaysus or any of his army of men. Plus they’re expecting us to do just that. To move her to some badass safe house where all of us accompany her. It’s exactly what they want because then they’ll have the chance not only to take out the majority of our manpower, but also to grab Jenna at the same time. The very last thing we need to be right now is predictable. We have to be able to guess what they’re expecting and then do the opposite.”
It pissed Isaac off that he was so emotionally fucked in the head that he couldn’t think straight and that Shadow had to explain something to him that he damn well knew. He wasn’t some wet-behind-the-ears rookie, grasping at straws, but this wasn’t just any mission. He wasn’t protecting someone because he’d been hired to do it and could detach himself and objectively assess any potential threat. He was terrified out of his mind of losing Jenna. Of a sadistic drug lord getting his hands on Jenna and making her suffer things he couldn’t even think about without losing the very thin grasp he had on his sanity and completely losing his shit.
Dane nodded. “That’s precisely our objective. This place is stocked with enough food and supplies for six months. If this goes on too long, Jenna is going to go stir crazy and she’s going to want her freedom. After being a prisoner her entire life, I don’t blame her one bit, but you’re all going to have to keep her busy and distracted no matter how you have to do it because we can’t afford even one slip-up. Eyes are to be on her at all times in case she gets it in her head to sacrifice herself for all of us again,” he growled, his displeasure obvious that she’d done it once already.
“How are you going to get out of here without compromising our location?” Knight asked Dane.
Dane’s lips turned up into a faint smile. “I never use a safe house that doesn’t have more than one exit. I won’t be seen and I damn sure won’t be tagged leaving the building. You just worry about your jobs and let me worry about getting Tori into protective custody without hitting anyone’s radar.”
Isaac stepped in front of Dane and stared him directly in the eye, not even attempting to hide the turmoil he knew to be present in his gaze.
“She’s my life, Dane. I’ll never be able to thank you—any of you—enough for this. She did more than heal a gunshot wound to my chest. She changed me. Brought me into the light when I was drowning in so much darkness, desolation and guilt from mistakes made what was seemingly a lifetime ago now.”
“Then I have her to thank,” Dane said, his tone gravely serious. “You have nothing to thank me for. I owe her for bringing you back.”
“Does Tori know what’s going on?” Capshaw asked quietly.
The four newest recruits were glancing between the more senior members of DSS, clear question and confusion in their eyes. They hadn’t been working for DSS when Tori was kidnapped and brutalized. None of them had. DSS had been formed in the wake of her abduction. It was Caleb’s vow never to leave his family insufficiently protected again. But those who’d hired on from the beginning, and then after Caleb damn near lost Ramie when he’d vowed to hire even more, and only the best, all knew the horrific ordeal that Tori had gone through. They also knew what Caleb had forced Ramie to suffer when he’d given her no choice but to use her psychic tracking abilities to find Tori before it was too late. As a result, they were all fiercely protective of the youngest Devereaux sibling and only sister.
Isaac sent the four men who’d hired on right before Lizzie had taken a leave of absence and gone rogue a quick look that said he’d explain it to the others later. They needed to know about Tori because they needed to treat her with extreme care and not inadvertently do anything to incite a panic attack.
Dane’s expression hardened. “Tori will know only what she needs to know. There’s no reason to cause her any more trauma than I have to. The dreams have been eating away at her night by night and right now she’s operating on fumes and sheer willpower. I’m going to make damn sure she gets the rest she needs even if I have to sedate her. Caleb coddles her too much and is too quick to believe her when she says she’s okay because hewantsher to be okay. I know she’s fucking out of gas and on the verge of collapse, and I’m not going to stand by and allow her to slowly kill herself.”
His words were angry, but there was a slight shake to his voice that Isaac could remember hearing only one other time. When Gracie had burst into the DSS offices with a letter from Lizzie, who was supposed to be on vacation, that was a goodbye and admission of a suicide mission all in one. Dane had been so shaken that he hadn’t been able to stand after reading the letter and had collapsed into his chair. He looked a lot like that now, except there was grim determination in his expression.
“I want to get back to Jenna,” Isaac said. “I don’t want her waking alone. She was deeply shaken by the news footage, and at some point I’m going to have to tell her why we’re staying here and why everyone else is splitting up.”
He dragged his hand through his hair, suddenly exhausted by the weight of his worry and fear for his angel.
“We’ll rustle up something for dinner,” Zeke said in a quiet tone. “We’ll do our best to cheer her up and give her a good time. Maybe get her mind off all the shit being thrown at her just for a little while.”
“Appreciate that,” Isaac said sincerely. “We’ll be out later when I know Jenna is up to facing a room full of people.”
TWENTY-ONE
ISAACeased into the bedroom, his eyes going to the bed where Jenna lay as he quietly closed the door behind him. Her back was turned to him and she was curled inward, her knees drawn slightly into her body. He wasn’t going to wake her yet. She needed the rest and what he needed was simply to be close to her, touching her, holding her in his arms so he could immerse himself in her beauty and light and all the worry, stress and fear could fade away just for a little while.
This was a mission unlike any he’d ever faced before, and not just because he had such a personal stake in it. Always before, no matter how dire the circumstances, even at the lowest moments when one of the wives was in extreme danger and facing seemingly impossible odds, Isaac had approached the plan, the resolution and the rescue, with calm confidence, certain of their success. He’d never doubted for a moment that Ari would be found and that the extremist group who’d abducted her would be taken out in a coordinated, methodical fashion.
When Lizzie had gone missing while on Gracie’s protection detail when Zack had abruptly left in what would later be revealed to be his mission to exact vengeance for the horrible wrong done to the woman he’d loved for half his life, Gracie had stepped up and enlisted the aid of Ramie and Ari, and though at the time, Isaac had nearly lost his damn mind when the women had showed up at the safe house where Gracie was being kept, he’d known then, as he’d known with Ari’s rescue, that they’d find Lizzie in time to save her.
But now? This was bigger than anything he’d ever dealt with in his time with DSS. The threat of the cult had been removed, much to his relief, but Jaysus had a veritable army at his disposal and allies who owed him more favors than they could possibly repay. That was the way the drug lord operated. He collected favors and when he called them in, those who owed him didn’t dare refuse to do whatever he demanded of them. He was ruthless and valued no life save his own. Every single one of his men were expendable. They gave him their absolute loyalty. He gave them absolutely nothing in return except the hope that he wouldn’t one day turn on them for no other reason than to amuse himself or prove some point only he understood.
DSS was the best at what they did. Isaac would choose to work with any one of his teammates any day of the week. He trusted them implicitly and he’d give his life for them. But they were vastly outnumbered and outgunned. Jaysus had unlimited resources and while Dane was one wealthy, crafty son of a bitch who made sure DSS was better outfitted than any security agency in the entire country, for the first time they were facing someone with more power, influence, ability to intimidate, money and weaponry.
