Page 51 of The Editor’s Choice

“Cain is coming for her,” I say as he slips off his shoes in the entryway, not wanting to waste any time with pleasantries.

“I’m fine on this glorious day, Roman. Thank you for asking,” he says sarcastically, even adding an eye roll for some extra drama.

When I turn to face him, the look he receives stops him in his tracks. “This is not a time for drama or games, Finn. If I wanted any of that, I would have called someone else.”

“Point taken,” he says, holding up his hands in mock surrender. “Tell me everything you know.”

After telling him about the note, where it was found, and the things I currently know about in Cain’s recent history, Finn leans back against the chair, fingers steepled in his lap.

“This is the guy you worked with before? Years ago?” he asks.

“Yeah. He’s the one. I wanted to keep him on board because I knew he was capable of anything to get what he wanted and I didn’t particularly want that released into the world without someone overseeing it,” I say, pinching the bridge of my nose between my thumb and middle finger.

My phone buzzes on the coffee table with an incoming text. Opening the text thread, I find the new message. It’s from Sara.

I’m on my way to see you.

Fuck. That can’t be good.

“Looks like we will be having even more company soon,” I say, placing the phone back on the table without a reply. “Sara’s on her way.”

Jade looks at me nervously, fidgeting with her sleeves again now. “That doesn’t sound promising.”

“No, it doesn’t,” I agree, not trying to sugarcoat anything for her. “But I can guarantee it’s urgent.”

We sit in a tense silence until there’s a light knock on the door signaling Sara’s arrival. I let her in and rejoin the others, grabbing a water for everyone on my way past the kitchen.

Placing her laptop on the coffee table, she kneels before it. Opening it, she types in her password before turning it face us. A video is paused on the screen. It’s facing an open warehouse, nothing really jumping out as abnormal from the still screen. When she hits play, it’s the audio that stands out.

Two men, standing off to the side but partially visible still, in a heated discussion. Both men keep their hands tucked neatly into the pockets of their dress pants but the conversation is animated nonetheless.

“You can’t be fucking serious, Mack,” the guy with the slicked back hair says. His hair is dark, and even from here, it looks like Dawn wouldn’t remove all the grease from your hand if you touched it.

“I absolutely am serious,” the bald guy, Mack, says, leaning against the wall, one foot crossed over the other ankle. “It’s not my call and you know that.”

“I don’t give a fuck whose call it is! This is a death wish, and I don’t know about you, but I’ve got some shit left to do before I go about signing my own death certificate,” he says, pulling one hand from his pocket to run it through his grimy hair. “There’s no way this will pan out. It won’t go in our favor. You know that.”

“Listen, Alec, it’s out of my hands,” Mack says, pulling his own hands from his pockets to lace his fingers together at his waist. “Boss’s orders. What he says goes. Get a team together. It goes down tomorrow. We’ll meet in the morning for the official details.”

“You’ve gotta be kidding me,” grimy hair, now known as Alec, says as he rubs his face to clear the look of terror that is clear even from the distance of the camera. “He’s going to get us all killed! Roman will never let us leave that place alive!”

Sara shuts the laptop, tucking it back into the bag at her side before sitting back on her heels and looking between the three of us.

“I wasn’t supposed to be able to get into their system. It took way longer than I expected, but it was worth it. Just crossing my fingers I covered my tracks and they can’t tell I was in their files,” she says, looking legitimately concerned now.

“I hate that we dragged you into this, Sara,” I say, honestly meaning it. “I didn’t have anyone else who could get me what I needed. This is a matter of life or death for Jade. Hell, for all of us now.”

“What do we do now?” is her only response. No time for dwelling on the past or the reasons that landed her here alongside us. We’re all in this together now, come what may.

“Now we need to make sure you can get onto that feed in the morning, first thing. Who knows how early they’ll be meeting and we can’t miss that. Find out anything else you can on Cain. I want to know everything about his last six months of operations. Who he uses, their technology, their weapons. I want to know every detail,” I say as she nods in understanding. Her role is going to be vital to keeping Jade safe and here with me.

“Finn, I’m going to need your help here, of course. The apartment has some measures in place already, but not nearly enough to fend off Cain, especially if he’s calling in the help of his guys.” Finn nods, getting up from the chair to get started, looking around the apartment while making a list of what needs to be done and when.

“We are going to help Finn, but also prepare you as much as we can. This fight with Cain is going to be just as much mental as it is physical for you, love. I’m going to need your undivided attention. You’ve got to do everything I say, exactly as I say it. No hesitation.” She nods, looking like a deer caught in headlights.

“The biggest thing you’ve got to remember is all is fair in love and war. He’s going to be willing to do anything to get to you. Anything,” I reiterate, holding her chin between my fingers so she looks at me directly. With the tiniest of nods, I drop my hand, hoping she truly understands but knowing she doesn’t.

The entire evening is spent on apartment modifications and talks of plans for tomorrow. We even ordered Thai take-out so we didn’t have to take a break, stuffing our mouths as we continued scurrying around the place. One day isn’t nearly enough time, but it’s all we have. I’m praying for a miracle at this point.