Page 40 of Howl Lotta Love

“I wasn’t asking your permission. I was informing you of my decision.” Gerri’s tone stayed light, but her eyes had gone hard as glass. “It’s my foundation. My staff. My decision, and I’ve made it. We let him believe the acquisition is proceeding, we flood the campus with your people disguised as staff, and when he moves, we’re there waiting.”

“That’s not a plan. That’s an invitation with a bow on it.”

“It’s an excellent plan,” Emma said, and Jace’s head snapped toward her so fast, she nearly took it back out of pure reflex. “Every move we’ve made so far has been reactive. We’ve been one step behind him since the very first gala. This is the first time we get to choose the ground.”

“I’m aware of the tactical advantages, Emma. I built the tactical advantages.” His voice had dropped, low and rough, more growl than words now. “I also watched an innocent girl bleed out on a warehouse floor, and I had a man scouting the Riverside campus last night. Forgive me if I’m not eager to hand him a third target.”

The room went quiet. Gerri, for once, didn’t fill it.

Roman cleared his throat from the corner, uncharacteristically careful. “I don’t love it either, boss. But Emma’s not wrong about the ground. We pick the field, we know every exit before Kane’s people do, and the whole team’s inside instead of racing to catch up after the fact.”

“Nobody asked for a second opinion, Roman.”

“You got one anyway. That’s how teams work.” He held Jace’s glare without flinching, which told Emma more about how long these two had known each other than any amount of banter could have.

Emma crossed to him, ignoring the fact that they had an audience, and put a hand flat against his chest where she could feel his heart slamming too fast for a man who rarely let anyone see it race. “I know exactly what it cost you last night. I’m not asking you to be fine with it. I’m asking you to trust the plan the way I trusted you in that warehouse. You had a route. I ran it without checking twice. This is Gerri’s route. Let her run it.”

Jace looked down at her for a long moment, a rawness cracking open behind his eyes he rarely let anyone see, and when he finally exhaled, it sounded like surrender even though his jaw never fully unclenched.

“I want a security plan so thorough, Kane’s own mother couldn’t get within a hundred feet of that campus without my knowing about it before she parked.” His hand came up to cover hers where it still rested on his chest, gripping hard enough to bruise before he caught himself and gentled it. “Every exit covered. Every staff member vetted twice. Eyes on that property, corner to corner, before Gerri sets foot on it again.”

“Now that,” Gerri said, delighted, “is a yes I can work with.”

“Rotation on the clinic wing specifically. Kids in that building. No exceptions, no gaps, ever.” Jace was pacing, plan taking shape faster than Emma could track it. “Tucker, campus wired inside a week—cameras, motion sensors, a line to this building Kane can’t intercept. Roman, Diesel, you’re both on rotation there starting tonight, undercover as facilities staff.”

“Tonight?” Roman’s eyebrows went up. “Ambitious.”

“He’s already scouting. Tonight.”

“On it, boss.” Roman was halfway to the door, energy restored now that there was a concrete task to throw it at. “I make an excellent groundskeeper. I have extremely strong opinions about mulch.”

“Nobody asked about your mulch opinions, Roman.”

“Everybody’s getting them anyway.”

Diesel, silent through the whole argument, finally spoke up. “Somebody’s got to guard the pastries during the op. I volunteer. Important assets require protection.”

“Nobody asked you to guard the pastries, Diesel.”

“Nobody needed to ask. I know where the valuable stuff is.”

Emma found Jace alone in the basement command center that evening, the rest of the team scattered across the brownstone or already halfway to Riverside, the wall map still glowing with red pins in the low light.

He hadn’t heard her come in—or if he had, he didn’t turn around right away, only stood there with his arms crossed, shoulders rigid, staring at the cluster of pins around his family’s land like he could will them into meaning anything less terrifying than they did.

She crossed the room without a word and slid her arms around his waist from behind, pressing her cheek flat between his shoulder blades. He went tight for one second, then melted into it, one hand coming down to cover hers where it rested against his stomach.

“Hey, yourself,” he said, before she’d said anything at all.

“I wanted to say thank you.” She pressed a kiss between his shoulder blades, feeling him shudder faintly at the contact. “For today. For trusting my read on the plan even though it terrified you.”

“It still terrifies me.” He turned in her arms until they faced each other, and the honesty on his face was the kind he usually kept locked behind three deadbolts and a security clearance. “Leadership’s never scared me before you. My instincts only ever want one answer where you’re concerned, and it isn’t tactical. It’s keep her out of it. Wall her off somewhere with no exits until this is over.”

“That’s not who I am.”

“I know it isn’t.” His hand came up to cradle her jaw, thumb tracing her cheekbone with a gentleness that didn’t match the raw hunger in his eyes at all. “I chose you anyway, which means I don’t also get to want the version of you that hides. I’m working on holding both truths at once. Some days I manage it better than others.”

“You did good today.” She turned her face into his palm and kissed it. “You let her choose. You let me weigh in. That’s not nothing, coming from a man who spent his first month with me plotting to relocate me to a bunker.”