Page 127 of Hate Me

“How could you even pull that off given it would be like firing off a flare gun to the authorities and the military alike?”

“It requires a smokescreen,” Cas told me.

“And connections to nullify any potential blowback,” Dante added.

“Like the two of you being carted off to a hole somewhere?”

“Everything is well accounted for, you needn’t worry, friend.”

“Caleb, we’ve been working on this for years. All the pieces are in place. Let’s focus on the immediate task at hand. Jett Bane.”

“Fine, but after we’re done, I want to know the ins and outs of this insane plan of yours.”

So much had been going on since I’d returned that we hadn’t gotten into any of that. And once things had stabilized, he’d been non-stop either working at King Tower, in his home office, or on calls with Dante.

He and Dante exchanged a look that I could decipher.

I gritted my teeth, not liking that one bit.

“We’re close enough now,” Dante said, giving him a nod to go ahead.

So now he needed his permission to tell me something? Fucking bullshit.

“All right, I’ll brief you once this op is done.”

I slapped my hand to my chest and said with dripping sarcasm, “Wow, I’m honored, Cas.”

He glared at me and I glared right back with no intention of backing down.

But then Dante cut in, turning to the monitors that were displaying a building just a few miles outside Skylar’s former college town when she’d attended Vista Ridge. The fight club where her and Jett had met.

“He’s bought off the owners and taken up residence there in the apartment above the club,” Dante told us.

Caspian moved to him and brought up images and data depicting eight individuals on the monitor beside the one Dante was focused on. As I drew closer, I noted many of them had some fucked-up criminal activities and offenses under their belts.

“These are his newest recruits?” I asked.

Cas nodded. “Some paid for, some blackmailed. He’s using them as both his security and to wield as an army.”

“Holing up at this specific location is a message to Skylar, yes?” I determined. “He’s calling her out.”

“Indeed,” Dante confirmed.

“He’s intending the emotional connection of it all to get under her skin, have her slipping up, weaken her,” I murmured to myself. “He thinks he can draw her there and take her out.”

“Yes,” Cas said.

“It’s a move of desperation,” Dante spoke. He looked to Caspian, “From your reports, she’s stabilized, but are you certain that it will remain the case once this is revealed to her? She was brutally sexually assaulted and abused by this monster very close to this location. In fact, to reach the precise site, you’ll have to pass through the town itself and her former apartment. Not to mention, actually coming face-to-face with him again. The man who has caused her so much pain and even took her mother from her.”

“She’s confronted her trauma, she’s been processing it.”

“And she’s strong,” I cut in. “I’ll also be there with her.”

It was why they’d called me in on this.

They couldn’t send their teams in, not while we needed their direct involvement to be kept secret for a little while longer until they struck at Elijah.

So they’d asked for mine.

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