Page 77 of Unraveling Connections

I nod my head, “It might be a good idea.”

We listen to the whole thing; there is nothing really being said that they haven’t told us about until it gets to the end and Ever’s mom’s funeral.

“Shit,” I curse, “I don’t know how she’s going to feel about that.”

“That’s what we said,” Rage replies.

“When’s she supposed to be checking in?” Rafe asks.

I frown slightly, “Tomorrow morning, they are settling in and then heading to the shipping yard, since we are assuming it's one of the night shipments that is going to have Hunt’s men surrounding it, that is what we are watching first. They will check in the following morning.”

“Okay, so I don’t think we should wait too long to tell her about her mom's funeral, but I do think that we should wait until she checks in tomorrow morning,” Rafe suggests.

Hums of agreement sound around and I nod, “Okay, we can fill her in on the check in call.”

“I’m even more glad that we got the kill order approved now,” Atlas practically growls.

“Me too, he absolutely cannot ever get his hands on Ever, that would be even worse than Blake,” Luc replies, his eyes hard.

“As unlikely as it is, I am kind of hoping that they manage to take the shot this weekend. Him actively trying to identify who Shadow is adds a whole other level of fear to this whole thing,” Peter says.

“Yeah, it does.” I agree, “She is safe though; not only does he not know anything yet, but she has got us to protect her, Jynx to protect, D will protect, and hell, even Liam won’t let anything fucking happen to her. Hunt would be bringing down hell on himself if he tried to touch Ever.”

Atlas nods, “I agree with all of that. The problem is that Hunt doesn’t know that.”

“He’s right. Hunt doesn’t know exactly how protected Ever is, so there is no warning in place that may make him wary.”

“True, but he doesn’t know that Ever is Shadow either,” Peter says, “if we start making it known just how protected Ever is and by how many strong and powerful people, on both sides of the law then it’s going to make Hunt suspicious and he’s going to look closer at Ever to see why she’s that protected. We could potentially be telling him exactly what he wants to know.”

“Peter’s right,” Riot agrees, “for now, we just need to carry on as we are and hope that we can get to Hunt before he figures out who Shadow is.”

I sigh, “I have to admit that a part of me wants to pull her back from surveillance knowing that Hunt is after Shadow. Hewas a threat before but now he’s a particular threat to Ever herself and I don’t like that. The only thing stopping me, actually two things, one Ever would kill me, and two Hunt doesn’t actually know who Shadow is.”

“If we get even a sniff that he is beginning to suspect something then I want Ever kept close, she can hate it all she wants none of us can go through another Blake situation.” Luc says fiercely, memories shadowing his eyes.

None of us like to remember that time, it was not good for any of us, and Ever still struggles with the aftereffects of being taken, although thankfully not as regularly as she used to, thanks to lots of therapy and healing and the fact she murdered the person responsible, I mean that helps a lot.

“Agreed,” everyone says together.

We can’t lose her; we almost did, and none of us will survive that situation again; it is as simple as that.

“Okay so this is the plan,” I start, summing the most recent events so that everyone is on the same page, “we’re going to fill the others in when they check in, and find out what Ever wants to do about her mom’s funeral.”

“I don’t think she’s going to want to go,” Riot says thoughtfully.

Rafe shakes his head, “She won’t, but she might feel like she has to because Amelia was her mom, and now she’s dead, and that’s what you do when your mom dies; you go to their funeral.”

“Shit, you’re right,” Atlas agrees, “we need to make sure that she knows that she doesn’t have to go if she doesn’t want to and that whatever decision she makes, we will support her.”

Once again, we all nod in agreement and I have to admit that I will forever be grateful that the majority of the time we all agree, if we didn’t it would make this family of ours a pretty impossible place to be and we probably wouldn’t work as well as we do.

We are all silent for a moment as we absorb the information that none of us thought we would get today.

“Elijah, Callan, and the others are good. I think they are all ready for this job to be over with. They had an altercation, and they are a bit banged up,” Peter’s eyes widen, and I quickly add, “They are absolutely fine, and Elijah is waiting for you to call him.”

Pete doesn’t bother to reply; instead, he jumps and leaves the room, pulling his phone from his pocket as he goes.

“When are they thinking that they’ll be back?” Rage asks.

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