Page 78 of Unraveling Connections

“A week or so, probably longer,” I reply.

“For a job that was only supposed to take a week at most, that’s a lot,” Atlas replies.

I nod, “Yeah, but we know that things rarely go according to plan.”

“That’s true,” he replies.

“Alaric’s calling me,” Atlas suddenly says, “I bet Liam’s called him.”

I nod, “Probably, put him on speaker.”

“Hey,” Atlas greets his uncle, “you’re on speaker, I’m assuming Liam called you.”

“Yeah, he did. I'm worried about Hunt trying to figure out who Shadow is, especially since Ever has used her particular skill set at headquarters, and we have no idea if the people that were working as moles for Hunt told him about it.” Alaric says, and I appreciate that he has gotten straight to the point of his call and not beat around the bush.

“Fuck,” I curse, “I hadn’t thought about that at all.”

“Surely, if he knew, he would have taunted that he knew by now; that’s what he does; he loves having information and would have loved to hold that over us,” Riot asks, “and surely he would be trying to get to Ever a lot more than he actually is.”

“All good points and the fact that Liam is certain that he’s looking for Shadow’s identity and doesn’t know yet is also a good sign, but it still makes me nervous,” Alaric replies, the concern heavy in his tone.

“Yeah, us too. Mr R gave us the permission to kill, if the opportunity arose, Ever, Cash and Jensen are all staking out the shipping yard at the moment with Ezra and Quinn.” I tell him.

“Okay, well, hopefully, he’ll give them the perfect opportunity to take him out, and he doesn’t figure out who Ever is while she’s in such close proximity to him,” Alaric replies.

“We are not even sure that the shipping yard is still being used by Hunt. The information in Drake’s floor was years old, and since Hunt knew it was there, it is quite possible that he moved the operation a long time ago,” Luc points out.

“Yeah, I’m not sure if I’m hoping that’s the case and Hunt’s no longer there, so we know that there’s no chance of him realizing who Ever is, or that he is there so we can end this quicker,” Alaric says, it’s evident by how much he’s panicking that he cares a lot about Ever.

I go over the same reasoning that I did with the others especially emphasizing that Ever will be pissed if we make her come home on a maybe.

“She’s also got Cash and Jensen with her,” Rage points out, “they are fucking terrifying when they want to be, and you can guarantee that if something threatens Ever, then Cash will deal with it ruthlessly; he’s already proven that this week as if we needed any more proof.”

“Yes, you’re right,” Alaric replies, “you guys are all family, and this one is hitting a bit close to home; it’s been a while since we’ve had to deal with cases that are so personal to us.”

“Yeah, we’ve spoken about that,” I reply, honestly, “I think we are all going to be really glad when Hunt is put away, or better yet, dead. He has got a link to far too many of us, and now, withhim wanting to find out the identity of Shadow, we are done taking it slow and carefully.”

“I agree,” Alaric says, “and I know that Mr R will as well. I am confident in saying that the job has changed; the objective now is to take Hunt out as soon as you have the opportunity. After that, we can work on dismantling his businesses and taking down his associates; none of them are as dangerous as he is.”

“Agreed,” we all say at the same time.

Knowing that the objective has now officially changed is actually a significant relief. It doesn’t change anything immediately; we still need to see if Hunt is using the port and shipping yard. If he is, then that is a massive operation that he is running out of there, and dismantling that would be our top priority anyway. Not only that but because it is such a big operation, then it would stand to reason that Hunt is likely to be there fairly regularly to check over it and make sure that it’s running as it should.

If we can prove that then we can stake the place out and take the shot at him when he is there, it would save us chasing him, instead we wait for him to come to us. We just need to prove it all first, which is why we need to make sure that he is still using it otherwise it’s back to the drawing board.

“We’ll get a couple of plan b’s and c’s in place just in case we need them, and we will make sure that we fill Ever and the guys in on what’s happening when they next check in which hopefully will be no later than tomorrow morning,” I tell Alaric.

“Good. I’ll keep in contact with Liam. Hopefully, he is going to be able to set up a meeting with Hunt; if he manages to do that, then we will have the perfect opportunity to take him down,” Alaric replies. “We can get Liam to choose a place where we can set up a lot of surveillance and failsafe in place so that he can’t escape. Or get knowledge of the place that Hunt wants to meet before they go. There are all sorts of advantages that itcould give us, and we will finally be one step ahead of Hunt for a change.”

“That all sounds great and would be a pretty solid plan if it wasn’t for the fact that we’re putting a lot of our faith in Liam,” Rage points out.

“He’s right, we’re assuming that he’s not going to screw us over at some point.” Luc agrees, a frown drawing his eyebrows together.

“Not at all, I am actually assuming that he is going to screw us over at some point, but I don’t think it will be with this. Liam wants Hunt dead as much as we do; he killed Amelia, who Liam put his life and reputation on the line for, he had Blake dealing in all sorts of things that Liam absolutely fucking hated, and although I’m certain that Blake would have done it anyway, Liam still blames Hunt for that. He is also partially responsible for Liam’s business going to shit.” Alaric makes some really good points, “Not only is there all of that, but he is a threat to Ever and to you, Atlas; I know you don’t like it, but he wants to protect you as well. It’s for all those reasons and probably some that we don’t know about that I don’t think Liam will fuck us over with Hunt.”

“I really hate to agree,” I start earning myself some looks from the men in my office, “but I do. Don’t get me wrong, I think there is probably a pretty good chance that he is going to somehow swing it in a way that he gets a really good deal of it all, but I think he wants the same end result as we do. Hunt dead.”

“Exactly,” Alaric agrees. “He seemed to think that he would be able to let me know by the day after tomorrow if he had managed to get a meeting with Hunt.”

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