Page 20 of Judgment Day

Vlad opened his mouth, then closed it. For a while, he just sat there staring at them like Garrett hadn’t just asked him a question.

“It’s alright,” Garrett finally spoke up since it was apparent Vlad wasn’t going to answer. “You don’t have to tell us about your sister. We know you don’t trust us.”

Still silent, Vlad stared down at his hands for a moment. When he raised his head, he looked the same. Nothing had changed in those few seconds. Yet, his vibe felt different. He seemed defeated.

“We may not call each other brothers or friends,” Vlad told them. “On more than one occasion I’ve wanted to kill all of you. Not, you ladies. Just these fools. But...” Vlad cleared his throat then said, “If anything ever happens to me, it would be this crew that I would trust my sister to.”

Damn.That was deep.

“Know this,” Garrett said. “Nothing will happen to you. But, if something does, we’d gladly protect your sister. And if you leave a trail for Liam to follow, we’d gladly figure out what happened to you and kill whoever fucked with you. Even if it’s the Leader. We may not always get along, but you’re family too, Vlad. Even though you work for those punk-ass Soldiers. And even though you’ve thought about killing me more than once.”

Vlad chuckled. “I’m sure you’ve wanted to kill me a few times. I’ll check in with Dean when I can. If I can help, I’ll try. Dean agrees with me that you all should come up with a plan B and don’t depend on the Soldiers. However, don’t disassociate with them too soon. As of right now, the Leader is the main reason Zian hasn’t done anything foolish. Also, he won’t ask Nik to join him until he has Letisha. If you can get her before then, you’ll avoid that without offending the Leader too much. Before I go, I’ll tell you this, the Leader’s schedule is full for the next two weeks. He won’t be meeting with Zian during that time. After that, I have no clue what his schedule is like and won’t be around to find out for you. Dean may know. He’ll arrive at your safe house tomorrow. He’ll fill you in on everything and provide new info when it comes in. Sorry, I couldn’t do more for you all.”

“You’ve done a lot,” Garrett told him. “Be safe.”

Vlad nodded. “You too.”

The screen turned black. Garrett swiveled in his seat to face them.

“I know this wasn’t the news we’d hoped for,” Garrett started. “It was informative though. We know we have at least two weeks to get Letisha out of Zian’s clutches.”

“Two weeks?” Nik groaned. “Do you know how long two weeks are to a kidnapped person?”

“I know exactly how long it is. I also know if we fuck this up, the outcome will not be what we want.”

Nik stared down at the table, unable to argue with that.

“When Dean gets here tomorrow,” Garrett continued. “We’ll come up with a plan B, C, and D. Declan and Julien have brought over most of our weaponry we had at the safe house. Let’s double-check everything and make sure we have what we need. We also have to finish training with the weapons the Timeless have given us. We’ve got shit to do. Let’s get to it.”

Garrett pushed back from the table, gathered his things, and left the room. The others filed out of the room behind him.

“Timeless agents,” Arson said, standing up. “Meeting in the basement in five minutes.”

Seven and Skye gathered their things and followed Arson from the room. Exa remained seated next to him. Her gaze was on Nik, who hadn’t left the table. Scar grabbed her hand and squeezed.

“Go to your meeting,” he whispered. “I’m going to stay and talk to him.”

She leaned over and kissed his cheek. When she moved away, Scar whispered her name.

“Exa.”

She paused. “Yes?”

“After your meeting, meet me in our room. There’s something we need to discuss.”

It was time to tell her about the judge.

Her gaze narrowed. “Good news or bad news?”

Shit. He didn’t know. Bad, because the timing was off. Good, because the judge needed to die.

“A little of both, maybe,” he replied.

She sighed. “I was hoping it would be good. I’m tired of bad news.”

So, was he. He leaned forward and kissed her forehead.

“I love you,” he told her.

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