Page 207 of The Reluctant Hero

“Playing around. Leave her alone,” Jake turns his shark stare on Mikael. “She’s earned some safe alone time.”

“From now on, one of us stays behind,” Ace mutters. We all agree quickly.

“I’ll head back after you’re dropped off,” Mikael nods.

“No,” Jake leans forward to press his point home. “She needs some time to herself. She’s at a standstill until more information comes her way. Shade doesn’t have anything for her yet. We need to get some to her as quickly as possible.”

“Are you insane?” Cade asks and shakes his head. “Forget I asked.”

“She passed the damsel in distress point Monday morning,” Jake catches all of us in his dead eyes. “She’s firmly inourcategory now.”

“No,” Cade grabs his tie to yank him face to face with him. “We aren’t sitting back and letting that happen. Not to her. Not ever.”

“It’s done. Get over it,” Jake leans closer until their noses are pressed together. “Jeffersons never stop fighting. It’s likely why the marriage lasted as long as it did. She didn’t give up.”

“I want to raise that fucker from the dead and kill him again,” Ace grinds out, rubbing his knuckles.

“Get in line.Äitigets first dibs,” Mikael glares as he offers first place in line to Amanda’s mother. “Since that isn’t happening, we can focus on helpful things.”

“Like?” Cade snaps.

“Information formeine Seele,” Jake puts in. “If you continue to baby her, she will shut you out completely.”

“How can we not?” I ask with a scowl. “How can we sit back and watch her blithely walk off to beat the hell out of people?”

“We walk at her side, fools,” Jake gives us a disgusted glance. “Just like any other recruit.”

“She’s not a recruit,” Cade yells.

“No, she’s unique,” Ace bites back. “One of us in her own way.”

“We came here to get away from that,” Cade’s voice turns ragged. “We can’t let that happen to her.”

“Then minimize it as much as possible,” Jake shrugs nonchalantly as if he doesn’t believe it will happen.

“She’s shutting the account down,” I mutter, staring at the two recordings on my phone. “That means they’ll be looking for backers. Especially if it was their only account.”

“I’m looking into that,” Jake says with a yawn.

“You’re going to set yourself up?” Mikael frowns at me.

“My choice in decorating might not be up to Amanda’s standards, but there are plenty who will see it and drool,” I assure him.

Jake cracks up laughing, suddenly back in his sunny mood.

43

I Won’t Bow Down

Amanda

No one stops me as I wander around the house. The size of it is mind-boggling. No wonder they have people cleaning and cooking for them. If I cleaned a room on one side of this place and managed to make it to the other, it would take me weeks. By then the front rooms would need to be done again. What the hell do they need all of this for?

And how am I going to mess it up?

I start with the artwork hanging everywhere. At first, I want to rip it into pieces. The urge to make a bold statement rises as I stare at a large painting over the fireplace in the lounging room. Is that what it’s called? It doesn’t have a TV or any kind of entertainment. It’s full of stuffy leather chairs and couches with a low table separating them. Maybe it's a meeting room. It’s clean, but it’s obvious it isn’t used much.

I need something more subtle. A psychological needle to put at the back of the mind. Not everything has to be over-the-top violence to be effective.

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