Page 87 of Pride
“I’m serious.”
“So am I. Heaven help the poor fool who tries to come between us.”
Alice pressed her lips together and raised a brow. “Your plan?”
“Tie you to me.”
That sounded awfully prideful to Alice. She gave a disparaging shake of the head, and Parker was having none of it. He chucked her under the chin, forcing her to meet his worried eyes.
“Alice. Listen to me now. I never want you to feel like this is your punishment, or that you need it for any reason. Promise me if you do, you’ll come to me first. You won’t find another torture device and hurt yourself. Look forward, sweetheart. Not back.”
“I can’t help how I feel sometimes.”
“You feel naughty, you come to me.”
She smirked. “Naughty?”
“You know what I mean.”
“You’ll tie me up again?”
“Never to punish you, but if you need it, I will be your safety net.”
He kissed her gently, and then tugged her toward the front door. With a sigh of capitulation, she could do nothing but follow.
They were downstairs and in the basement a few minutes later. Every member of the Lazarus family was down there, surrounding the operations table in what she thought of as the war room. Screens on one wall depicted news stories from around the city. Glass cabinets housed dormant Deadly suits. The long glass table had a screen beneath it. When she walked in, she held her chin high and tried to keep her limp to a minimum.
Out of the mates, only Max was there with his arm around Sloan as she sucked on a lollipop of some sort. Mary and Flint were also at the table among their children. Flint’s intense gaze followed Alice from the moment she’d stepped into the room. Mary must have told him.
Suddenly unable to meet anyone else’s eyes, Alice turned to Parker. He placed his warm palm on her nape and lead them to the table. Safety net engaged, warmth spread outward from her heart.
“Finally,” Liza said and gestured at Sloan. “Do your computer thing.”
Sloan left the lollipop in her mouth and tapped the table a few times. Alice realized there was a touch screen keyboard beneath the glass. Multiple virtual digital files popped up along the table as though someone had dropped in a physical copy. Each folder opened to display field reports they’d all made—or AIMI had done for them.
“This everything?” Parker asked.
“Yep,” Sloan replied. “These reports are the result of our reconnaissance missions, and with the names Prudence gave us, we’ve cross-referenced them with what we individually discovered. They check out. Each of these names controls one of the sites around the world. Together, they are the Syndicate, which makes them the big targets. We get their biometrics, we gain access to the sites, we take them down.”
“They go to prison,” Liza added.
“What about Julius?” Parker asked.
“He’s still in Cardinal City.”
“I guessed that,” he replied. “I’m asking what link he has to all these people. Where does he fit in?”
Max visibly bristled at Parker’s tone toward his wife. Parker’s fingers clenched around Alice’s neck, and the two men glared at each other.
“No one needs to have a pissing contest,” Liza said, eyeing them both off. “It looks like he’s not the one in charge, if that’s what you’re getting at, Parks.”
He ground his teeth. “So if we take them all out, he’s going to be severely impacted. Can I have confirmation everyone has placed their charges?”
Alice’s gaze whipped to him. Charges. As in explosives? Was that why Parker had been so agreeable to her entering the barn on her own, because he was laying his own explosive charges about?
“We have,” Tony replied. “But I still don’t see why, since we want to get inside each site.”
“And we can’t blow them up,” Evan added. “Not with innocents inside. We need extraction plans.”
