Page 78 of Fighting Conviction
“We’ve been over this, Jaybird.” The amount of power behind Hawk’s cool reply was enough to make Ellie’s knees weaken. “Jules was just put on bed rest. You didn’t even want to leave her long enough to come to BlackStone for this meeting. You’ll be distracted and you’re needed if your fiancée goes into labor. Besides, you’re recognizable. These bastards probably have their own personal version of ‘Wanted’ posters and the man they failed to frame has got to be number one.”
Jason sighed. “Fine. Can you program the headset I’ve got at home so I can listen in?”
“That’ll be easy,” Snake confirmed.
“As long as you fuckin’ charge them this time…” Phoenix’s statement was uncharacteristically abrasive. “Can’t have another Yemen.”
“You know I fucking charged them then and I fucking charged them now. How many times do I have to tell you that? I think the question is, are you going to fucking wear yours this time, ass—”
“Enough.” Hawk’s reprimand quieted the room. “The party starts at seventeen hundred hours. We need to be ready to go well before then.”
“Can, uh, can I get a headset? That might help me with y’all.” Henry’s tentative question was met with Snake’s curse.
“Oh, fuck. Sorry, man. I don’t have one for non-agents.”
“Nora’s gettin’ one, right?” Henry reasoned.
Nora? Nora’s in on this?
Ellie tried not to feel hurt the BlackStone Crew was depending on Nora and not her. Did they really think so little of Ellie that they couldn’t trust her?
“She’s a practicing agent today,” Hawk replied. “Nora?”
“Hm?” Nora’s voice was quiet, subdued.
“You’ll be Phoenix’s date, arriving with him twenty minutes into the party via taxi. Devil and I will arrive separately, park the van in the parking lot… here.” A tapping sound punctuated Hawk’s instruction.
“We’ll be ready to go at fifteen hundred so we can gear up and take turns scoping out the hotel one final time before we attend the party,” Hawk said.
“Ellie will be at BlackStone… she doesn’t know anything, right?” her brother’s low voice asked. “We need to make sure it stays that way.”
Ellie’s breath caught and she tiptoed closer to the cracked door. Whatever she wasn’t supposed to know, she sure as heck was going to find out everything.
“I don’t think she has a clue,” Dev responded. “She hasn’t talked about the party since I shut her down our first training session.”
“Nora, you haven’t talked to her about it?” Jason asked.
“No.” Nora cleared her throat and spoke louder. “We talked yesterday, but we’ve been ships in the night at Sasha Saves. I haven’t told her, but I think you should.”
“I agree,” Snake chimed in. “If she just went as recon, like a fake date or something, maybe someone or something there would jog her memory.”
“That would be the worst thing for her,” Jason argued. “We can figure shit out ourselves. You’ve already been through the entire damn list. If we don’t know who’s there by now, she definitely won’t.”
Snake sighed at Jason’s response. “That’s the invite list, though. And Naomi, Nora, and I have been over it, but we all know hit men and henchmen aren’t ‘cordially invited’ to this shit. You know she’ll be hurt you left her out. At least let her know so she can be at Sasha Saves when we take the women there afterward. Don’t you think she has a right to know?”
“She’s too fragile still. She just fainted from overworking as a coping mechanism from all this shit.” Jason’s point made Ellie seethe. What the heck did he know? Ellie had been training daily, eating better, and going to classes and therapy. Heck, she’d even made a friend. He’d been holed up with Jules.
“That was over a month ago,” Snake reasoned. “It seems like she’s doing much better—”
“Exactly,” Dev responded, and Ellie beamed. Finally, he was sticking up for her. She could maybe go as his date and point out if she saw anything or anyone familiar. She’d stay near the exits in case she needed to hightail it outta there for some reason. Or heck, she could even ride with the women to Sasha Saves and be someone they could trust.
The other women Ellie had been kidnapped with had been overwhelmed when they were rescued. Ellie had had the benefit of being able to trust the Crew right off the bat. The other women had a hard time, but maybe Ellie could help these survivors.
“She’s been working hard and doing much better,” Dev continued, and anticipation tingled in Ellie’s fingers. “But I still don’t want her anywhere near this shit. She couldn’t handle knowing about this…”
Ellie clutched her chest as her heartbeat thrummed in her ears, muffling the rest of the conversation, which was just as well because she didn’t want to hear anything else Dev had to say.
Did he really think she was still so incapable of defending herself? Still so weak she couldn’t even handle knowing about the dumb party, let alone help do something about it? They didn’t even think she was useful enough for recon, for crying out loud. What if she could recognize someone that they didn’t? And Snake was right, she could at least be at Sasha Saves when they needed her.
