Page 121 of Jase
“You’re right. I may have been paranoid, but I never thought I’d actually be using any of this. It made me feel safe. I thought I had the perfect system.” His lips pressed together, and we stopped as we entered the living area. “I didn’t. This is what I know, what I live, and they beat me at my own game. I almost can’t believe it. I don’t know how. I tried to watch the tape but…everything’s gone.”
“We can’t stay here anymore, can we?”
Jase shook his head. “We’ll talk about that later. We have lots to discuss. Go eat. I need to talk with Agent Sullivan. I’m sure he’ll want to talk to you too.”
I could read Jase like a book. He said we had to talk, but I already knew what he was going to say. His night was planned, and come the early hours of morning, Jase would leave again. He and Rush both. No feds. No army to back them. They’d go into the night, and they wouldn’t return until they or this leader was dead.
“He can talk to me all he wants. It all happened so fast. I didn’t see anyone. I didn’t hear anything but gunshots.” Jase’s lips twitched, tugging back on one side as he leaned down to kiss my lips. I cupped his face, moving to rest my forehead against his. “I know nothing.”
Chapter 41
Jase
It wasn’t what I’d planned. It wasn’t even what I had wanted.It was better.Where I was all hot-headed vengeance, Kody was calculated reasoning. Inside that reason though, sat explosives. Ones so powerful, her plan was guaranteed to work. After all, it’d worked before. Plus, it sure as hell beat what I planned.
Rush and I weren’t making it out alive if we went after Vitor at his estate. He had guards, dogs, and the best security system known to man. I found out firsthand. I’d explored to see if I could shut it down. I could, but not without it triggering complications. Our skills, both physically and technologically, weren’t enough to win against a man whose professional life centered on perversion and death. Vitor was prepared for an attack. He was ready for an invasion on any behalf. He was cocky, powerful, and that was going to be his downfall.
“I don’t like it.” Rush’s head shook. He sat next to Tiffany on the loveseat as I kept my arms around Kody on the couch. “We were lucky as hell last time. There’s too much risk. We don’t even have Rian to help. A lot of things could go wrong.”
Kody shifted in my hold. “And things wouldn’t if you and Jase showed up at his house Rambo’d out? Neither of you would make it out alive. At least this way you’re both in control. How prepared would he be if we gave him a few more months? The FBI left our apartment for one hour this morning, and he tried getting me and Tiff. We can’t even afford to drive now without a detail worthy of the president. Time is our enemy. He is our enemy, and he’s going to kill us if we don’t finish this now.”
“Agreed,” Rush stressed. “But there has to be another way.”
“Maybe there is,” I cut in, “but this is only one host, and think about it; it worked before. Sullivan mentioned to us earlier that they’ve been watching this guy for years. He even hinted that V works nights. The bastard and his men are all over the city once the sun sets. I say we wait an hour or two after midnight. When he gets the news or realizes what we’ve done, he’s going to be pissed. He’ll react and reach out to me like before. The moment he calls, we’ll be ready and we can track him. If he’s at home, we know what to do. But if he’s not…surprise is on our side, and we have him.”
I pulled Kody in, not liking that there was space between us.
“I still think getting him at home is the best way.”
“Vitor’s seen what we’re capable of, Rush.Especially me. The fact that he might expect us to show up at his place is the exact reason we can’t. We’re dead if he has the upper hand. Kody’s plan is our best shot.”
Rush rubbed his hand over his head as he looked down to his boots. When he sat up again, he let out a deep breath, nodding.
“Fine. I still don’t like it, but I’ll do it.” He cursed. “He’s going to be home, and then…cowards. That’s what we’re going to look like.”
“Until he realizes the truth.”
“What if he doesn’t even come to the airport to stop us? What if he just sends his men again?”
At Rush’s question, I glanced at Kody, kissing the top of her head as weight settled deeply into my bones. The truth was terrifying. I couldn’t even let my mind go there again. If I lost her…If something happened and she was hurt again…
“He’ll come because his business is his life. Plus, he’s bound to know the four of us are together. He’ll come because he can’t help himself. If he doesn’t, I won’t stop talking shit until I make him.”
“And if all that fails?”
Tiffany sat forward, grabbing her tea, and tightening the blanket around her shoulders. “At this rate, we’re dead anyway. I’m with Kody and Jase. I want my life back. I want this over. If that means I may die tonight, so be it. I can’t do this again. I…” Her hand began to shake as she held in the tears. “I can’t live like this anymore. I won’t; I’m done.”
Rush’s hand flattened against her back. Tiffany stared ahead in a daze, not quite the same since she’d come out of my gun room.
“Did anyone give a timeframe for how long Rian will have to stay?”
Rush’s expression went from anger to concern at Kody’s question.
“He’s pretty beat up. They…” His hands clasped as he took a moment to hold in his emotions. “They tortured him pretty good before we could get him. Truthfully, it saved his life. Had they not decided to teach him a lesson, he’d be dead now. They had no intention of letting him live. He’s…He’s not good. Despite the extra security I had brought in, the paranoia is worse. It was bad before, but now.” He stopped talking, pushing to his feet as he walked to the fridge and grabbed a beer. “I’d still rather break in. Vitor has to come home at some point to sleep, and when he does.” His hand sliced in front of his throat. “We could be in and out. They’d never even know we were there.”
They would, but I wasn’t going to argue with him about it. Rush wanted time. He wanted personal payback. Neither of us was going to get it this way. Not like we wanted.
“My biggest concern isn’t necessarily the plan.” Kody paused. “We have new security; the FBI is outside watching. How much longer do you think they’re going to be out there? Can we even slip past or go anywhere without them trailing us? They could ruin everything.”
