Page 115 of Beautiful Chaos

“Why don’t we just kidnap all of them?” Jade asks, reminding us she’s even here. She’s been quiet since she and Ian showed up with coffee for all of us.

“‘Cause that’s a lot of work, J,” Declan explains calmly. “We could, but that’s three different teams, three different disappearances to cover up, less time for Scar to work.”

“Yeah, J,” Kade taunts her. “Why are you even here?”

She flips him off and he sticks his tongue out at her. “Moral support,” she answers. “Scar needs someone to hold her hand if she’s being forced to see your ugly mug all day.” Their bantering breaks up some of the growing tension in the room as they intended. Everyone settles in as ideas begin to get tossed out one after another for a way to get the three men together.

Each plan someone offers up is quickly thrown out by another. We go in circles until I begin to tune them all out. Maybe the answer is right in front of us. Something so obvious we’re just overlooking it.

A thread that connects all three men.

“Charlotte,” I whisper.

Heads snap in my direction. My stomach churns at the thought of using this route, but we don’t truly have to use her as bait. I stare at Charles and study him for a moment. He’s really come through for us multiple times. He’s the one who brought the photos, who found the house, who led us to Romano. He’s earned our trust and even my respect.

I fortify my resolve, even if it goes against everything I’ve believed in for the last several years. Everything we’ve fought to protect.

“She’s the string that connects them all,” I explain. Charles’ eyes widen, the first one to understand where my plan is heading. It’s risky, dangerous, not something I ever advocate for, especially when it involves Scar, but we can’t find any other connections. Maybe it’s time to go back to the beginning.

“You want to tell them where she is,” Charles deduces. Hmm, he is smarter than I ever gave him credit for.

Tension ratchets up in the room as everyone’s expressions range from shock to anger to intrigue. It would be Scar that looks intrigued. I raise my hands to placate everyone. “I’m not saying we actually expose her, okay? I think we’re smarter than that.” I’m a little offended they didn’t immediately see that. “We’ve created enough fake identities, we just have to create another one,” I explain. “Photoshop a couple photos of Scar, make her blonde, get rid of her tattoos. Make it look like she’s been living a quiet life in some random town. Thanks to Charles we know where his father has searched for her and what leads he’s followed. We can use that to create a believable past for her.”

Noah’s fingers are already flying over the keyboard. “I can do that.”

“How are we passing this info off?” Declan asks, some of his disbelief being replaced with curiosity. “We can’t just send an anonymous email to Donahue and expect him to fall for it. We might be able to use one of his spies but he’s going to be on guard since several have already been burned. It’ll feel too convenient.”

I tilt my head as I watch Charles watching me. “Where does Daddy dearest think you are?”

He rolls his eyes and flips me off. Oh, he’s getting bolder by the day. He might fit in better than I had thought. Don’t know if I like that, I don’t hate it either though. “Business on the West Coast is all he knows. He hasn’t asked for any more information than that.”

“He has come to believe she’s on the West Coast,” Ry points out. It’s something we realized when we looked into his company. He’s been creeping closer and closer to her all this time. Who knows if he ever would have uncovered the truth? I find it hard to believe he would have figured it out, but he was searching close to us.

“Is my stumbling upon her less convenient?” Charles asks, doubt and hope warring in his voice.

It’s Noah who answers, “Not if we play on his ego, make him think he was headed in the right direction and close to finding her himself.”

“He does have a big ego,” Charles concedes. “I don’t think he will be wholly rational about her either.” A tinge of green crosses his face. He’s thinking about the house he found. We haven’t told Scar about it. I don’t want to. It might be better to destroy it without ever having her know just how deep his obsession ran.

“Do you think it will work?” Scar asks, sounding more like herself.

Charles contemplates his answer. “I think it could,” he agrees. “We just have to set it up perfectly.”

“Leave that to me,” Noah says.

The next several hours are a blur of taking photos of Scar, editing them to look nothing like who she is today and instead a grown up version of who she once was, debating where and how she would have been living her life all these years. The atmosphere is lighter than it’s been since Alec’s funeral. Jokes are tossed out freely as meticulous plans are made. Scar is smiling and laughing at creating this fake life for herself. None of the shadows that have seemed to plague her are present. Instead, a raw energy is filling the room. It vibrates with the intensity, but in a way that makes all of us more excited, more amped up. It’s reminiscent of the night we declared war on Romano.

Confidence runs through all of us that this is going to work. There’s no room for doubts any longer. No chance of anything but blood and vengeance being dealt out at Scar’s hand. The certainty of the end coming seems to smooth some of her jaded edges, her frazzled ends. I bet she won’t have any nightmares tonight.

The day has passed in the blink of an eye as we’ve created this whole life around who Letty could have been. Enough personal touches to make it all the more believable. A dance teacher in a small beach town, not married, no kids, living in a secluded house with views of the ocean. She likes to run along the beach every morning. Those were the hardest photos to photoshop. Removing her tattoos but keeping her scars to help prove it’s really her. No one would know those scars better than Donahue.

Charles just so happens to have a business associate that lives on the same street as our fictitious Letty, laying the groundwork for how he found her. We’ve even created a statement from this associate about how he doesn’t know much about her. She tends to keep to herself and seems rather demure and shy. It should be enough to convince his father it’s real.

It takes a few days to get the rest of our plan in order. As soon as we decided how we were going to lure the three men in Jade, Ian, Rachel, Holden, and Joe flew to the East Coast to keep an eye on our prey. We need to ensure they play into our hands before springing the trap or everything could unravel.

Charles got us photos and the blueprints of the Donahue estate. We’ll hold our positions outside, while he heads straight into the house. We need him to be there first for when Bernard and Schroder show up so their arrivals won’t raise any flags for security. Charles should have the authority to send the majority of the security away, making it easier for us to make our way in without any problems. His excuse for his father will be complete privacy.

We pull up to the tarmac of the private airport we prefer. I check in with each team to confirm their positions. Rachel and Holden have eyes on Schroder at his home in Eastvale. Ian and Jade are at the academy Letty once attended, keeping an eye on Bernard. And Joe is outside Donahue’s office. The guard Charles has on his payroll gives him the go ahead as Donahue heads into a business meeting that is expected to last hours. He shouldn’t have his phone on him for hours, giving us enough time to get there, get in, and set up everything we need to before he even knows what’s sitting in his email.

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