Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 64702 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 324(@200wpm)___ 259(@250wpm)___ 216(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 64702 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 324(@200wpm)___ 259(@250wpm)___ 216(@300wpm)
“Thank you, Emma,” I say, the seeds of a friendship blossoming inside our shared look. Emma has given me a gift. She’s allowed me to see just how true Creed was to me during our time apart. Now it’s time to focus on these women, not me or Creed. “Tell me what it was like. What you went through.”
To my surprise, the stories flow one after another, and I can feel their need to talk and to heal. For two hours, I listen to the horrors these women have endured, starting with how they were lured into capture.
“Where are the other women?” I ask. “Why didn’t they join us?”
“A lot of them are struggling with being forced into hiding,” Brenda informs me. “Many are afraid for their families but torn about bringing them here and forcing them to give up their lives.”
“They need to fight back,” I say. “We all need to fight back.”
“How?” Brenda asks.
“By doing everything in our power to stop the abductions,” I say. “The Renegades are busy trying to shut Julian down completely, but in the meantime, the abductions continue. Why don’t we play a role in stopping them? We all have skills. We can put them to use. I know trends, charts and graphs, and behavioral analysis.”
Several of the others chime in with skills they possess, and I can feel the excitement building. “We’re fifty-plus strong,” I say. “We can make a difference. We’ll track the trend of how and when the abductions are taking place. We’ll talk to Caleb about setting up a team to respond to threats we identify. Find out what ability we have to educate the public and law enforcement without exposing an alien threat and causing more panic. Even if we can’t stop the abductions, we can slow them down.”
Ideas begin to flow around the table. We’re going to fight.
I think we’ve all found our purpose. I, for one, am not only accepting my circumstances here; I’m embracing them. And if Creed can’t, or won’t, do the same, I’ll fight him, too.
Chapter Forty-Three
Creed
I’m sitting in a rectangular-shaped room with Maddox, Jensen, and Caleb. Satellite monitors are on the wall to my left, based on where I sit. Maddox and Jensen are side-by-side, MacBooks open and in use, while they work to breach the Taylor Industries servers.
It’s a steep hill to climb, and they’re determined to make it happen. They’re both skilled enough to test the tightest of security walls. Maddox’s family owns a tech empire, and he grew up writing code, while Jensen’s hacking is legendary. The two are polar opposites—Maddox is Mr. By the Book. Jensen, on the other hand, tried to hack the government and was given the ultimatum of either going to jail or enlisting to hack for the Army.
He enlisted.
At this point, we can see the Green Hornet shipments live on radar, and we wait on Mommy Dearest to move them, which she will. She’s not going to give me the chance to come and get her stock when she’s making bank on them.
Jensen’s laptop beeps, and he eyes the alarm and then me. “Addie is getting a call from Brock West.” He hits the volume button, and the ringing sound fills the room. “I’m sending it to voicemail,” he announces a moment before Addie’s voice says, You’ve reached the voicemail of Addie Lawrence. Please leave a message, and I will call you back as soon as possible.
West’s message follows. “Addie, this is Brock. I’ve talked things over with your father, and he’s willing to bring you into the loop on Red Dart. I know you are still out with that migraine today, but he told me about dinner tomorrow night. I’ll be joining you, but there are some things I want to discuss in advance. Call me.” The line goes dead, and Jensen punches the sound button to off.
I grind my teeth at the idea of Addie being inserted back into that spiderweb of monsters. West being one of them. He’s plotting to fuck her and kill her, and he will not live to see that day.
Caleb’s lips compress into a hard line, and Maddox says what we are all thinking. “Is it me?” he asks. “Or is the timing on that call mighty suspect? The bullets move. West calls Addie.”
“I heard Lucian order Brock to kill Addie. It’s a trap. He’s a liability. And it’s long past time we accept that we need to lock Lawrence up. We can keep saying we’ll find Red Dart and that we need him to do that. But what else is he brewing that we don’t know about? We left him alone for two years, and Red Dart emerged. We cannot make that mistake again. We need to cut our losses.”
Maddox shifts in his chair. “We cannot act rashly—”