CHAPTER 68
Patrick went through the rest of the afternoon in slow motion. He knew he was in shock, but he couldn’t shake himself out of it. Laney was in the hands of that madman. He couldn’t focus on anything except that one single thought.
He shook his head. Man. That isn’t even the right term, is it?
Henry had arranged for the group to move to an old farmhouse about fifteen minutes from the Kensington compound. The farmhouse sat on a hundred and twenty acres, and it had been sitting empty since it had been foreclosed on six months earlier. They hadn’t contacted anyone about it. They’d just moved in.
No one knew they were there. Henry didn’t think Gideon would try another assault, but if he did, he wanted to make it as tough as possible to find them.
Jordan stayed behind to deal with the local police. As far as the police knew, he was the only member of the Chandler Group alive.
Time was now more critical than ever, and they couldn't waste it walking the police through everything that had happened. And besides, they needed to keep a lid on things if they were going to keep Laney alive.
Now, sitting at the old kitchen table, Patrick pushed the food on his plate around before giving up. He couldn’t stomach it. He hadn’t protected her. From what they had figured out, she had, in fact, protected him.
He was sitting here safe and sound. And they didn’t even know where she was. And worse, now her life hung in the balance against the lives of all the men at the site, including Jake’s brother.
Jake, Yoni, and Henry sat with him. Their food grew cold along with his. The security detail had been split into two shifts and half patrolled the new homestead while the other half slept. No one was talking.
They had been debating what to do next. Henry argued they should just follow the instructions and do nothing for now. Yoni voted for finding Laney. Jake had stayed silent. Now they all sat watching their plates.
Patrick watched Jake, who sat across from him. He’d said very little since they’d received the call about Laney. The failure to protect her weighed on him. Patrick didn’t know how to lessen that burden. It hadn’t been his fault, but he knew Jake was blaming himself. Hell, they all seemed to be blaming themselves.
He took a deep breath. The next step was up to him. He couldn’t add the burden of this decision to anyone else. It was his to bear.
He cleared his throat. “You all know that Laney isn’t just my niece. She is, in every practical way, my daughter. And I know her better than almost anyone. I remember this one time when she was eleven years old, a kid at school was being bullied. Laney wasn’t even friends with the child, but it didn’t stop her from intervening even though there were three bullies. She got a black eye that day. They told Laney to stay out of it and if she tried to stop them again, they’d do worse to her the next day. So the next day came, and what do you think she did?”
“Tried to stop them again,” Jake said, a smile forming on his lips.
Patrick smiled. “Yup. She didn’t go in alone, though. She brought backup in the form of her friend, Darby. The other child didn’t get beat up that day, but Laney and Darby took a good few hits. Of course, they gave a good few as well. When she came home that night, I asked her what had happened. She confessed the whole story to me. I asked her why she took the bullies on again, even though she knew she was going to get hurt. She told me that life wasn’t about trying to avoid getting hurt, it was supposed to be about doing the right thing. And keeping that child from getting hurt was the right thing to do.”
“Her childhood…” His words disappeared for a moment, and he struggled to control his emotions. “Her childhood was not easy. But it gave her a very strong sense of right and wrong. And she’s lived her life staying pretty much on the right side, even when it’s been at great personal cost. She’s always trying to help the person who needs the most help. But I think you’ve all seen that already.”
The men nodded back at him.
Patrick took a deep breath, hating the words that he needed to say. “So, I’ve been trying to think of what Laney would want us to do. And the answer is obvious, although it kills me to say it: She would want us to help those men in the compound, regardless of the risk to her. It’s the greater good.”
His hand was unsteady as he raised his teacup to his lips and took a small sip. “We need to follow through with the plan to take out the compound. And we need to do it fast, because they won’t be expecting that. They’ll expect us to take time, to re-group. We need to move now.”
“Are you sure, Patrick?” Henry asked. “We don’t need to make any decision right now. We can take some time.”
“And if Gideon gets the stone?” Patrick asked. “What then?”
“We don’t know for sure it’s even there,” Jake said.
Patrick looked at each man at the table before he answered. “We have to work on the assumption that it is. Do you really want to bet the fate of the world on the possibility that it isn’t? That Azazyel has gone to all these lengths without being sure he’d find it?”
Jake stared at him and then looked away, his jaw hardening. He shook his head.
Patrick stood up. “You all know as well as I do, the sooner we do this, the better chance we have at succeeding. Now if you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll leave you to finish planning while I get a little fresh air.”
Patrick could feel their eyes on him as he walked out into the night. He turned right, heading around the side of the house.
Once out of sight of the windows, he stopped and leaned against the building for support. He wrapped his arms around his stomach as if he could keep himself from splitting in two.
Tears streamed down his cheeks. “Oh, God, please protect her and keep her safe.”