The others didn’t look any happier with Dane’s edict. Dane gripped his nape with one hand, rubbing and squeezing, his agitation evident.
“If you think I like this any more than any of you, you’re fucking wrong,” he snapped. “Our primary objective is to keep an innocent woman from the hands of a goddamn monster. A man who ordered the slaughter of over one hundred people, including babies, children and women. Staying here is the very best thing we can do for the time being, until we know more about them than they do about us. If we show ourselves in public then we betray Jenna, when we’ve sworn to her that we’ll do anything we can to make sure she’s never subjected to that butcher’s brutality. Does it suck? Hell yeah. It turns my fucking stomach to stand down and hide like some fucking coward and send them the message that we’re afraid of them.”
Dane grew even more furious, his face reddening in rage.
“We aren’t afraid of inept dickheads who get off on making an innocent woman suffer. What we are is smarter. While they’re running out in broad daylight and in public, we’re lying low and waiting for them to fuck up and make a mistake, and that’s when we nail their asses to the wall. And you know what? Let them think we’re afraid. It will only make them that much more confident and bolder and since they’re already stupid as fuck, they’ll screw up. We just have to be patient and not be the ones to fuck up first.”
“Gotta say, boss man, that’s twisted yet very righteous logic,” Dex said.
Zeke nodded, and then one by the one the others did as well until only Shadow and Isaac remained still.
“You’re right. It sucks,” Isaac bit out. “But I won’t risk Jenna in any way and if that means holing up here for however long it takes until they fuck up, then that’s what I’ll do.”
Shadow merely nodded, remaining silent, though his eyes burned with anger and frustration.
“Who are you putting on the women?” Brent asked, speaking up for the first time. “They’ve been through enough fear, pain and horror. This doesn’t need to touch them in any way.” His eyes burned with the memories of all the women who’d come to mean so much to all of DSS, not just their husbands, who had suffered but survived. He was angry, and yet there was clear worry reflected in his expression.
“They’re strong, no doubt,” he continued. “But even the toughest nut will crack under repeated trauma. I don’t like Caleb having both Ramie and Tori to look after. His attention absolutely can’t be divided, and neither woman deserves to be the one who gets the short end of the stick. Tori wouldn’t . . .” He inhaled sharply. “I don’t think she’d survive it again,” he said quietly.
Dane’s face was a mask of cold fury, his entire body tense, his jaw bulging with the strain of clenching his teeth so tightly. “I’m taking over Tori’s protection. I don’t have a wife, no choice to be made if the worst happens. Isaac will take the lead here and all of you will remain for his backup and above all, Jenna’s protection. When I said that Tori was with Caleb and Ramie, I meant, but didn’t state at the time, that it was a temporary situation until I can get as much protection in place for Ramie, Ari and Gracie as possible. But Tori will be with me and Sterling has enough manpower that he can spare the muscle to add to my protection of Tori. No one knows where I’ll be taking her. It’s one of the few secrets I have from Caleb and Beau, but it wasn’t meant to be a safe house until now. Given the fact that no one, not even a single DSS member, knows its location, it’s the obvious choice. Sterling’s men are going ahead to more heavily fortify the place and then they’ll take position so they completely surround the facility, and should anyone make it past them, I have an impenetrable safe room with a meticulously stocked arsenal at my disposal. No one will get to Tori on my watch.”
Isaac frowned. “If this place is impenetrable and so heavily fortified, then why not bring Jenna there?”
Shadow spoke up before Dane. “Because it would require moving Jenna and she would be easily recognized by Jaysus or any of his army of men. Plus they’re expecting us to do just that. To move her to some badass safe house where all of us accompany her. It’s exactly what they want because then they’ll have the chance not only to take out the majority of our manpower, but also to grab Jenna at the same time. The very last thing we need to be right now is predictable. We have to be able to guess what they’re expecting and then do the opposite.”
It pissed Isaac off that he was so emotionally fucked in the head that he couldn’t think straight and that Shadow had to explain something to him that he damn well knew. He wasn’t some wet-behind-the-ears rookie, grasping at straws, but this wasn’t just any mission. He wasn’t protecting someone because he’d been hired to do it and could detach himself and objectively assess any potential threat. He was terrified out of his mind of losing Jenna. Of a sadistic drug lord getting his hands on Jenna and making her suffer things he couldn’t even think about without losing the very thin grasp he had on his sanity and completely losing his shit.
Dane nodded. “That’s precisely our objective. This place is stocked with enough food and supplies for six months. If this goes on too long, Jenna is going to go stir crazy and she’s going to want her freedom. After being a prisoner her entire life, I don’t blame her one bit, but you’re all going to have to keep her busy and distracted no matter how you have to do it because we can’t afford even one slip-up. Eyes are to be on her at all times in case she gets it in her head to sacrifice herself for all of us again,” he growled, his displeasure obvious that she’d done it once already.
“How are you going to get out of here without compromising our location?” Knight asked Dane.
Dane’s lips turned up into a faint smile. “I never use a safe house that doesn’t have more than one exit. I won’t be seen and I damn sure won’t be tagged leaving the building. You just worry about your jobs and let me worry about getting Tori into protective custody without hitting anyone’s radar.”
Isaac stepped in front of Dane and stared him directly in the eye, not even attempting to hide the turmoil he knew to be present in his gaze.
“She’s my life, Dane. I’ll never be able to thank you—any of you—enough for this. She did more than heal a gunshot wound to my chest. She changed me. Brought me into the light when I was drowning in so much darkness, desolation and guilt from mistakes made what was seemingly a lifetime ago now.”
“Then I have her to thank,” Dane said, his tone gravely serious. “You have nothing to thank me for. I owe her for bringing you back.”