“Cole Daniels, Viktor’s new hire. He’s from the Miami-Dade area. He might be able to help. He’s supposed to start Monday, but I’ll shoot him a text see if he can lend a hand.”
Kade glanced at his phone when it pinged. It was Watkins telling him they were taking Angel for her CT, and he was going with her.
“Do we want to involve the police, though? It’s a lot of red tape.”
“You can’t just roll into town, shoot it up, and not expect police backlash.” Max stuffed the laptop back into its case. “You need the police. Call your buddies in the feds. Keep a plan B on the backburner in case plan A fails, but we want the police involved.”
“I’m with Max on this.” Nik finally spoke up. “I’m not a military man, so I can’t say Conner’s plan won’t work, but I think you need to do it legally first.”
“And what happens if legal doesn’t work and we have to go in? The dead bodies will lead back to us then. The cops will know we were looking for Matthew. If we go with stealth and just take out the necessary players and take him back, no one is the wiser.”
“And how are you going to explain finding the son you thought was dead?” Nik asked. “You’re not thinking like a cop, Kade. You’re thinking like a father who is willing to do anything to get his son back. If you don’t start thinking like a cop, you’re going to wind up in jail where no one can protect you, and it still might end up with Angel and Matthew dead.”
When did his little brother start making so much fucking sense? He did want to go in guns blazing and take his son back, but Nik was right. How would he explain it? A child who had been presumed dead? How did he find out about him? Who did he contact? Where did he get the child? All those questions would land at his doorstep, and he had no answers that wouldn’t land him with a prison sentence.
People would die when he went in to take back his kid. If the cops weren’t in on it, his family would be the ones to pay for it.
“Just calm down.” Nik gripped his shoulder. “Conner will be here in a few hours, and we’ll all sit down and come up with a plan A and a plan B. We’re going to get him back one way or another.”
Kade wanted to argue, every instinct he had wanted to argue, but he agreed with his brother. There couldn’t be any mistakes this time.
And there wouldn’t be.
***
Angel yawned when a nurse woke her up. It wasn’t Marcy. This one was from radiology and told her they were going to do a repeat CT on the doctor’s orders. The first thing Angel noticed was Kade was missing. He was probably on the phone with his mother or one of his brothers telling them about the baby.
The baby.
A small smile escaped as she got into the wheelchair with the help of the nurse. The light still bothered her eyes a bit, but it was getting better. Even the dizziness had almost dissipated. She must have really hit her head when she passed out.
“Where are you taking her?” Jasper asked when the nurse wheeled her out of the room.
“To CT.” She started pushing the chair and stopped when Jasper followed. “Excuse me, sir, but you are not allowed in CT. You can wait here until she gets back.”
“Not happening.”
“Sir…”
“You’re not going to get him to stay here.” Angel shook her head, forgetting the movement would hurt. Dammit. “He’s my bodyguard. Where I go, he goes.”
The nurse looked like she wanted to insist, but the expression on Jasper’s face brooked no argument. She gave in with a huff and started wheeling her down the hall, Jasper on their heels.
“I’ll text Kade to let him know where you are. He’ll panic if he comes back and you’re gone.”
That was the God’s truth. All the Kincaid men went into caveman mode if they so much as suspected there was danger to their women. Angel loved them for it, but it also irritated her. She wasn’t a china doll who had to be locked up in a glass case, protected from everything.
Granted, she wasn’t indestructible. She knew firsthand how easily anyone could get into a bad situation where they had no control. She’d survived a serial killer, after all.
They rode the elevator down to the second floor. The nurse refused to let Jasper enter the CT room itself. He argued, but this time the woman held her own. It wasn’t safe for him, and the nurse told him in no uncertain terms she’d call hospital security to escort him back to Angel’s room.
Angel hid her laughter by ducking her head.
“Is he always like that?”
“Yes. He’s not being ornery on purpose. His job is to protect me.”
The nurse shook her head. “I…”