Page 8 of Explode
Not becauseIwanted to rule Hollows Bay, fuck no, but because itwas Kai’s legacy,Miles’legacy. Whether I agreed with one family ruling over a city or not, it didn’t matter.
But my husband’s legacy?
Yeah, that mattered.
“Fuck,” Miles said, running a hand over his head. “Any idea on whenthey are planning this?”
“No, but from what our intelligence indicates, it’s likely to be soon,”Jack replied.
Although we’d been working with Apollo for six months, it still amazedme how they worked. I didn’t know how, but they had ways of getting intelligence on what was going on in the city. Their sources weren’t close enough for us to knowexactlywhat Hendrix and Max were up to, but the information they provided was enough to help us plan what our next steps were.
“Fuck, we need to act fast,” Miles said.
“What’s the plan?” Jack replied, looking from Miles to me.
Why the fuck he thought I’d know the answer to that question wasbeyond me. This was not my show.
“Don’t look at me, I have no clue,” I snapped when Miles too lookedat me as if I held a crystal ball with all the answers. He glared but quickly shook his head.
“First things first, I need to sort my nose out. Let’s reconvene in halfan hour and we’ll go over our options.”
Jack nodded before walking away and leaving us alone.
“This isn’t good,” Miles said, watching Jack’s retreating figure.
“You can say that again,” I replied. Miles grimaced at me and thenopened his mouth to reply. Whatever he was going to say though didn’t come out. He promptly shut his mouth and took a breath.
“Get cleaned up and we’ll talk,” he said instead, and with that, he leftme standing on the porch, wondering what fresh new hell we were about to face.
A short while later, Miles and I were gathered in the war room withJack and two of his men, Tank and Ash.
I’d met Tank previously when Angel and I had flown to France. He’dbeen manning the safe house we arrived at, but Jack had flown him to the States after Kai’s death, claiming that Tank was one of his best men, and we would need him when we started taking action.
Tank reminded me of Danny in a lot of ways. He was a unit of a man,but underneath all his muscles and scariness, he was a teddy bear. He’d spent hours teaching me how to shoot, and had been nothing but patient. He was also a funny guy, and he always found a way of making me laugh, even on my darkest days.
Ash had arrived at the house about a month after we did. He’d beendeployed on a mission somewhere in Asia which is why he hadn’t joined the team straight away. He tended to keep to himself, but he was one of those guys who, when they spoke, you listened to because he didn’t speak often. I didn’t know much about Ash, other than he was an ex-marine and a shit-hot shot with a sniper.
When he arrived, he made a point of seeking me out to say he wassorry for what happened to Kai, that he knew Kai personally, and that he was as determined as anyone to get revenge against everyone who had hurt him and me. He instantly earned my trust.
The five of us sat around the table in the war room, Miles swiggedfrom a bottle of beer while mine sat untouched in front of me. The other three didn’t drink, apparently, constant sobriety was essential when you worked for Apollo.
In my humble opinion, I thought it was ridiculous the guys called theroom, thewar room.But it was where we convened every time we put our heads together to plan how we were going to take back the city. And seeing as we were waging a war on Hollows Bay, I had to accept the name was fitting.
In the middle of the room was a large table, big enough to seat twentypeople. Huge television screens hung on the wall that connected to computers, and other fancy technology that I had no clue about.
When Jack first showed me the room, he told me he had previouslywatched teams deploying into war zones across the globe from the comfort of this room.
It all felt very much like a scene straight out of aJames Bondfilm, butit was impressive. Miles thought so too, he almost jizzed his pants from excitement every time he set foot in this room.
“So, what’s the plan?” Tank asked when everyone was up to speedwith the intelligence.
“We don’t have many options, we can’t go to war against theBianchis, we don’t have an army fighting in our corner,” Miles said glumly. “Unless we can bring in more men from Apollo?”
“Won’t happen,” Jack replied. “The boss couldn’t spare any moremen for this deployment, hence why there are only eight of us.”
“This latest development might change things though?” Tank added,his question aimed at Jack.
“Even if it did, it wouldn’t be enough to take on the BianchisandThe Stags,” Ash added. “Besides, taking out the Bianchis will only bring more trouble to your door, and that’s not what we set out to achieve.”
