“Yeah, I saw it,” Rig said.
She kept her head craned in the direction of the table as she sorted the vegetables into the various baskets that Bess had brought from the walk-in pantry. The Kindred had a way of finding places to stay that had enough storage for everything they could possibly need to survive a siege.
Devon hadn’t even noticed that there was a sliding door at the back of the kitchen. It was made to look like a false wall panel and hadn’t been on the floor plan Zave had given her in his office. Maybe it had been planned as a panic room or something, but for now it was Kindred storage.
“What did you think?” Zara asked.
“The guy’s got balls,” Rig said. “Calling you all out.”
Zave was sitting at the head of the table again, with Brodie to his left and Tuck to his right. Zara sat beside her husband with Rig opposite her. There was tension in the air. Devon couldn’t decipher if it was caused by conflict or mistrust that lingered between those here or if it was because of the anger they all had about Syn.
Brodie wasn’t so tactful about his opinion. “He’s a fucking idiot,” he muttered.
But Rig didn’t get drawn into slinging insults, and she was impressed by how clear and determined he came across. “Do you have a plan?” Rig asked. “I’m guessing that’s why I’m here, you need something from me.”
Actually, he was here because she’d thrown a hissy fit and demanded that he be brought into the fold for protection. She expected one of them to point that out, which would make the tension rise when Rig realized he wasn’t exactly welcome.
But nobody said that. Instead, assent came from Zara. “Yeah,” she said. “They know you’re here.”
Tuck clarified, “If they’re serious players, as they claim to be, they’ll be monitoring flight manifests and may even have had eyes on you wherever you were and here too.”
It was amazing, but Rig was undaunted. “So they know I’m around, and they want to take me down,” he said.
Devon tried to keep her chin tipped down, acting as though she wasn’t really listening in to what was being said, but all she was doing now was rearranging the vegetables that were already in the baskets. Bess and Kadie were behind doing the hard work, but Devon didn’t want to miss a thing that was going on at the table a few feet away.
“Pretty much.”
Again, without question or fear, her brother asked like it was no big deal, “And you want me to go for a walk?”
“More than that,” Brodie said, clasping his hands to lean on the table. “We figure maybe you and your sister should have a blow out.”
Rig’s intent air took on a more serious hue. “All these years I tried to get you working for me, Rave, and here I am working for you,” Rig said. “You want me to call these bastards out into the open where you can take them down, I’m game. But don’t ask me to put Von in the firing line.” Her brother pinned his attention on Zave at the top of the table. “So much for marrying her ‘cause you love her. Did you come up with this plan?”
The plan, as much as Devon could figure it out, was to put Rig into danger. Syn wanted to hurt him, that was established. Syn were in town. If Caine was here, the rest of them were, too, and they had to wait around for Zave and Tuck to finish building the products they needed. So for now, Syn were sitting around, with little to do.
That Rig had just sauntered into town might seem a little too convenient, except his baby sister was here with her brand-new husband, so he had reason to be wandering the streets of the city.
“They’re cocky,” Zara said. “We’ve weighed the pros, and Falc actually voted no to this plan. “The Kindred don’t put their own in danger. We figure if we put you out there with your sister, they’ll be salivating about the vulnerability and they won’t see us coming.”
He might not be afraid, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t up for taking precautions. “You gonna put Rave on a roof?” Rig asked.
Zara shrugged and glanced at her husband before fixating on Rigor again. “If that makes you more comfortable. But firing shots in the city streets is risky.”
It would draw attention to the Kindred and would cause panic. Rig proved his priority was elsewhere. “I don’t give a fuck about that when there’s a chance of my sister getting kidnapped again. Do you think Syn will let her go if they get hold of her again? I don’t… No, she stays here,” Rig said. “I’ve got guys on a plane who’ll be here tonight.”
“They’re not coming here,” Brodie said. “You want to put your own men in a hotel, you do that, but you don’t bring them anywhere near this apartment. If you do, I don’t care who you’re related to, I’ll take you down myself.”
Devon couldn’t hold in her anguish any longer. “Hang on a second,” she said, dumping the vegetables she’d been rearranging to storm around the island to the table. “You can’t ask him to help you and then threaten him in the same sentence.”
“I just did,” Brodie said.
Zara put a hand on his forearm, probably to soothe him from leaping into confrontation, but Devon wasn’t going to hold back. “I asked you to bring him here to keep him safe,” she said. “Not to hurt him.”
Playing mediator, as was often her role, Zara softened her husband’s response with reassurance. “He won’t be hurt,” Zara said. “We’ve thought about it. He’s the one they want right now, and Grant won’t hesitate to take him down if he sees a chance. I know Saint is cocky, he believes he has the Kindred exactly where he wants them. He won’t be looking over his shoulder, he thinks he’s got us scrambling.”
There was no denying the Kindred were not in a strong position at this moment. “He does,” Devon said. “He does have us scrambling, and this is panic. You can’t put an innocent man out onto the streets and ask him to trust you.”
Rig sniggered. “I’ve never been described as innocent before,” he said, pushing out of his chair. “It’s a buzz, Von. Who gives a fuck if they take me, what are they gonna do? Hurt me?”
He could be glib about his life if he wanted to, she didn’t have any bravado to uphold. “Maybe,” Devon said. “Best case scenario will be if they keep you locked up. Worst is they just kill you.”
But he didn’t seem to care, he didn’t flinch. “And as long as I’m on their radar, that’s gonna be true,” Rig said. “I’m not walking around with a bullseye on my back. If they want me, they can come and get me. I’d rather get the shit done than stand about waiting for it to go down.”
She couldn’t believe how foolish that was, like he wanted to get his ya-yas in some adrenaline rush. But they were dealing with real stakes here. Her brother could die. The man she’d demanded be brought here for his own safety was about to be cast out as bait.
“Grant said he wouldn’t hurt us,” Devon said, frantic as she searched for an ally. The women in the kitchen were no longer unpacking, but they didn’t join her or speak up, they just watched as she began to unravel. “He said that he wasn’t after the Kindred, that as long as we stayed out of the way—”
“He’s not Kindred,” Brodie said, and she hated how he could be so blunt in his delivery of the facts that shattered her argument. Often, Zave’s silence infuriated her, but she would take that over the cold, hard slap Brodie gave her every time he opened his mouth.
“Technicalities matter to Grant McCormack,” Zara said, moving onto her feet, as well. “They want Rig and Rig is here. He’s not Kindred. Grabbing him is not breaking the rules, Grant won’t miss a chance to hurt us through a side door.”
That wasn’t good enough for her, but her brother spoke before she could voice further objection. “It’s fuck all to do with you anyway,” Rig said. “I choose to do this.”
He could be so stubborn, but it was his double standards that made him a hypocrite and that was even worse. “But you choose to keep me out of it,” Devon said. “I stood there and listen to you say that I’m not allowed to be hurt. But when I say the same thing—”
“It’s not the same thing
,” Rig said with a scowl.
Except it was, he wanted to protect her, why shouldn’t she reciprocate? “Why?” she demanded. “Because you’re a guy and I’m not? Because I’m weak and you’re strong? Because I’m vulnerable and you’re capable?”
Rig folded his arms. “See, sis, you don’t even need me to make the argument, you stand there and make it yourself.”
Snide jibes might make him feel smug, but she didn’t care about winning the fight, she cared about keeping him safe. “No, no,” she said, shaking her head, and she grasped Zave’s shoulder. “Tell him not to do this. Tell him this is a bad idea.”
He turned to look up at her, but she wasn’t encouraged by what she saw. There was no sympathy, there wasn’t even pity. He was that stoic man who could keep himself outside the circle. He was an observer; he didn’t have any intention of participating or bailing her out.
Maybe if she couldn’t win the emotional argument, she could win the practical one. “How long would we wait?” Devon asked, going back to her brother. “You tell me I can’t be involved, but what are you gonna do? Walk up and down the streets, waiting, expecting these guys to watch your every move, every minute? What happens after your guys arrive? Then you’re not as vulnerable, maybe Syn won’t go after him at all.”
It was one thing to expect Syn to come for him after an event like a public argument that suggested a fracture in Rig’s support structure. It was a different matter to expect everyone to be vigilant, at their best constantly, until Syn chose to make their move.
“We can make it happen,” Zara said. “Grant’s easy to manipulate, he always has been. That’s why we’re here now. Mitchell’s made him pliant, open to the power of suggestion.”
Zara was confident, but Devon didn’t have a clue what that meant. “I don’t understand,” she said.
“Caine,” Tuck answered.
“Caine?” she repeated, and it was Zara she looked to for an explanation because she was closest to Syn’s sniper.
“You know what he’s like. If I ask him to poke at Grant a bit, he’ll do it.”
“For sport,” Brodie said. “I actually envy the guy. Riling my big brother is a damn good time.”
When he returned his attention to Zara, Devon lost sight of his expression, but she caught the exchange between the couple. Zara tried to appear unimpressed, but Devon read her concealed amusement.
Even when the Kindred were caught off-guard, they didn’t wobble, they kept their focus on the horizon, on the ultimate goal, and came up with a plan. “Like we said, they’ll have figured out that Rig is here by now. Caine’s got a knack for getting into people’s heads and stirring up shit.”
So they were planning to have Caine provoke Syn into going after Rig. But what did that mean? She wasn’t relaxed. This might seem like cold, hard fact to everyone else, but all she could think about was the possible human cost. “We’ll be outnumbered,” Devon said. “Especially if you plan to send him out alone.”
Tuck responded, “They won’t send out every man like Zara said. Saint’s cocky. They want to whip Rigor out from under our nose and make it seem like a walk in the park. They think Zave and I are up to our eyeballs in electronics, trying to figure out their little prizes.”
Zara carried on, “So at most they’ll be expecting Rave, and if they send Caine to do a sniper sweep, we don’t have to worry about him ratting out Raven.”
“You’ve got a lot of faith in that guy, baby,” Brodie said. “I’m still not convinced that we’re not his sport.”
Her husband’s reticence didn’t lessen Zara’s certainty. “You weren’t there,” Zara said. “I watched him change when he listened to Cuckoo speak on that watch recording. Since then he’s been different. And I think he’s been manipulated for most of his life, he’s been used and betrayed. Everyone’s always looking for the next best thing. No one ever settles on him.”
Pop psychology aside, Devon could feel sympathy for the guy without trusting him, and Brodie wasn’t convinced either, though Devon doubted he was afflicted with any sympathy. “Because he’s a prick,” Raven said.
Zara sank down to dig her nails into his arm. “He trusts me because I’m the only person who’s ever been honest with him.”
Another Kindred tale lay behind Zara’s conviction, Devon was sure of it. “For a reason,” Brodie said. “You didn’t do it ‘cause he was such a cool guy. You did it because we needed to know where Game Time was.”
Although she was still worried about her brother, Devon could recognize that Zara’s faith was admirable, even if they weren’t all as sure as she was about Caine’s allegiance. “And after that,” she said. “When he had nowhere to go, no one to turn to, no support, it was me he reached out to.”
“To fuck with my head,” Brodie said.
With all the animosity between the men, it didn’t surprise Devon that Brodie was dubious; she was, as well. “So you’re putting the life of my brother into the hands of a man who we can’t agree to trust? We don’t know whose side he’s on,” Devon said.
“Yep,” Brodie said in his abrupt way. Despite the fact that it wasn’t what she wanted to hear, he didn’t try to soften or appease her, he just told it like it was. “And we’re gonna make sure that prick brings my brother with him.”
This was about more than just putting Rig in harm’s way for the hell of it. “Why?”
Optimism, or maybe it was anticipation, rippled through the people seated at the table. “Because if we can draw Grant into the open, we can take him,” Zara said. “And as soon as we have a hostage of our own, we can open negotiations.”
“Negotia…”
Devon was so shocked by how casual they were with people’s lives that she slunk back from the table. Her hand rose to her mouth as she tried to absorb the possibilities. The Kindred were thorough, and they were good strategists who took risks. And not small risks either, they took big risks that would either pay massive dividends or leave them decimated.
“And what do we do if you fail?” she asked when her hand drifted from her mouth. “What if Grant doesn’t come?”
But the group didn’t accept that as a possibility. “He will,” Tuck said.
Devon wasn’t so sure. “How do you know?”
As usual, the men kept their secrets, and it was Zara who tried to bring her into the fold. “Because he wants the adventure,” she said. “He wants to be in the field. He wants to emulate his brother. Why do you think he was in Mexico? He didn’t need to be. Mitchell’s not quick and has no interest in getting his hands dirty.”
Devon followed along, trying to come around to their way of thinking. “So he stays at home.”
“Thad is not qualified. He’s not gonna be in the field, what use is he?” Zara said.
Brodie offered a scenario but wasn’t concerned about it. “Maybe he’ll be kicking around in case someone gets hurt, but we’re not worried about taking him down if we have to.”
“You’re not going to hurt him,” Bess said from the kitchen.
Even Devon had to admit that she’d forgotten the woman was there. “We won’t kill him,” Brodie said. “But if he gets in the way, I’ll put him on his ass.”
Brodie was blunt with everyone, but Devon didn’t like it when he was so honest with her. She expected, when she turned to Bess, to see the woman heartbroken.
Instead, she was shaking her head, not in the same desperate action that Devon felt drove her but almost like she expected nothing less. “I still expect you to look after him,” Bess said. “You bring him to me if you can.”
Brodie didn’t reply, and although he had his back to the kitchen, he took two fingers to his forehead in a pronounced salute of acceptance.
Zara slid an arm around him to rest her head against his shoulder. “I don’t think they’ll bring Thad out, and if they do, I don’t think he’ll want a showdown,” Zara said. “If he did, he wouldn’t have shied away from answering to his mother or the rest of us.”
She m
ight have agreed, except he hadn’t gone completely into hiding. “He showed up at the merger mixer,” Devon said.
“A public place,” Tuck answered. “Where he was on a clock and he knew he’d be flung out on his ass. Syn are gonna wait until Rig’s isolated before they take him down. It will be on a quiet street, in an alleyway, maybe in a parking lot, somewhere where he’s by himself. They’ll rush out to grab him, and they’re not gonna trust Thad to do that. Thad is a pawn, taken to damage us.”
Which was another reason Bess was worried about him. “And because it never hurts to have a doctor on side,” Brodie added.
Zara spoke up next, “Caine we can control. Mitchell won’t be there.”
“Leatt we can shoot,” Brodie said, and there may have been some optimism in that tone like he would relish the chance to erase the man.
Without addressing her husband’s perverse enjoyment, Zara concluded the roll. “So that leaves Saint, he wants to be Action Man anyway. With Caine’s needling, there’s no way he’ll miss the chance to be there.”
They’d thought about this, and they must have discussed it. Devon hadn’t made more of an effort to be involved in the strategy meeting because she didn’t think this would be the strategy. “I can’t let you do this,” she said.
Her brother was getting antsy but laid his attention on her. “You don’t have a choice,” Rigor replied. “They came for me by coming for you. I’m not gonna let that slide.”
He was caught up in this moment, and the Kindred were seductive in their loyalty and determination. “So you’re doing this for me?” Devon asked, but she wasn’t fooled. “I don’t believe it. You’re not doing this to protect me, it’s revenge and it’s machismo. This might be normal to you guys, but it’s not normal to me. I’m not gonna go along with it. Come up with a different plan, or as far as I’m concerned, all of you can go to hell.”
Storming away from the table, she went up the stairs and into the bedroom. Devon needed time to pace, to stress, to scream at nothing. Everyone was so sure that the plan would work, and it was a good plan because they needed some leverage, and having a prisoner would give them that. They couldn’t have a fake prisoner in Caine because Syn would see him as expendable in the same way the Kindred believed that Thad was to them and Leatt too.
Finch (Kindred #6) Page 19
