Repercussion: The Clandestine Saga Book 3 (18 page)

              "All right," Aaron said, nodding. "I'm not feeling great about this, but let's just do our best to make sure all of these moving parts are working together, and hopefully, we can pull this off.

              "Come on, man, what's the worst that can happen?" Elliott asked, sarcasm dripping from his voice.

              "I don't want to think about that," Aaron admitted.

***

"Wow... I can't believe they bought it," Flynn was saying as they all sat around the same laminate-topped table in the cheap hotel outside of Alleghany, California.

              "We're not home free yet," Laura reminded them, absently rubbing at her eye again. "We've got to be ready for anything. Don't expect them to just let us waltz in there with our own weapons, no questions asked. "

              "We've got to make sure 'Giovani' is still with us, too," Camilla reminded them, adding the air quotes.

              Sam nodded. "He's with us. I've known this guy, Travis, for a long time. That bastard's got a chance to be part of something huge, and I've granted him amnesty. He won't let us down--he'll do his part. We'll have our fake Giovani; that I'm sure of."

              "As for the guns," Laura replied, speaking slowly as she thought out loud, "what if we hit the location tomorrow? That will give us a chance to do some prep work in case they decide to do something sneaky, like take away our weapons."

"That is genius," Flynn agreed. "God, they're not even going to know what hit them."

              "Out there in the middle of nowhere. It's perfect. And when we take out Jamie, they won't have a Healer, so none of them will have a chance to recover," Laura nodded, mentally patting herself on the back.

              "He's going to regret ever saving your life," Sam laughed.

"I don't think we should get overly confident here," Camilla cautioned. "We're dealing with some pretty talented people. It's quite possible this could blow up in our faces."

"Bite your tongue, woman," Flynn warned. "In just a couple of days, we will finally have the revenge we've been seeking for longer than I can remember. This is going to change the face of the Ternion forever, and we are going to be the ones to make it happen."             

              While everyone else laughed and enjoyed a moment, Camilla sat quietly, wondering how she had ended up a villain, and why her teammates didn't realize that villains never win. Never.

***

The mood on the airplane to California was somber to say the least. After a day or so of hanging out with friends she had been missing for months, Cadence was facing the reality of one of the toughest hunts she'd ever been on. She certainly had her reservations--things just weren't adding up--but she was confident in her team. It wasn't Giovani she was afraid of. It was Laura and her team of un-trustables.

              She hadn't slept since the night Aaron spent with her, but she was okay now, having finally caught up on some sleep. Rather than even trying to rest, she had spent the night before hanging out with Elliott, Jamie, Hannah, and Aurora playing board games and eating way too much sugar. She had finally told Elliott that Aaron had kissed her--again--and he just smiled, as if to say, "I told you so."

              Cadence wasn't convinced. She had done her best to smooth things over with Cale and was hopeful she would get a chance to see him at the end of the hunt. His helicopters would play a pretty important role, if everything went as planned, but he would be coordinating them from Reno, not participating. It was just as well; no need to invite confusion into her life without cause. She was resolute in her determination to make things work with Cale, so much so, in fact, that she had avoided Aaron almost completely, except for mandatory meetings. As much as she was drawn to him, he had left a gaping hole in her heart, and it hadn't healed. Not yet.

"You okay, kid?" Elliott asked. He had chosen her over Aaron--selecting the seat next to her, rather than making his way to the back of the plane to sit in the seat he always sat in, right next to the boss.

"I'm fine," she replied, smiling, and squeezing his hand. "I just keep going over everything again and again, trying to figure out if we are missing anything."

              "I think we're good," he assured her.

              She nodded, but then shook her head. "I just have a really bad feeling about this," she admitted.

              "It's gonna be fine," he said, confidently. "Everything's going to work out just like it should."

              Cadence nodded again, this time more confidently. Still, there was a nagging voice inside of her mind telling her this was not right.

***

              It was ten o'clock when the team met with Laura and her renegades at a truck stop near Graegel, population 700 something. Rather than clue Laura in that something was off, Aaron decided to go ahead and let Eliza think she was running the show until they were all in place; then he planned to fill her in that she was no longer on the mission. She simply wasn't capable of coordinating such a complex operation. But for now, Eliza got the two sides together. Laura produced a hand-drawn map of what they were calling location A, an old barn in a wooded area near the even smaller town of Sierraville. If everything went well, there would be no location B.

              Cadence stood between Aaron and Elliott as Laura spread the map out on top of the hood of the Enclave she had stolen from LIGHTS in February, it's license plate different, worse for the wear. Even approaching Laura, she had become nauseated. She was glad to have Elliott's had on her shoulder. She had no idea what she would do without him.

              "This is the location Zabrina has indicated as their hideout. We dropped by last night to make sure, and it seemed pretty evident that at least two Vampires are living there," Laura began to explain, her eye watering out of control.

              "How do you know?" Elliott barked at her, questioning everything.

"Intuition," she smirked back. "There's only one major road that leads in to the property. The house is quite a ways away, over here," she pointed to the far side of the map, "and no one lives there. It looks like it's been abandoned for quite some time. "

              "All right," Aaron confirmed. "So we only have one road to cover, but they could take off into these trees and be lost for days."

"Right," Laura confirmed. "That's one of the reasons we wanted such a large team. I felt that it would be best if Cadence, Aaron, and I move in from this direction," she explained to everyone, again gesturing at the map, "while everyone else sets up a perimeter." The Guardian Leader was nodding, so she continued. "You can help with placement of your people, of course," she conceded, "but I want Sam here, towards the southeast end, so that he can cover the driveway. I'll put Flynn over here on the southwest corner where the woods are the thickest, and set Camilla up in the due south sector."

"What about the north end of the property?" Aaron asked, confused.

"You can put some people up there if you've got anyone to spare," Laura shrugged. "But we'll be coming in from that direction, so between the three of us, we should have him covered. Besides, this is uphill, and I don't think he can out run us, Cadence anyway, up hill."

              "Okay," Aaron said, crossing his arms, but resting his chin on one fist in concentration. "So, if that's the highest ground, I need Elliott up there."

              "I wouldn't recommend it," Sam chimed in.

              Aaron eyed him questioningly. "Why not?"

"Woods are too thick. I climbed up there last night and couldn't see a damn thing. We were thinkin' it would make more sense to have Elliott out there next to the driveway with me. It's the clearest view on the property," Sam replied in his grizzly voice.

              "
We'll have the choppers,"
Elliott reminded his boss.

"I know,"
Aaron agreed.
"But I don't like taking his recommendation."

              Cadence was the only other one in on the conversation. She agreed with Aaron; why were they being so specific about personnel? But she didn't say anything, choosing to see what the next suggestion was instead.

              After a very long pause, Aaron finally said, "Fine. Elliott, we'll put you out there, then. But, Meaghan, I want you over there, too. You're fast, and if they break the perimeter, you could potentially catch them." She nodded, and Aaron had the satisfaction of changing things up a bit on Laura. He continued. "Jamie, we'll put you out there with Camilla, but I need you ready to go if someone gets hurt." The Healer nodded in understanding. "That leaves Hannah and Christian with Flynn, I guess," he shrugged.

              Laura made a disagreeing ticking noise with her tongue but didn't say anything. It was enough. She had Aaron wondering why she didn't like his placement--which could only serve as a distraction.

              "I assume you're going to want to inspect our weapons," Sam volunteered.

"Absolutely," Aaron confirmed. "We'll handle that once we get there."

"How do we know they are there?" Cadence asked, her arms folded across her black leather fitted shirt.

              "Zabrina knows we're coming. We made contact yesterday. She's already confirmed they're in for the night," Laura explained.

              "All right then, let's get this over with," Elliott exclaimed, clapping his large hands. "Ready to rock and roll?"

              They loaded into the vehicles that would take them to the staging area. Inside the LIGHTS vehicles, there was complete silence; nothing was even happening on the IACs. Inside the renegade's SUV, there was nothing but laughter and congratulatory chatter.

              Sam and Laura insisted that they park the vehicles almost two miles away, out on the road that led to the driveway. Aaron had agreed, but he'd also taken the keys to the Enclave; it was his anyway. He also took the opportunity to strip the renegades of their existing weapons--much to their chagrin--and replace them with pre-inspected Glocks, each containing only two bullets, as a compromise. Despite their outrage, the outsiders eventually agreed, and Christian locked their other weapons inside one of the SUV's that happened to have bulletproof glass so there was no chance they could get them back. Aaron checked on the IAC to make sure his team were all wearing bullet proof vests under their clothing, and everyone was except for Jamie, who could not be persuaded to put one on.

They walked in as quietly as possible, hoping not to alert the squatters of their presence. Laura pointed her own teammates into positions, and the LIGHTS members followed. Cadence still had an uneasy feeling in her stomach, and she hugged each of her friends as they stepped away.

Upon leaving Elliott at the end of the driveway, she squeezed him tightly. "Be careful," she cautioned. "I don't trust them."

              He smiled. "You, too, kid. See you when it's all over." He kissed her on the cheek. "Go get 'em," he encouraged her.

She nodded, returned his smile, and caught up to Aaron and Laura.

Only distant lightning occasionally illuminating the sky provided any source of lighting in the thick woods other than a few wayward stars which peaked out from cloud cover occasionally. The LIGHTS team members had night vision in their IACs, but the renegades had to use night vision goggles in order to see. Cadence, Aaron, and Laura had the furthest to go. As they picked their way through the trees, Aaron let Cadence know he had told Eliza she could observe but not to interfere in anyway and asked her to contact Cale to see how far out he was.

"Cale, are you almost in position?"
she asked as the outline of an ancient, dilapidated barn came in to view. The feeling in the pit of her stomach, like dragons were chasing one another, alerted her that there was, in fact, a Vampire present. But she knew immediately that there was only one--and it wasn't Giovani. These dragons were just babies, and if Giovani were nearby, her stomach would be flipping over. She stopped mid-stride, the confusion overwhelming her.

              Aaron had stopped about ten feet in front of her, as well, clearly surveying the primary location. But she realized that Laura was no longer in her field of vision. She glanced to her left, just in time to see her duck behind an old wood pile. Suddenly, she realized exactly what was going on--why the renegades had requested to work with LIGHTS, asked for specific personnel, been willing to give up their weapons, and placed everyone just so. Instinctively, she flung herself across the fifteen foot void to where Laura was crouching, yelling "AMBUSH!" Simultaneously, shots rang out around her, off in the distance. She landed on top of the petite blond, knocking the Glock from her hand and the night vision goggles from her eyes. Cadence's head made contact with a wayward log as she fell. It was all Laura needed, and she shoved Cadence away, taking off on foot.

              Back by the driveway, Elliott was watching Sam rather closely as they covered the only reliable exit to the property. The cowboy was a tricky son-of-a-bitch, and they'd had a run in before, several months ago, when he was bad-mouthing Cadence after the last hunt they had been on together. Elliott hadn't been a fan of Cadence himself at the time, but no one should ever talk to a lady the way that Sam had spoken to Cadence.