Page 50 of Benedict’s Rejuvenation (Dark Patriots #5)

They groaned. “Yeah, you’re right. Shit, is there any way we can do it all that night? Honestly, I’m leery as hell of taking you to meet these so-called friends, investors, whatever they are. If they’re legit modeling people, I’ll eat Heath’s dirty drawers,” Ben muttered.

“Hey, I’ll have you know that my underwear is clean,” Heath protested.

“That’s because you don’t have any on, do you?” Beau asked.

Heath grinned and nodded. “That’s right, so pick something else dirty to eat, weirdo.”

His playfulness made us all smile and chuckle. It eased the angst.

“What are you most concerned about on Friday?” Keeley asked.

“That these people Wynne is to have over are more people like him. And if it’s just Beau and me, they could take you both from us. We’re not invincible,” Ben confessed.

While the thought made my heart race and my head whirl, I refused to let myself be dragged into an anxiety attack or flashback. In the moments it took me to gain control, the others kept muttering about the odds and such. When I knew speaking was possible, I interrupted them.

“Excuse me, sorry to interrupt, but what if we use it to our advantage?”

“How do we do that?” Beau asked.

“We know we’ll be outnumbered there. You seem confident that the men outside on patrol and at the gate can be neutralized.

He didn’t have them in the house last time.

It was Crocker and Mrs. Beatty, the cook.

I hate that they work for a man who would do what we suspect Wynne does.

However, they don’t strike me as huge threats, so let’s assume they’re easy to neutralize.

That leaves Wynne and his cronies. You think they’re buyers, don’t you? ” I hit the guys with my growing fear.

They hesitated, glanced at each other, then Ben answered for them.

“Yes, we believe they may be buyers, and this is a sneaky way to get you where no one knows what’s happening.

Beau and I will be killed, and they’ll take you, and an auction will commence right then, and the highest bidder gets you.

And I think it could be a case of him promising them an almost matching set. You both look so alike.”

His confirmation of what I suspected for the past hour or more made my nausea worse. I swallowed a few times to keep it down. Ben came to me and hugged me.

“Hummingbird, I won’t let that happen. We’ll cancel this stupid shit on Friday, and we’ll find an excuse. Then we’ll get him out of the house somehow and search it.”

“But getting him out of the house is one thing. It lets those others we suspect of being buyers not be caught, Ben. They deserve to be punished as much as Wynne. Who knows how many they’ve done this to?

No, we need to get them all at once. If you take down Wynne, they’ll go into hiding and scatter.

Sure, we could lure Wynne out by saying that Keeley and I want to meet with him.

He’d do it. That would allow you to search, but the others get away.

I say we take in more than planned on Friday.

They work to clear the outside. He’s not going to jump us as soon as we enter.

There will be some talk first. It gives us time to take out his guards.

When we send the signal or get the all-clear from those outside, we make our move inside.

We capture Wynne and his buddies, forcing him to tell us where the secret room is.

After seeing what was done to Vadzim, Nikita, and the Chases, I know you can be more creative, and I believe he’ll cave.

He’s not built to be tortured, even if he can dish it out,” I growled.

The room was silent. I saw their faces. Their minds were going over what I said, trying to find flaws or arguments against it.

No matter what they did, it held risks. Having us present wasn’t ideal for our guys, but it was the most straightforward way to do it.

And it wasn’t as if Keeley and I would be unarmed or unable to protect ourselves.

And if Aimée were there, the presence of a couple of women would be appreciated.

Being surrounded by a bunch of strange men would scare her even more.

“And we’d be able to comfort Aimée and get her to trust you bunch of hulking men,” I slipped in. I might as well include all my pros.

Keeley came to stand with me as the four guys got into a huddle. They were whispering, so it was impossible to hear what they were saying.

My sister murmured in my ear, “Look at the big, bad men all huddle together, trying to figure out if we little women should be exposed to such craziness. Don’t they know we hold more cray-cray inside ourselves than they’re worried about? They should be scared of what we’ll do.”

I giggled, and she chuckled. Our amusement got the guys’ attention. They broke their huddle as Keeley called it. Ben and Beau came over to us.

“What are you two snickering about?” Beau asked.

“Just girl talk. We were bored, so we had to fill our time. What conclusion did the war counsel come to? Will we poor, weak, defenseless females be allowed to go with the war party?” she inquired.

Heath snorted. “Defenseless, my ass. I’m not that stupid.”

Justin rolled his eyes and grinned.

I looked at Ben. “Well, what’s it to be? My idea? Or do we go back to the more protracted one?”

“Oh, she’s using big words. We men. We no understand,” Heath quipped.

“You might not, since you’re closer to Neanderthal than us. It’s a wonder your knuckles don’t drag the ground. It means prolonged,” Ben snarked back at his friend.

Heath hunched over and put his fists toward the floor, then stood and gave Ben the middle finger.

“Alright, enough joking. We have a lot to do between now and Friday to pull this off. Kensy, we’ve decided to go with your plan. The fact that it puts you and your sister on the front line doesn’t thrill us, so you’ll do as we instruct and take all the precautions we insist you use,” Beau warned.

“And we’ll be armed,” Keeley added.

Ben and Beau nodded, “Yes, you’ll be armed. Just don’t shoot the friendlies. That paperwork would be a nightmare,” Ben told us.

Adrenaline shot through me at the thought of what was to come, along with a healthy dose of nervousness. We formed a circle around the table again and resumed work. I paid attention to every word said.

We worked until lunchtime, when we took a short break to eat, and then it was back to work.

They were taskmasters, leaving nothing to chance.

They covered things over and over. Some time was spent coordinating others to join them from the Patriots.

We had a call with the four owners to discuss our plans, the reasoning behind them, and to determine how many people they could loan us for this mission.

I was afraid that if they didn’t have enough, we’d have to drop the plan.

I was ready to have this over with, no matter how gorgeous Hawaii was.

“We can send you Jai, Ross, and Aryan since it’s only for a couple of days total. The others are out on assignments. And we can give you two more, but we’ll have to make them surprises. I’ve got to check first. That should be more than enough, shouldn’t it?” Sean asked.

“That’s plenty, Sean. Even if all you can loan us is the first three, we can make it work.

Kensy and Keeley are very competent not only with weapons but also in self-defense.

We found that out the other day. They can be assets to us in there.

And as Kensy said, if a woman is being held, she’ll be more at ease with a couple of women being in the group,” Ben informed his boss.

“Excellent, that’s a plus. Beau, do you agree with Ben?” Gabe asked.

“I do. Like him, I’m not overjoyed that we have to take Keeley and Kensy along for the ride, but this is the quickest and likely easiest route to do what we set out to do when we came here.”

“And do all of you still feel that this Wynne is dirty and capable of holding a woman as a captive?” Griffin asked.

“We haven’t been in direct contact with him, but what we’ve overheard, his overall demeanor, and the way he looks at the women, especially when they went there for dinner, I find it hard to believe he’s innocent,” Justin answered.

“And you, Heath? You’ve been quiet. That’s not like you. Everyone has to give their approval. If something doesn’t feel right, don’t hold back,” Gabe prompted.

“I’m trying to come to terms with the fact we’re going after another filthy bastard.

Sometimes, I wonder if we do any good. We take one or more down, and there’s more to replace them.

It’s a never-ending battle. It gets you down.

However, I do agree with the rest of my team.

He has to be, and this is the best chance we have of getting in there and finding, hopefully, Aimée Ferrante. ”

“Then we’ll get you your backup. Expect them by morning at the latest. We’ll let you get back to working, and we’ll do the same here.” Undertaker wrapped it up.

We bade them goodbye, and they did the same, and the call was done. We went back at it.