Page 61

Dominic

War and women ? —

they’ll be the death of you.

Beau leans over the floorplan of Bristlebrook. “What if we lock most of the civilians in the gym so they can’t?—”

“Too far.” Jasper turns a page in his book, dimly lit by the orange glow of his lamp. His reading glasses are perched on his nose.

“Not permanently ,” Beau grumbles.

Lucky clicks his fingers. “I still have a few frags I could?—”

“No!” we all say in unison.

“There. That’s our opportunity.” My pointer slaps over the floorplan. “Lucky, you go in. Take out the wires—that’s just for the AC. It’s fucked anyway with all the windows, but Jayk has been running it anyway. He hates the heat.”

“I don’t know. How do we know he won’t just send Jada in? She’s better with electrics than him,” Beau argues, his head beside mine as we lean over the dimly lit table in Jasper’s room.

Shit. Jada. She could fuck this up. The civilians have been more skilled in wrecking our ops than I anticipated.

Only, losing to them—even losing to Jayk—hasn’t felt like failure.

For the first time since I can remember, planning and running these attacks with the guys has actually made for a good time.

The possessive asshole is hard to beat.

Lucky shakes his head. “Nah, Jada’s fixing the kitchen wiring. He won’t pull her off that. I’ll take care of it, Cap.”

I stiffen, the fun of it fading. “I told you to can it with that. I’m not your captain.”

Lucky and Beau lift their heads from the battle map to look at me, and I grit my teeth, staring them down. Jasper raises an eyebrow from his chair—the same one he sits in during the sessions we’ve started back up this week.

He’s had plenty to say about my relationship with authority.

Most of it has been ruthless.

While we’ve been deep in the trenches of our war against Jayk, he’s been waging his own against me and Beau in this damn room.

But now, all he says is, “Once again, I feel the need to advise everyone to stop indulging Jaykob with this behavior. No, it isn’t half as satisfying to be polite and negotiate , but I do think that my more measured approach with him is starting to yield results—and without placing any added stress on Eden.

I do believe he’ll grant her an audience with me soon. Patience wins out, I guarantee it.”

We all stare at him for a moment, thoughtfully.

“Yeah, I’m not doing that,” Lucky says.

“Jayk isn’t conceding you shit,” I tell him dryly.

“Did I tell you I told him that fucking her would put her in a medical coma?” Beau asks smugly, and I snort.

Jasper sighs, returning to reading his textbook under the lamp.

“You got him to stop fucking her?” Lucky asks, a laugh in his voice. When Beau grins, shrugging, he snorts, then bursts into laughter. “I can’t believe he did it. That’s...” He stops, then turns back with wide eyes. “Oh man, Eden’s going to kill you.”

Beau points at him. “You cut those wires, I’ll make it up to her.”

I give him a dark look. He knows we’re taking things slow with her. We’ve still got things to work through.

Beau gives me an innocent smile back. It’s the same one he used to give his mama after he stole her fresh-baked pies out of the oven.

I look back down at the map. This could work.

“What about Eden? It all hinges on her. If she doesn’t take the opening...”

“You’ll be fine.” Lucky slings an arm over my shoulder. “Eden has war plans, too.”