Chapter 52: Time To Strike
Jennifer
I was surrounded by bits of paper with half-baked ideas and had decided to type up everything I remembered about the cult when Travis walked down the stairs. He took one look into the living room, now war room and walked away again.
A moment later I heard the distinct thuds of him banging on the doors upstairs, “Everyone up, meeting downstairs right now!” He bellowed. Within minutes, everyone was downstairs, standing to attention and waiting for orders.
Travis came back through from the kitchen with a pot of coffee and several mugs hanging from his hands. He refilled my mug first, “Right, where are we at?” He asked me.
“Right now, it’s a lot of half-baked ideas but I think I have a starting point.” I said as I began to talk them through where I had got to. “If we can replace the police chief, I think the other officers will fall in line, or at least they will be able to weed out the bad ones. That will not only take away Franko’s advantage but also Wez’s since he was apparently able to use him to get Johnathan out of jail last night.”
“Johnathan was let out?” Travis asked “He “escaped”, apparently.” I said with an eye roll and heavy emphasis on the word escaped to portray the fact that I didn’t believe that for a second.
“Fuck” he replied “Exactly, so, we have to assume that Police Chief Braxton is not only under Frankos's thumb but also under Wez’s too. Bjorn thinks that Maya being taken last night was set up as a distraction to get him away from the precinct. He was supposed to be on shift but swapped last minute so he could come and have dinner here, but they obviously didn’t know that.”
“Something doesn’t feel right about the whole thing at all but if he is right then it means that not only has Wez got his claws in here already, but he knows a lot more about me than I would like.” I took a breath.
“It means we have to start moving forwards to phase two now, I thought we would have a few days or so at least to recruit new security personnel but I don’t think we have time now. We will have to go with what we’ve got.” I gave them a moment to take it all in; they had just woken up after all.
If I was honest with myself, I needed the moment to gather my scattered thoughts too. No sleep, not even rest with all the stress and worry and it felt like it had been a long time since I had had a good night's sleep honestly.
I think I need to talk to Gina again. She was the only therapist of the dozens I had tried over the years who I had truly felt I had made a connection with. We hadn’t spoken for a while though; I had been doing better.
“So, what’s phase two Boss?” Kevin asked, “Who do you want us to kill first?” Kiera asked with a dark, passion that left no room for doubt in the sincerity of her words. They were letting me know, they would kill these fuckers, I only had to say the word.
“Tempting as that is, I want to try a non-violent rout.” I felt their scepticisms at that, “Ma’am, with all due respect, I don’t think sitting down for a pow wow will get through to these...people.” Kevin spat the last word, making clear that they did not deserve to be called anything humane.
“I think you are right, but if we go in guns blazing whilst we have an incredibly powerful man who has spent the past 30 plus years building not only an army of loyal followers but an image that portrays a kind and benevolent leader to the world whilst we have a corrupt, poisonous law enforcement on our door step then, well, even if we won, we would lose. They would be rapists, and we would be murderers.”
“It would be worth the time.” Valkyrie gritted in a low voice. “I have no problem with defending with lethal force and if it comes to it and we have to set the world on fire I will strike the match myself. I would rather we didn’t burn with it though.” I spoke firmly.
“So, the question is, how do you dethrone a king without resorting to regicide?” I drummed my fingers on teh table, leaning back in my chair. “You get the actual king to come and take his throne away from him.” I said, almost to myself.
“Good morning.” Cieran said as he walked into the cottage. I turned to Phantom who was still on the cameras “You said to let them through anytime yesterday boss, sorry if I overstepped.” He said quickly, straightening his posture.
“No, you are quite right, thank you. I turned to look at you because I just realised it’s already almost lunchtime and you have been up since yesterday. Don’t you and Valkyrie need to get to bed? We can catch you up on this later.” I told him.
“I’m fine boss, this is important.” He replied. “Do I need to order you or something?” I replied but Travis quickly stepped in when he saw how unenthusiastic I was about doing that.
“Kiera, take over cams from Phantom, Pheonix, take over for Val, Kevin, put on another pot of coffee. Let’s go.” He instructed and the team quickly moved to obey. “Let’s take a five-minute break, I need to stretch my legs and check on Maya. Kevin, can you catch Connor and Cieran up whilst everyone gets to where they need to be?” I added.
Travis gave a respectful nod, and everyone moved off whilst I moved my stiff bones out my chair with a groan. I had my phone on to show Maya, who had barely moved from her spot on the couch, but I still wanted to go and check on her, it was time I tried her with some more food anyway.
“Morning boys.” I finally replied to them on my way past the brothers as I headed out. “Must remember to find a way to market that telepathic communication we have going on. I was just about to call you.” I chuffed out a laugh.
“One day, we will make our millions off it, dear sister, then we will really be rich!” Cieran retorted in his usual silly manner as I reached the door. Even Connor laughed at that one.
As I exited the cottage, a strong arm wrapped around my throat as a large hand came over my mouth. “Hello Claire.” He sneered and my body trembled as my eyes began to water. I knew that voice, it was my father.