“Keep reading,” I panted.
His eyes scanned the myriad of texts. The demands, what was at stake if we didn’t comply.
He rubbed at his chin. “He wants Kannon?”
I nodded. “Yes. And he blames Kannon for his wife leaving.”
“Okay. These kind of people are never rational, but what does he think Kannon’s going to fix?”
“Oh, Kannon’s not going to fix anything. Scroll down.”
Breck started scrolling and speed reading, and then his eyes went wide. And wider. And then I watched as he paled. “He set bombs around Alden?”
“Yes. He says he’s got explosive devices laid out all around the city. He says if he catches wind of my team or anyone from palace security looking, he’s going to detonate. If we do anything other than bring Kannon to him, he’s going to detonate the bombs. I don’t think he knows Kannon isn’t in the country.”
The litany of curses that tripped off of his tongue included ones I’d never even heard. “Sparrow, you can’t give in to this.”
“You think I don’t know that? I need help. Otherwise this city, this country, is in grave danger. He’s going to do something unforgivable, and I need to stop it.”
Wilder furrowed his brow. “Okay, relax. I’m going to call Roman. We’ll figure this out.”
“You’re not listening. If he catches wind of palace security knowing about this threat, he’s going to detonate. I don’t know where they are located, and I can’t even have Olly hack their location, because he’s not here.”
His brow creased with worry. “Okay, just breathe.”
Why was he so levelheaded? Didn’t he understand what was going to happen? And that I felt at fault? “You are exceptionally calm.”
“I’m intelligence. Do you know how many threats I see on a daily basis? The only way you think through something rationally is by remaining calm.”
He was right. I need to relax, at least to take a deep breath. I couldn’t think under stress.
“Okay, we’ll get Ronan on the line. We need plainclothes elite officers to begin the searches. We can get the dogs going. There’s a lot we can do to at least start combing the city. Systematically. We can do some aerial sweeps, get some drones. And it’ll look like business as usual.”
“I know you’re trying to help, Wilder, and I appreciate it. I didn’t know what else to do. This is the first time I’ve dealt with a threat of this magnitude, and I don’t have any answers.”
“You don’t have to have the answers. You have a team, remember? Hopefully I’m on that team.”
I sigh. “I’m just used to doing so much myself.”
“Well, you don’t have to anymore. You have backup. Look, I’ll get my brothers, and we’ll start figuring this out.”
“We can’t just give him Kannon.”
“I know. First, I like the guy. Second, that would break London’s heart. And finally, we don’t trade lives, so that’s not a thing we’re going to do.”
I chewed my bottom lip. “Unless.”
He frowned. “There’s no unless. There’s no way we’re doing that. We’ll stop this from happening.”
“What if there was a way to stop this from happening and let him think he was getting Kannon?”
He lifted a brow. “Talk fast, Sparrow. Something tells me we don’t have any time to waste.”
Chapter 18
Sparrow
They call it ice for a reason.
* * *
It hurt. Having Breck walk away from me hurt like something with talons had burrowed into my chest, twirled around, then tried to claw its way back out again.
My brain tried to work out where everything had gone wrong.
You went wrong by falling for him. By losing focus.
Everything had seemed fine until the warehouse explosion. He’d been so supportive. I’d never in my life had someone back me up like he had over the last couple of weeks. But I couldn’t do what he was asking. I couldn’t walk away from this. Truman Nix was coming after my family and everything that was important to me. How could I just sit back and let other people die for me while I did nothing?
I knew he was worried, but I’d expected that he would understand why I had to be the one to solve this problem. But instead of understanding, instead of listening to me explain, he’d just walked away. So now I was alone… again.
“You got your head in the game?”
I glanced up at Niko. He was armed to the teeth with a long gun over his shoulder. We were situated in a van in the woods, half a kilometer out from the old Alden warehouse where we were meeting. During the week, it was still used as an old truck depot and offices for those in the warehouse district. It was deserted on the weekend though. Thank God for small favors.
Wilder had worked to sneak weapons packs around the building, each with a tiny GPS transmitter. We had matching receivers in our boots. Once we were close to one of the transmitters, our boots would flash rapidly.
“I’m fine.”
The muscle in his jaw ticked. I’d never really considered Niko dangerous before, but I supposed that was because he was always on my side. “You are not fine. Stop that nonsense. Maybe now isn’t the best time to be running headfirst into danger?”
Maybe he had a point. “What else am I supposed to do?”
“I don’t know. Maybe saying ‘don’t run headfirst into danger’ seems weird coming from me, of all people, I know. But I’m worried about you.”
“I’m fine. You should know better, honestly.”
His gaze narrowed. “Is that what you really think, or what you need to tell yourself so that you can function and do what we need to do today?”
“You don’t need to head shrink me. I’m good.”
Niko sighed and checked his weapons. “Look, you’re tight. You’re always tight. After all, you’re Sparrow. You’re the one who keeps us in line and makes sure that we have everything we need. You are always in control, which makes you a great operator. I trust you with my life. Hell, Olly can’t even function without you. How he’s managing back home now is beyond me. And I don’t mean just as an operator, but as a friend too. But when it comes to relationships, it’s not about being in total control.”
“Is this really the time for this talk?” I frowned at him. “We have an asshole to catch.”
He nodded slowly. “We certainly do. One who seems hellbent on killing you in particular. And the sad eyes you’re giving me are throwing me off here. I think your head’s not in the game today.”
He had a point, but I wasn’t telling him that. “I’m super tight. I’m the bait. Well, Kannon and I both are. And thanks to Wilder, I have a great Kannon decoy in place, so we’re going to walk into that building and hand ourselves over. You and the rest of the team are going to neutralize the target and get any other innocents out of there as safely that you can.”
“You know this is a dumb plan, right?”
I frowned at him. “Then why are you here?”