Only the Strong, стр. 42
I didn’t understand. “Why are you staying home with her?”
“Because everyone else is spoken for today,” Cormack replied. “I’ve got another meeting set up with Renley and Adam. I have to keep them distracted, right? That’s what we agreed on.”
“Right.” Zoe pointed toward various ingredients. “I know we planned on having a big group invade the gate room in this Grimaldi guy’s basement but I’ve been doing some thinking and I think it’s best to go with a smaller group.”
Aric immediately balked. “You’re going to cut me out, aren’t you?”
She shot him an apologetic look. “There’s nothing you can do about the gates. If we put together a troop of people, all we’re going to do is draw attention. To start, I believe it should just be three of us.”
I didn’t have to ask who the three people were. I already knew.
“Wait a second.” Braden shifted next to me, dragging his attention away from Lily. “I’m guessing I’m not one of those being included either.”
“No offense, but I don’t think any members of your family should be included,” Zoe replied, her tone even.
“But you want to take Izzy.”
“I do.” Zoe bobbed her head. “We have magic. We’re most likely going to be the ones to collapse the gates. We’re not sure how we’re going to do it yet, but if we put our heads together it’ll work out better.”
“I want to go with her,” he persisted. “Just in case.”
“I understand that. I’m sure Aric is right there with you. However, we have to play this smart. We’re not sure what we’re dealing with. If we take an assault team and fail, that means we’ve lost the element of surprise.”
“What if you fail because you don’t have enough people?” Braden challenged. “That’s just as likely.”
“Maybe, but I don’t think so. That’s neither here nor there, though.” Zoe shook her head and pinned Braden with a ‘don’t even try to push me’ look. “We have to take into account what might happen if we’re caught.”
“That’s exactly what I’m worried about,” Braden snapped. “I don’t want to be separated from Izzy if something does happen.”
“I know you don’t.” Zoe’s expression softened and, although it seemed out of character for her, she actually looked sympathetic. “If we’re caught, we’ll likely have to kill people to get away. It might not be all of them, though. The escapees will inform the others who they fought and it will go from there.
“If a member of your family is sighted with us, then it becomes a problem,” she continued. “Your father is high in the reaper council. That means he’s privy to certain information. If our enemies realize he can no longer be trusted, we’ll be cut off from the information train.”
Cormack stared at her for a beat, his expression unreadable. Then, out of the blue, he plucked Lily out of Braden’s arms and headed for the table. “You’re not going to want to hear it, Braden, but she’s right.”
“What?” Braden was incensed. “First you steal my baby and now you disagree with me? What the hell?”
Cormack snorted. “This is my baby.”
“No, she’s my baby,” Aisling shot back. “I just let you pretend for a few hours each day. That’s not important right now. I agree with Braden — and those are words I never thought I would say. I think several of us should go with you guys.”
“Not you,” Griffin warned. “I don’t want you by any gates.”
Aisling shot him a dirty look. “We’ve talked about this.”
“We have, and you agreed to my terms. No gates for you.”
“No gates for any of you,” Zoe countered. “Not today. That goes for you, too.” She pinned Aric with a look.
“Excuse me?” His eyebrows winged up. “You’re not the boss of me.”
“I’m not, but it’s been pointed out more than once that you can pass for one of the Grimlock children from afar. We need them kept separate for this. If we’re caught, we can always lie and say Izzy went rogue. They don’t know who I am. They certainly don’t know who Bob is. We can still cover if the three of us get caught. We can’t if things go another way.”
“Oh.” Aric pursed his lips. “I hate to say it, but you’re right. I guess it makes sense.”
“It doesn’t make sense,” Braden argued. “I want to go with you.”
“You can’t always have what you want,” Zoe shot back. “Today, we’re going to do things my way. If things don’t go as planned, we’ll regroup and try again.”
From his spot at the table, a mug of coffee clutched in his hand, Cernunnos grinned. “Sometimes that forceful attitude you insist on keeping works to our advantage. I agree it’s best to keep the group small for today, so that’s what we’ll do.”
Braden made a growling sound deep in his throat. “I don’t like this.”
“Join the club,” Aric said. “You can hang around the house with me. We’ll babysit Lily and Sami.”
“I’m not a baby!” Sami called out. “I don’t need anybody to watch me.”
“Fine.” Weariness settled over Aric like a heavy blanket. “I’ll spend all morning with Lily. She’ll be happy to hang with me, won’t you?”
Lily laughed and clapped her hands.
“Oh, I really do miss having a baby,” Aric lamented. “Everything goes downhill when they learn to talk.”
“I hear that.” Cormack smirked and then turned serious. “We have our plan for the morning. We’ll stick to it and then go from there. Everybody knows what to do.”
“Some of us have nothing to do,” Braden groused.
“Wrong. You have work,” Cormack snapped. “We can’t shirk our duties no matter what we would prefer to be doing. We all have our parts to play. I expect everyone to stick to the plan.”
I DROVE BRADEN’S TRUCK BECAUSE my car was on Belle Isle and I was the one most familiar with