Page 44 of Resolve
Dane chimes in, “It’s cheese and rice because it sounds like Jesus Christ.”
“No, it doesn’t,” she counters, chest puffed in herconfidence. “And I really like sausage.”
Dane spews orange juice across the table and chokes on the rest. Kellan whoops with laughter and slams his fist on the table, making the dishes rattle. I check on Elias, who’s sitting motionless on the couch with a blank expression. I’m sure he heard her, but it looks like his mind has chosen to go elsewhere rather than join or react to the conversation. Cibrina hides a smile behind her hand while Aiden frowns.
“What am I missing?” Tinsley murmurs to Reid. He drops his chin to whisper in her ear. She slaps both hands over her mouth, and her face heats from zero to one hundred in three seconds until she’s as bright as a firetruck. I’m waiting for the steam to spout from her ears with how red she’s become, and when Reid withdraws with a smirk, she has nothing further to add to the conversation.
“As Cibrina was saying,” Aiden continues, his tone stern to get everyone back on task. “We have a few ideas. The best-case scenario would be getting him to purge one of his gifts for a dud, but that involves risking letting him copy someone’s gift.” He lifts his hand, revealing the cuffs we’d last used on Thorne before he killed Gordon. “We also have these, but with his gifts of teleportation and telekinesis, getting close enough to get them on will be difficult.”
“It’ll be easier for me to grab him,” Dane offers, but Kellan snorts and speaks up.
“So he can teleport away with you? How did that work out last time?”
“If you remember anything at all, he couldn’t teleport because of my gift. He had to drag me through a portal,” Dane argues.
“Bea is another problem if she’s around,” I mutter. She’s a backup escape route for Charles, and worse, her portals tend to appear withlegions of GE agents pouring through them.
“I’ve got her,” Reid says. “She escaped on me at Royce’s place, but I think I know how to get to her now. Leave her to me.”
“What is the plan if you’re unable to block his gifts?” Elias inquires.
“Crush him,” I volunteer. “If he’s too crushed to move, then his body won’t regenerate. And if it knocks him out, then we can kill him.”
There are still flaws in that plan and too many what-ifs, but it’s the best we have at this point. Pin him down, block his gifts with the cuffs or Dane, then kill him.
Hopefully, it will be enough.
Chapter sixteen
Raegan
Thetwodaysoftraining drag. I feel every minute that passes like a looming countdown that has my nerves buzzing and heart racing. After we take out our assigned board member, our group is going after Charles.
We’re going to defeat GE.
Dane gathered as much information as he could on the final board members before switching his time to hunting down Charles. We need to know where he is or will be tonight so we can move on him before he has time to hear about his board. Finding him is easier said than done, considering how well he hides himself and never has any recorded travel logs. When I’d last seen Dane after lunch, he’d been so stressed that he snapped at me for asking how it was going. His face paled when he looked up and realized it was me.
After an apology, I kissed him good luck and left him to it.
He didn’t need to say anything for me to understand how important this piece is. If we don’t have Charles, then this gives him a clear statement that the Guild is against him, and I’m sure he’ll attack us in full force. We don’t have the numbers compared to his to surviveif it comes down to that.
Aiden offered Dane one more day, as much as he wasn’t thrilled with it, but Dane told him to fuck off so he could focus.
Alice has been released from her apartment to hang out in the Guild Hall and watch the training. She’s still restricted to the Tower and without access to a phone or the internet, but I'm hoping she’ll see hope for a new life. Mostly, she stands in the background and watches on in silence. It’s probably what she’s used to... quietly observing rather than getting involved. It’s better than her getting angry with others or arguing with them, at least. Instead, she looks more nervous to talk to anyone than anything, like a new kid at school trying to figure out how to fit in.
I invited Portia and Elias to our training, but they’d politely declined and said they’d prepare for their assigned guild member with their team.
On the last day, Jack takes me to an abandoned beach to test more of my strengthened gift. He keeps the tests to a minimum to avoid wearing me out while we learn more about what I can do now. Then he takes me back to the Loft for a quick fuck and some rest.
Until the alarm sounds.
The salty ocean air stings my nose and sours my mood. Too many memories claw at me the second I'm this close to the water, and unease settles deep in my gut. I hadn’t expected our board member to live in a mansion on a rock cliff with private beach access. If I had, I would have asked Aiden to assign us to someone else.
I’ll take the city or Old Red in the woods any day over a beachfront property.
Jackson slips his fingers through mine as if he can sense my anxiety. The leather of his fingerless gloves blocks my palm from his. Normally, I don’t mind it. Tonight, it bothers me. I need the skin-on-skin contact to put me at ease, even if I know there’s no logical reason for it.
I scratch my thumbnail over the leather, pushing at it. Jack smirks, immediately removing his gloves and returning his hand to mine. His lips graze my ear when he murmurs, “Let me go alone. I’ll slit his throat, and we can leave.”
