Page 37 of Breached

“But if you wait too long,” John added, “they’ll think you don’t care.”

Mark leaned forward. “Or you rip the Band-Aid off and go talk to her now.”

“No,” John and Mike said at the same time.

Mike shook his head. “It’s way too soon. You don’t get to jump in here, Mark—you and Mia are a different breed.”

“Meaning?” Mark looked around the table, confused.

“Meaning,” John rolled his eyes, “you do your whole Lopez Latino charm thing and crack some joke that breaks down Mia’s walls, and she falls into your arms. While the rest of us actually have to try to understand a woman’s brain to make things right.”

Mark grinned and leaned back in his chair. “I mean, some of us have gifts, some of us don’t.”

I shook my head and gave an exasperated sigh. “This was super helpful, guys. Thanks.” I glanced at Cole, who had stayed quiet throughout the whole conversation and kept his eyes on the paperwork he was reading. “What do you think, Logan?”

He lowered the paper and shrugged. “You’re in shit, and she needs time to process it all.”

“The great Yoda.” Mark chuckled, and the rest of the guys joined in.

“Look,” Cole smirked at Mark’s comment, “you’re forgetting the most important people in our corner.” I squinted at him, not following. “The wives.”

“Oh, that’s true.” Mike nodded. “Yeah, you’ll be fine.”

“Let them work their magic of helping her see through the mess,” Cole went on, “and you just make sure she knows you’re not giving up.”

I liked that—that made sense. Nicole reminded me a lot of Savannah, and Cole weathered a massive storm with her, and she didn’t have any of the wives to help back then, though she did have Abby, Sue, and June. It hurt to think they were gone, but I didn’t voice that thought. They were three of the wisest ladies I’d ever known.

“All right,” Cole turned around the paperwork he had been working on and held it up, “the place is empty, and we need to talk about how we’re going to handle the safehouse being breached.” He pointed to the blueprints and ran his finger around the front of the house. “Starting here.”

We spent the next hour going over every possible scenario on how things could go wrong. The whole idea carried major risk—drawing them into our territory and exposing everything we worked so hard to hide—but if we wanted to survive this war, we needed to come out swinging.

“Does anyone have any concerns at this point?” Cole asked us.

“Like a million,” John shrugged, “but I think this is the best plan.”

Mike leaned back and tapped his finger on the table like his head was somewhere else. “I know we’ve stepped into the gray area a few times before, Logan, because let’s be real, to do good we have to do a little bad, but if we’re revealing the house,” he pointed to the blueprints, “to the Cartel, maybe it’s time we reveal who we have for friends outside of our government resources.”

Keith nodded. “I have to agree, Bruno would never see it coming. I mean, who would think we’d ever work with a one-percent biker club, and two mafia families—one runs the biggest syndicate in Italy—and the other someone Bruno thinks he’s close with.”

“That’s some snake in the grass stuff,” Mark added.

I nodded. “It’s a good idea. He has his sleepers. Well, so do we.”

“I’d like to say,” Mike nodded at Cole, “I think Daniel would be on our side with this.”

Cole’s mouth twisted, and I knew he was thinking of his father. “I agree.” He looked around the table. “So, we’ll need the element of surprise to ensure this goes off without a hitch. Mike, you call Trigger first and see if his club wants to get behind this, then Paul, you’ll put a call through to Grim in Vegas. I’ll call Elio Capri. Italy is eight hours ahead of us.”

“Copy that. I’ll text him first, find out when he has time to talk.” Mike pulled out his phone and sent off a quick text to Trigger.

“What about Hunter and his team?” I asked, thinking they’d be a great asset.

Cole held up his phone. “Already asked, and they’re on board.” He cleared his throat and drew our attention. “The biggest hurdle in all this will be convincing our families that it’s a good plan. They’re the most important people to convince, and we need to have them in our corner.”

We grew silent. He was right. We were talking about drawing the Mexican Cartel to our very doorstep, potentially jeopardizing everything all of us had worked hard for. It would take away their sense of safety.

“I have one question,” Mark blurted and twisted in his chair to look at Cole beside him. “Am I not the most important person in your corner?” And just like that, Mark broke the tension we all felt.

“For fuck’s sake, I’m out.” Keith stood, and Mike groaned.