I muttered.
Tywin must have been hearing a similar story because he was questioning the person he was talking to.
“Khane left to meet with Arjen. I know Mecca’s strong. I know what she is capable of, but I’m afraid for her right now.”
“She is going to be okay. I believe Tywin and I are headed to Arjen’s house right now. I’ll talk to you in a little bit, okay?”
“Okay,” she said but fear rang out in her shaky voice.
“We’re going to make a slight detour. Instead of Rhi’s, we are going to Arjen’s,” Tywin informed me, confirming my assumption.
We had been on our way to see his tech guy to put our heads together and view the mall surveillance footage. However, I could sense that there was a nightmare in the making, one that would likely make my hidden past and secret tattoo look like a daydream.
“Okay,” I finally replied. “I just got off with Desiree. She updated me about what’s going on.”
No sooner than I finished the sentence, Lady A sent a text.
Something going down with Mecca. Trying to locate her.
Double Fuck!
Another text came through from Lady A before I made the offer she knew was coming.
Stay out of sight. Too dangerous for you.
The LoC knew I had a situation churning and like Rhi and the Vallin crew, they were working all angles to figure out who the hell had made a move on me. Their investigation included members of the syndicate who I had come in contact with throughout the years and any John, Dick, and Harry who thought they had a reason to come for me.
Okay, I texted her back, knowing good and well if given the chance, I was not going to sit around hiding while Mecca’s life was on the line.
Tywin reached and took my hand, breaking into the empty stare I had cast through the windshield. I loved the way he always made sure I knew he was right there with me despite the chaos swirling in our world.
“It’s going to be okay. Whatever’s going on with Mecca and with you, we are going to straighten it out.”
I nodded. I was unsure of a lot of things in my life, except that Tywin and his cousins would stop at nothing to protect the women in their lives.
About twenty minutes later, we arrived at Arjen and Mecca’s house and though it was smaller in size than Tywin’s family home, the Vallin men sure knew how to live well. This estate was as impressive and about as secure.
I stayed out of the way and hung back in the shadows, but the men didn’t hide anything from me. I had followed Tywin down to Arjen’s basement and was forced to swallow a big lump of “oh shit” when I saw that it was a fully stocked armory with an impressive array of weapons. Machine guns, no problem. Handheld grenades, why not? Flame thrower, of course. A grenade launcher, yes indeed. It was one of the most well-stocked and well-kept weapons arsenals I’d ever seen.
There was also another area that was closed off with construction tape. What were the bars for? Was his expansion project going to be a prison cell?
The men’s shouts and various conversations along with multiple screens of information and surveillance footage they were going over drew my attention. The space we were in was the size of a small studio apartment and jammed inside were seven burly men running around like programmed ants. Add to that, computer and surveillance equipment and every type of information linkup you could wire into one space, and you had a fully functional operations cell.
The men didn’t flat out tell me no when I asked to join them on the mission they were putting together to bring Mecca back. It was more of an implied rejection since everyone involved in getting her back was a part of the syndicate. Tywin didn’t hesitate to reiterate what Lady A had told me, that I needed to stay out of sight.
It was hard to think of Mecca and Desiree as being members of the syndicate, but they were. I, on the other hand, was an outsider. Tywin was the one person who knew there was possibly something in my past that made me their organization’s enemy, but he had never allowed the possibility to deter his will to fight for me.
They were planning a full-on military-style rescue mission. If what Arjen suspected was correct, Mecca was about to or had already initiated a