Jack (Eidolon Black Ops #8) - Maddie Wade Page 0,67
stop him, and he couldn’t live with that. “Can you handle that?”
“Yes, of course.” Aubrey stood, dropped a kiss on Will and went to use Alex’s office.
“Any word from Alex?”
Jack folded his arms over his chest and leaned against his desk, legs spread. “Yes, he says they’ve found four devices around the perimeter and that they’re sweeping the entire Palace, but they’ve secured the Queen in an unknown location.”
“Unknown to you?”
“Yes, I don’t want to be compromised in any way, so the less I know, the better.”
“You think he’ll use Astrid to try and get the location from you?”
Jack snorted. “I know he will.”
An alarm from the gatehouse had him looking at the monitor to see Roz with four of her girls. He pressed the button to let them in and moved to the door as Will followed.
“Never thought I’d see the day you and Roz worked together.”
“Me neither, but I’d work with Satan himself if it meant getting Astrid back safe.”
“You love her a lot.”
Jack glanced at his brother and nodded. “More than I ever thought possible. I can’t lose her.”
Will squeezed his shoulder. “We won’t, Jack. She’s sharp. She’ll stay alert until we can find her.”
Jack shook his head. “I don’t think she wants me to find her. She could’ve given me any number of clues and didn’t. I think she plans to handle this on her own so I don’t have to.”
The fear of that realisation hit him in his heart, and he had to force himself to stay focused through it, or he’d make a mistake.
“She’s trying to protect you.”
“I don’t want her protection, dammit. I want her safe. It’s my job to protect her, not the other way around.”
“I’m sorry to say, brother, you didn’t fall in love with a meek woman who’s willing to sit back and be saved. The women we love are warriors in their own right and they love us enough to want to protect us too. We have to accept that because it’s part of the reason we love them.”
“I’m not sure if I can.”
“You already made a choice, Jack. Now you have to have the conviction to stand by it.”
“So, what? I just sit back and let her take risks?”
“No, of course not. We go find that asshole, kick his ass, and save the girl, but we don’t underestimate Astrid either.”
Jack nodded, understanding his brother’s words, having seen it time and again with his men, but he’d not fully understood the terror they felt until now.
The door opened and Roz walked in, looking around and taking note of everything. “Jack.”
“Roz. Thank you for coming.”
Bebe, Laverne, Pax, and a heavily pregnant Evelyn were with her.
“Evelyn, you do realise Alex would lose his mind if he found out you were here?”
Evelyn patted Jack’s chest. “Chill, big guy. I’m here for support only, as is Pax.”
“Thank God.”
“Show me to the war room.”
Jack started walking. “War room?”
“That’s what you military guys call it, isn’t it?”
Jack shook his head. “If by war room you mean the operations room, then no, we call it the operations room.”
Roz waved her hand around. “Whatever. Have you heard from Frederick?”
“Yes, Astrid called and said he’s going to call me at noon tomorrow and to wait to hear from him.”
“Did she sound pissed?”
“Yeah, she did.”
“Good. She never should have allowed him to get the drop on her like that. I trained her better.”
Jack tried to bite his tongue, not wanting to get into it with Roz when he needed her help, but he was damned if he was going to stand by and let Roz get away with her words. “Listen, if you’re going to bad mouth her, you can leave. That is the woman I love, and nobody gets to say anything negative about her in front of me.”
“As it should be. Now, shall we get to it?”
Jack took his place behind the wide desk that held all the equipment while Roz and the others spread out. Will took his place at the computers and began bringing up images from around the hospital.
“We know he got her away at gunpoint, but she was walking in this image and got into the car on her own accord. We assume he threatened my mother or one of us, so she went willingly. He confessed to poisoning my mum, which means he wanted us at the hospital and we played into his hands without knowing it.”
Roz raised her perfectly arched brow. “Wow, and I thought my father was an asshole.”
“The CCTV