We sat in Saint's mom-mobile with its blacked-out windows, comfy seats and cup holders and watched Jonas’s home with the eyes of a hoard of bloodthirsty men.
"I still say I could just beat the information out of him," Kyan grumbled, not for the first time.
We'd been camped out here for hours - though of course Saint had planned for that and we had plenty of food, drinks, blankets (because he didn't want the engine running and drawing attention) and even our own personal bottles to pee in. Of course, I'd made a smartass comment about what we were supposed to do if one of us needed a shit and he'd just casually lifted a Tupperware box from the space beneath his seat in answer. Luckily none of us had felt the need to make use of it, but I was pretty certain he really expected us to rather than risk getting out of the car and alerting our target to our presence.
The only time any of us had gotten out was when we'd first shown up here. Saint had dropped Kyan off on a side street where no one would see him then he’d snuck through backyards until he reached Jonas’s house. He'd managed to confirm that the bastard in question was currently asleep in his bed and had seen a work schedule stuck to the fridge which confirmed he was back on shift tonight.
Niall had come through for us, meeting Kyan to give us the weapons we needed, and my gut twisted uncomfortably as I wondered what he was going to have to do to pay his family back for all the help they'd been giving us recently. I knew he was more than willing to pay the price, but I also wished for a better life for my brother. One that he could choose for himself. But now wasn't the time to worry about the future. We needed to get Tatum back if we wanted any chance of one anyway.
Ever since Kyan had returned to us he'd been chomping at the bit, wanting to beat the answers from that fucker. But Saint had overruled him, not wanting to do anything that might alert the people holding Tatum to our approach. With his dad pulling the strings here, he was adamant we needed to be careful and I had to agree. As much as I ached to move now, the main focus had to be on getting our girl back.
So we sat there all fucking day and just waited him out.
***
Hours later, I shifted in my seat, trying to alleviate some of the numbness in my ass as the gun at my hip dug into my side.
Night had fallen and the tension in the car was palpable as we waited on Jonas to appear.
When he finally did, I straightened in my seat beside Saint who barely even reacted to our prey emerging at last.
We watched as Jonas headed out of his house with a medical mask covering his lower face like a good little citizen, before he slipped into the blue sedan parked on his drive.
He started up the engine and backed out into the street before heading away from us at a steady speed.
"Come on," I urged when Saint just remained seated behind the wheel, the engine silent and desperation filling the car. "We need to follow him."
"I'm perfectly capable of tailing that asshole," Saint gritted out, not taking his eyes from the now distant taillights. "But I'm also capable of subtlety. Something you lack considerably."
"Start driving or I'll rip you out of that seat and take over," Kyan growled while Monroe muttered insults at our self-appointed leader.
Saint slowly slid his seatbelt on and sighed like we were testing his patience before starting up the engine and pulling away from the curb.
He stuck to the motherfucking speed limit as he followed Jonas at far too great of a distance for my liking and I bit down my own complaints as I just kept my gaze fixed on the car which was now several blocks away from us.
With the lockdown still in full force, there weren't many cars on the street as there weren't that many essential workers still allowed to leave their homes for work. And as much as it frustrated me, I guessed Saint had a point about us not riding the sedan's ass the whole way there, but it still made me nervous as fuck in case we lost him.
Predictably, we headed into the depths of Hemlock City and Saint begrudgingly drew closer to the sedan as Jonas took various turns, the chance of us losing sight of him increasing.
Eventually, Jonas pulled off of a darkened street into an underground parking lot beneath an innocuous looking office building which towered overhead and didn't even have any signage on the front of it. There was just a glass front to a barren looking reception area where four armed guards lingered far enough away from the doors not to draw notice, but they were easy enough to see if you knew what you were looking for.
"What is this place?" Monroe asked, leaning forward between the chairs so that he could peer out of the windshield as Saint took a turn around the block and parked up in a shadowy side street.
We definitely weren't supposed to park here, but Saint had put fake plates on the car and he couldn't give a fuck about getting a fine.
"I researched every single building that was listed in the Serenity Pharmaceuticals repertoire," Saint replied with a faint frown on his brow. "This one wasn't on that list. So I'd say it's the place they don't want anyone to know about. The place where their ethical standpoint takes a backseat and they conduct the kind of research they don't want the media to find out about."
"Great. So it's an evil lab?" Kyan asked casually, like he came across evil labs every other day.
"Why must you always reduce everything to a crass, layman's description?" Saint tossed at him, but Kyan didn't bother to reply.
I glanced back at him and found him gripping his baseball bat tightly as he stared up at the building in question. My gaze lingered on the tattoo which wrapped around the ring finger on his left hand, the wedding ring he could never take off, and my chest tightened as I considered it. I’d made my peace with the idea of the two of them being married for the most part, but I couldn’t deny it awoke a level of jealousy in me that I struggled to banish entirely sometimes.
"What now?" I asked, happy to follow Saint's lead in this. He was the man with the plan after all and I knew if anyone could figure out how to get Tatum back into our arms against the odds, then it was him.
"Now we mask up, cut the power to that building, and go get our girl," he replied simply. We all knew this was going to be anything but simple, but we also wouldn’t turn back now for all the treasure in the world.
"They'll have a back-up generator in a place this important to them," Monroe pointed out, drumming his fingers against his knee as he assessed the different ways this might go.
"So we'll cut the power from that too," Saint said simply. "And once they're cowering in the dark, we'll strike. They won’t even know what hit them."
I smirked as I accepted the ski and gas masks from him and deftly strapped them on. We looked like monsters wearing this shit, but that was okay by me. Because I got the feeling that monsters were exactly what we needed to be if we were going to get our girl back.
I sat in bed, draining a cup of hot tea as I avoided looking my pain meds in the eye. I’d been given some sort of drug cocktail which had perked me up overnight and I had a fierce resolve to take nothing more until I absolutely had to. The drugs were cutting edge and no doubt had been given to me just in time to save my freaking life because I’d been close to puking up a lung last night. Now I just felt weak, dizzy. But the pain had eased and death didn’t feel like it was breathing down my neck today.