9
Declan
“Are you sure about this?”I ask her for the fifth time.
“Yes, I want to help you get to my dad,” Jessa says with nothing but conviction in her voice. “He doesn’t deserve my loyalty, and I know the world will be better off without him in it.”
I still can’t believe she’s agreeing to this. She hasn’t even seen the videos and she still doesn’t know her father was responsible for her mother’s death. I’ve thought about telling her so many times, but always pulled back at the last minute. Telling her won’t change anything, not now, now it will only drive the knife of pain deeper, and if there’s one thing I can’t bear, it’s seeing her hurt more at the hands of that bastard.
She hides it well, but I’m the king at masking my emotions, and I can see it in her eyes every time her father is mentioned. She’s hurt deeply by his betrayal. He might be an evil fucking murderer, but until we came along, he was the only family she had.
As fate would have it, we only had each other, and then we found her.
It seems the stars aligned perfectly the moment I realized hurting her wouldn’t make the ache in my chest go away. There was only one way to curb the real need for vengeance, and that was by killing the man responsible for my pain.
“I’m not sure how to help you though,” she admits. “I’ve never had access to any of his security codes, and even if I had, I’m pretty sure he changed them frequently. The house is always guarded heavily when he is home and his office is even worse.” She sighs.
“What about places he goes? Does he go to any restaurants, or have any hobbies no one knows about?”
She taps her chin as if she’s thinking, and it’s quite fucking cute. “He doesn’t have any hobbies that I know of and he rarely goes anywhere else besides work. I guess the only other places he would go are work-obligated places, like an event, or a gala. He’s all about keeping up appearances.”
Of course he is. He’s got to make sure the world sees him as some great fucking man, instead of the murderer he really is.
“Is there anything coming up that you know of?” I question, trying not to sound overly pushy. The last thing I want is for her to feel like she’s being forced to help us. It wouldn’t matter if she did or not. She’s earned her keep and paid her dues when it comes to being our equal.
She nibbles on her bottom lip and I can see her eyes narrowing as she focuses on a spot on the wall behind me. A second later her mouth opens. “There is a gala the weekend before Easter that he goes to every year…I’m usually there too. It’s always at the same venue. They don’t usually have it heavily guarded since it’s a church fundraiser, and well, people wouldn’t dare attack someone in such a holy place.”
I grin. “When you say people, you don’t mean us I’m assuming, because holy place or not he’s going down.”
“No, I meant, like he wouldn’t expect it. He probably knows you guys are bugging his phones and emails, watching his events and such, but if I know my father, he won’t expect you to make a scene since he wants all of this to stay hush, hush.”
I get it, if it ever broke out to the media the things he’s done, his career and high society life would be over and replaced with a ten by ten cell. But the justice system could never do the job we will. He’s earned a bullet to his head a thousand times over, and I refuse to make it so that he can sit in a prison cell and get three hot meals a day. The fucker doesn’t get to live, not after killing my family and kidnapping Wes and Jessa.
“What’s going on in here?” Trey walks into my bedroom, falling down onto the bed like it’s his. His eyes move over Jessa slowly before colliding with mine.
“Jessa is helping us. I’m going to need you to put together a plan of attack,” I tell Trey, who reaches out and tugs on a piece of Jessa’s blonde hair.
“Listen to your brother,” Jessa mumbles and bats his hand away, her cheeks turning a soft pink. She’s still not used to being able to say and do what she wants. Trey grins at her, pressing a hand to his chest.
“You wound me, Princess.”
“Oh stop.” She shoves at his chest and he winks at her. The interaction is one I’ve come to know very well. Trey is the flirter. Wes the softie, he bends to Jessa’s will. And me, I’m the protector. I protect her, against everyone and everything, but myself and my brothers.
“What kind of attack? Where at?” Trey finally asks.
“Gala. Her father. Right after Easter. It takes place at St. Mary’s Church, right?” I direct my question to Jessa.
“Yes, there shouldn’t be as many men guarding the place so it would be the perfect time to get in and out.”
Trey’s mouth pops open as if he’s shocked. “We’re going to attack him at a church on Easter weekend?”
I grin slyly. “Yes, he’ll never see it coming. He’s expecting an attack, but he doesn’t think we’ll ever do something so publicly. It’s the perfect time and place.”
“Did someone say world domination?” Wes walks into my bedroom a second later with a bag of chips in his hand. That fucker is always eating, and when he isn’t, he’s complaining about eating.
“Yes, we’re coming up with a plan to kidnap Jessa’s father. Trey’s going to get the entire thing together, and then we will make our grand appearance.”
“Great,” Wes growls, and I can see the guilt and shame still in his eyes. It’s as clear as day to me. Watching Jessa get cut by that fucking psycho killed him, it ripped him to pieces, and I understand why. He loves her, he loves her with his entire heart, just as Trey and I do.