Chapter Fifteen

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When he heard someone say his name, Slade jackknifed to a sitting position. And cursed when the pain rolled over him.

But not solely pain.

He got a jolt of a different kind when he saw a naked Marise sleeping face down on his bed. They'd come here shortly after having sex in the hot tub room and had apparently crashed since it was now…

He cursed. Nearly eight in the morning.

At first, Slade thought the clock was wrong. It was still way too dark for morning. But then, he realized it was pissing down rain, and the thick gray clouds weren't letting in much illumination in the skylights.

So, the time was right. And he had indeed crashed despite everything that'd been on his mind? Apparently, great sex was a cure-all. But not for the damn voice that said his name again.

Spock.

"What is it, Spock?" Slade demanded in a whisper, hoping the question and Spock's answer wouldn't wake Marise.

It did.

She opened her eyes and quickly scrambled to a sitting position. The maneuver gave him a nice view of her breasts.

"You have visitors at the gate," Spock informed him. "Your brothers, Nash and Jericho, and Caroline Maverick."

Hell. This couldn't be good, and Slade checked his phone to see if he'd missed a call or text from either of his brothers. He hadn't.

"Open the gate for them," Slade instructed Spock, and he hurried from the bed to get dressed.

Marise got up as well, and while he could see she was flustered by the interruption, that didn't stop her from dropping a drive-by kiss on his mouth when she glanced around the room.

"No clothes," she muttered. "They're in the hot tub room. I have clean scrubs in my go-bag."

She headed in that direction while Slade threw on some jeans and a black tee that he took from his closet. He was still in the process of putting on his holster and boots when Spock spoke again.

"I've unlocked the door for your visitors. Should I activate the coffeepot?" Spoke asked.

"A definite yes on that," Slade agreed.

He had plenty of coffee. Plenty of food in the fridge and pantry, but he seriously doubted that Nash and Jericho had brought Caroline here for an impromptu breakfast. No.

Something had happened.

By the time Slade made it to the living area, his brothers and Caroline were coming in through the front door. Jericho seemed to do some sort of doubletake and smiled.

"I'm guessing you didn't sleep alone," Jericho said.

"Why the hell would you think that?" Slade countered.

"You have a sense of sated urges coming off you. And you've got a hickey on your neck." Jericho's grin widened.

Just as Marise came hurrying into the room.

Hell. She also had a hickey on her neck, and Slade supposed there was indeed a sense of sated urges coming from her, too.

"Nash, Jericho," she greeted. "And Caroline, I presume."

"You presume right," Caroline said, and the two women shook hands.

Marise shifted her attention back to Jericho. "Yeah," she muttered when he grinned at her. Then, she shrugged. "Sometimes friends do the benefit thing."

Friends.

With benefits.

At first, Slade felt really good about that description. But something about it didn't feel right. That was something he'd need to give some thought. Later. After he'd learned why his brothers were here.

"About time Slade and you hooked up," Nash concluded. He gave her a quick hug before he headed to the coffeepot to pour them all some mugs of the fresh brew.

"What happened?" Marise asked, taking out some strawberries and sliced mango from the fridge. "Is someone else dead?"

"Not that we know of," Nash supplied, moving on to making some toasted bagels. Caroline stepped over to help.

So, apparently this was an impromptu breakfast after all. But Slade knew that wasn't why they were having this family gathering.

"This is about Sonny," Slade threw out there.

Jericho nodded.

Nash made a sound of agreement.

Caroline muttered something under her breath that he didn't catch.

"Jericho, Caroline, and I came up with a plan," Nash continued a moment later. "We weren't sure Sonny…" He stopped, waved that off and sat at the counter with his coffee. "Let me back up and tell you what Jericho and I did."

Slade cursed because the "did" meant something had already been set into motion. Probably something he wasn't going to like.

"What?" he demanded just as a bagel popped up from the toaster.

Jericho snagged the bagel, gave half to Caroline and sat on the stool next to Nash. "Nash and I figured Sonny had been in the wind way too long. Long enough for him to be plotting how to do us all in. So we did something to draw him out."

It seemed to Slade as if everyone was suddenly holding their breaths, waiting for the details of, well, whatever the hell this was.

"Draw him out how?" Marise asked, breaking the silence, but she didn't wait for an answer. "You offered yourself up as bait?"

"We did," Jericho confirmed. "I sent a text to the burner Sonny had used and suggested he meet with Nash and me at the exact spot where Bodie died. Of course, since that spot is right outside the gate to Slade's neighborhood, we figured we'd have to clear the area first."

Slade did more cursing, but he was also doing some mental groaning. "No way would Sonny agree to that public of a meeting place. One that we could secure and capture him the moment he shows up."

Nash nodded. "He didn't agree. But Sonny did respond with a counter demand of his own."

Slade didn't have to guess what that was. "Sonny wants to name the location for the meet, and he wants me, Marise, and probably Caroline, too, to be in on this potential shitshow."

"He does," Jericho verified.

"No way in hell am I giving him Marise or Caroline," Slade was quick to say, glancing at both women.

He looked down when he felt Marise's hand take hold of his. She gave him a gentle squeeze and looked him straight in the eyes. "As long as Sonny's out there, I'm already in danger. Caroline, too. We can't stay holed up here forever, and he knows that."

"But you're not going to be bait," Slade spat out.

Marise managed a slight smile and a sigh then brushed a kiss on his cheek. "I'm guessing your brothers have something safer in mind for Caroline and me."

"We do," Nash was quick to say. "When Sonny contacts us with a location for his counter demand, we negotiate a place where we have some control over security. Caroline and you would stay in a bullet-resistant vehicle, visible only so Sonny can get a glimpse of you, and then you'll get down and stay down."

"While Jericho, Slade, and you go out to confront the sonofabitch," Marise finished. She sighed again. "I understand that Sonny wants to avenge Bodie's death and smack me down for confronting him, but is he arrogant enough to go head-to-head with the three of you?"

"Arrogant, yes," Jericho was quick to confirm. "But he's not stupid. I figure right now he's arranging for some help. Maybe hired guns. Maybe fellow assholes who just want to get in on a fight. I also suspect he'll have a way to scan the vehicle we're in to make sure all five of us are inside. He'll want to go into this believing he has us all in one place. And we'll go in knowing we're possibly outgunned."

"But not outsmarted," Nash volunteered, taking up the explanation. "I drove here in my van. Along with being bullet resistant, it's loaded with some battle toys. A drone that can be used to pinpoint the locations of Sonny and anyone else he brings with him."

"It's stocked with tear gas, smoke bombs, laser lights, Kevlar vests, guns, and ammunition," Jericho went on. "Of course, I'll have my slingshot, too."

Some people wouldn't consider that much of a weapon, but Slade knew those "some people" were wrong. Jericho had managed to take out assholes and other bad guys, all without risking a kill shot.

Still, Slade didn't want to rely on a slingshot to put an end to this.

"There's also a new weapon in the van that one of Ruby's techs came up with," Jericho explained. "A hand-held sonar blaster. It looks like something a gamer would use. Nonlethal, but it'll put a person on their knees."

That was a lot of info for Slade to take in, but there was a bottom line here. No amount of weapons and info would convince him to put Marise and Caroline in this kind of danger.

"Sonny could launch a grenade at the van," Slade pointed out. "Or a firebomb. Or put an IED in its path. And if he doesn't want to go those particular routes, he could have a sizeable group of gunmen, all taking aim at once with armor-piercing bullets."

"He could," Jericho admitted. "The idea with the battle toys, though, is to see what Sonny is about to do and stop him before he gets a chance to deploy or launch his own toys."

Jericho stopped and exchanged glances with Nash.

"Or we do Plan B," Jericho went on a moment later. "One of the three of us stays with Caroline and Marise in the van, and if things get bad, we drive them the hell out of there. The other two of us will deal with Sonny."

Slade thought this plan was finally moving in the right direction. Well, right-ish anyway. No plan would actually be good if it involved two women in the McKenna men's lives being placed in harm's way.

"Plan C," Slade threw out there. "Two of us stay with Caroline and Marise, and as soon as the third gets out of the van to go after Sonny, then whoever is driving the van will get the hell out of the field of conflict. It'll be too late then for Sonny to back out."

Slade hoped.

He didn't want to go through all of this only to have the cowardly dipshit turn tail, run and actually escape.

"You and you alone go after Sonny," Marise said to Slade. She huffed and threw her hands up in the air. "You didn't come out and say that, but that's your notion of Plan C."

Yep, that was Plan C all right, and he added some speculation to his argument. "The odds are Sonny will retreat when he sees the van leave with some of his targets. While he's retreating, I'll go after him."

"Shit," Nash muttered.

Jericho muttered something much harsher.

Caroline and Marise gave each other sympathetic sighs.

"Why you?" Jericho demanded, speaking to Slade. "And don't you dare say it's because you're better trained, older or some other shit. Sonny wants us all dead, and you going solo will make it easy for him to get one of us."

Slade gave him a flat look. "Trust me, I won't make it easy for Sonny to get to me." And then he held up his hand to silence any protest until he'd finished what he had to say.

He was about to spell out that he didn't believe Sonny would agree to anything where he wouldn't have the complete advantage, but before he could get it out, Jericho's phone dinged.

The sound was soft, barely audible over the rain pelting the windows, but the ding seemed to echo through the house.

Jericho set his bagel and coffee aside, took out his phone and looked at the screen. For a very long time. Slade didn't have to ask who it was from because he could tell from Jericho's expression.

"What did Sonny say?" Slade came out and asked.

Jericho drew in a long breath. "He's offered up a meeting place and says if we don't agree to it, then there'll be no meeting at all. He'll start picking us off one at a time until we're all dead."

Slade continued to study his brother. Sonny's threat wasn't a newsflash. Neither was the My way or the highway attitude toward a showdown gathering. So, what had put that look in Jericho's eyes?

Jericho turned his phone screen so Slade could read it for himself. And Slade immediately cursed.

Because the location was one that Jericho, Nash, and he knew all too well.

The creek.

Where Sonny had murdered their mother.

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