25. ~Brianna~

25

~Brianna~

I finally eased apart from my dad and the hug that had seemed to go on for ages.

I mean, I was all for it now that we were no longer estranged, and we were in a good place, but we had business at hand to attend to.

It was why he'd been called down here to the Knight mansion by Roman.

"It's really good seeing you in person again, baby girl," my dad said as we made our way toward Roman's study where he and the boys were already gathered.

"You too, Dad."

"We're never doing that estrangement thing again, yeah?"

"I'm sure we can find a different way to handle it the next time we piss each other off," I teased.

He smiled.

But that was short-lived when his gaze dropped to my all-seeing eye pendant.

"When did you start wearing that instead of keeping it in your wallet?"

"A couple of years ago." I took in the pain all over his face. "Do you need me to take it off while you're here?"

"No. I'm glad you wear it. A part of your mom. Her last gift to you. Laying eyes on it after all this time was just… I guess I wasn't expecting it." His lips lifted. "But then again, just looking at you is seeing a big part of her too. You're so similar in looks." He registered my baby-pink off-the-shoulder top with my matching pink heels. "Although, all this pink is new."

I chuckled. "Yeah. It somehow became my thing."

"I see."

We reached the study and I stopped for a moment. "Are you ready to do this?"

"Baby girl, I've been ready for fucking years. It couldn't come a moment sooner." He reached out and laid his hand on my shoulder gently. "Neither did you putting that fucker, Tommy, to ground. I'm real proud of you."

It was an odd thing for a father to be proud of his child for—killing a man. But from his perspective he meant it as me being capable of putting down my enemies like a boss. Also, he wasn't exactly a conventional parent.

There was certainly a lot of that going around.

We stepped into the study, all maroon and fancy mahogany wood.

Roman and the boys were gathered around a rectangular mahogany table, Levi and his dad on one side staring at one of Levi's laptops, while Mason and Colt were on the other viewing a second. They were all standing, emphasizing the urgency I could already feel coming off them.

I was right there with them on that.

It was about to happen.

We were so close to finally ending Lynch once and for all.

"Curt," Roman said, looking up to see my dad walking in with me. "Good to see you again."

"Long time, yeah?" my dad responded humorously with sarcasm because it had only been a few weeks since Roman had approached him after Royce Humphrey's first attack.

"Indeed," Roman responded with a smile.

"Sorry it took me a while. It's a ways to my storage facility that's housing my old shit from the club days. Namely, what we're gonna be needing for this strike later tonight—equipment and arms."

"I appreciate you handling that end of things. It would've taken me a couple of days to access that sort of thing."

"Well, you've got the whole legitimate business thing to contend with."

"So do you, Dad," I reminded him.

After all these years since disbanding the club, he still thought of himself as dealing in the down and dirty, but he'd cleaned up his act extremely well.

All right, what was about to go down tonight notwithstanding.

But sometimes we had to make exceptions.

Sometimes we had to become the very monsters we sought to fight.

"So what do we have here?" my dad asked as he approached the laptop by Levi and Roman. "Where's this piece of shit holed up?"

I walked over to Colt and Mason and studied their laptop, taking in the location and the floorplan.

Just as I did, my dad echoed my thoughts.

"A fucking penthouse? Bought out the whole building too? This shit really does think of himself as some kind of king."

"A king whose reign will end tonight," Levi seethed.

My dad smiled at him proudly. "Damn straight, Knight."

My dad and Roman exchanged a smile. "You did good with this one," he told Roman.

"Seconded regarding Brianna."

Just as Colt reached out and stroked my hair in an automatic sort of sweet reaction when I was near, my dad looked over at me at Roman's compliment of me, and noticed. He frowned and Colt withdrew his hand quickly, realizing what he'd done, despite our talk beforehand to not demonstrate affection in front of my dad.

Fortunately, he looked away without saying anything or calling it out, and turned his attention back to the laptop.

"It's a twenty-five story building," Levi reported.

"It will pose a challenge accessing the penthouse floor as a result," Roman said.

"Not if you draw him out and take care of putting him to ground outside," my dad commented.

"This building is located on a busy city block. We wouldn't be able to cover it up… too many witnesses," Mason pointed out.

"The strike needs to happen inside," I said.

My dad took in that information, then asked, "He's putting up Osiris here in this building?"

"Correct," Roman confirmed.

"How many are we talking?"

"We've clocked it at twenty, including him," Levi informed him.

"That's not the total number of members of that fucked-up outfit."

"No, it's not. We're talking forty-six in total and that's only until he recruits more, which is something he does every couple of months. The rest are in the process of being moved into the building. He wants them all close. For protection as much as convenience," Levi reported.

"I'll take out the remaining guys if you can get me a location."

Levi nodded. "Now I know where Lynch is, which was made possible from this bold move and the expensive purchase of this building under a pseudonym he used on the phone while we were in captivity, I'm tapped into everything there. All incoming and outgoing communications. I'll get you a location from there."

"Dad, you can't take down twelve guys. I mean, even in your heyday that would still be asking a lot."

"I've already got my old club members on standby. Five of the closest brothers to me who owe me a favor or two. I was figuring on bringing them in on the Lynch takedown, but you need somebody to take out these stragglers too or Osiris could survive even without their fucked-up mastermind."

"Wow, you certainly came prepared."

He smiled. "Wasn't gonna risk disappointing you again."

"Dad, no, that's not what—"

"It is , it's what happened back then. But I appreciate you saying the words anyhow."

My chest squeezed. "That's all in the past. And after tonight, the rest will be as well."

"Yeah, it damn well will," Levi said.

"Son," Roman spoke. "For the four of you to even reach Lynch in the penthouse, you'll need a distraction. Making it up twenty-five stories will take a toll and with that many hostiles in place, they'll cut you down before you reach our chief target. You need the element of surprise."

"A sneak attack," my dad said. "I'll be there to covertly cut down any of the hostiles who try to flee, but the risk regarding the rest is too high, unacceptable to me. Letting you do this is one thing and difficult for both Curt and I to accept, but we understand where you're coming from and how badly you need to be the ones to inflict this damage, to defeat that which has haunted you, to reclaim your power that was taken during that awful time. But allowing undue risks wasn't part of that agreement."

"I know. We won't move in recklessly like that, Dad. We'll brainstorm a way around it."

"Aside from a fake gas leak, which it's highly doubtful he'd buy, anything bigger would risk exposure and alert half a city block worth of witnesses," Mason said.

"More like several blocks' worth," Levi countered.

"There's a way to do this," Roman said.

We all fell into concentrated silence, trying to determine the way to go with it.

My mind was racing a million miles a minute, but it was compromised, like I was sure Levi's was with the satisfying thought of ending Malcolm Lynch.

"Why don't you use that guy you knifed through the hand, Lev?" Colt piped up. "Kyle?"

Levi's eyes sparked and he went to Colt and grasped his shoulders. "Fucking spectacular idea, cupcake."

"Yeah, we can work that," Mason said. "Have it where he's freaking out because Royce was murdered, then Tommy, and he's thinking he'll be the next one to face yours and Bree's wrath, Lev. Have him go to Lynch for protection, begging to join him again as part of the deal."

"You gotta offer him something big to get him to fake all that," my dad pointed out.

"Protection," Roman said. "He's been in hiding for a long time. Levi found him. His former protector is dead. That fear of reprisal for what happened six years ago from Lev, myself, and Curt, is his weakness. It can be used in our favor."

"I'll throw in my brand of protection too," my dad told Roman. "You up for doing it on your end?"

"He did help the kids out in the end."

"Too late, though," Mason groused.

"I'll do it," Roman said. He looked at Levi. "You've gotta be able to back off too. It ends with Malcolm Lynch. Forget about Kyle Trass. He's a useless and pointless target anyway."

Levi looked to me for my agreement too and I gave a nod.

It was what was best for the circumstances.

"All right," he told Roman and my dad. "I'll leave him be after this."

"Good," Roman said, pushing away from the laptop. "I'll retrieve him immediately. In the meantime, gear up."

We all nodded and gave our confirmations as Roman headed out.

My dad pulled his phone out and started contacting his former club members who were still loyal—or who owed him a favor.

As he did that, Mason went over some rules and procedures for Colt taking part in this, something he was being lighthearted about compared to how he'd normally be.

"How are you doing?" Levi asked, coming to me.

I reached out and rubbed his arms. "My mind is kind of awhirl, honestly. It's hard to focus on all the details for once with the thought of seeing the defeat in that bastard's eyes pushing to the forefront, then watching the light go out of those fucking eyes. I just… after all this time we'll finally take back the power he took from us. It's a lot to process, to wrap my mind around."

"I feel the same way."

"Yeah? You seem so together, so focused."

He leaned in and whispered, "It's mostly fake. But all I can see is the spectacular end result through all these details and all this strategizing too."

"Maybe focusing on it for right now is best to get it out of our systems, so we'll be able to focus up once we're out in the field and initiating the strike against the depraved demon."

"Solid approach, baby." He smiled down at me. "You see why I didn't want to tell you that he was alive until I had something on him, some way to track him?

"Yeah. Yeah, I do. Everything you've done has been what you believed was best for me. The lengths you went to, the sheer effort… it means so much to me."

"Why you love me so much, hmm?"

I slapped his chest playfully. "Arrogant shit."

"When it comes to you and how we all feel about one another, absolutely."

A throat cleared and Levi and I eased apart as my dad came to stand before us. "It's sorted. Got the guys mobilizing now."

"Perfect, Dad."

"Nice work, Curt."

"So, what's the deal here?" he asked, gesturing between me and Levi.

"Deal?" Levi asked.

"Roman told me how possessive and protective you are over my daughter, yet then I see one of your friends touching her in full view of you and you didn't do a thing, didn't react one little bit?"

Uh oh.

"I'm not that way with Colt and Mason. I trust them implicitly," Levi said, thinking on his feet as usual, as he tried so hard to cover for me.

No.

I couldn't allow it.

Our foursome relationship was the best thing that had happened to me.

It wasn't something to be concealed or buried.

It deserved celebrating.

They deserved to be celebrated as the loves of my life.

"We're all together," I blurted out, the sentiment of it all taking me over.

To my astonishment, my dad burst out laughing.

"What?" I asked. "What's happening? Are you having a break from the shock of it?"

"Ha, no. It was the look on your face." He stroked my hair for a moment. "Well done for telling me. Proud of you. Hell, I'm proud of you for a lot of things. Especially you coming into your own, all this strength coming off you."

"You already knew," Levi surmised.

"Roman thought it would be a good idea to prepare me. He told me a few days after that meet-up we had."

Mason and Colt gravitated over, the two of them along with Levi basically flanking me in a sweet and bolstering way.

"It was a lot to take in at first, so Roman made the right call giving me a heads-up. But it didn't take me that long to realize that this is a real good thing."

"You really believe that, Dad?"

"I do. You're happy for the first time in ages. Content. Powerful. Secure in yourself. Roman explained that it works all ways with you four, you're all helping one another, you're a hella good team. And look," he said, pointing at Levi, "You're with a guy who rides, loves motorcycles and is a brutal bastard in a fight." He pointed to Colt. "You're with this rocker who plays the kind of music I'm into." He moved to Mason. "And you're with a future tattoo artist, also up my alley." He grinned. "Got the whole fucking package right here, don't you, baby girl?"

We all laughed.

"Thank you, Dad." I threw my arms around him then.

He held me to him, his voice breaking with rare emotion as he uttered, "Missed you. Missed you so much, Brianna."

I tightened my hold on him. "I missed you too."

As we pulled apart, he looked out at my boys. "Keep treating her right and we'll stay all good here, yeah?"

They all gave him their word.

I beamed out at them all.

I couldn't believe how far we'd come.

The way things had started down in Stonewell with that seemed like another world now, one whose existence was fading fast with every passing day.

Because now there was this.

Our new reality.

And I couldn't love it more.