Page 288 of Allegiance

“I’ve weighed every probability. This is the ONLY one that will get us to that location. Chevy is smart because he was trained to anticipate. We aren’t playing a game with El Gato now. We’re playing with someone who thinks like we do. We have to do what he won’t expect. Get caught.”

“And if he kills people on the spot?” Stella asked.

They all saw it in her eyes.

Maura was agonizing over all of this. She didn’t want to send them in any more than they wanted to go in.

“It’s got risk. It’s the ONLY thing we can do to find him. He won’t likely kill anyone. Not at first. He’s going to want to gloat. He’s going to want to have Jagger. Chevy hates us. He thinks I’m dead, and he’ll want to kill Jagger himself. If he has The Hunters, or who he perceives as them, he will let his guard down. Who would be coming in? Not Jagger’s dead wife.”

She had a point.

Only, that didn’t make Zayn’s wife feel any better about any of this.

“He’s going to torture them,” Stella said.

“I know. That’s why we have to move fast. We have to be on them to minimize this.”

Stella slammed down the knife.

“MINIMIZE? That’s my husband and your husband!” she said. “Minimize it?”

Oh, she wasn’t shocked.

She expected this pushback.

Zayn tried to keep the peace. His wife was ferociously protective of him, and the last thing they needed was a war.

“My sweet Stella, I’ll be okay.”

“Not if you’re tortured. Not if he just wants Jagger and kills you.”

“I’m sorry,” Maura said. “I’d go myself. I offered to out myself and be taken. I would do it for any of you. I just can’t because I’m what he doesn’t expect. If I go, he’ll expect Jagger to save me. I need his guard down.”

Stella closed her eyes.

Her husband reassured her.

“Baby, I can handle it,” Zayn said. “I’d die for this family. I’m a Marine. I’m not sitting here and twiddling my thumbs. I trust Maura when it comes to planning. She’s the gold standard for us Marines. You have to trust her like we do.”

She hated this.

From where he stood, Jagger knew that this was going to suck seven ways to Sunday.

Only, they had to get it done. This whole thing was getting more difficult to end.

A sacrifice had to be made.

That was him.

He rolled his neck. They all heard the tension and cracking.

“I’ll make sure that I’m the focus. I’ve lived it before. I can survive it. I won’t let anyone die, Stella. We don’t have the choice right now. How many more women get trafficked?”

She hated this.

Dakota had been quiet.

“What’s the rest of the plan? Someone gets taken, someone saves them, and then?”