“You were stressed enough without that added to the mix.”
His logic is flawed, but I’m not willing to get into it in front of his cousins. The end result is all that matters, and the end result is that Hook kept his promise and kept me safe. Now it’s time for me to do my part. “So the second I leave—”
“He’ll know.” Nigel has himself locked down. “Yes.”
Hook shifts, drawing my attention to him. “You won’t be alone with him. We just need to draw him out. We’ll go together.”
There’s one huge flaw in his plan, loathe though I am to point it out. “He won’t do it if you’re there.”
Hook’s mouth goes flat. “Absolutely not.”
“You know I’m right.” I turn to his cousins. “You know I’m right.”
Nigel is silent, but Colin looks at the ceiling as if it’s the most interesting thing he’s ever encountered. “She’s not wrong.”
“Stay out of this.”
“Listen to me, cousin.” Colin finally meets his gaze. “We’ll only have one shot at this. We have to make it count.”
“Fuck that. Then we make some calls to one of Nigel’s shadow contacts and have a sniper take out Peter.” He still isn’t looking at me.
Nigel finally makes a sound suspiciously like a sigh. “If that were an option, we would have done it years ago. You have to do it yourself or it paves the way for assholes to undermine you in the future.”
“He doesn’t get his hands on her. I’ll deal with future assholes as they arrive. That’s tomorrow’s problem.”
Oh, Hook. I want to kiss him and strangle him at the same time. I glance at his cousins. “Could we have a second?”
Nigel and Colin don’t hesitate, which tells me they’ve been having this conversation with him for longer than I realized. As soon as the door closes, I turn to Hook. He’s already shaking his head. “Don’t even think about it.”
“We don’t have a choice.”
“That’s bullshit, and you know it. You’re reacting emotionally.”
I might laugh if I could breathe past my racing heart. “I’m not the one reacting emotionally.” Or at least not the only one. I move closer until he can’t look anywhere but down at me. “If we only have one chance to get him, then we have to do this right. Peter’s too smart to fall for the same ploy twice.” He might be too smart to fall for this one the first time, but I don’t say that aloud. It’s something Hook will have already considered. We have to try.
His mask flickers, and I get a wave of torment from his dark eyes. “I promised he won’t get his hands on you again. I meant that promise.”
I desperately don’t want to be anywhere near Peter. Even now, part of me is searching for another option, another way to go about this. But Colin is right—there are rules of engagement, so to speak. Hook is only the top dog because he’s instilled enough fear and loyalty to ensure no one will challenge him. But all the loyalty in the world won’t hold people back from doing exactly that if they get a whiff of weakness. Our world only respects strength. Sending someone else to do his dirty work reads like he’s afraid of Peter, which paves the way for people to doubt him.
The next challenger might learn from Hook’s mistakes and kill him when they take over so there isn’t an enemy at their back.
The thought sends ice cascading down my spine. I press my hands to his chest. “Jameson.” I wait for him to meet my gaze. “He’s already laid a hand on me. He’s already done his worst.”
“Not his worst,” he says darkly. He doesn’t need to finish the thought for it to beam right into my head. Because I’m still alive.
Peter will kill me if given half a chance. That thought should terrify me—and it does—but there is a steely determination rising up within me. “I was always going to play bait. Let me do what you intended.”
“That was before.” Hook rakes a hand through his long hair. “And even then I had my doubts.”
Fuck, but I love this man.
“I was always going to play bait,” I repeat softly. “Walk me through how it should have gone.”
He doesn’t want to. That truth couldn’t be clearer. But he finally jerks his chin in a rough nod. “Cell phone tracking. We follow you in. Take him and his people out from there, burn their shit down.”
There are a thousand things that can go wrong with that plan, which I’m sure is why he’s balking now. I cup his face in my hands, his beard rough against my palms. “Then that’s what we do.”
He covers my hands with his. “I’m not risking you.”
“If Peter stays in the shadows and keeps undermining you, then you are risking me.” I have to work to keep the shake from my voice, to sound as strong as he needs me to be in order to agree to this. “I can’t stay in this building for the rest of my life, Jameson. I can’t. At some point I’ll have to leave, and then he’ll strike. We either choose the time now, or we live with the threat of him hanging over our heads.”