Tex spoke up first, before Spencer or his brothers could reassure her. Although Spencer had moved quickly to wrap her in his arms again.
“Listen. We’re not letting anything happen to Sheila,” Tex said resolutely. “If it makes you feel better to use real money as bait, that’s up to you, but I don’t think things will come down to him opening the duffel. You and your team will be stopping him in his tracks before he has that opportunity.” He slipped back into planning mode. “Who do we have in the room, and what kind of skills do we have available?”
Mason spoke up first. “I head the regional SWAT team, so I’m good at planning, and I have proficiency as a sniper. My wife,” he gave Everlee a proud look, “is an amazing hostage negotiator.”
Kyle shrugged. “I have regular cop and SWAT skills, but Rowan and I aren’t afraid of anything. She’s a stunt woman by trade, and she’s been passing on some of her daredevil expertise to me. Physically, we’re able to pull off just about anything.”
“I’m in special operations,” Julian put in.
Spencer wondered just how much his brother would be able to tell them. The work he did had always been top secret.
Julian continued. “I do covert ops, and my specialty is stealth. I’ll be able to sneak up on this guy without him knowing. I guarantee it.”
Damn. Julian’s face had taken on a dangerous cast that Spencer had never seen before.
“I’m not sure how much help I’ll be,” Buck admitted. “I do underwater work. Demolition and such.”
“You never know what will come in handy,” Tex assured him. “Don’t discount your strengths. Spence, you have diving as your primary talent?”
“Yeah,” Spence said. “But all my brothers know how to dive. We grew up doing thatandsnorkeling.”
Kyle actually chuckled.
“Why don’t you tell Tex how long you can hold your breath?” Kyle urged Spencer, then went on to explain. “When we were kids, we had a running competition to see who could stay under the longest while snorkeling. Spencer was a beast. He won every freaking time.”
“Do you still have that ability?” Tex asked uncertainly. Because, yeah, a lot of years had passed.
Spencer reassured him on that point. “I actually still test myself,” he admitted. “A lot of times on the Atlaua when we’d be in wet-dock, I’d mess around with how long I could stay under for routine hull checks. I regularly freaked people out.”
“Good,” Tex affirmed. “I’d say we have a lot of tools at our fingertips, here. How are you feeling about things now, Tabitha?” he questioned gently.
“Okay, I guess.” She’d grabbed onto Spencer’s hand again as he’d surrounded her with his heat, and was crushing his fingers.
He’d take that over apathy, any day.
“I’m just wondering what this Ghillie-monster is going to have us do?” she speculated. “If it will be something that plays into our scope of special abilities, or if he’s going to orchestrate a different game with us.”
“We’ll know soon enough,” Mason assured her. “But I have a feeling our perp is going to move things forward soon, and he’ll employ a time-squeeze to get what he wants. The minute he calls, he’ll set some kind of clock ticking, and we’ll have to be prepared to move quickly.”
“My sentiments, exactly,” Tex concurred. “Which means in the next two hours, I want you to load up every piece of equipment you can think of, for any situation he throws at us. That will include climbing apparatus, ladders, scuba gear, crow bars, weapons and ammunition for above and below water, bolt cutters, body armor, first aid supplies. If you think of it, you pack it. I’ll be in touch as soon as our man calls again.” Tex hung up.
Mason took over. “Wherever he’s sending you, Tabitha, we’ll have you in an SUV, fully equipped with all the things Tex has mentioned, plus more. Spencer will be hiding in the back, where black-out windows should keep him from being spotted, so you’ll never be alone.
“The rest of us will load into two more vehicles. We’ll park a quarter mile from whatever destination Ghillie comes up with.” He put eyes on Julian. “Since Julian has ghost skills, we’ll send him covertly to your position and the rest of us will follow. Julian will stay on the move and keep us apprised of exactly what’sgoing down. When he deems it safe, we’ll move into position to take our perp out.”
Kyle had also put on his thinking cap.
“One thing is definitely in your favor, Tabitha. This guy doesn’t know about us. If he’s done his research on your life, he isn’t expecting you to have any friends in the area. In that regard, I suggest that Rowan and I stay a decent distance away from Tabbi, but pretend to be vacationers. If we’re in the mountains, we can pose as hikers. If we’re at the ocean, we can be kayaking someplace close. It will put us on scene fast, if things go to shit.”
“Things won’t go to shit, but I think proximity will be key,” Mason agreed. “To that end, we’ll all be wired up so we can communicate.”
Spencer liked it.
All of it.
The plan seemed solid.
It depended, however, on what Ghillie was going to hand them as a scenario.
