Law climbed back into his truck, Jaxon cranked his bike and they both headed toward the Sabre warehouse. The drive gave Jaxon time to think. If he knew the General, this plea deal wasn’t the only card he had to play.
Jaxon and Law pulled up to the warehouse about the same time. Jaxon scanned the area and notice Law doing the same thing. Law gave him the thumbs up, then pointed at a couple of the additional cameras that had been added. Jaxon nodded, it was reassuring to know that more security was in place. His Sabre brothers were inside, with men monitoring those camera feeds– including the one at Books-N-Brews. They were all armed. Most of the girls were on full lockdown and hanging out either inside Deep Dive or upstairs in the Little Room. Tazzy was working at Books-N-Brews, being guarded by Brick and now Ravage.
No one was taking any chances. He should have felt better, safer, more sure that Tazzy was safe. But he didn’t. Until the General was dead, there would be no rest.
Inside the main conference room, you could taste the energy as well as the tension. Hutch, Gage, Deke, Reid, Connor, basically everyone except Sawyer, were gathered around the big table.
Jaxon dropped into a chair, Law sat beside him. Looking around, he posed an open question to the group. “Talk to me. Where are we?”
As usual, Reid spoke first. “All the girls are accounted for. They’re restless, but they’re safe. We’ve got rotating protection detail—we’re all taking shifts monitoring the cameras. None of the Littles are going anywhere alone or without us knowing. Gage, bring us up to speed on the General’s surveillance.”
Taking his cue, Gage leaned forward. “We’ve increased monitoring on Thorne and the General. According to Ezra, the tracking still shows the General inside the compound, but we all know that right now, that doesn’t mean shit. Sawyer says he’s close to figuring out how the General is getting their surveillance.”
A general nod of agreement went around the room. “Ezra’s keeping us in the loop on the DPD side,” Hutch said, “but he’s walking a fine line. He can’t openly share that information without risking his badge.” Turning to Jaxon and Law, he asked, “How did you guys make out at Graceview?”
Jaxon turned to Law. “You want to fill them in?”
“No problem,” Law said. “Ghost confirmed the General’s been unstable since Thorne told him his conviction looks likely. He’s pushing hard for a way out. We need to stay ready for anything.”
For a few minutes, his brothers continued to discuss Ghost, his reliability, and his purpose. Jaxon’s mind, on the other hand, kept drifting back to Tazzy.
She was down at Books and Brews, miles away from him. That meant there was fuck-all he could do about it if something happened. She was probably trying to act brave while she worried about him. The thought of him causing her more stress was upsetting to say the least. He was there to make things better for her, not worse. He looked around at the men who’d been more of a family to him than his blood family had ever been, they’d all been though this kind of hell because of the General.
They’d just moved on from discussing Ghost to the Little’s security when Deke said, “You still with us, brother?”
It wasn’t until Jaxon looked up that he realized Deke was talking to him.
“I’m good,” he answered. “Just ready to get to my Little girl. We have to stay vigilant. That means keeping the girls locked down tight. Unless something changes, we watch Thorne and the General every second. If the General moves, we know about it before he takes a single step.”
“If this Ghost character is right, I think it’s fair to say that none of our girls are safe. Tazzy is the one he’s fixated on right now because of me. That means she doesn’t go anywhere without my express permission. What about Suzi, or Lovie, or Lele?”
Law leaned back in his chair. “That should go for all of the Littles. We stay on high alert until that son of a bitch is behind bars. No exceptions.”
The room murmured agreement. The weight of responsibility sat heavy on Jaxon’s shoulders, but so did the solid presence of the men around him. United, they were protecting the entire family they had built.
Sawyer ran into the room holding his laptop. “Hell, yeah!”
Reid looked over at him. “I hope this is what I think it is.”
Sawyer cleared his throat and pointed to his laptop. “It is! I figured out how the General’s been beating the system.”
“Yes!” Jaxon said, pumping his fist.
“I just got the results from the GPS perimeter testing. Turns out the monitoring company didn’t change the name of the containment zone. They redefined the entire parameter. They set Graceview Retreat Center as an area that covered the whole damn Ridge County. As long as he stays inside county lines, the system says he’s still at the mansion.”
Jaxon tapped the table with his pen. “That’s good work, Sawyer. Now what are we doing about it? Does Ezra know about this?”
Sawyer gave a grim smile. “Not yet, and I’m not in a hurry to tell him. I didn’t exactly call the monitoring company up and talk to them.You might say I snuck in through a back door. The company still swears up and down that their system is working properly. The perimeter testing and monitoring software is on one of their servers. I hacked into that this morning. Since hacking into a law enforcement system is technically frowned upon by the cops, I’d rather keep the information to ourselves.”
“No technically about it,” Reid said, grinning.
“Exactly,” Sawyer continued, “If we tell them, they’ll be forced to correct it, and I would have to end my connection. If we keep it to ourselves, we’ll know exactly where the General really is. The best part is that he won’t know we’re watching.”
Jaxon felt a knot loosen in his chest. “Good. Keep it running. I want updates every hour.” For the first time in weeks, he felt that something was going their way.
After the meeting broke up, Jaxon headed for the stairs and made his way to his bike. Sawyer’s news was great, but the General wasn’t the type to go quietly.
According to Ghost, the General was planning something. Jaxon could feel it coming like thunderclouds rolling down the mountain. He climbed back on his Harley and rode straight to Books-N-Brews.