I searched her gaze looking for the right words to say. “Yeah. That’s helpful.”

  My mother shook her head. “No. No, no, no. We need to get Darcy and Emma out of here. That’s the safe course of action. Everyone moves to the Winston Isles. I’ve always wanted a restaurant in the islands.”

  I sighed. “Mum, Emma won’t go, and I know Darcy probably won’t either.”

  Darcy piped up in the corner, her mouth stuffed full of a donut my mum made. “What? You’re telling me there is a beach and endless sunshine? I’d go, for sure.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Ben? East? Drew? Ideas?”

  Drew pulled his shoulders back. “Well, we know my dad and some of his people are behind one conspiracy. But I think that’s a matter of unseating Ben. I don’t think it’s closely related to this, but I’ll do some more digging. I think this is probably the core of it, the nucleus that has expanded out.”

  Telly nodded. “The original conspiracy was to oust Bram, right? We did the work for them. They probably intended for Middleton to step up. But then Drew and Ben stepped in. And Drew, your father probably hoped that you would get the votes."

  Drew shrugged. “Yeah. I think they thought I would probably be more controllable than anyone else. Luckily, the Five had other plans.”

  I frowned at that. Why did they think Drew was so weak? He’d proven his loyalty over and over again.

  To us.

  East pulled up the players on the large screen tied into his computer. “Right. So we’ve got Lord Edgerton trying to get his other son on the throne. They have a conspiracy to oust Ben. They were working their own channels trying to control the Director Prime. But we walked in and did their work for them with unforeseen consequences. They thought they could slide into the power vacuum, but we got a lock on that."

  Livy piped up. “And we have sown the seeds of change that are against club policy. Those who don’t want anything to change are going to be unhappy. Which is why Drew’s dad and others are already willing to vote against Ben.”

  I nodded. “Exactly. There are already those who want Ben gone. Who want us all gone. We just have to play whack-a-mole until they show themselves properly. In the meantime we show them what happens to anyone who crosses us. Publicly.”

  East rubbed his jaw and took a sip of his beer. Nyla took a shot of tequila. I lifted my brows, and she shrugged. “I’m off-duty. Amelia’s on.”

  Amelia eyed her martini longingly. “This is cruel. This is all very cruel. Give me something to hit or drink or fuck. But no, none of you ever give me any of that.”

  The new recruits sat quietly at the edge of the room. Alex eyed Amelia up and down but said nothing. I caught that look and lifted a brow. I made a mental note to check on that later. Well done, Amelia, pulling in a younger man. Hell, she was nearly my age but only looked about twenty. Her dark skin was flawless, and honestly, she could’ve been a model. But she preferred taking down bad guys. Alex would be lucky if she even looked in his direction. Though I was pretty sure she was paying him zero attention. That was a problem for another day. “What I want is a full court press, as the Yanks would say.”

  Telly grunted. “Something tells me things are about to get crazy.”

  Mum shook her head. "I have the same feeling. I don’t want crazy, Bridge.”

  I shrugged. “First up is dealing with the lot that took Darcy and Emma. I want to send a message. Full burn.”

  The lads all lifted their brows, but it was Ben who asked, "On who? The whole lot of them or the leader?”

  “The leader. Telly, you have a file on him?”

  "Yup, Ivon Drosdin." She shook her head. “He’s been a naughty boy. We can ruin him at any time. Empty his bank accounts, sic his enemies on him. I just want to make sure that we’re going fully morally gray here. Because I’ve been a good girl lately, and I really want to flex my black hat skills.”

  East rolled his eyes. “Right, these magical skills I keep hearing about. Some of us have stayed in the game and don’t need to brush up.”

  And it was off to the races. The two of them squabbled about who was the better hacker. Meanwhile, neither one of them could hack fucking Middleton’s drive yet.

  I Ignored the two of them. “Next, I’m going to go after my father. Every account, every bank, every financial decision he’s ever made, I want it picked apart. I want everything frozen, and I mean frozen like the ice age. I want it so stuck he can’t even get a coffee without a loan.”

  Ben lifted a brow. "You’re going full out.”

  I nodded. “Oh yes. Same for Middleton senior. They know where the bodies are buried. I want every single friend of theirs exposed.”

  Emma pulled her hand from mine, and her brows furrowed. “What?”

  “Yeah. All of them.”

  She laughed nervously. “You can’t be serious. That will put us all in danger.”

  “I’m very serious. Go public with it. I want them to know what we know and that we're coming for them."

  East and Telly blinked at each other. East just laughed. Telly shook her head at me like I was crazy and then nodded like she accepted it.

  It was Darcy who said what they were all thinking. “Mate, you’re a nutter. They’re going to come after us with all they’ve got. I personally don’t want to be kidnapped again.”

  Mum agreed with Darcy of course. “Yes. Can you send us to the Winston Isles please?”

  “Mum, if you want a holiday you can have one. This will be a rough ride, but we can't back down."

  She threw up her hands. "You are going to poke a massive den that has five sleeping bears in it.”

  “This is the only way. We have to smoke them out, otherwise we will always be on the back foot.”

  Ben chuckled low. “Mate, when you go nuclear, you really, really go nuclear.”

  "They've been coming for us," I muttered.

  Emma chewed her bottom lip. “I’m on board. But there was something that Bridge’s father said to us about the lengths he would go to bury any information about his son. If you’re trying to hide something important, something that could be damaging, you do everything you can. But Middleton’s been walking around as himself all this time. Unless he hasn’t.”

  Nyla perked up then. “I might be talking through tequila right now, but I get what you’re saying.” And at the same time, she and Amelia said, “Fake name.”

  Telly nodded. “Yup.”

  Emma grinned. “That’s exactly it. We’ve been looking for him under his name. What if your father has been protecting him all this time and we should be looking for an Edgerton?”

  Telly's eyes brightened “Oh, that’s worth a shot.”

  "Can’t hurt. We might get something actually usable,” Emma said.

  I glanced at her with a note of surprise. I didn’t think she’d be on board for this plan that put us in the crosshairs. But she was with me, even though this was dangerous. We were a unit.

  Ben sat back. “All right, East and I will take the Five.”

  I shook my head. “No, we all take the Five. Drew’s going to work his dad and anyone who’s working to oust Ben as Director Prime. That’s your angle. Get us everything you can. You three, Alex, Liam, Ollie, look sharp and ask questions. Rifle through things you shouldn’t be rifling through.”

  Alex nodded, because that was basically his current job. Ollie shrugged, because he was willing to do just about anything. It was only Liam that asked, “How deep do you want us to go? My father’s not Elite, but he has enough powerful friends. I can get information on our targets."

  I nodded. “Let’s do it. No information is too small. I want to bury them.”

  Ben whistled low. “Mate, if we do this, there might not be any Elite left.”

  I shrugged. “It’s a chance we’ll have to take. I want to set off a bomb. It’s the only way to smoke them out. Cut off all avenues. Any information we find out about Middleton, we expose it. Anonymous sources get what we find in the news outlets. Anything. We can’t link him directly to the murders, but we can start to point fingers.”

  East’s brow furrowed. “We could go a step further than that.”

  Telly met his gaze. “What are you thinking?”

  East grinned. “I mean, what’s a little life distraction between friends?”

  Telly laughed. “Ugh, you’re an evil genius. If I was into guys, I would totally bone you.” She turned to Nyla. “No offense.”

  Nyla laughed. “None taken. Don’t worry. I’ll bone him for you.”

  Telly winked at her. “Thanks for doing me a solid. What East isn’t saying is that we don’t even necessarily need to expose any of his deeds to the public with proof. If we can disseminate the right kind of information out to the right kind of people, we have the power of public opinion. He will be left with no friends. Think of it as very targeted marketing.”

  East grinned. “I might not be able to hack his location, but I trust him to be clumsy and careless when we start poking around at his misdeeds."

  “Things that let him think that we are hot on his tail. Right behind him. About to expose everything about him,” Telly added.

  I grinned. “Yes. This is the pain I’m talking about bringing.”

  Emma tugged at my elbow. “Is that wise?”

  “Yeah. Ems, we’re doing this.” I held her gaze.

  “Look, I don’t want to be a sitting duck anymore. No more fucking surprises. From now on, we bring the fight to them. If they want us gone, they’re going to have to fight us one-on-one. And we will be remarkably hard to fight.”

  The doorbell rang. Darcy ran to get it, and when she yanked it open, there was a ruckus at the door and so much talking. A British accent, American ones. I sighed. “Who let the riffraff in?”

  Lucas and Roone laughed. Bryna and Jessa stepped in as well. And then we heard cooing and, “Up.”

  I laughed as our mates walked in. Penny was carrying the young prince, and little Cara was walking now.

  Ariel called from the door, "This is why I don’t like traveling with all of you. You are messy and so complicated.”

  Then there was a surprising British voice. “Ugh, love, why are you so cranky? Considering what we just did in the car, you shouldn’t be.”

  I laughed. “Why does Winston Isles always have to make a grand entrance?”

  When our whole crew from across the pond joined us in the great room, it was like a massive party, the din growing in decibels as everyone greeted each other.

  Sebastian grinned. “Someone said you had trouble, so we came.”

  I glanced around. "Who called you?”

  My mother crossed her arms. “Well you were acting like a twat, and I’m on the girls' text thread, so I sent out an SOS."

  My brows went up. “Who added my mum to the text thread?”

  Penny laughed. “She has great advice for the kids.” Baby Ethan smacked her cheek. “Ugh, he’s just like his father.”

  Sebastian grinned. “Except I don’t slap that cheek.”

  Penny just rolled her eyes, and I could see I was losing control of the meeting. “Seriously, what are you lot doing here?”

  Sebastian sighed. “Yeah, we’re a circus. We know. We won’t be staying here. We just came to say hi and assess. Whatever skill set you need is available to you. When they come after one of our family, they come after all of our family.” Then he reached his hand out. "Tag us in?"

  I looked down at his hand, concerned that I’d lost track of my meeting. At the same time, he was right. We were going to need all the help we could get. “Good to have you.”

  He pulled me into a hug. I wasn’t really a hugger. But instead of doing that penguin thing I usually did that drove Emma nuts, I slapped him on the back. And he laughed. “Ah, yes. That’s it. Just go on, accept it. It’s called love. When your family’s in trouble, you turn up. Team Winston Isles is here to help.”

  “Just as long as you realize it’s a chamberlain and lords situation.”

  Lucas, ever snarky, was pouring a drink for Drew. “Never fear. The experts are here.”

  And then the room devolved into chaos and laughter. I was losing control of the whole situation, but at least my family was with me.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Emma

  With all the new additions, Darcy had headed home with Belinda, and I quietly fumed at my husband as we headed up the stairs. Likely tomorrow we would go back to the mansion to give everyone some breathing room.

  “You want to tell me why you’re so angry at me?” His voice was pitched low as he followed behind me.

  I glowered at my husband. “Who me? I’m not angry.”

  He laughed. “Oh, I’ve heard that before. Every time I fuck up."

  “You didn’t fuck up anything.” I didn't want to do this right now. Right now, we needed a good night's sleep so that in the morning more rational minds would prevail.

  At the top of the stairs he wrapped his hands around my waist. “I can tell I’ve fucked something up. Why are you mad?”

  “I’m not mad.” That was a lie. I was pissed the fuck off. He had told me none of the plan before he announced it to everyone. I didn’t like being surprised. So much for this ‘we are a team’ shit.

  After we went to see his father together, I just thought that I’d be read in at least before everyone else was. Not to mention his plan was insane. We were basically going to do the equivalent of waving a red cape in front of a bull. Several bulls. And while I was usually one for being reckless, this was just crazy.

  His mother was right to call in Winston Isles. Not that I knew how much they could do to help, though they all had a particular set of skills. Ariel was here so we had another hacker. Sebastian had political clout, and Lucas was a thief, so if somebody needed to steal anything, he could assist. And Penny was a Royal Guard. In hand-to-hand combat, she was pretty damn good. She was also the mother of two small children, so I didn’t know how that was going to work out exactly.

  I hadn’t missed the way Belinda had cooed over the babies though. They were really cute. Dark, curly hair falling on both their brows. They were the perfect combination of Penny and Sebastian. And it did give me hope. But there was no way Sebastian was letting Penny do anything. Royal Guard or not, she was the queen.

  I tried to march down to our bedroom, but Bridge held my hips again and leaned close until his breath took over my ear. “Tell me what’s wrong, or I will make you tell me.”

  “You think this is about sex?”

  “I can make it about sex if you want.” The thick length of his erection pressed against my arse.

  I scoffed and tried to shove away from him. He easily pulled me back, and when I fought him, he pressed me against the wall. “I like the fight in you, Emma, but you need to tell me what’s wrong.”

  The steely, rigid erection twitched against my arse, and I moaned despite myself.

  “Oh, someone’s horny. You need to be fucked, do you? Pity you’re not wearing a skirt. I could do it right here. Right now. But then what if we had to go back downstairs. Would I be leaking out of you?”

  I swallowed hard as I felt the wet heat of my core. I shoved against the wall, pushing him back. “I’m not doing this right now.”

  "Yes, you are." He groaned before taking my hand and dragging me to the nearest door, opening it and then shoving me inside. “What is your deal?”

  Darkness closed in around us. I knew where we were. The linen wardrobe. I'd come in here to get an extra duvet last night. “This isn’t a game, Bridge. You’re talking about two things that are remarkably dangerous. You’re talking about poking the bull. You’re talking about being reckless.”

  “I thought you liked reckless,” he muttered as he leaned into me and ran his nose up the column of my neck.

  “No. I do not like reckless." I moaned. "Fuck, you’re doing this on purpose. You want to make me crazy.”

  “I don’t want to do anything. I’m trying to end this. I’m trying to keep us all safe. You, Darcy, Mum. The lads. Fucking Penny’s here with the kids now. I have more to worry about, so I have to match crazy for crazy because doing things the right way and trying to put this lunatic in jail has not worked.”

  “Bridge, I saw you at the warehouse. The darkness will swallow you.”

  He shook his head. “It won't. And I stopped before you stopped me. I’m not losing myself.”

  “I'm scared. And you’re going from saying we are a team to surprising me with something like this. This is intricate and ballsy and wild. Clearly, you haven’t given this full thought.”

  “Ems, I have.”

  It was annoying that even in the dark he could find me. His hands found my hips and then smoothed above my belly and cupped my breasts. “Ems, your nipples are hard.”

  “Shut up.”

  He laughed. “I’m just making an observation. Do you want me to say hi?”

  “Bridge, we cannot solve all our problems with sex.”

  “I know that. I just want to fuck first. We can talk later.”

  “Oh my God, you sound like Prince Xander.”

  He frowned. “I do not.”

  “I think I heard him say that to his wife at the last wedding I attended.”

  He laughed. “Okay fine. I did hear him say that to Imani at Bryna and Lucas’s wedding. He’d insisted that fucking first before any big event helped you be able to enjoy it more. So, if we’re going to fight, let’s fuck now. Turn around,” he grunted through clenched teeth.

  “The hell I will. I am having a valid argument here about how you are jumping in before you think. The same thing I usually do. How is it I am giving you the rational viewpoint here?”

  He laughed. “Oh, you think you’re being rational. We’ve been afraid for too long. That’s been a mistake. I think a lot of people involved are heavily operating on fear. And I’m sick of it. We don’t have to be afraid, we don’t have to cower, we don’t have to take it. We’ve been trying to do this right, but maybe just this once we’re supposed to act like the Elite we are.”

  “It’s not who you are.”

  “Isn’t it? The Elite are ruthless. I will stop at nothing to keep you safe, to keep Darcy safe, and my mum.”