“Do you need help?” Cassius asks.
“If I set up the system running recognition, maybe you could look at that while I look into other options. Like flights, cameras on highways. I will even try the train . . .” What the fuck? Why the hell didn’t I think about this before?
“Fuck,” I grunt. “Wait here.” Stepping into the room, I hurry towards my laptop. Picking it up, I lean forward and kiss Talia on the forehead before hurrying back outside. “How can I fucking have forgotten?”
“What did you forget?” Cassius asks as he frowns at my mumblings. Holding my laptop, I nod towards the bar and start walking that way. As I walk, I start tapping away, looking for anything that might alert me to what I suspect.
“Leif always had a fascination for trains. He would sit for hours at the train station, looking at the trains. If I look at the recordings of the cameras, I can either find him or something that will lead me to him,” I reveal as I take a seat.
“Hello, darling,” one of the Jezebels says as she steps up to Cassius and places her hand on his arm.
“We’re busy,” Cassius grunts, pulling his arm away from her and taking a seat next to me.
“I could keep you company,” she purrs.
“No, but thanks.” Draco also takes a seat and looks at her until she leaves. “Go ahead,” he says once she’s gone.
“He wouldn’t go long without visiting a train station or even just sitting next to the tracks. If I don’t find anything at the station, I will start looking at the cameras on the tracks. I also think that he has been masking his features somehow, or the recognition software would have picked him up by now somewhere,” I state as I start to hack into the station’s cameras. A few seconds later, I am looking at various feeds.
“Get various days’ worth of recordings, and we will all go through different days and see what we can find. We can get one of Tor’s men to look at the recognition of Vercin. All of us know him, so it won’t be a problem if they do it,” Draco suggests.
“You say he has always liked the trains. Have you thought that maybe he has made his base by the train station?” Cassius asks. “I mean, they are underground around the city. Why not at the station?” At his question, I pause. That’s it.
“Fuck, I need another computer. You might be on to something, Cassius,” I say. “Now that I think about it, that’s what he’s been doing. It’s the train tracks.”
“You are talking nerd. Make sense,” Draco grunts.
“I’ve been tracking the history of the IP address of that computer that sent us the message. It wasn’t making sense because it looked like a jumble, but now I know what he was doing.” I won’t go into technicalities, because the guys always want it plain and simple.
“You saying the train station is the key?” Draco asks.
“Yup, that’s what I’m saying. I also agree with Cassius. His base will be somewhere near the train station.”
“You see, I’m not just a pretty face,” Cassius quips, which makes Draco and I look at him in surprise. Ever since Cassius bonded with Scarlett, his anger has been dissipating, but joking isn’t something he usually does. “What?” he asks with a raised brow at the two of us. Cassius used to be a happy-go-lucky kind of guy before he was captured by Merdor. When we found him, he had changed. His life was filled with revenge and anger. If he hadn’t found Scarlett, he would have changed. I have spent many a night outside his room because of the rages that he used to go into that caused him to destroy his room, wondering if that was the last time and he would change forever.
Luckily, Scarlett came along just in time. “Welcome back, Brother,” I say, and see him tense before he relaxes again and nods. Without Cassius knowing, Draco had all the brothers keeping an eye on him in case he went into a rage. We were to knock him out so that he didn’t turn. There were times that it came close, but thankfully, he was strong enough to pull through, mostly because of the revenge he wanted against Merdor.
“Jasmine and Gabriela have tried to find Leif, but for some reason, they can’t. I wonder if it is him or if he knows how to block them,” Draco says.
“It has been difficult to spot his energy because of the energy flowing through the train station,” I say just as I find what I was looking for. “There.” I turn my laptop around to show them the screen.
“What are we looking at?” Cassius asks with a frown.
“Entrance to a tunnel,” Draco states as he sits forward and looks at the screen. “Son of a bitch, no wonder we couldn’t find him.”
“When do we go and toast his ass?” Burkhart asks as he approaches with a frown marring his face. “I’ve been waiting for this fucking day since I found out about the devices.”
“Cool down. We need to plan this before charging ahead,” Draco says. “You see there?” He points at the screen. I look around the computer at what he’s pointing at and notice a slight raise and then a swivel arm with a camera. “Celmund, is that camera part of the network?” I turn the laptop and look around at the different views at the station.
“No,” I confirm.
“Can you get into that camera?” Burkhart asks.
“Not like this. I don’t know which system it is linked to,” I explain.
“Motherfucker,” Cassius grunts. “He will see us coming from a mile away. Is there a way to get that camera down?”
“I need to get closer so that I can disable it.”
“Maybe your woman could dismantle it from a distance, or by seeing it on the screen like Aria can do with people’s minds,” Draco suggests.
“Jeepers, Draco, you think her power is that strong?” Cassius asks.
“No harm in trying. It might not have been, but you have seen how their powers have grown since they have mated and how they still continue to grow,” Draco replies.
“I will get her to experiment when she wakes up,” I suggest.
“Good. In the meantime, I will take a ride past the station and see if I can pick up any energies,” Draco says.
“I’ll come with you,” Burkhart says.
“I don’t need a babysitter,” Draco grunts as he stands.
“Nope, but you’re sure going to need a nurse soon. You’re starting to creak,” Burkhart quips as they both start walking out. Since what happened with Cassius, a brother doesn’t ride alone, except for Burkhart, and that’s because he just takes off without telling anyone.
“You’re the one that’s going to need a nurse if you don’t lay off my age.”
“Promise,” Burkhart teases. “I want one that gives good rub downs with happy endings.” They walk out, stopping us from hearing Draco’s comment.
“I’m going to go look for my woman. Don’t want these fuckers near her,” Cassius growls before also leaving me at the table. How we have all changed. A few years back, you wouldn’t find any of us with one woman longer than absolutely necessary. Now, we can’t stay away from them. Standing, I grab my laptop and make my way back towards the room and Talia.
When I walk into the room, her unique fragrance reaches me, calming me instantly. That is something I have noticed—when I’m close to her, I’m calmer. “Celmund?” she murmurs as I sit on the bed next to her.
“Did you have a nice nap, sweetheart?”
“Mmm,” she mumbles, still half asleep. “Where did you go?”
“Was talking to the others. We might have found Leif.” At my comment, her eyes pop open, and she looks up at me. “Do you think that you can move stuff if you see it on a screen?” I see her eyes widen, and then she shakes her head.
“No, I don’t think so,” she murmurs, but I can see that she’s thinking about it. “Do you need me to move something?”
“The place we think Leif is hiding has a camera outside that rotates around. Therefore, no one can get close to tamper with it. I will still check if there are any others, which knowing him, there will be, but we’re going to need them tampered with before we can make a move.”
“I can try, but it
has never worked before.”
“You didn’t know me before,” I say as I lower my head and kiss her teasing lips. When we’re both breathless, I lift my head and wink at her. This woman has wrapped herself around my heart, but not only that, she has completely taken over my soul. I will find Leif, and I will make him pay for what he has done to all our women and for the heartache we have all been through, wondering when those devices would go off.
I will make sure this time that my woman is safe, that there is no hidden threat, and once we get home, we will take care of Sven. Draco has given explicit orders not to touch him, that the reason Burkhart was also left behind was because he doesn’t know how to hold his anger, and we know if he had to come close to Sven, Sven would be dead.
TALIA 18
“Don’t push me. I will do it at my own pace.” Celmund has been irritating me the whole day. Yesterday, we found that I can in fact move things just by looking at it on the screen. We practiced nearly the whole day yesterday with different things. I understand he doesn’t want anything going wrong, but if he continues to irritate me, I’m going to throw something at his head.
“I’ve told you there are three cameras there. It’s just that we need to try and get them down as quickly as possible. I’m not trying to push you. I’m just trying to see how quickly you can do it.”
“Well, if you don’t stop breathing down my neck, you’re going to do it yourself,” I snap as I turn around and look at the screen again. The men have mounted three cameras outside repeatedly for the only purpose of me bringing it down again. Celmund is a perfectionist. Even the angles of the cameras he insisted be the same as the ones that I’m going to be taking down.
As I’m about to start bringing down the cameras, I feel his body against my back and his arms wrap around my waist as he lowers his head and kisses my neck before blowing on it. “Don’t be upset, sweetheart. I just want to make sure that we won’t have any problems. It could be all the men’s lives if we’re not careful. Besides, you don’t really want me to stop breathing down your neck, do you?” Darn the man, he knows just what to do to make my anger melt away.
“You’re such a pain,” I mumble. “Now get off me so I can do this.” He kisses my neck once more before he pulls away and stands next to me. A minute later, I start to concentrate, and instead of just doing one, I concentrate on the whole screen where the three different images of the cameras are. Celmund doesn’t know I’m going to try this, but if they want fast, there is nothing like all three going at the same time.
A couple minutes later, all three pop out of the wall at the same time. “No way,” he mumbles, and then suddenly, I am lifted off the floor and he is swinging me around. “Sweetheart, you are dangerous,” he says with a laugh.
“Damn, did you see that?” Burkhart says as he walks into the meeting room where they have set up the screens and Celmund’s laptop. “Your woman can bring down the whole place on them and we don’t need to do anything.” He winks at me.
“Stop flirting with her,” Celmund growls from next to me. I pull my arm back and slap him on the stomach, which makes him grunt. “What was that for?” He steps back and walks to his laptop. Draco and Cassius walk in, a grin on Draco’s face as he looks at me.
“We can attack tomorrow, unless, of course, you would like to do it right now from here?” he teases. I know he’s joking, but the idea starts to take fruition.
“What if I can break down a piece of the wall? Then you guys wouldn’t have to still try and open the door, and I heard one of you say that it might be rigged.” I hear Burkhart chuckle and Celmund grunt behind me, but my eyes are focused on Draco. I can see him thinking about what I just said, and then his eyes travel over my shoulder to where Celmund is.
“What do you think?” he asks.
“If she can do it, I think it would be safer and quicker.” I have obviously moved things around before, but I have never broken down things. I don’t know if I will be able to do that, but only one way to try. I turn around to where Celmund is standing and approach the laptop and the screens once again. Looking at one of the images where one of the cameras was mounted, I look at the wall that it was mounted on, and instead of thinking of it moving, I push with my mind, and to my surprise, I see the wall start to crack. I can do this. Throwing a stronger push, the wall cracks even more, and then it starts to tumble to the ground.
It’s not the whole wall, but there is a big enough hole where a man can fit. Smiling, I turn to the men and see all of them staring at the screen, and then one by one, they throw back their heads and roar with laughter. I don’t realize what they are all laughing at until I look back at the screen and see a very naked man standing on the inside of the opening with a scowl on his face.
“What did I break?” I ask in concern. I hope it’s not the poor guys’ room or something.
“That, sweetheart, is their gym, and the wall you broke is where their changing rooms are,” Celmund explains with a wide grin on his face until a very irritated Tor walks into the meeting room.
“What the fuck, Draco? Are you guys trying to destroy the whole club before you leave?” he growls, “Who needs Keres when we have you around?”
“Come on, Tor, you must admit that was quite impressive,” Burkhart quips with a grin.
“Yeah, very impressive if it wasn’t my fucking gym,” he roars. I can clearly see that his patience with us has come to an end. “Talia, you are a real beauty, but if you continue to destroy my stuff, I’m not going to like you very much.”
“Hey, she’s just saved us from more than likely triggering an explosive or an alarm,” Celmund states as he comes to stand next to me and places his arm around my shoulder.
“Couldn’t you have experimented with some other wall?” Tor asks angrily.
“Yeah, but that one was so much more fun,” Draco states with a raised eyebrow at Tor. I see Tor looking over at him, and then he shrugs and starts to shake his head.
“Fuck, I hope you guys are leaving soon,” he mutters as he turns and leaves. These men stood up for me. The only other people to stand up for me are my parents. As I look at each one of them as they talk between themselves, I realise that I have found myself not only a man who loves me and treats me like I’m the best thing since chocolate, but men and women who have shown their respect and faithfulness towards me.
“Talia, are you listening, sweetheart?” Celmund asks with a frown. I stretch my hand up and smooth it away.
“Sorry, what were you saying?” I ask with a smile.
“We will be attacking tomorrow. Are you ready?” Celmund asks.
“Doesn’t it look like I’m ready?”
“Of course it looks like you’re ready, but you need to be in agreement in doing this tomorrow, or we will postpone. If for any reason you are apprehensive about this, we will plan for the day after.” His caring touches my heart. That he would postpone everything just for me fills my heart to bursting.
“Tomorrow will be great,” I say, and see his shoulders relax. “Draco, what’s happening with my brother?” I know that there is something going on, because every time I ask Celmund, he changes the subject or distracts me with kisses. Celmund is about to say something, but I lift my hand. “Please let Draco talk.”
I see Draco looking at Celmund and then back at me. “Your brother has a few devices in his body that we have realised you won’t be able to extract simultaneously because they are in different parts of his body.” At his words, I gasp as I feel my stomach tightening. “But if we are able to get to Leif tomorrow, we can deactivate the devices once we get what we need.”
His words just make me more determined to get this done. “Well, then, it’s a good thing we are doing this,” I say. Looking up at Celmund, I see his worried gaze on me. I know he didn’t tell me about Jason because he didn’t want to upset me, but if this is going to work, he will have to start sharing everything with me, even if it hurts. “Is there anything else that we’re going to do here today?”<
br />
“No, sweetheart, you have proved that you are more than capable of doing anything that we might need,” Celmund states as he lifts his hand and strokes my cheek.
“Well, then, if you don’t need me here anymore, I will go visit with Scarlett.” I make my way out of the room but am stopped outside by Celmund’s hand on my shoulder.
“Are you okay?” he asks. I can see his features are tense as he waits for my response.
“Not really, but that’s normal. You should have told me, Celmund. If this is going to work, you will have to share things like this with me and not keep it from me to protect my feelings,” I say as I look at him.
“I was going to tell you, but I wanted to first exhaust all avenues in trying to find a way of helping him before telling you. You must understand that no matter what, I will always try to protect you, even if from yourself. I will share everything with you, but I will always be mindful of how I do it,” he says, and then he is pulling me against him and kissing me passionately.
I hear someone clearing their throat and then a snicker. “I don’t want to interrupt you, but we would like to finalize our plans so that we can also go and find ourselves some loving,” Burkhart chirps. Celmund lifts his head, and then I see that he’s showing Burkhart the finger, but his eyes are trained on me.
“I will see you later,” he murmurs before he turns, stopping, as he sees that Burkhart is still there leaning against the doorframe with a grin on his face. “Are you a peeping Tom or what, freak-o.” He punches him on the arm and pushes him playfully inside.
“Of course. Don’t you know that you slobbering all over your woman like a hungry dog just does it for me?” he teases as he starts to make slobbering noises. I laugh as I turn and make my way to where I know Scarlett will be. These men are hardened fighting machines, but I have seen a rooted family connection between all these men that we don’t always find. I have realised that they will die for each other, and when one is affected, the others stand by him and support him through whatever it may be.
CELMUND: Elemental's MC (book 7) Page 13