Isaac frowned. "If this place is impenetrable and so heavily fortified, then why not bring Jenna there?"
Shadow spoke up before Dane. "Because it would require moving Jenna and she would be easily recognized by Jaysus or any of his army of men. Plus they're expecting us to do just that. To move her to some badass safe house where all of us accompany her. It's exactly what they want because then they'll have the chance not only to take out the majority of our manpower, but also to grab Jenna at the same time. The very last thing we need to be right now is predictable. We have to be able to guess what they're expecting and then do the opposite."
It pissed Isaac off that he was so emotionally fucked in the head that he couldn't think straight and that Shadow had to explain something to him that he damn well knew. He wasn't some wet-behind-the-ears rookie, grasping at straws, but this wasn't just any mission. He wasn't protecting someone because he'd been hired to do it and could detach himself and objectively assess any potential threat. He was terrified out of his mind of losing Jenna. Of a sadistic drug lord getting his hands on Jenna and making her suffer things he couldn't even think about without losing the very thin grasp he had on his sanity and completely losing his shit.
Dane nodded. "That's precisely our objective. This place is stocked with enough food and supplies for six months. If this goes on too long, Jenna is going to go stir crazy and she's going to want her freedom. After being a prisoner her entire life, I don't blame her one bit, but you're all going to have to keep her busy and distracted no matter how you have to do it because we can't afford even one slip-up. Eyes are to be on her at all times in case she gets it in her head to sacrifice herself for all of us again," he growled, his displeasure obvious that she'd done it once already.
"How are you going to get out of here without compromising our location?" Knight asked Dane.
Dane's lips turned up into a faint smile. "I never use a safe house that doesn't have more than one exit. I won't be seen and I damn sure won't be tagged leaving the building. You just worry about your jobs and let me worry about getting Tori into protective custody without hitting anyone's radar."
Isaac stepped in front of Dane and stared him directly in the eye, not even attempting to hide the turmoil he knew to be present in his gaze.
"She's my life, Dane. I'll never be able to thank you-any of you-enough for this. She did more than heal a gunshot wound to my chest. She changed me. Brought me into the light when I was drowning in so much darkness, desolation and guilt from mistakes made what was seemingly a lifetime ago now."
"Then I have her to thank," Dane said, his tone gravely serious. "You have nothing to thank me for. I owe her for bringing you back."
"Does Tori know what's going on?" Capshaw asked quietly.
The four newest recruits were glancing between the more senior members of DSS, clear question and confusion in their eyes. They hadn't been working for DSS when Tori was kidnapped and brutalized. None of them had. DSS had been formed in the wake of her abduction. It was Caleb's vow never to leave his family insufficiently protected again. But those who'd hired on from the beginning, and then after Caleb damn near lost Ramie when he'd vowed to hire even more, and only the best, all knew the horrific ordeal that Tori had gone through. They also knew what Caleb had forced Ramie to suffer when he'd given her no choice but to use her psychic tracking abilities to find Tori before it was too late. As a result, they were all fiercely protective of the youngest Devereaux sibling and only sister.
Isaac sent the four men who'd hired on right before Lizzie had taken a leave of absence and gone rogue a quick look that said he'd explain it to the others later. They needed to know about Tori because they needed to treat her with extreme care and not inadvertently do anything to incite a panic attack.
Dane's expression hardened. "Tori will know only what she needs to know. There's no reason to cause her any more trauma than I have to. The dreams have been eating away at her night by night and right now she's operating on fumes and sheer willpower. I'm going to make damn sure she gets the rest she needs even if I have to sedate her. Caleb coddles her too much and is too quick to believe her when she says she's okay because he wants her to be okay. I know she's fucking out of gas and on the verge of collapse, and I'm not going to stand by and allow her to slowly kill herself."
His words were angry, but there was a slight shake to his voice that Isaac could remember hearing only one other time. When Gracie had burst into the DSS offices with a letter from Lizzie, who was supposed to be on vacation, that was a goodbye and admission of a suicide mission all in one. Dane had been so shaken that he hadn't been able to stand after reading the letter and had collapsed into his chair. He looked a lot like that now, except there was grim determination in his expression.