#Chapter 177 – Reconaissance

As the mission moves towards Walsh’s property, Victor notices that Rafe is particularly quiet.

“Are you all right, brother?” Victor asks, turning to Rafe with a frown.

Rafe leans back in the passenger seat of the hummer, his foot up against the dashboard, his arms crossed.

“Yeah,” he says, clearly distracted. “I’m fine.”

Victor’s frown deepens as he drives a bit further, but then he decides to push.

“Tell me,” Victor says. “I can tell something is up. You’re never this quiet unless you’ve got something rolling around in your head – you’ve been like that since we were kids.”

Rafe looks at his brother with a little smirk and then sighs, straightening up a bit. “I’ve just got a bad feeling about this, Victor,” he says quietly.

Victor nods to him, urging him to continue.

“It’s not that I think you’re doing the wrong thing,” Rafe says, his words slow and contemplative. “I think that you need to get Walsh out of the way sometime soon anyway, with all of the crap that he’s pulled, and that military might is the best way to do it.”

“So?” Victor says, turning onto one of the back roads that run adjacent to Walsh’s property. His force has been spreading out, surrounding Walsh on as many sides as they can without being noticed.

“So,” Rafe says, thinking it through, “it’s just…all on Walsh’s terms. On his property, with his daughter and your son as the bait. With Willard backing him up. The numbers are wrong, Victor.”

Victor sighs, knowing that he’s right. His Betas have been telling him the same thing – that the sheer numbers of the forces, what they’ll be up against –

At best, it’s going to be tight.

“I understand that Evelyn being there…it makes it tougher, Victor,” he says softly. “You want to get her home, you want to patch things up with her. But Vic, why is she there? He didn’t capture her – did she go willingly?”

A little growl comes from the back seat, Alvin’s hackles raised by Rafe’s implications that his mother might be on the wrong side of things. Rafe shoots him a look but mostly ignores the boy.

know why Evelyn went,” Victor says, likewise glancing back at his son. “But she wouldn’t have

you…reject her? Didn’t you tell her to leave, to never come back, to leave your

it. The stupidest thing he’d ever done, losing his temper like

voice careful, “that she’s…well, that she’s actually bait? Voluntarily?

over his shoulder as he drives, letting his son know that he will handle this. Alvin

like I do,” Victor says firmly to his brother. “She wouldn’t do that. Even if she’s mad at me, even if…even if she never

there,” Victor says, “at her father’s house. She’s there for a reason. If she’s telling me to come, it’s not because it

we still have a relationship, he says to himself, hoping,

it, but he feels a great overwhelming sense of…faith.

says, frowning,

a moment to respond, wondering what just passed over him. “For a reason, Rafe. You’ve got to have more faith in her. She’s asked me

see Alvin

is doing

his nephew. “How do you know that? How do you know your mom’s motives? You’re attached, mentally, to your twin

at his uncle. “My mommy would

“She left you –“

enough,” Victor snaps, just as Alvin snaps off his seatbelt and leaps forward towards Rafe, his little nails turning to claws to rip him to shreds. Luckily, Victor puts out a

begrudgingly,

left without him, it’s because I made her. The fault

is going on with you

nods, accepting his

battle at a sincere disadvantage, and without all of the information we need. Walsh is forcing our hand by taking Evelyn into custody, pushing us to go faster. He wants to have the advantage and he’s using her to get

back seat. “That’s not quite right.” His voice is

his teeth, working hard not to lose

us what you’ve got, little man. How is that not

us to go faster – he’s not the

nods, seeing before Rafe does where Alvin

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