Present

"Wow, he really got it done in less than an hour." I said, checking the time on my phone as the last car rolled off the third truck.

"Being threatened by a beautifully terrifying woman influences men, gets them to do everything with the best efficiency they can muster." Esmond said, standing by my side as the delivery driver walked up to get me to sign for the delivery of the vehicles. To say they were all in good condition at the time of arrival.

"And he gave us an entire month before he will switch the registrations, which was awfully nice of him." I said as I signed my name, smiling at the driver.

"Can I ask why you need all these cars?" The delivery driver asked. I continued smiling.

"Ah, definitely not. Have a brilliant afternoon." I said, watching his smile falter before he took the hint and walked away. Once he drove away, I turned back to look over the warehouse full of cars and a small army of people. There was my old team standing around the fastest cars in the room, guarding them and my Venom with glares plastered on their faces. Then there was Jacques, at the back of the room with her computer on a table and papers surrounding it. And then there were twenty-three of Micah's men, plus him. Altogether we made thirty, enough to have two people per car.

Good.

"Okay, I hope everyone is having a good afternoon. I am glad you're all here. Now, as you all know, we have an apocalypse that we need to stop. So, the timeline is as follows; two hours to prepare vehicles and weapons. Please report to Jacques at the back to gather your explosives and find out your targets. At the two-hour mark we will leave for our destinations, everyone should have accommodation sorted. At exactly nine p.m. Central European Time tomorrow night, we will all be striking our targets. The following day, we will strike our secondary targets exactly twenty-four hours after the first. After that we have twenty-four hours to be back here, for debrief and to figure out next steps. Questions?" I asked. No one raised their hand, so I moved on.

"Great, give Jacques and I thirty minutes and then we'll hand out targets and explosives. Have fun." I dismissed them all and watched as Micah's men turned to him to get their assigned partners. My old team turned to each other and headed over to the weapons stash to get the best ones before they were taken.

I walked through the mess to Jacques, leaving Esmond to get our weapons sorted. Knowing how my team was going to be split was easy. Esmond and I, for obvious reasons. Jaxon and Kieran also, for obvious reasons. Leigh and Lex, for what should be obvious reasons.

"Okay, have you got all of our targets?" I asked Jacques as I reached her table. She smiled.

"You could say that." She said, and I watched as she pointed to the one safe house that was in England. "This is the biggest, and it is actually a bunker unlike the others. It's huge, enough for a couple hundred people, has irrigation, solar, even has rooms where they can grow plants underground."

"So we're not hitting that one then."

"No. Now, if I know anything, it's that once we attack the houses, security will shift as Queen gets scared. If we hit all thirty planned targets within our twenty-four time frame as planned, there will only be a few left, so Queen will take security away from the warehouses. Once we all get back here, I will have more information on security levels at the warehouses. But I believe there are only these five, there's no evidence of any others. We can divide the people here into larger groups to hit the warehouses. After we do that, Queen will run." Jacques explained her entire prediction. I nodded slowly.

"Where do you think she'll run to?"

"Possibly that bunker in England, or one of her properties. Somewhere she can hide."

I took a slow breath and looked over the map. There was something I was missing. There had to be. I knew so much about Queen. She had mishandled so much information around me because of the fentanyl. She got lazy. It was why I was such a brilliant informant for Esmond.

"There is a place. She talked about a place she has... mentioned somewhere she would run to if she ever needed to disappear." I tried to get my brain to piece it together again. Where was it?

"Some other information may be useful." Jacques said sarcastically. I rolled my eyes.

"Her favourite country... she liked Spain. Liked the beaches, the men, the language. Once when we discussed worst-case scenarios, she said she had a plan, that she has a place in Spain no one knows about. A proper estate, with stashed money, fake IDs, people to help her."

Jacques nodded and looked at the map of Europe. "A warehouse is in France."

"While we're out hitting the safe houses, I want you to be looking for Queen's Spanish estate. I will make sure that me and my team hit the French warehouse. If she's uncomfortable, she'll want to be as close as possible to her escape plan, so I intend to be as well." I said. Jacques shook her head.

"That plan, I don't like it. I know you, Max. You are going to go after her without backup and without a proper plan."

"I'll have a plan."

"You are not saying that you will take backup." She pointed out, which I couldn't argue against. I didn't like lying, and definitely not to Jacques. She would kill me if I did.

"No, I'm not."

"Max, she's dangerous-" I slammed my hands on the table to cut her off. I didn't need to hear this spiel.

"And she made this personal. After we fuck up her plan, after we absolutely destroy Dusk and her apocalyptic fucking obsession, I will hunt her down and I will finish the job. No one hurts, let alone kills, my people without repercussions. She killed my family, and I could have left it there, but then she killed Jake, my chosen family, by a fucking zombie virus, Jacques."

"I just worry about your safety, Max."

"I know, but I won't be able to rest until she is dead by my hand and I have avenged Jake."

"Avenge or take revenge?"

"I'm pretty sure they mean the same thing, Jacques."