Present

We landed at the motel in a convoy, Sierra leading the other two cars behind us as we pulled into the car park. I got out first, looking around to see if there were any suspicious people that we needed to worry about. I saw Alexis do the same. The both of us deemed the motel safe, so I nodded to Sierra, who jumped out of the Venom and grabbed her bag before heading towards the reception.

"Hey, about what you asked her..." Leigh trailed off as he walked up to me. We agreed Sierra would check us all in. It was best that the receptionist only knew one of our faces.

"What?" I asked, needing a bit more clarification.

"About if this was the entire plan. Why did you ask her that?" He asked me. The rest of her team walked to stand next to Leigh. All four of them were watching me with wary eyes.

"It's almost like you don't know her if you're asking me that."

"How dare you-" Alexis had to put a hand on Kieran's chest to cut him off, and I swear that was the first time I'd heard his voice. I remembered Sierra saying that he was quiet, too quiet really, but I hadn't totally believed her.

"What do you think she's planning?" Alexis asked, her voice quiet and her eyes looking at the reception to monitor if Sierra was coming back yet or not.

"I don't know, but there's no way she's letting Queen get away after everything that woman has done." I said, Leigh nodded.

"How are we supposed to stop her from doing something irrational if we don't know what she's going to do?" He asked. I shook my head because I didn't know.

"We have to keep an eye on her; or one of us just has to get it out of her." Jaxon said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world and that none of us had thought of it.

"Yeah, no shit Sherlock." Kieran replied, and all four of them turned their attention to me again.

"Why are all of you looking at me?"

"Because you're the closest to her. We've known her for longer but, not the way you know her. If she was going to tell us what her plan was, she would have done it already. It's close to her. She doesn't want to risk any of us stopping her. It's why you have the best shot at getting it out of her." Leigh said, and I shook my head.

"No, if you won't get it out of her there's no chance for me either. She knows that my highest priority is her safety. If she says a single thing to me, that implies she would put herself in danger; she knows I will do everything I can to stop her from doing it."

"Then we need to figure out a way to make sure she doesn't do anything impulsive." Jaxon said. I rolled my eyes.

"How do you propose we do that? If she's going to do anything, it's going to be after we fall asleep and can't stop her." I said, and all of them stared at me in shock.

"See, you know her best. You're right, just means that none of us can actually go to sleep. We're in this motel. Every room we get will have a window facing the car park. We can take it in turns to watch. Esmond, you just act normal. If you do anything out of the ordinary, she's going to notice, and she's going to do something drastic to do what she wants." Leigh said.

"She won't go until after we hit the warehouse. If she's going to go after Queen, it will have to be while Queen is on the run. That means she knows where Queen will run to, where the safe location is. She'll need Queen confused and stressed to get the upper hand." Kieran said. The amount he was speaking was actually worrying me. Or maybe it wasn't. The entire team cared about each other, and it amazed me that they could all be so protective of one another.

"She'll be going tonight after our attack." Jaxon said.

"After we are supposed to be asleep, yes." Alexis agreed.

"Okay, we'll plan out a schedule for watches. We don't want to stop her, because if we do, it will be a disaster. We just have to be ready to back her up without telling her." Leigh said, and I could tell that he was the second in command behind Sierra. The way they all nodded meant they all trusted his judgement, that he always had their best interests at heart.

"What are you guys talking about?" Sierra asked as she walked over to us, and our conversation immediately ended. I saw the three sets of keys hanging from her fingers. Three rooms for the six of us.

"Nothing, just discussing how we're going to attack this warehouse." Jaxon lied, and I had to admire his courage to lie to Sierra, who could always tell when people weren't telling the truth. Who read people without even trying.

"Planning happens in a minute. We need privacy for that. You should all know better." Sierra said as she handed out keys to Kieran and Leigh. "I feel like I shouldn't need to give out bunking buddies, so use your brains. Meet in my room in thirty minutes to look over blueprints and get ready. Let's go." She said as I pulled my bag from the car. After the other four had left, and we were walking to our room, she looked me in the eye.

"Sierra..." I trailed off, hoping to distract her before she could start interrogating me about our plan. About what we were actually discussing.

"I know you weren't talking about how to attack this warehouse." She said as she unlocked the door to our room and walked in. Once I had closed the door behind me, she threw her bag onto the bed and stared into my eyes again. "I'm going to say this simply; I have more planned, and none of you can stop me from doing what I need to."

She walked to the bathroom and shut the door behind her.

My eyes trailed to the green carpet, and I took a deep breath.

The next twelve hours were going to be the death of me.