Concealed in the Shadows (Book #1)

Chapter Twenty-Eight

"Well, I'll be damned," Merick says as he leads the others through the doorway. He pats me hard on the back. "I should have recognized your old man's attitude when you gave it to me," he jests.

Decklin smiles and Cy squeezes my shoulder. The two youngest seeksmen choose chairs on either side of me.

"I'm Cheng," says the Asian-American man in his late twenties. Apparently I merit an introduction from him now, but his partner still makes no move toward one.

"Sydney," I say, shaking his hand.

"I know," he says absently. That suffices for him as he moves away to take a seat.

Crewe enters somberly and shuffles around a few others without acknowledging me. I wonder if he is avoiding me because of the kiss we shared in the alleyway, or because what is best for Evvie may not be best for the town, who he will undoubtedly side with in our planning, no matter what his relationship is to me.

He lowers himself into a chair next to Merick, who sits on my father's right. I stare at him, waiting for him to risk a glance in my direction. Just before it seems the proceedings will begin, Crewe finally looks my way. With purpose, I release a small, side smile to him. If he weren't too tanned to tell, I think he might be blushing. He returns a heartfelt smile. I allot his eyes' diversion from me to boyish bashfulness, which is also becoming on him.

Even if he hadn't kissed me, I still don't think I would be cross with him for keeping to himself the information that the captain is my father.

Within moments of him learning my last name, he and I also learned that Evvie had been taken from under us. Since we would need to wait for the captain to arrive before any decisions about going after her could be made, deciding to forego telling me for that short time was an acceptable move. Forcing sleep on me instead of allowing me to be kept up all night with worry over my sister and questions about my living father was probably for the better.

All of us look expectantly at my father, who gets right to it. "Here's what I know—Miles County sent at least one black-operation team into Sheridan last night and took Evelette Harter, my daughter," he says, scanning the eyes of the listeners. "Whether any harm has been done to her, I don't know. But regardless, they came onto our soil and took one of our own. To me, that is a direct action of hostility[G1] .

"Now let's talk numbers. Last I knew of, Miles County employed six black-operations teams, with four to five members on each team. Now we know that they were planning this. We know that they put the names of Braves' little girls on my wife's account to taunt the towns of Sheridan and Braves. We can assume, then, that they've been gearing up for an assault. I wouldn't be surprised if Miles has fifty or more highly trained men and women between their teams. Look around the room. That's not very favorable odds."

"There are plenty of others here who are willing to fight for our families," Jerus advocates.

"Not who are trained," my dad counters. "We don't take anyone who isn't capable."

"So we train them," Jerus suggests.

"We don't have the time," my dad shoots back. He's right. The more time we waste, the less chance my sister has to survive. "Not only do we lack the experience and the manpower that their teams have, we also haven't found a secure way to interrupt their superior technology, which will also be hunting us."

"You're not making this sound too good, Captain," Cy points out. "Tell us what we do have and when we leave." He chuckles a little about the second part, but no one else so much as moves their eyes in Cy's direction. They've already lost faith with the captain's opening statements. I can see it in their eyes. They're calculating. They want to cut Sheridan's losses. They don't want to go. They want my sister to be left behind.