“I get that, Elijah. I’m just saying, you want that man out in the open, you have the way to do it fast and easy.”

“Not going to use my woman as bait, Drake. I don’t need fast and easy to bring that fucker down. I’ll get him. And when I do, you don’t want to be anywhere around. He ripped her to shreds. He put his hands on her. He hurt her. He doesn’t get to do that and die clean.”

“I don’t think you’re going to get any arguments over how the man should die, Elijah,” Drake said, shrugging his shoulders. “He’s rogue. He knows the rules of our world. The boys are standing in line to teach him a lesson. To make him a lesson. No one is backing away from taking him out or teaching him that lesson.”

“My woman isn’t bait.”

Drake grinned at him. “Get a handle on it, Elijah. You’re a crazy fuck when it comes to her. Where’s your famous cool? If I didn’t know better I’d think you just came out of a cave for the first time.”

Drake, damn him, was teasing him. Looking to get a rise out of him, and he’d managed to do it in a very dangerous way.

“I still ought to rip your fucking head off,” Elijah groused, but the anger was gone, replaced by something else altogether. Affection. It wasn’t just respect he had for Drake Donovan, it was affection.

Alonzo slid into the seat across the aisle. “You hitting them in broad daylight?”

“That’s the plan,” Drake said.

“He’s leopard?” Alonzo prompted.

“He’s a big son of a bitch too,” Elijah said. “I didn’t see his leopard, but he’s a big man. Walks like a cat. He’s going to be expecting us to hit him at night. He knows he blew the hit, and all this time he’s been waiting for retaliation. He’s on edge, knowing it’s coming but not when or how. He’s probably locked his place down and thinks he’s got a fortress. We’ve made him wait, get anxious. Made his boys stretch their nerves out. He’s in meltdown mode by now.”

“So why daylight?” Alonzo reiterated.