Blanket of Fear

“So he agreed to the terms?” Matt asked gruffly, crossing his arms over his chest as he leaned against the wall, studying the mole they’d sent in to see Castro. It had been the only idea any of them had had; it was the only relative shot they’d had at getting inside of Castro’s head so that they could stay one step ahead of him throughout this entire fight. They knew there was a chance this would all blow up in their faces, but it was the only way they were going to be able to have any chance of escaping this without casualties.

“Yeah. Of course, I don’t honestly expect him to follow through on any of them. But he thinks that I trust him on this. He knows he needs my help, and he’s desperate. All of his allies are either dead or have turned their backs on him. He knows that I could be a good asset to him.”

“You’re doing a good thing for us, Joel,” Zack murmured to his friend, looking up from where he’d been looking before he took a deep breath. He knew that Joel was taking a huge risk in doing this. Not only was his life at stake; he was putting Nicole’s life and their children’s lives at stake as well. It was widely known that Castro was a vengeful person, even more so than Zack himself. He knew that if this blew up and their enemy got wind of this, there would be no chance at saving Joel. He would be dead, and he knew that. They all knew that, and it made everything just that much more intense and frightening. Of course, the only people that knew anything about this plan were Zack, Matt, Jimmy, Jacoby, Joel, and Benji. They had decided that the less people knew, the better. And even Brian himself was out of the loop on this one.

He still wasn’t coming around from Michelle’s betrayal like they had expected him to. Zack was worried that his friend was losing his mind in the worst way possible, and he didn’t want to think that they’d have to take drastic measures. Every day, the chocolate-eyed man became more combative and violent. He had stormed out of the safe house without protection on more than one occasion; almost as if he were suicidal. At one point, Jacoby had walked in on Brian with a gun in his hands, claiming that there was nothing left for him after what Michelle had done to him.

They had kept Johnny out of the loop not because he couldn’t be trusted, but because of his ties to Leigh. They were all still very unsure of the girl an whether or not she would prove to be an ally, neutral, or an enemy. They didn’t treat her as a criminal as they once had, but they were all very careful about what they said around her. It had become accepted that she was to be unofficially ostracized from the group, and Johnny was a casualty of that so long as he stayed loyal to her affections.

They hadn’t told the rest of Papa Roach or Good Charlotte because that was simply letting too many people in on the secret. It wasn’t safe with the six of them knowing as it was, though they all knew that each of them could be trusted with it. Between the six of them, they would have enough knowledge to keep as many people safe as possible. They bore heavy hearts with keeping this from their friends and loved ones, but each of them knew that it was for the best in the end. None of them would be able to live with themselves if something happened to one of their friends and they knew they could have prevented it.

As for Matthew Baker, he didn’t even know that there was a plan in action to take Castro out. While the others were trying to convince Zack that blood really was thicker than water, the younger Baker didn’t trust him. He didn’t trust that his brother was completely free from Castro, and he knew that he couldn’t let him in on this. There was no way in Hell he would ever put Eliza at risk, and by letting Matthew in on this plan, he knew that he would be putting too much trust in his brother and that there would be too much at stake. After losing his parents and sister, he couldn’t lose the only other person he had ever loved in his life. He couldn’t lose Eliza, an he’d do everything possible to keep her safe. He couldn’t kick Matthew out now; he needed to at least try to keep his brother here so that he could keep his eye on him. But he’d be damned if he trusted him again.

They had also decided that they would keep the women out of this. They had thrown the idea around about pulling Leana in on this, but because of her prior imprisonment from Castro and the scare a few months back with Jimmy and the explosion, they had all decided that in the end, it wasn’t worth it to put either of them under that kind of stress again. Leana would be a good combatant for them, and they knew that if it came down to it, they could trust her with their lives. But she’d already been put through too much stress with the fight against Castro, and none of them wanted her to feel even more pressure on her small shoulders.

Matt had wanted to bring Eliza into it as well and use her connection to Castro against him, but Zack had put his foot down on that one. He didn’t want Eliza getting into any kind of risk, and he wasn’t going to use her past relationship with Castro—a relationship he knew had been abusive at times—to get him. They could find other ways of getting to him, and they would.

“Did he tell you when he’s going to make the first strike against us?” Jimmy asked calmly, blinking as he looked up at Joel, who shook his head before pushing his hand back through his hair.

“No, we didn’t discuss that part of this yet. We’ll be getting to that after I go to the next meeting. He still hasn’t told me when that will be. Right now, the ball is in his court and we have to play by his rules. If I ask too many questions, he’s going to know something is up,” he muttered, obviously displeased with that.

“You’re right,” Zack nodded. “Let’s just let him take his time with this. The longer he has to think, the more time he has to psych himself out about this. He knows he’s getting in deep, and he knows that with every day that passes, he’s going to lose more influence and put himself more at risk.”

“Agreed,” Joel said before sighing. “In the mean time, we need to find a safer location than this. It would be good if we had another Complex to go to, but he already knows where both Papa Roach’s and Good Charlotte’s are at. Those would be the first places he’d look once he found out he’d been betrayed.”

“There’s a place up in Canada that Val’s parents own,” Matt spoke, looking up before blinking as he thought about it. “It’s this small, nondescript cabin in the middle of some heavy woods in the mountains. There’s a bomb shelter in the barn from back when her grandfather built it during the Cold War. It would be a perfect place to hide everybody out, and nobody else knows about it.”

“Let’s go with that, then. It’s the best we’ve got,” Jimmy agreed with his friend before he sighed. “We’ve got to make sure there’s a doctor there though, for when your guys’ baby is born. And on top of that, we have to make sure there are enough supplies. We have to start planning this now and make the transition slowly and discreetly. There’s no doubt in my mind that he has street spies and moles in both the Canadian and American government. If we all move at once, he’s going to find out that we’re headed to Canada, and the whole plan will have been shot to hell.”

“There’s also one other thing we have to discuss here,” Jacoby cleared his throat. “I know you’re not going to like it, Zack, but we can’t just ignore it anymore.”

“Brian,” Zacky sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “What do you suggest we do? He’s our friend an ally. He’s been a part of Avenged Sevenfold since the beginning, and we’re not going to hang him out to dry without due cause.”

“He’s a risk right now, Zack. I know you don’t like it, but are you willing to put everyone’s lives at stake to coddle his depression?” Jacoby spoke softly, touching his hand to Zack’s shoulder reassuringly. “Look, I’m not saying we hang him out to dry. I’m just saying that I don’t think he should go with the rest of them up to Canada. That’s too risky. There’s got to be somewhere else we can have him go for safety.”

“He won’t like that we didn’t let him in on this in the first place,” Jimmy spoke. “If he finds out we’re not letting him fight at all, he’s going to be positively livid. He has to go to Canada. He might be depressed, but he would never put everyone at risk. Brian isn’t like that.”

“That’s what you thought about Michelle, and she burned you,” Jacoby said pointedly. “And if you remember, we thought the same about Dave before he went rogue and killed Tobin’s wife. I don’t want another tragedy happening.”

“It won’t,” Zack sighed, leaning his head back. He knew that Matt and Jimmy were going to be pissed at him for what he was about to suggest, but it was the only way he could think of to keep everyone as safe as possible. “Let’s bring him in. And he’s either one hundred percent with us or…we get rid of him.”