“Ezra, Mayhem is right. This isn’t your fault. You hired him to do a job. The fact he was also working for your father is just another strike against him. Not you.” Pretty Boy laid it out like it was fact. “Betrayal sucks. We’ve all faced it on some level. The problem is solved, for the moment. If you really need to beat yourself up for it, we can do that, but it won’t help you or Mayhem right now.”
“You can take a raincheck with Reed,” Bodhi offered and if I hadn’t been watching him, I might have missed that hint of a smile. “I agree with Milo and Lainey. The betrayal was not yours.”
The trouble frown he’d worn through the whole meal eased, but it didn’t go away. “I hate… I hate that my father took advantage of me protecting you to put you in more danger.”
Not shying away from it, I nodded. “I hate that your father does anything to you at all.” I didn’t have to focus on Adam to see his hand clench or the muscle ticking in his cheek. Wallace Graham needed to go.
Sooner rather than later.
As long as he was out there, Ezra was in danger. As for his mother, Dinah, I would make that decision when we got there.
“Right… “ Ezra sighed again. “I’ll stop. What did Em have for us?”
He wasn’t ready to let this go. He may not ever be ready to but he was making an effort. I wouldn’t ask for more. Not yet.
“She has a plan…” Pretty Boy began and I could already tell, he wasn’t a fan. Two sentences in and I got it exactly.
Em knew a lot of people. Sometimes, it was easy to forget that she had traveled the world with her performances. That some of those places included sleazy types that dealt with human trafficking shouldn’t have surprised me.
“We won’t let anything happen to her. Though I don’t doubt the Vandals will be right there if anything tries to happen to her.” It wouldn’t be happenstance. It would be deliberate. But Milo nodded, he did understand, though he would never like it.
“Then we need to make our plans. The memorial service has to be observed.” Despite what I’d said on my way in to see Tally… “We need to deal with Graham and King before we go too.”
I didn’t want to leave a single dagger behind to knife us in the back.
“Do you want to talk about Tally?” Adam asked, and I would give him points for the rough sympathy there. Of everyone here, he and Em were probably the only two who really understood how much that friendship had meant to me…
“She didn’t know,” I said. “While I don’t agree with her willful blindness or letting her sexual obsession…” I grimaced because thinking of King in any sexual situation, much less with Tally, was not an image I wanted in my mind. “I believe her when she says she didn’t know about the connections. She believes everything about who Julius King is supposed to be.”
“Which means she could be in for a world of hurt if Jeff Hardigan has to deal with her.” Milo shook his head. “Will she warn him?”
I’d been asking myself that question since I left her. “I don’t think so, but we’ll handle it if she does. She doesn’t know enough of our current plans to sabotage us and what she betrayed already… “ I shrugged. “That’s done.”
Milo pressed a kiss to my shoulder and then wrapped an arm around me. “I’m sorry, Mayhem.”
The silence ballooned around us, because what else was there to say. Bodhi had already offered to deal with her for me, but I’d declined the offer. I didn’t want to kill her. I might never trust her again and I would mourn the loss of that friendship…
But I didn’t want to see her dead.
“We could always make arrangements to relocate her for the next few months so that she’s safe while we deal with things,” Bodhi said and I summoned a smile for him.
“No,” I said with another slow shake of my head. “She’s an adult. I wouldn’t thank you for removing me from a situation, I won’t do it to her. I gave her enough information to remove herself.”
One by one they nodded.
“Do we really think Andrea is still okay?” Every moment we delayed leaving made me sick. I wanted to be there already. But we were still going in blind and we weren’t doing nothing.
“We’re going to find her,” Adam said. “No matter what else happens, we will find her and we will make this right.”
That didn’t mean she was okay now.
It meant she would be.
She had to be.
Chapter
Six
ADAM
It was early morning and I hadn’t slept yet. It should have surprised me more when Milo invited himself along when I came down the stairs. The man even had coffee ready. Probably should have asked him what gave me away, but I doubted he’d gotten any more sleep than I had.
Lainey had gone up with Ezra after dinner and I spent most of the night sitting in the chair in the corner of the room watching them both sleep. She’d tried to coax me into the bed with them but I wasn’t ready to relax yet. I didn’t think I would be ready to relax for a really long time.
I already had my phone and my keys out. “Do I need to send a message to Bodhi?” I wouldn’t wake up Lainey or Ezra. There was a note in the room for them.
“He knows,” Milo said as he opened the front door. “He was the one who reminded me we pulled you back early.”
Nodding, I led the way and called the elevator. It was kind of funny how much Hardigan had changed since moving to the city. Then again, it was for Lainey so clearly worth it.
The custom suits were cut more for comfort and versatility than flash. Better for his personality and allowed him to carry concealed. The elevator dinged open and he followed me inside. I’d been planning to talk to Liam the day before but the revelation about Karagiani had definitely taken precedence.
Taking Milo with me wasn’t the irritation it probably would have been even a few months ago. Hell, even a few weeks ago I’d have been more inclined to just dropping him at Grand Central and being on my way.
Silence accompanied us to the garage and my car. He dropped into the passenger seat, and didn’t even ask where we were going. Probably wanted to see his sister or maybe he had shit to talk to Liam about too.
