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“Was there something else?” I asked carefully.
“We can get you in to see him.”
I glanced at Nate, whose face was drawn and uncomfortable, only to find Dominic already checking on him. “When?”
“Tomorrow. I think it’s best if you leave Greyson where he is. Better not to draw attention to your separation if you want him to survive.”
“I’ll be fine,” Grey assured me. “Go ahead.”
Nate took a deep, cleansing breath. “We’ll be there.”
“I’ll send you the information in an hour. We’ll stay close while you’re visiting.”
“That’s fine. It’s not like he can do anything to me now.”
“Exactly.” With nothing else to say, Two-Bit nodded at all of us and disappeared out the door.
When it shut behind him, leaving my family and me alone, I pulled Nate to the couch and sat down on his lap, forcing him to be still. “Are you nervous about tomorrow?”
He wrapped his arms around me carefully, keeping me close enough to feel the frantic rush of his heartbeat. “I don’t know. I don’t want to see him.”
Dominic cleared his throat and shifted, obviously uncomfortable. “We’ll be with you the whole time. He won’t get to you.”
Nate’s smile was strained. “I’m not worried about me, but thanks.”
The three of us sat silently, watching Cash’s catastrophe filter through every news station in town.
Tomorrow, we’d go see his hero in the flesh.
Tomorrow, we were having a chat with Ace Beckstrom.
Chapter Eight
Nate
King County Correctional Facility was nothing but a massive square in the middle of Seattle. Nothing had changed since the last time I’d visited, which was before I’d left for the Army. It was the only comfort I had. Without the fenced-in yard and the armed guards patrolling it, it would have looked like every other building. Instead, citizens got a firsthand look at the inmates like they were watching a fucking zoo exhibit. I wasn’t inside, and I hated it.
No doubt, my feelings about the reason for our visit were clouding my judgment, but I knew whatever my father said was going to be awful. The deep pool of dread in my stomach told me as much.
As if she felt me waver, Mari wrapped an arm around my waist, giving me her strength. “You sure you’re ready for this?”
“No, but we have to go in.”
“He’s going to do whatever it takes to get under your skin,” she warned.
“I know.” Ace was just as bad as Cash when he wanted to be. Occasionally, worse. My brother had to learn it from somewhere.
“Don’t let him in,” Dominic said. “Keep your shit together, and I’ll take you to the gym later to work it off.”
The offer stunned me. Dominic had been better since my apology to Mari, but he still kept his distance. I knew it was because he was hurting and that his trust would take time to rebuild, but this gave me hope.
“I may take you up on that. Thanks, man.”
He didn’t answer, but I knew he understood what his support meant.
“We won’t leave you,” Mari promised.
Grey was still at the medical center, so we were one man short, but he’d texted before we’d left to check in on me. I wasn’t sure how, but these three people had become more of a family to me than the one I’d been born into—minus my mom, of course, who was apparently having a blast meeting her new friends at the facility Eagle had spirited her away to.
