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“You have no allegiance to them anymore?”
“No.” I said it firmly, watching the entire time. The slight hitch of her shoulders that told me she was happy, but there was no other acknowledgment. Not from her, anyway.
Dominic leaned forward, food forgotten. “You’re a big shot in the Aces. Your brother’s the fucking leader. Why change your position when you could be set for life if he wins?”
“Because you’re my family.”
He snorted, turning away and taking a vicious bite out of his sandwich, and the ache in my chest grew stronger. What did it say that I missed the asshole who’d been my friend?
“What can you tell us?” Grey asked, and I found it easier to talk past the ingrained fear of Cash than I expected.
I gave them everything. Every location, every warehouse, every dealer on the street. Conversations I’d overheard and plans I thought my brother was making. Cash’s addiction and how bad it was, his tasting process before he took anything, the way he skipped certain foods because they made him uncomfortable. Eventually, we moved on to the Aces that I’d found skimming, the ones that I knew weren’t loyal enough, and the ones that I knew could be turned if possible.
By the end, I’d laid everything Cash-related at their feet, and it felt so fucking good to be free of that burden too.
“Where do the shipments come in?” Mari asked, having long since abandoned her food to pace. “There’s no way Micah would let them in the port.”
Grey looked up from the tablet he’d had in his jacket at the wake, which had luckily survived the ambush, waiting for my response. It felt good to be able to ease their anxiety for once.
“He doesn’t,” I promised, shifting to reach into the pocket of my jacket hanging on the back of my chair.
Dominic looked like he’d jump out of his chair and tackle me. “What are you getting?”
“Proof.”
Pulling out the phones I’d stuffed into my pocket the night of the funeral, I set them all in a line, listing as I went. “This is a clone of Cash’s phone. My original phone from when I lived here. Then the phone that replaced it. This one tracks some of his most-used cars, which he uses for shipments, with a backup, in case I ever lost the first one. The last is for past contacts.”
Mari stared at them inscrutably, opting not to ask about the final one. It showed more trust than she knew, and I appreciated it. “Are any of those traceable?”
“No, they’re all ghosts. Cash didn’t even know I had more than one.”
“How can we trust you with that shit?” Dominic eyed the phones like they were all bombs.
“You’re welcome to take a look at them if you want,” I said, sliding them across the table. “I have nothing to hide.”
“Not anymore, you mean.”
“Dominic,” Mari warned quietly before turning back to me. “Where are the shipments coming in?”
“Tacoma.” It was the only place less than an hour away from Mari’s port that wasn’t run by one of her allies.
Grey frowned. “That’s not as easy to get into.”
No shit. I’d put more bodies in the ground than I’d expected to get Cash a slot at that place. “He needed someplace you wouldn’t look.”
“What else?”
Thinking back on everything I’d said, I realized there was still more—though I was sure there would always be more—but I hesitated. They knew the moles Cash had placed in the other leaders’ empires, but I hadn’t told them about the one in ours. Mari was already so fragile, so hurt. I didn’t want to make it worse, but it wasn’t my decision.
“You have a mole too.”
All three of them tensed, and when it was obvious Mari wouldn’t, Grey asked, “How high up?”
“High.” There was no mistaking the desperation on my angel’s face. She didn’t want to know this, not right now. Her fingers shook where she clutched her shirt. “Are they a danger right this second?”
Not wanting to lie, even inadvertently, I took time to consider it. Did I think the traitor in her midst would move against her right now? No, but soon. Very soon. “You have a little time.”
“Then let’s table it.” I could see how much she couldn’t deal, so I agreed. When she was ready, I’d tell her, and we’d hunt them down together. “Was that it?”
