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Taking her word as law, Mom reeled me in for a hug that felt more like goodbye than I wanted it to. “I’m proud of you. For everything. It hasn’t been easy, but it seems like it was worth it.”
“Thanks, Mom. It is.”
“It’s time,” Eagle said, quiet but firm. “We need to get out of here before anyone realizes what we’ve done.”
Four trucks had been backed up to the building, each one identical. Three of them were already filled with agents, and the fourth stood open, waiting for my mother.
“I’ll see you soon,” I promised.
“I think I’ll like a change of scenery,” she whispered as her nurse took her arm and helped her to the vehicle. She smiled sadly, her eyes starting to go distant as the door shut behind them, punctuating what I hoped wasn’t the end of our story.
I would see her again. I would be a better son. I just had to get through Cash first.
Eagle stood beside me, and the three of us watched as the trucks pulled out. Each one was bookended by two SUVs full of enough security to take down a small army.
“I’ll leave you two to talk,” Mari said, quietly slipping away. I watched until she was locked inside our vehicle, needing to know she was somewhere protected if she wasn’t within reach.
“Your mom will be safe,” Eagle promised, but I wouldn’t have called if I didn’t think he was capable of that.
When the trucks vanished, each one heading in a different direction, he cleared his throat. “I was told to offer whatever assistance I could. Weapons, intel, bodies. You let me know.”
The offer was genuine, but it had enough strings to hang me with if I let it.
Eagle walked me toward the SUV, stopping before I got in. “If I can offer you a shred of advice? Avoid using the company’s resources if at all possible. I’ll help on my own as much as I can, but if you want to stay out, they should be a last resort. The price you’d have to pay for help this time would be too much for anyone.”
I looked at Mari, head dipped to text something on her phone, and I knew he was right. The company didn’t care about any allegiance but the one I had to them. They’d rip my family away if I let them.
I wanted Mari, my brothers, and the family we’d built, not a life of missions and death and surviving without actually living.
“I’m going to try not to,” I said. “But I’ll do whatever it takes to keep my family alive.”
“Even if it means going back to the life you tried so hard to get out of?”
“Even then.”
Chapter Three
Mari
“Are you sure you’re going to be okay?” All three men were at the door to the hospital suite, watching me. Greyson needed to take a break and get out of the room but was refusing a wheelchair, so Dominic had agreed to be his leaning post. They could’ve gone alone if we were at Seattle Gen, where we had a whole floor blocked off to ourselves, but we weren’t. So, Nate was waffling between going with them as a bodyguard and staying with me for the same reason.
“I’ll be fine. I’ve got to make a call.”
All three of them winced.
I’d taken a week to sit with Two-Bit’s news, to let it sink in. Our recovery took precedence anyway, but the information was always in the back of my mind. It wasn’t learning about another cousin that bothered me; it was the fact that he’d been hiding under my nose the whole time.
A fucking Fed to boot. Christ, I’d never live it down.
Nate walked over, tipped my chin up, and kissed me softly before pulling back. “Do you want me to stay? I don’t mind, even if it’s just for moral support.” His face was so open now that he’d told us everything. Things weren’t perfect and they wouldn’t be for a long time, but I was just happy he seemed to have less on his shoulders.
“No, go with them. I’ll be fine.” I tapped the gun lying next to me on the bed, but I refused to get snarky. This was the first time we’d been separated since Grey’s surgery, and it made all of us antsy.
Nate moved away, just for Grey and Dominic to take his place. I stood, making it easier for Greyson to dip down and kiss me too. “Be careful.”
“You too.”
As soon as Greyson had his kiss, Dominic passed Grey over to Nate and hauled me into his body. “You’ll stay in here with the door locked until we come back. Do not open it for anyone but us. I don’t care what they say. You wait until we get here. Got it?”
