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“You’ll never be alone again,” she says. “No matter what happens, you won’t be having or raising this baby on your own. You’ve got me, my mom. Hell, the whole of the Steel Knights ensemble is right behind you. Whoever makes it out of this hot mess is going to be there for you, you hear me?”
Tears gather and prick my eyes, and I press my lips together as I try not to cry. “I feel so alone right now, though.”
“You’re not. Get that through your head.”
“Thank you. It means a lot.”
“You’re welcome. That’s a Steel Knight baby you’re carrying,” Shiloh says. “We look out for our own. Always.”
“I think I’m going to cry.”
“Let it all out,” she says softly, smiling.
29
Kendric
“He actually held a funeral for her,” Amstaff says as he escorts us out of the main county jail building. “The audacity of that bastard. An empty casket, too.”
“The mayor is still playing his part for the Hand, then,” Sky replies.
It took Amstaff another week to get us out of this hellhole, but he did it. Even our high-priced lawyers had trouble bypassing certain arms of the law.
Our work is nowhere near over, though, and it’s killing us because we can’t see Ariana yet, as she is still officially dead to the world, holed up in that hotel room.
“Absolutely,” Amstaff says. “As far as he knows, things went according to plan that night. The Feds trained Troy and the others quickly. The cabal was told that all the targets were neutralized, and once you three were taken to jail, they cooled their heels.”
“Where are those fucking goons now?” Raylan asks.
“Oh, most of them are in custody, but we let Troy go back to the Black Hand. They were all outside contractors, anyway. Useless, as far as the cabal is concerned. Troy, on the other hand, is wired up to his teeth and feeding us intel on a daily basis,” Amstaff says, escorting us around the block and across the giant parking lot behind the jail.
At the far left corner, two black SUVs are waiting for us. For a moment, I pause, carefully eyeing both vehicles, waiting for the worst to happen. Raylan and Sky stop as well, noticing my apprehension. “Are you okay, brother?” Sky asks.
“Yeah. Who’s that?” I direct my question to Amstaff, nodding at the SUVs.
“Relax. They’re friendlies,” Amstaff replies. “One is mine. The other is Quantico. They wanted to meet with you three right away.”
We start walking again. I welcome the warm sunlight on my face. It’s close to midsummer, and the weather is perfect, dry with just enough wind to keep the temperatures from soaring.
“Is this Quantico guy trustworthy?” Raylan asks Amstaff.
“Absolutely,” the retired detective replies. “The president himself appointed him for this operation.”
“Wait, the president?” Sky mutters, giving him a confused look.
“Yeah. The big guy. You know, the one currently squatting in the White House?”
The guys and I exchange stunned glances.
Amstaff can’t help but chuckle. “I know, fellas. I was just as shocked as you.”
“Gentlemen,” a man greets us as he gets out of the second black SUV. “Pleasure to meet you. I’m Supervisory Special Agent Rupert Grey from the Quantico office.”
We shake hands and size each other up like men usually do, careful to take every detail and subtle shift in expression into consideration. There is plenty of doubt and suspicion between us. What Masterson did was beyond egregious, and this man knows it.
“Let me clear the air first by apologizing on behalf of the Bureau for what transpired with Eric Masterson,” Grey solemnly declares. “We didn’t know. We had heard about the Black Hand, but the field office in Concord had assured us that they had everything under control, that they were investigating.”
“They obviously weren’t,” I mutter.
