Page 22 of Consume Me

“I hope that’s okay,” he added quickly, misreading my silence.

I pulled my brother into a tight hug. I didn’t have to do all of this. I had people I could trust, even when I was missing the ones closest to me. “Thank you.”

“I’ve got this,” he promised. “You worry about her.”

“Mary’s doctors want to speak to her,” I reminded him.

“Bed rest,” he said again. “The baby is the most important thing.”

“Henry isn’t going to like that.”

“Henry can deal.” Edward slid his glasses back on and gave me a pointed look.

“You should check on Sarah.” One of us needed to.

“I already did. She’s holed up in her apartment. She blames herself, you know.”

That made two of us. It was why I hadn’t visited her.

“She should be reminded that it isn’t,” Edward pushed.

“I’ll talk to her,” I promised, “later.”

“And you should see your daughter,” Edward added softly. “She’s asking for you.”

“I will. I just—”

“She’s asking for Clara,” he cut me off, his Adam’s apple sliding on this revelation.“She doesn’t understand.”

“What am I going to tell her?” I asked him, knowing there was no good answer for her. For any of us.

“That you love her,” Edward suggested. “She may want her mother, but she needs her father.”

I thought about this for a moment. He was right. I’d been avoiding Elizabeth for a lot of reasons. They all led back to the same harsh reality: I’d failed her as much as I’d failed Clara.

“Belle’s taken over for Penny. Less questions,” Edward informed me.

And someone we both trusted. “Good.”

“Do I want to know where you’re going?” Edward eyed Smith, who was studiously staying out of earshot.

“No.”

He clapped a hand on my shoulder, one last sign of solidarity. Then heaved a sigh. I hated putting him in this position. Edward had always been the fun one, the charismatic one. Now he’d been saddled with holding up the family in the public eye. I reminded myself that if it was true—if Clara was on bed rest—he would have done the same. He would have stepped up. Because that’s what family did for each other.

“We need to step in the war room,” Smith said when I finally rejoined him. “Make sure we’re on the same page.”

Smith had persuaded me to tell the others about MI-18, a decision that rested heavily on me. I didn’t know enough about the black ops department to know what would happen if we found them. Norris had warned me never to speak of the organisation leaving little room for interpretation about the possible consequences. Consequences I was choosing to ignore now. Without Norris here, I didn’t have any other choices.

When we reached the meeting room, photographs lined the bulletin board on the far side of the room. Brex had been busy.

“What’s this?” I asked.

He shrugged, giving me a tired grin that didn’t reach his brown eyes. “You asked me to track down a covert government agency.”

“And you found them?” None of the photos looked like people who would belong to a black ops unit.

“It’s important to remember that covert agencies don’t function with super spies alone,” Georgia said dryly.