“Please. Go get them,” King says.
Grudge looks unhappy but he does as King asks.
Once he’s out the door, I look back at King. “Quick. Wren told me everything. Only me. The FBI. The cartel. All of it. What do I need to know before Grudge gets back in here?”
“You’d go behind your president?”
“You asked this club to keep Wren safe. I’ve done that. I’m assuming you’d want them mentally in one piece, so I made sure they are somewhere that can happen too. I assume if you wanted me to trust them, you would trust them too. So, if they chose to confide in me, I assume you’d want me to not blurt that information to the rest of the club, even if that’s my president.”
King smiles as he shoves his dark hair back from his forehead. “Point made. But Grudge already knows that the FBI wants them. Glad to see I can trust both of you. Because he obviously never told you he knew, and you never told him that Wren told you.”
A flicker of anger sparks in my gut. “Was this all a test of our club?”
King shakes his head. “If it were, you would have passed. But this life throws too many tests our way for me to be wanting to add to the stresses. Now, I can tell all three of you what I need you to know.”
“Got what you asked for, Prez,” a voice says, and Vex comes into view on the screen. “Catfish, how’s it going?”
Just the man I wanted to see. “Can I ask for a favor? I’ll pay.”
“You can ask. Depends on what it is.”
I glance through the door opening where Grudge has interrupted Wren, who was setting up two chairs at a table Taco had just constructed. “DeWitt. North of Lansing, Michigan. Can you find out where Wren lived and who they lived with there from juvenile foster records?”
Vex raises an eyebrow. “Wren told you about their past?”
I nod. “Can you do it?”
“Does Wren know about it?”
I shake my head. “No.”
“You fixing wrongs?” King asks.
This time, I nod.
Vex looks at King, and King nods his head a fraction of an inch. Vex replies, “I’ll see what I can do. No promises. And no fee.”
“And I’ll help, if you need it,” King says.
“Thank you,” I say, just as Grudge and Wren walk through the door.
We sit, and Grudge takes back his phone and holds it so we can all see it. It’s a tight squeeze, and Wren’s thigh is pushed tight up against mine. I can feel their warmth through our denim. It feels illicit to bring this kind of energy to the room where we discuss the darkest of club business.
But when Wren reaches beneath the table to squeeze my knee, it’s all I can do to not take their hand and squeeze it right back.
They bite down on their lower lip, as if they know what they’re doing to me.
“Hey, guys,” Wren says when they see who we’re talking with.
“One sec,” Vex says, and reaches out his hand, and a woman with pretty eyes and long hair up in a thick ponytail appears. He tugs her onto his lap.
“Jesus Christ,” King mutters as Vex elbows him in the process.
“Calista!” Wren says. “Shit, this must be bad.”
“Hey,” Calista says. “No. It’s just information, at this point. It’s only bad if action is taken. Just tell Wren what it is,” she says, encouraging King to speak.
“Don’t know about your club,” King says. “But we’ve got one too many feisty old ladies who seem to think they give the orders around here.”
