I sank farther back on his lap. Both of my hands went to his chest and began toying with the bottom of his shirt. “Wait. When did you find out?”
“I have an inside man with them. He was going to notify me, but the alarms went off. You’d already escaped. He ran interference, tried to help give you time to get away. Did they hurt you?”
That explained a lot. I shook my head. “They looked like they wanted to. Walden’s unhinged.”
He made a noncommittal sound, his mouth pressing in a flat line. “He deserved everything he got.”
That attitude wasn’t going to bring this war to an end. He was going to keep it going, and going, and going. “Creighton, if I’m going to make a decision about you and me”—my heart was suddenly trying to pound its way out of my own chest—“then I need to be read in on everything. Changes and compromises have to be made. Do you agree? I mean, if you do want a you and me thing, that is. Do you want that?”
Gah. I was doing this backward. People in real life hooked up, hooked up again and again, and after it was a pattern, they talked about maybe getting into a “thing” together. Creight and I hooked up once and boom, he was handcuffed to my bed and I was making him have the talk.
I had out-stalked my stalker. Mic drop.
He didn’t respond, staring at me with his default setting. His dead eyes.
“If I’m staying here and if you’re going to continue to be a part of this war, they’re going to come after me again.” I skipped over the other question. Because, embarrassing.
His eyes shifted, still not showing any emotion. “They took you from Octavia. In doing that, they included a whole other Mafia organization into this fight, but maybe that was the plan. I can’t make a move against them until I know what decision Cole Mauricio has made concerning repercussions.”
I was trying to catch up. “No. Wait. There was a guy. I forgot about him. I was leaving work when I saw Walden with the guy. That’s when they took me. Maybe ...”
“What guy?”
“A guy.” I shrugged, relaying everything I remembered about the incident.
Creighton had gone still beneath me. “He handed him a thick envelope?”
I nodded. “He said that I wasn’t supposed to be there.”
“Walden said that?”
“I thought he meant because of Octavia. Because of the owner.” I was suddenly terrified to ask. “Is Cole Mauricio powerful?”
“Yes.”
My heart sank. “How powerful?”
“He runs Chicago. With Carter Reed, they run half of the Twin Cities too.”
“That’s in Minnesota?”
“Yes. Minneapolis and St. Paul.”
My chest tightened again. “Who runs the other half?”
“Kai Bennett. They have a tentative truce.”
My mouth dried. I didn’t understand that part. “And how powerful is Kai Bennett?”
“He runs half the country.”
“Oh.”
“And Canada.”
My heart dropped. “So he’s scary.”
“If I were to experience that feeling, yes.” He was answering all of the questions with those same bland responses that were his default setting.
