Inu turned to me, her head raising and falling in agreement.
“It was too easy. Most of the guards were passed out,” she said.
“Maybe we don’t question it and just get the fuck out of here,” Oscar said.
Inu met my gaze, waiting for the order. She wouldn’t leave Oscar here, but I had a choice to make. If Edmunds wanted me to escape, that meant I needed to think really fucking hard about why.
“Where is Rose?” I asked.
“At the Siren and the Kraken meeting with Edmunds. Val is with her,” Inu said.
That was what Edmunds spoke of when he said he’d received an invitation. Rose was in danger. I trusted Val, but Edmunds was far too clever.
“We need to go now,” I said.
“Finally,” Oscar groaned, pulling at Inu.
I made it two steps out of my cell before Billy spoke.
Trap or no trap, we both know he’s yours now.
Except what kind of life awaited a boy on a pirate ship, because if he went back on the streets, he would only ever end up back here.
Aye, I asked the same thing when I brought you, but now look at you.
I shook my head. I’d given Billy countless headaches over the years, none more than the last when I courted the noose as an eager suitor.
And I’d do it all again. Every time.
My eyes burned as I stared at the boy curled up on the poor excuse for a cot and a thin blanket. Even in his sleep, he shivered in the cold night.
“Time to go, Bash,” Oscar hissed.
“Give me the keys, Inu,” I ordered.
She said nothing as she came back and placed the keys in my outstretched hand. That was who Inu was. Quiet and resilient. Fiercer than any man I’d ever known.
“Who is he?” she asked as I unlocked the cell.
“Just a boy,” I said.
I handed her back the keys and stepped into the cell, crouching before the boy.
“Boy,” I said.
As gentle as a bull shark in a reef.
Billy’s chuckle was an echo in my mind as I shook the boy awake as gently as I could manage.
He opened his eyes and rushed to the corner of his bed, breath coming heavy as he searched for the threat. It was enough to make me consider bringing him to the rotunda and asking him who I needed to fucking kill.
“Sir?” he asked when his eyes cleared.
“We are leaving, and you are coming with us,” I said, my voice harsher than I meant it to be.
He rubbed at his eyes that boasted dark circles beneath them.
“Leaving, Sir?” he asked.
