My confession seemed to blow everyone back in their seats.
Surprise raining down.
Yeah, I cared about my crew. All of them. In my own way. But I sure as fuck never uttered it aloud.
I gnashed my teeth. “And in order to give her what she needs, I need to play a part, and that begins tomorrow. So whatever you’re thinking beyond the plan, just fuckin’ let it go. Tell the girls to make them feel welcome, but not to get attached. This is temporary.”
Blowing out a heavy sigh, Otto reached out and squeezed my shoulder with his giant mitt. His expression turned serious. “Hey, man, know what you’re like, and I can’t help if this makes me excited. All of us want you to be happy. You’ve been alone for a long fucking time.”
Happy wasn’t in the cards for me.
“Just need you all to know where I stand, and I need to know you have my back when the time comes.”
“You’ve stood for us time and again,” River said. “You can be sure we’re going to be there for you.”
The rest agreed without qualms.
“Good,” was all I said.
“So that’s it then?” River raised a dark brow.
“Yup.” It came out hard.
He inhaled through his nose, then pressed on to more Sovereign business. Checking in about the two families I was currently surveilling, trying to figure out the best way to get them out of their inhumane situations and under our protection.
I gave them every detail I had, letting them know I should have a plan put in place within the week.
“Good,” River said. “And any movement on the situation with Silas and his sister?”
Disquiet rolled through everyone. Last thing we needed was to get on Kent Ellison’s hit list.
But we’d do it if it meant Elena was safe.
“Silas hasn’t heard a thing,” I said.
It didn’t sit right with me. Clearly, it didn’t sit right with my brothers, either.
“Silas’s sister isn’t going to just up and disappear from his compound without Kent noticing,” Otto said.
“And his guard clearly didn’t get gutted by falling on his own knife.” Theo gave me a pointed look, reminding us of my handiwork.
“Pretty sure a couple of his guys were in the club last night. Something about them raised a red flag,” Kane added.
“Fuck,” I grunted.
“They know we were involved?” Theo asked.
I inhaled a shaky breath. “I haven’t picked anything up on surveillance that says they do, but I don’t have a full tap on what’s going down inside that compound.”
River gave us all a jut of his chin. “Then we be extra vigilant.”
Kane laughed. “As if we don’t sleep with one eye open.”
River grinned something that was pure menace. Dude so fucking intimidating it was a wonder anyone would ever even look at him wrong. “Tonight, we sleep with two.”
Kane chuckled, then River glanced around once again. “Any other business we need to discuss?”
Everyone shook their heads.
