I stop Ashton with a look. He’s been in a mood all day, sulking around the house, snapping at everyone. He glowers at me but shuts up. “Did he give you any other information?” I ask Sebastian. “Anything that would confirm that it’s really Dante we’re dealing with?”
He hesitates. “Unfortunately,” he says, choosing his words carefully. “He was…indisposed, soon after we extracted that piece of information.”
Viper, lounging sideways in his chair, laughs like a hyena.
“Aren’t you supposed to keep him in check, Doc?” Ashton asks, curling his lip. “Aren’t you down there to stop him from taking shit too far?”
“Yeah, Doc,” Viper coos, grinning from ear to ear. “Aren’t you?”
Sebastian doesn’t answer, but a muscle in his eye twitches.
Christ.
Sometimes I think Viper might not be the only one who needs to be kept in check.
“We’re getting off topic.” Sebastian doesn’t look at any of us as he says it. “The fact is, we don’t have any real evidence Dante survived.”
“Even if it’s not him,someoneis sniffing around our Sydney.” I tap my finger on the surface of my desk. “Why?”
“Easy,” Sebastian answers. “Because of you. Because of us.”
Ashton’s leg bounces with nervous energy as Sebastian continues. “Right now, someone thinks they can get to us by getting toher.”
And they’re right.
Dante or not, that’s what matters here.
“We should bring her to the compound,” Ashton says quickly. “That’s the safest place for her, right? We can protect her here. Keep an eye on her.”
“Two problems with that.” Sebastian raises a single finger—his middle—at Ashton. “One, the second we do that, we confirm to anyone watching that they were rightto target her. It will only make them double down, not back off. We’d have to keep her under watch 24/7. And two.” He raises his index finger. “Do you really think she’d agree to that? She won’t set foot in this house right now. Not with us. She wants nothing to do with us.”
“And whose fault is that?” Ashton says, glaring at his brother.
“What do you mean it would make them double down?” I press.
Sebastian adjusts his glasses before continuing. “If someone can gather intel on Sydney and leave without us interfering, it tells them one of two things. Either our position here is so weak that we can’t sense a shark in our waters, or Sydney means so little to us that we wouldn’t bother keeping the sharks away from her. Either way, they back off. But the second we move in, the second we protect her—he’ll know we care. And that gives him all the power.”
Fucking great.
“But we can’t… We can’t just leave her unprotected,” Ashton insists, an edge of panic in his voice.
“We won’t.” I drum my fingers on my desk.
Never. I’ll never leave her unprotected, never leave her side. Even if she hates me for it.
“Since she won’t allow any of us near her at the moment, she needs better protection. Without alerting anyone to it,” I tell Sebastian. “Real protection. A lot more than you leering at her from the bushes, Doc.”
Sebastian shifts his shoulders back, almost imperceptibly, and his eyes dart away from mine.
“You have been keeping an eye on her, haven’t you?” I ask, eyes narrowing.
A hesitation, and just a flicker of something in those cold blue eyes. Then, “No.”
“You have got to be fucking kidding me,” Ashton spits. “We’re finally in a situation where your fucking…proclivitiesmight be helpful to us, and you’re not even watching her?”
“Big word for Elmo,” Sebastian counters, cutting a sharp glance at him. When he looks back at me, he continues. “She asked for space. From all of us. She deserves to have that respected. So, no. I haven’t been watching her. Unlike you, I’ve left her alone.”
I slam my fist down on my desk.
