“Yes,” she answered, drawing the word out like she was trying to figure out why he’d ask. “He’s the janitor. Why?”
Briggs’ jaw worked as he stared holes into his phone before he managed to ask, “How long has he worked there?”
“He started, like, right after I did.”
Which was last fall . . .
Gray shifted closer to me at the information. A subtle but oh-so-telling movement that I’d caught onto so many years ago. As if he couldn’t help but instinctively take on a protective stance with me, when I’d never asked for or needed it.
But I was so caught up in my self-doubts and reprimands, that I didn’t shove him away the way I normally would. I just sat there, staring numbly at our boss as their conversation continued.
“Why?” Lainey asked, still in that hushed tone.
Briggs quickly swiped a hand over his face before dropping his palms onto the table. “Lainey, listen to me. You forgot Kaia has a doctor’s appointment, so y’all have to leave. Right now.”
The fear that crept through the phone was palpable when Lainey said, “Asher...”
“Lainey, get Kaia, and leave.”
“Tell me?—”
“When you get here, I will,” he assured her. “Just get to Shadow.”
Silence filled the space for a few seconds before Lainey thickly asked, “Not home?”
Briggs’ dark eyes drifted between every one of us before he muttered, “No. No one’s going home.”
Evans bit out a curse and reached for his phone. Concern barely peeked through his irritation as he tapped on the screen before lifting it to his ear. “Don’t go to your sister’s. Come to Shadow,” he said after a few seconds. Pinching the bridge of his nose, he seethed, “Come to Shadow,” before ending the call and narrowing a glare at Briggs. “Youdeal with her when she gets here.”
“I have you watching Wren so I don’t have to,” Briggs said unapologetically. “Now, we need pictures or descriptions of these men so we all know who to watch out for.”
Gray cleared his throat before anyone could offer what they knew, pulling everyone’s attention to him. “Is this a bad time to mention Mallory and I were drugged in Aruba?”
It had, in fact, been a bad time to mention Mallory and I had been drugged in Aruba.
Only because everyone had thought we’d known that detail all these months and had kept it to ourselves. Once we’d informed them we’d only just learned about it this morning with the return of most of Mallory’s memories, you would’ve thought another bomb had gone off in the conference room when Evans had asked,“Was it in the middle of the desk? Different from the resort’s bottles?”
Mallory had barely given a confirmation before Evans explained that Wren had launched her still-full bottle at him when he’d all but shoved her into her room the night of the wedding, telling her to stay put and give him one night of peace.
Chloe had hollowly added,“I had one too, but I was afraid to use anything from my room because I didn’t know how much it would cost.”
Briggs had ground out a strained reminder that the resort was all inclusive as he’d called Lainey again to see where she was. A call that had sent Briggs spiraling in a way we’d neverseen because Lainey and Kaia had been held up at the preschool, talking to the man she was supposed to be getting away from.
After he’d launched a chair at the wall, nearly clipping Thatch in the process, all traces of that calm intensity had exploded into fear-filled rage as he’d demanded all the information we could gather on theDavissituation.
Davis Shawsituation, to be exact. All of them.
When we’d looked into renter’s agreements and employment records, every one of them had checked out. We shouldn’t have been surprised, given what we knew from our dealings with Wreckers in the past. Files could be falsified to look flawless. Yet I think it was safe to say every one of us still was. If only because they’d managed to plant so many of them next to the women connected to us, and we’d missed it for over half a year.
I glanced at where Mallory had sat ever since the meeting, back ramrod straight, hair now pulled back in a ponytail to show the earbuds I knew wouldn’t be playing anything, as she worked at her desk. But there was something off about her fierce,don’t come near meexpression.
There had been since long before we’d left the conference room.
She was in her head, and I needed her out of it.
If it was that she’d never suspected a planted mafia member to be anything other than her overly nice neighbor, I needed her to understand all the other ‘Davises’ had slipped past the rest of our team. If it was that she’d almost put herself in a position to be alone with that same ‘Davis’ for the date that never ended up happening, I needed her to remember exactly how strong and capable of defending herself she was. If it was the pregnancy she clearly didn’t want...I wanted to fall to my knees and beg her to see differently.
“Something feels wrong about this,” Thatch mumbled as he came to lean against my desk.
