“And after?” I asked, voice strained. At the questioning tilt of his head, I clarified, “After...this.” I waved my hand over my stomach and forced my hand back to my side when I nearly reached for it. “Will you still keep me from certain parts of it? Will it bemewho has to sacrifice the dangerous parts of the job because we have a child?”
Affection and amusement swirled in his eyes as he studied the warning and challenge in my own. “I’ve always known who you were, Mallory. I’ve never thought you were the kind of woman who could be kept at home, and I wouldn’t dream of trying to.” He reached out, crossing the small space between us, to brush his knuckles across my stomach. “I’m just asking that, while you’recarryingour child, you’ll be careful. And that you try to understand why, after losing you, Iwantto keep you from the danger.”
Drawing in a breath that wasn’t nearly as steady as I wanted it to be, I turned for the door and mumbled, “I’ll consider it,” and knew from the grateful sound he breathed out, he knew I would do more than that.
Grasping my hips in his large hands, he pressed a quick but firm kiss to the back of my head as I opened the bathroom door?—
And came to an abrupt stop when we found Briggs standing in the hall, arms folded across his chest, looking more irritated than usual—but that was probably because of Rush—and glaring at the two of us.
“You forget how quickly y’all start yelling,” he ground out before focusing on Gray. “Thatch and Evans figured out there’s some sort of plan to start working again if you’re trying to keep Monroe from it. They’re waiting to be informed.”
He left without another word, but it was clear he expected us to follow him.
Still, I slowed as I let Gray slip around me and ease his hand into mine. “How am I going to feel about this plan?” I asked under my breath, already sure I knew the answer, given the way he’d faltered earlier and had more-or-less admitted that he hadn’t wanted me to know.
Gray’s face did that irritatingly attractive thing where one half of it scrunched up as he thought of the best way to respond. If I hadn’t already known I wasn’t going to like the plan before, his expression then would’ve told me all I needed to.
“Let’s just say I’m glad you can’t punch me,” he finally muttered and gripped my hand tighter when I started drawing mine away, as if I intended to do exactly that before knowing the plan—regardless of the doctor’s orders. His mouth twitched into one of those wicked smirks as he looked at me. “It isn’t a set plan, Peach. Just an idea we had.”
“And I vote no.”
A laugh burst from him. “You don’t even know what it is.”
“I don’t need to,” I said easily. “You’ve already let me know in so many ways that I’m going to hate it, sono.”
Using our joined hands, he lightly brushed along my stomach in a way I was increasingly becoming addicted to, even though I absolutely knew he was trying to use what he was doing, and the baby, to sway my vote. “Wait until you hear it, then tell meno.”
Mallory had votedno. Multiple times.
She’d even swung at me and given me a look like I’d betrayed her when I’d tried getting her to understand.
All the women had agreed with her. The men had been for it because it seemed like the best move for us going forward.
We’d taken care of theDavisissue, sure, but that still left the new, blended mafia family and their club. It still left the Wreckers, who were undoubtedly behind everything, especially if this had been happening since Briggs had the firewall reinforced not long after they’d originally hacked into it. It still left Tessa.
We all agreed she’d been trying to warn me about the Davises, but we also all agreed her warning wouldn’t have come if I hadn’t been mixed up in it. Besides, she was a mafia princess who most likely knew about the trafficking, and she hadn’t tried to stop any of that, so we weren’t banking on her being on our side.
Briggs was also sure the Wreckers would be waiting for us to get the girls away from the Dallas area, like we’d done last fall. But going on the defensive wasn’t in our nature, it was justwhat we’d done to keep the women and Kaia safe. Now that we knew the Wreckers had gotten to us in Aruba and could get to us anywhere, there wasn’t a point in attempting anything like that again.
That didn’t mean leaving the girls vulnerable was something we were willing to do.
So, we’d stay here and return to our lives as usual as we waited for Wrecker retaliation, but the girls were getting shadows in the form of a few ex-Navy SEAL buddies.
Mallory had flat-out refused.
Not that we’d ever intended on having a shadow for her, but she hadn’t let us get that far in the explanation. As soon as Briggs had gotten that part of the plan out, she’d thrown that look of betrayal my way and stubbornly claimed she wasn’t the kind of person who needed to be kept safe or babysat.
“No offense,”she’d said to the other girls.
Wren was the only one who had scoffed. Chloe and Lainey had been in positions where they’d needed to be kept safe, so they hadn’t so much as flinched. However, Lainey had said the thought ofsome random guyshadowing her every move at home made her uncomfortable, and she’d doubted the school would be okay with it either. Chloe had added that she couldn’t understand why she needed a shadow when she’d be surrounded by shadows all day anyway, while pointing at the rest of us meaningfully.
Their refusals had turned adamant and slightly enraged when Briggs had muttered,“I’m still not sure if it’s best if y’all go back to work until we have a better understanding of what the Wreckers and this new family will do.”
Wren had then asked if her shadow could at least be cute, which had led to Evans biting out a curse and informing us,“There’s no point. She’ll just slip away from him the first chance she gets.”
Needless to say, it hadn’t gone over well, especially when Briggs had ended the conversation with,“I’ll do what I need to for y’alls safety.”
“How long are you gonna be mad?” I asked late that afternoon as I crawled onto the bed Mallory and I had been sharing ever since we’d all started crashing at Briggs’ place.
