Einstein gave him a condescending look. “You’re adorable. Once you get over what happened with Daddy Dearest, you’ll see.”
Thatch’s arm shot out and blocked Evans just as he rocked forward.
Briggs exhaled roughly and dragged a hand over his face. “I need to talk with my team.” When Einstein snorted at the last word, Briggs shot a dark look her way. “Give us time. Yeah?”
Einstein briefly flashed her tablet toward Kieran before turning it to face the rest of us. “Well, the rest of ourteamjust pulled up. So, we’ll just go tell them that we might’ve driven all this way for nothing.”
“Those are my camera feeds,” Briggs breathed when she started for the entryway, the twins trailing behind, sounding equally stunned and infuriated.
“Thought you learned last time that you can’t keep her out of anywhere,” Kieran said as he took a step in the same direction. With an assessing look in Evans’ direction, he met Briggs’ stare again. “Talk to your team, but know that you need us. We can do whatever needs to be done to protect people because boundaries don’t exist for us. However, they will use your boundaries against you.”
Briggs didn’t respond in any way as Kieran left.
The rest of us just waited for long minutes before Briggs finally glanced to the side and said, “Evans?—”
“Just let me kill him,” Evans ground out in a calm that seemed to shock all of us. “Let me kill that twin, then we can do whatever you decide.”
Thatch shared a stunned look with Briggs, then dipped his head as he started forcing Evans toward the kitchen, most likely to calm him down.
“I already know how Thatch feels about it from last time,” Briggs muttered once they were gone. “He doesn’t like it, but he knows they’re useful.” When he didn’t continue, I realized he was waiting for our input.
Something he usually didn’t ask for.
Then again, he usually went over everything with Rush in closed-door meetings before finally making his decisions, and we still didn’t know where Rush was.
“Are you asking us how we feel about them being here, or joining their family?” I asked, and let my mouth slant into a smirk at Briggs’ sharp glare.
“We aren’t joining their family. We aren’t mafia.”
I curled Mallory close to my side, and felt my pulse quicken when she easily went there, as if she’d beenwaitingto be there. “I don’t know, Briggs,” I said with a lift of my shoulder. “Kinda seems like we’re getting close with all this help we’re accepting from them.”
His eyes rolled at the gentle tease, but he just looked at Mallory in question.
Mallory, who’d been surprisingly silent nearly the entire time. Then again, the hand that had been wrapped up in mine had tensed and twitched every minute, as if that panic she’d been drowning in for days had been in overdrive, and it’d taken all her focus to keep her hands from reaching for her stomach in front of our ARCK friends.
“Why are you looking at me?” she finally asked, as if just realizing Briggs was waiting on her. “I’ve never actually gotten a vote, but if I do, you already know what mine is.”
Briggs’ quick sigh said he did.
Mallory wasn’t afraid to jump into a fight where the odds were stacked against us. Ten-to-one fight? She’d try to hide her excitement behind that icy exterior, all while the energy buzzing from her gave her away.
Still, if it evened out the playing field, Mallory was for it.
“And Evans?” he asked.
“That was unexpected,” I admitted, “even to Thatch. We’ll just need to keep him away from the twins until he has time to calm down and get used to the idea.”
Briggs folded his arms over his chest as he warred over what to do before finally admitting, “It’ll help with Rush being...” He tossed a hand to the side before crossing it again. “And with Monroe?—”
“Don’t,” she said in warning, then blew out a resigned breath. “I already know. Just...don’t say it.”
I reached for her when she slipped away from me and turned for the hallway without another word.
Every part of me wanted to follow her. I even took a step in that direction before a dozen years of taking orders from Briggs had me rocking back and gritting my teeth to see him watching her go with a furrowed brow.
After a moment, he seemed to sag and unfolded his arms to drag his hands over his face in an uncharacteristic display of apprehension. His arms fell heavily before he drew back his shoulders and fixed his expression into that furrowed scowl.
It was like watching Mallory slip her shields into place.
