And then Tom glanced at Bryce, and the tired strain on his face turned into something so open and happy that Bryce’s whole body sang with it.
He was grinning when they were finally admitted through tall, polished walnut doors into a thickly carpeted room with sumptuous armchairs and potted plants. It was like a highly upscale version of a doctor’s waiting room, except that the people crowding it looked excited rather than sick.
“Councilor Bennett’s assistant will be with you shortly, sir,” someone in a suit said. Bryce had no idea who she was—there were so many of them, young and well-scrubbed, eager and energized.
“Interns,” Tom murmured to Bryce when he saw the direction of his gaze. “They make Tristan look apathetic.”
The door that was discreetly set into paneling at the far end of the room opened, and Matt and Jesse emerged. The frisson of excitement that went through the interns at the sight of Jesse, even in human form, was both hilarious and alarming. It seemed like Bryce wasn’t alone in feeling that way because his enhanced hearing caught Jesse’s defiant mutter. “I just got a fancy coat, for the love of God. I ain’t the second coming.”
From the shamefaced looks around the room, he wasn’t the only shifter to catch that. A bit of shuffling and retreating went on, but Bryce lost track because Matt had seen them and a smile lit his face—relief, and welcome, and happiness as he glanced between Bryce and Tom. And then he evidently recollected himself and dropped the smile, because Matt Urban didn’t show his feelings like that in public.
“That’s an interesting cologne you and Tom are modeling,” he said as he reached them. Jesse snorted at the understatement, then sneezed and backed off, looking indignant at the assault on his nostrils.
“What’s happening?” Bryce asked, just as one of the hovering interns approached Tom.
“Councilor Bennett would like to see you, Mr. Barrington,” he said, keeping a safe distance, evidently worried that the dirt on Tom might migrate to a new home if he got too close.
Tom, with a meaningful look at Bryce, followed the immaculate intern.
“Matt?” Bryce’s tone was sharp, because he had to know if Tom was going to be in trouble over this.
“He’ll be fine,” Matt said, somehow divining his concern. “Bennett has announced an investigation after hearing our story, but while ‘innocent till proven guilty’ still applies, he’s convinced enough to have detained Jax and the whole security detail while that investigation happens.”
He grinned mirthlessly. “That’s what took so long. I swear, I haveneverheard so many words spoken without any decision being made, because they couldn’t agree on who was good enough to bring Jax and his team in without a bloodbath. Which, in itself, has to tell them something about the power and freedom they’ve allowed Jax. Eventually, after lots of hand-wringing about involving non-shifters, they agreed on a SEAL team, because one just happened to be in town on a training rotation. If not for that, they’d probably still be talking.”
“Shoulda just called Karl,” Jesse said. “Would have saved all that jawing and he’s practically a SEAL team all on his own.”
True enough, though the mood that seemed to have gripped Karl lately meant Bryce wouldn’t lay money on Jax’s team surviving his attentions. Which reminded him of the person at the heart of all the killings, the one who’d ordered Tom’s cold-blooded murder. “What’s happened to Steadman?”
“Well, I couldn’t come out and name her publicly without conclusive evidence,” Matt said. “But when I mentioned that of course I wasn’taccusingJax, who’d been recommended for hisposition by no less a person than Joseph Steadman, I think they all got it. Steadman didn’t say a word, but she wasfurious. As in, if we hadn’t been in the middle of the Council chamber, she’d have shifted and fought it out to the death.”
“Where is she now?” Because if the Council hadn’t dealt with her, Bryce would. She’d tried to have Tomkilled, for fuck’s sake. She wasnotgetting away with that.
“She’s in shifter custody,” Matt said.
Bryce thought about that for a moment, and what it might mean. “Do you think they’ll deal with this themselves or put it through the courts?” Both ways held complications.
“I have no idea,” Matt said. “Though from the way Garcia was talking, he’s all for transparency and accountability and all those other words I thought only got used at election time. Maybe there’s hope for the future yet, with people like him and Tom in politics.”
Maybe there was. And maybe Bryce hadn’t thought about what would happen if Tom wanted to stay in Washington. Well, they’d work around it. Other people managed long-distance relationships, and it would be easier now Tristan had Colby, and Matt had Jesse. They didn’t need Bryce as much.
And just possibly, for the first time he could remember, Bryce no longer needed to be Matt Urban’s shadow. He’d always love Matt, but not in the way he used to. Things had changed.Brycehad changed. He just hadn’t realized it until now.
There was a sharp pang deep inside at the thought of leaving what had been his home for so long, and his family, but at the same time he knew he wouldn’t beleavingthem. He’d simply be spending a little more time away from them. Time to be with Tom.
Tom, who was shaking Bennett’s hand at the door of his office and coming to join them, his body language a whole lotmore relaxed than when he’d gone in. Bryce’s heart skipped a beat as relief made his legs unsteady.
Tom was okay. Really okay.
Bryce only realized he was smiling when Jesse nodded at him. “We gotta stage another intervention, or the two of you good now?” he asked.
“Yeah,” Bryce said, through a smile that made his cheeks ache. “I think we are.”
Chapter Thirty-two
TOM
The espresso machine hissed and spluttered like it was doing something useful, but his cup was still empty. He stared at it, waiting, his hands braced against the counter like he needed to hold the kitchen in place.
