The same realization I just had.
“She was protecting him,” he says. Not a question.
“All of us,” I correct. “She didn’t want any of us carrying that. Didn’t want blood on our hands that wasn’t necessary.”
Orion laughs, sharp and bitter. “She’s so fucking ours.”
“She always was,” I say. “We just didn’t know how much.”
I look at the bat one more time. Think about her swinging it like it was nothing. Like she didn’t just change the entire equation.
“We’re gonna have to be better,” I say. “All of us. Because she just showed us what she’s capable of when she decides she doesn’t need us.”
“Then we make sure she wants us,” Reid says. “Not needs. Wants.”
Orion nods slow. “She wants us. But yeah. The wanting’s not the same as the needing.”
I slip the bat under my arm, wipe my hands one final time, and head for the door.
“Come on. We got a family to tell about this. Elliot’s gonna lose his goddamn mind,” I say.
“Noah too.” Orion points at me with his chin. “It’s like the goddamn Three Musketeers. But times two.”
“You good?” Reid asks. Tone serious.
I breathe out, slow. Shaky. “Yeah,” I say. “Good.”
“Hell yeah.” Orion smirks. “Because if you die of stress, I’m stuck taking Reid to family dinner alone. Look at him. He’s brittle. He’ll break under Juliet’s bullshit in five minutes.”
“That’s rich,” Reid says.
I like the sound of them bickering.
Reid’s a good fit.
Who’d have thought a cop would slot right in.
Juliet always knows best when it comes to us strays.
For the first time since her tracker blipped, my chest doesn’t feel like it’s being wrung out by a fist.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Juliet
Vitaly drives the first few miles in silence, knuckles white on the wheel.
His jaw’s clenched.
I watch his profile.
The beautiful slope of his nose.
The bruise darkening across his cheekbone where she fucking hit him.
He hasn’t blinked in blocks.
“What you did for me,” he starts, voice rough.
