“Does that kill some of the fun for you?”
“Nah. I get to celebrate him at all the stages. Blind isn’t bad. Prepared isn’t either. I get the joy without the worry, you know?”
I don’t, but still… I’m almost to the bottom of the stairs when he turns to me.
“Lorien seems… different,” he hedges.
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.” He slaps my shoulder and immediately recoils. “Oh, shit, was that the bad one? I didn’t think.”
“You would’ve known. But—” I tilt my head in question.
“I was going to say ‘I’m happy for you,’ but then I slapped you and I panicked.”
“Thanks, Ci.” I don’t elaborate. But he knows I mean it.
Fitz and Ren sit at the kitchen island watching Christian as he paces between it and the counter behind it. When Cian and I arrive, I place both hands on the stone, tapping my fingers in a melody with my nerves. “What is it?”
Christian stops dead in his tracks. “Did you know that Briggs Barnett and your dad are colleagues?”
My world closes in on that one data point, expanding out from the pinprick to view everything from that perspective.
“Briggs reached out not long after Ayla’s accident,” I start.
“It was no accident.” Christian’s anger is visible on his face and palpable in the air around him.
“I know.”
“We have to stop putting the blame or responsibility on her when it happenedtoher, not at her hand.”
I lift a hand toward him before pressing the air down around us. “You don’t need to advocate for her with me, Barone. We allknow our father is a piece of shit. We’re not cutting him slack or victim shaming Ayla.”
“Who referred him?” He executes a subject change with surgical precision.
I stare at my brother-in-law, studying his face. “You did. According to him. That’s why I didn’t question the recommendation.”
Christian whirls on me, finger outstretched. His face is livid, and his demeanor has gone from zero to a hundred in ferocity.
All eyes turn to me as mine settle on Ayla’s husband. “And you don’t know him.”
“I sure as fuck do not.”
“So our father…” Cian states with more calm than I have. “Do we think he planted Barnett to what… hurt you?”
My brother missed the earlier conversation. The part where millions were offered to me to eliminate some men who were unwelcome on the Durango property, but who may have been offered the same to take me out.
“Or kill me.” It’s not a question. Well, there are certainly questions surrounding this and question marks flying up from everywhere. “So today’s visit from him was less about Mom and all about verifying if I was alive or dead.”
My brother looks incredulous. “He showed up today? At your house?”
“Well, he can’t show at your place and he can’t come here.” I look around my sister and brother-in-law’s house. “And if it was about proof of life instead of Mom…”
“While you’re here and to loop Ren in, Barnett’s mom is a convicted serial killer. He was underage, but there were assertions he helped her groom and lure.”
“The fuck.” Ren looks appalled.
“And he has your address and knows about Lorien,” Cian interjects.
