“It was all fake, Willow. He—he didn’t want to mate you, or go to school, or work. He got scared. He and my parents faked his death.”
“So, why are you looking for him now, Layla? What’s changed after five years?”
“Nothing’s changed. He’s the same piece of shit he’s always been and I want retribution,” she mutters as her eyes zero in on the dinner plate in front of her. “He doesn’t get off scot-free.”
“Retribution for what?” Jackson asks.
“For selling his only sister,” she whispers. The room is so quiet you could hear a fly breathe. I can’t believe what I heard. Selling. There’s only one place to sell a person, a shifter, and that’s?—
“The Black Shifter Market.” The words drop from Felix’s mouth, and I can’t breathe. I watch Layla’s shoulders drop, and I can’t breathe. Her hair moves, covering her face, and I hear the gut-wrenching sob from Willow that breaks a piece of each of our souls.
What kind of monster are we up against?
“Faking your death is expensive and he needed money fast and the quickest way is through the BSM. Now he’s scared, and he knows the one person I care about is Willow and is using her to stop me from finding him,” she explains.
“Why is he scared of you specifically, though?” Luxe pipes up with concern.
“Because I made a promise when he traded me. I promised him I’d kill him,” she says, almost in a daze. She’s somewhere far away from this dinner table. “He knows I got out. It takes a seriously mad motherfucker to get out and survive, and I did. I killed everyone. My buyers, the collectors, everyone involved, and now he’s next. He knows I am coming to find him, or I was. Then Willow got involved, and I stopped. Her life isn’t worth my retribution. Then this Ghost guy got involved, and I’m not thatstrong, not strong enough to beat him. He’s been at this game a lot longer than I have.”
“Finding Milo will stop Ghost,” Felix murmurs, turning back to his pizza. His fingers tremble over the slice, but none of us says anything. What can we say? Sorry? Nothing we can say can save the pain in this girl. We’ll have to show her, be by her side, and protect her ourselves from now on. Words mean nothing.
“He’s hiding now. I don’t know where, but I’d say he’s probably closer than we think. He was never stupid. Selfish, controlling, manipulative, yeah, but never stupid.”
I can only imagine what’s going on in Willow’s mind. She sits frozen with one hand covering her heart, and the other on Layla’s forearm, griping far tighter than is probably necessary, but Layla doesn’t stop her. I reach out my hand, giving her shoulder a squeeze to bring her back to us. No matter what Milo has done, Willow will always be Willow. She will always be the light.
“Layla,” Willow stammers, bringing the girl into a hug. I can see Layla’s face, which holds a grimace. She probably didn’t want Willow to know. She clearly cares for Willow, and probably knew this would break her, but we needed to know. We need to know how to stop Milo. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t even, Willow. I’m the one that’s sorry.”
“No one here needs to be sorry. Milo does, and Ghost too,” Luxe says. Her concern turns to anger as she sits back in her chair, fuming.
“We’ll get them,” Jackson says.
“We know Ghost is watching Layla at work, so that’s where we’ll get him, then we’ll get Milo. Layla, what days does he watch you?”
“He’ll be there next Tuesday. He never shows up on the first or last days of the week,” Layla says.
“We’ll get him then,” Jackson says, pushing his plate away from him.
“He’s intense,” Layla murmurs with a small laugh, as if to lighten the mood. Willow shortly laughs with her, bringing a smile to everyone’s face.
“Eddie, when is the big day for your presentation at work? It’s been assigned, right?” Felix asks after he gets back from grabbing his fourth slice. We’re all shaky, and it’s hard to focus, but I can appreciate the attempt at some sort of normalcy.
The nerves build rapidly, and my hands become clammy. I am nervous as shit. I’ve been working on the presentation at work and letting Willow distract me when I’m not in the office. “It’s tomorrow.”
I’ve been waiting for this opportunity all my life, and it’s finally here. I’m ready, confident even, but I also might vomit at the mention of my big day. It feels final or complete already, but this is only the first step. My project is getting its first real chance, and I should be more excited. The heat house prototype in our backyard is coming along great. I had hoped that Flora or my mom could have tested it before my presentation, but mother nature didn’t work on my time schedule. She purely did whatever the hell she wanted.
“You ready?” Jackson asks.
“As ready as I can be,” I say before completely turning to Leo, who sits across from me. “How’s that song coming along?” He was a producer and lyricist for tons of artists, and he loves the behind-the-scenes of making music.
“It’s missing something. I haven’t figured it out.” Leo shrugs it off. His black hair is long in the front but swept to the side a bit, and he keeps light facial hair. He is a homebody with a lean figure. Lucky son of a bitch. He was more similar to me in the sense of our careers being somewhat lax compared to thecareers of Dylan, Felix, or even Jackson, who is the CEO of a construction company.
Relief showers over me as the conversation moves to Leo and his latest work. The tension in the room lessens but never disappears. Willow run her hand up and down my thigh, and I can breathe easier. I didn’t want to speak too much or get my hopes up about my project. I want everything to go smoothly, and I want my project to receive the utmost support, and there I go getting my hopes up. Willow’s eyes peer into the side of my head, and, just this once, I’m having a hard time meeting her eyes. I do though. Her warm brown eyes soak mine in, and it’s in moments like this that I forget she’s not mine. She smiles, and my heart does that fluttering thing, and it makes the world right.
Goddess, letting her go is going to be fucking painful.
18
