Raiden winced, then turned his head away. Declan was right. He was to blame. He’d kept things secret from Declan because of what—pride? But little did he know, the whole time they could have been helping. They could have prevented things from going as far as it did. “Fuck,” he cursed, too ashamed to look up at Declan and Seb. “It’s my fault.”
“Hey,” Seb said gently. “You made a mistake. But don’t blame yourself for the fact that Lawrence is missing. Reed and his men are nasty, and they tricked me and Declan more than once.”
“It’s true,” Declan agreed with a grunt. “I even worked for the asshole for a minute, and I still didn’t figure him out. But that doesn’t mean you’re in the clear, Raiden.”
“I get it,” Raiden answered, his shoulders slumping. He was used to being a fuckup, and he knew there were consequences. “I’m fired, I know. Just, please, you have to help me find Lawrence.” His voice tightened, and he finally looked between the men. “Please,” he repeated. “I don’t know how to do it on my own.”
Declan sighed. “You’re not fired, Raiden. You’re family to Gray, and that means you’re family to me and Seb, too.”
“And we don’t get rid of family,” Seb added.
Raiden felt a lump in his throat, but he pushed the bubbling emotions down. Hearing that meant something special to him, but he couldn’t allow himself that pleasure. Not now, not when Lawrence wasn’t safe yet. “So what?” he said. “What do I need to do?”
Declan grunted, then grabbed the coffee pot from the machine. “You need to tell us every little detail that you can remember about this Cash person. Seb’s got a whole file on Horizon, and I’ve got notes on Reed. We’ll sit down and put our heads together, and we won’t stop working until we figure this damn thing out.”
Raiden still felt helpless and embarrassed by his mistakes, but when Declan and Seb turned their attention straight to work, he accepted the distraction. Seb and Raiden sat at the counter, and Seb asked a million questions, jotting down thoughts in a notebook the whole time. Grunting and cursing, Declan was obviously frustrated with Raiden, but he didn’t take it out on his employee. Instead, he just dragged all of his files on Reed out and started reading through them, a scowl of concentration tugging down his expression.
They spent the whole day at work, and there were a few glimmers of progress, even though Raiden struggled to feel optimistic. He just kept worrying about Lawrence, which would make him angry and panicked again. If Seb hadn’t been there, he probably would have run back to Manhattan and searched the streets for another night, he felt that desperate.
By the time evening came, Raiden was about ready to fall apart from the worry. He had basically nothing to offer except what Cash had told him, information that might well have been lies anyway. But just when he was ready to call it, a bell chimed out in the apartment, and Seb hurried downstairs to answer the door.
“Raiden?” he said timidly when he returned to the top of the stairs. “Cash is here to see you.”
