Mom leaned back in her chair, her gaze drifting briefly toward the dark window above the sink. “My contact only confirmed that the warrant had been executed,” she explained. “He didn’t share details.”
“He wouldn’t,” Edwardo replied evenly. “Not yet.”
I looked between them. “So this isn’t the end?” I wasn’t sure why I’d asked. I knew it wasn’t. Dunn wasn’t done dismantling lives. And there was still Darren’s death.
Edwardo shook his head slowly. “No.”
Mom folded her hands on the table. “Lorne being arrested doesn’t remove the danger. If anything, it changes the shape of it.”
My stomach twisted. “How?”
Edwardo leaned back slightly in his chair. “When powerful men realize one of their own is about to fall, they start turning on each other.”
The same warning Luke had given me on the roof echoed in my mind. “And when they do that?”
Edwardo’s gaze held mine. Then he added one final thought, his voice calm enough to make the words even colder. “When that happens, the truth rarely stays buried. Bodies have a way of surfacing when the balance of power starts to collapse.”
A chill ran down my spine. Somewhere in Blackwood, the war surrounding Darren had just shifted direction. And this time, nothing about it would stay buried for long.
CHAPTER THIRTY
LUKE
The Grill Shack smelled exactly the way it always had—burgers searing on the grill and hot fryer oil hanging in the air as baskets of fries came up behind the counter.
I pushed through the door and spotted them immediately in the back corner. Our booth. The same one we’d been occupying since sophomore year. Jax sat sprawled across one side with Avery leaning against him while she talked with animated hands. Theo leaned beside Tori, one arm hooked lazily along the top of the seat behind her shoulders. Chase sat opposite them, shoulders relaxed in a way that hadn’t happened often lately. Mila sat beside him near the end of the booth, turned slightly toward the door like she’d been waiting for me.
Mila noticed me first. Her gaze lifted the moment the door closed behind me, and the tension that had been sitting under my ribs all day eased before I even reached the table.
Her hair fell loose over one shoulder, the neon sign catching faint strands of copper in the darker brown. She had one hand wrapped around a milkshake glass, straw turning slowly between her fingers as she watched me cross the room. That quiet smile she gave reached something deeper than relief.
I stopped at the counter long enough to order then carried the basket back to the table after they called my number. I dropped into the booth beside her, and her knee brushed mine immediately, the contact natural enough that neither of us acknowledged it.
Theo glanced up. “Look who finally decided to show.”
I shrugged. “Coach wanted to go over something after practice.”
Chase raised a brow. “What, how many goals you’re supposed to score?”
Avery wadded up a napkin and tossed it across the table at her brother. “Don’t start.”
He lifted both hands in mock surrender. “I’m just helping manage expectations.”
Mila’s shoulder rested lightly against mine. Warm. Familiar.
“You look exhausted,” she murmured under the conversation, her voice soft enough that only I caught it.
“I’m fine.”
Her fingers brushed briefly against the back of my hand beneath the table. “You say that every time something explodes around you.”
“Because things explode around me more often than normal people.”
That earned a quiet breath that might have been a laugh.
Across from us, Theo leaned forward over the table. “All right, serious question.”
“That’s already a bad sign,” Chase muttered.
