“Do they know something about the missing girls?” Cassie asked.
“I don’t know, but when I told him about your parents and the wire transfers to Aventine?— ”
Hawk scowled. “Why’d you tell them anything?”
“Because of what happened to Cassie.” I didn’t want to come out and say that we were worried whoever had run Cassie off the road might come back for her, not when Cassie could hear. “I wanted him to understand our… security challenges.”
“What did he say?” Cassie asked, her food forgotten. “About my parents and the wire transfers?”
“He said he wasn’t surprised, that a lot of shady shit had been going down in Blackwell Falls for a long time.” I leaned back and took a swig of my Corona. “And he said he’d never been completely sure it wasn’t still going down.”
Cassie sat up straighter. “He said that? That something might still be happening here?”
I nodded. “Said they’d had a brush with some of the assholes who were involved.” I looked at Hawk and Jagger. “Apparently they were part of that cult bust last year.”
“I was just thinking about that!” Cassie said.
I didn’t love that this was the first time she’d sounded excited since her accident. She was leaning forward, her greeneyes shining like we were talking about puppies instead of sex trafficking.
“Do you think it had something to do with the sex trafficking ring at the Cantwell hotel?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” I said. “Rafe was pretty closed lipped about it, but he did say that Lilah had gone undercover with the cult before it got busted.”
“Wait… Lilah is with Rafe?” Cassie asked.
“You know Lilah?” Jagger asked.
“I knowofLilah,” Cassie said. “Maeve has talked about her. I just didn’t realize she was with Rafe, Nolan, and Jude.”
The fact that there were so many poly relationships in Blackwell Falls was only one of the many reasons it had become the perfect home base for Hawk, Jagger, and me.
Especially now that we had Cassie.
Orwhilewe had Cassie at least, which I didn’t want to think about because I didn’t want to think about the fact that it was temporary.
“It’s weirder than you think,” Hawk said.
Cassie turned her head in his direction. “What is?”
“That Lilah is with Rafe, Nolan, and Jude,” Hawk said.
Cassie’s brow furrowed, like she was working to solve a puzzle. “What does that mean?”
Hawk shook his head. “Nevermind. Not important.”
Cassie turned her gaze on me, and for a minute, I could have sworn she could see me. “So? What did Rafe mean that something was still happening in Blackwell Falls?”
I set down my beer and reached for another taco. “He just said from what they’d learned last year, the corruption was deep and wide. Said they’d had to step back because Lilah was really in the shit and she has some kind of heart condition. And then he got the fuck out of here like he didn’t want to talk about it anymore.” I laughed. “Even told me to be fucking careful.”
Jagger laughed. “Rich coming from Rafe.”
I grinned. “Right?”
Rafe, Nolan, and Jude weren’t exactly known for being careful.
Cassie pushed her food around her plate, clearly deep in thought.
“We should talk about something else,” Jagger said, a worried frown on his face as he looked at her.
