His mouth twitches. "I was wondering how long it would take you to ask."
"I was distracted."
His eyes flick over me slowly. "I noticed."
Heat creeps into my cheeks. "Are you going to tell me or not?"
The amusement leaves his face, and just like that, I know whatever happened wasn't good.
Lorenzo sits down on the edge of the bed beside me. "Tempest found something."
My stomach tightens. "What?"
He looks at me for a moment. "The shell companies we've been tracking."
The knot in my stomach grows. "What about them?"
"They belong to someone with ties to every major Syndicate family."
I stare at him. "What does that mean?"
"It means this is bigger than Daire."
I pull my legs up beneath me. "You think she's working with someone."
"I think she's connected to someone."
"And Tempest knows who it is?"
Lorenzo's jaw tightens. "Tempest thinks he does."
I don't like the sound of that, not one bit. "Who?"
For a moment, Lorenzo says nothing, then he looks at me. "Gregory Hightower's son."
And just from the look on his face, I know that's bad.
"What does this mean?" I ask.
"It means we've been looking at the wrong target." He leans back slightly. "Daire causes chaos, but chaos was useful to someone. Someone with money, influence, and enough patience to spend years building something right under our noses." His gaze locks on mine. "Frederick Hightower didn't stumble into this world, Quinn. He's been operating inside it for years, and that's what worries me."
I stare at him, the name means nothing to me. But the look on Lorenzo's face does. The tension in his shoulders, the way his jaw has been clenched since he walked through the door, and the way he keeps reaching for me without seeming to realize he's doing it mean everything.
All of that tells me what I need to know. This is bad.
"Worse than Daire?" I ask quietly. She’s the worst kind of trouble, one I know firsthand.
His gaze meets mine. "Yes." He reaches for my hand and threads his fingers through mine.
I squeeze his hand. "You'll figure it out."
The corner of his mouth lifts. "I usually do."
I smile.
But later, after Lorenzo leaves to take another call and I find myself alone in our room, I sit by the window, and I can’t help but think that for the first time in weeks, I feel afraid.
Chapter 23
