A short laugh came from Jake as he paced back and forth, staring at the ground. “He left Astoria to keep our hands clean.” He shook his head. “That fucker went rogue in order to protect us.” Jake and Dominic shared a long look.
“He didn’t want this touching Red Snake,” I tacked on, looking back at the house.
“But it has,” Grayson clipped.
Dominic tilted his head to the side, studying him. “You sound upset.”
“Of course I am. A man I almost lost in the field went off the script.”
“I wasn’t doing all I could for him.” Jake’s confession was soft, filled with shame. “There was just so much going on. With Carrie, the relocation of Red Snake, and then,” he looked to me, “Margo.”
“None of this is your fault, Murphy,” I assured.
“I let this—Angel—slip through the cracks.”
“No,” Grayson said. “You did all you could with the information you had, which wasn’t much. You may be one of the best hackers in the country, Jake, but you’re still human.”
Jake put his hands on his hips and stared at the ground. “Could’ve done more. I should’ve done more.”
“He stole your laptop,” Dominic reminded him.
He lifted his head, a sad smile on his lips. “No,” he murmured, “I let him take it. I have a detonation code embedded in all of our devices. It would’ve taken me two seconds to ping his location and kill the laptop, but I didn’t.” He paused and looked at the house. “I wasn’t in Rossy’s when she walked in, but one look at your face, Gray, and I knew this had fucked him up.” He paused. “I don’t blame him for doing what he did to protect her, to avenge her. But fuck, I shouldn’t have let him go.”
“No one here is blaming you, Jake,” Dominic said.
“I let him go,” Jake barked, a finger to his chest. “I let him go because I thought, after how badly I dropped the ball, he needed time.” He turned to Grayson. “This is my fault and I will deal with the repercussions.”
Dominic dropped his head.
“Ash’s decision to go rogue was his and his alone,” Grayson replied, turning his head to the house, giving us a full view of his scar. “At the end of the day, he’s his own man.”
“Yes, but—”
“I killed a man in cold blood in front of Carrie, and when I put out code Red Snake, none of you asked questions. Whatever judgments you placed on me, you kept to yourself, and right now, we owe Doss the same.”
“Carrie was in danger,” I drawled. “Seconds away from being raped.”
“And Benson kept Angel chained to a bed,” he said, running a hand over his beard. “Do you really think if Margo hadn’t asked you to not kill Gordon, you would’ve let him live?” His gaze was steady, his eyes scanning my face, anticipating me to crack.
“I didn’t kill him.”
“Out of your respect and love for Margo,” Dominic added, putting his hands in his pockets. “Men like us,” he clicked his tongue, “will do whatever it takes to protect the ones we love.”
I nodded.
“But had Margo not set that boundary, Mitchell, you would have, yeah?” Jake pressed.
My jaw jumped. “Yes.”
“Life isn’t black and white, gentlemen. We know this,” Grayson sighed, “and there’s a lot of gray surrounding those two.”
I lifted my chin. “Benson and his associates are dead. There’s nothing we can do to change that, and quite fucking frankly, I don’t want to. Those fuckers are where they belong. We had to focus on the issue at hand.”
Dominic’s voice was smooth once more. “Agreed.”
Grayson flipped open the file and tapped the pages with his thumb. “This is for Ash and Angel. That’s all. Agreed.”
The three of us nodded.
