Page 14 of Saving Wyatt

Hwan shrugged and whispered, “I like it,” but was quickly glared down by her.

“Okay, Santiago, Slade, you look into Wilson’s past and find anything we can pick on. Any kind of thread, however small.”

Santiago gave her a soldier’s salute with half a smile, and Slade simply nodded.

“Parker, Teddy, and Joey will continue with their rotation on protecting the kids. We can’t let him touch them.”

“Don’t worry, hon. Joey wouldn’t leave their side even if you put a gun to his head,” Santiago said, and my heart ached.

For what the parents in the group were going through, for what Joey and Santiago’s boys had experienced in the hands of their biological father, what bullshit we’d all put Joey through when we thought he was an irredeemable asshole when in reality he would give his life for his family—which included all the people in this room, despite how we’d treated him.

“He hasn’t turned up for work since the murder,” Elliot said. “The few people that still come to the bar have noticed, but I’m doing my best to step up to the task.”

Autumn patted his shoulder and so did Donovan.

“You’re a great cook too, Elliot,” she said.

“I learned from the best,” he replied.

“Okay, what about the rest of us?” Hwan asked.

I stared right at the pink-haired man who had more fierceness than all of us combined. Or that was how it felt sometimes. Oh, how envious and proud of him I was at the same time. To be able to live openly like himself, without shame, unapologetically, to have embraced his femininity but without taking an ounce away from his masculine side. He was truly a wonder of a man. If only I could be half the man he was.

“You stick to your lives. All of you.” I made sure to look at all my men’s partners. “There’s no point in putting you in any more danger than you are already.”

Hwan frowned.

“As for the rest of us, we need to be more active. Go back to Salieri’s old bases. Find any clues we might have missed, look under every stone, uncover every secret. I don’t know if we can take him down, but we can certainly take down all his cells. We hit him where it hurts.”

“Won’t that make him angrier?” Duke asked. “If we take down more of his mules and warehouses?”

“It might. It will. But it could also make him more helpless. More desperate,” I said.

“Which means he might make mistakes,” Slade said.

“Or he could retaliate even worse,” Teddy spoke for the first time since we’d gotten here. “He could go after everyone. He doesn’t care anymore. He’s too powerful.”

“We can’t give up,” Autumn said. “He might be strong, but so are we. And we’ve already proven we’re a credible threat to him.”

Dare chuckled.

“I’m sorry, is that funny?” she asked him.

“Kind of. If his blatant reveal last month proved anything it’s that he’s always known more than you have. And he’s been toying with all of you.”

No one said anything. Some heads dipped. And I felt a pang in my chest.

He’s right.

It was me. All me. So arrogant to think I could go up against a crime lord. Put everyone I know and love on the line for an ego trip. How could I be so much older than everyone and still be so dumb? What did I think was going to happen?

This wasn’t a TV show. This wasn’t a movie where the good guys always won. This was real life. I should know this. I had spent far too long in warzones not to know this. And yet I’d still made the grave mistake of putting everyone in my life in danger.

Where was my stupidest man of the century award? Because I deserved it. I deserved so much more for what I’d done.

“Well, I, for one, refuse to throw in the towel. Yes, it might anger him. Yes, it might mean he goes ballistic, but he needs to be taken down. We won’t be safe until he does,” Parker said.

“This is war,” Zach said.