Page 83 of Saving Wyatt

He looked at each of them in the eyes before he turned to me, and I allowed myself a small breath. His gaze burned hot within me. Was it me or did he look taller standing in the middle of the room like that? I didn’t know. What I did know was he was the most beautiful creature I’d ever laid eyes on, and I couldn’t wait until I could kiss him again.

But as soon as I thought about doing that, my heart faltered and I almost lost my footing. Because a realization hit me right there and then. Something that had occurred to me before but was even more evident now, and it terrified me to the bone.

He was a part of this now. Whether I liked it or not, I’d dragged him into this mess. One more person put in danger. One more person to let down. Maybe I had brought all my men together with the loves of their lives, but what good was it if they died in the end?

And what good was it falling in love if it meant putting Ari at risk too?

“Ari is right. We need to stop pointing fingers and make a game plan,” Azrael said. “So what do we do? How do we bring that motherfucker down before he strikes again?”

“You have to hit him where it hurts,” Ari said.

“His empire. But we’ve brought down so many of his cells, yet he’s still going strong. And if what Wyatt said is true, we’ve even helped him get rid of some problem people,” Dare said.

“That’s what he said,” I stressed.

That was what he’d said on his call to me. Before he burned down my bar. Our home.

“No, you guys. That’s not it,” Ari said. “Clearly he’s gotten too powerful for that plan to hurt him.”

Ari looked around the room as if he’d had a revelation, but everyone looked too defeated to follow his train of thought.

“Seriously?” Ari grimaced. “His ego, you guys. He’s clearly got a big ego. He thinks he’s untouchable. He thinks he’s so untouchable, in fact, he’s even crowned himself mayor. He needs to be exposed. That’s the only way to tear down what he’s built.”

Dare sat back. Teddy raised an eyebrow. And Slade clapped his hands together.

“You’re right. Exposing him would take away some of his power,” he said.

“Won’t that make him more desperate?” Parker asked.

“Yeah, but it will strip him down enough so we can deal with him,” I said.

All eyes turned on me.

“Ari is right. He’s got a big ego. He can spin things a hundred ways to Sunday, but he can’t spin the truth. Not with hard evidence.”

Teddy glared at me. “How are we going to do that? You said it yourself. Every time you go close to him, his guards are there to strip down any sort of technology so he won’t be recorded or taped.” He looked at Ari for ideas.

Ari put his hands up and took a step back. “I don’t know. I’m not the plan guy. You people are smarter than me. At least on that front.”

“That’s not true. You just gave us an inch,” Autumn said.

Ari smiled and took another step back. “I should probably check on my patient. But you guys are too clever to be fighting amongst yourselves. You have a common enemy. Now make a game plan,” he said, and just before he turned his back to retreat back to Nino’s room, he glanced at me.

It was only for a second, but it made it easier to breathe. It was good to know at least one person had my back.

He walked into the hallway, and as I turned my attention back to the rest, I caught Dare’s gaze. He narrowed his eyes at me and looked sideways, to where Ari had just been. It took a couple of times before I got his message and my ass got in gear.

“I’ll be right back.” I excused myself and ran after Ari through the hallway and up the stairs, my heart beating faster the closer to him I got.

I caught up with him as he was about to go into the room.

“Wyatt,” he said and let go of the door handle.

I stood in front of him, and my heart pounded so loud in my chest I thought for sure he could hear it, but he didn’t react to the sound.

“Thank you,” I whispered. “For having my back down there.”

He licked his lips and they curved into a hint of a smile before he said, “It was nothing.”