Page 148 of Deacon

Priest’s expression went still.

Ghost took a slow breath. “He said he wasn’t ready to read those. Wasn’t ready to find out what else she was capable of. But he would. He just needed to get himself ready first.”

The silence after that had weight. Ledger had already lost Lena once. Now her own handwriting was taking apart the woman he thought he had known, reaching backward into the beginning of their marriage and the night Cage was conceived.

Nomad finally spoke, voice rough. “Fuck. No wonder he needs some time. He was basically assaulted by his wife.” He shook his head. “What a mind fuck. To think we thought we knew her.”

Rook’s answer was barely above a mutter. “Didn’t know shit,”

Priest looked around the table. There was no speech in him, no attempt to make what happened smaller by turning it into club language. “Priority right now is Ledger. Keepin’ his head straight is everybody’s job. Got it?”

Every man nodded. That was all it took. Ledger didn’t need pity. He needed brothers who would show up without making him explain himself.

Priest looked to Ghost. “You got that journal now?”

Ghost nodded. “Yeah.”

Priest’s attention sharpened back toward the threat buried inside Lena’s pages. “Good. Go over it with a fine-tooth comb. Every name she put in it. Every place she met them. Every mention of DMH.”

Ghost gave one short nod. “Already on it.”

Priest rubbed his jaw, tired settling deeper into his face. “Alright. Church is out then. Everybody knows what they need to do.”

Chairs scraped against the floor, but nobody said much as we filed out. I made it into the hallway before Lila came back into my head, along with the way she kept calling Jude’s appearances coincidence even while admitting they creeped her out. I couldn’t stand off to the side because Matty and I had too much history to get past our pride.

I pulled out my phone and stared at Matty’s name. Once, I could call him without thinking. Seventeen years had turned that friend into a man who wanted to put his fist through my face. I hit call anyway.

He answered on the fourth ring. “Yeah?”

Hearing his voice dragged every unfinished thing between us to the surface. I swallowed it because Lila mattered more. “It’s time we finally talk,” I said.

Matty went silent long enough for my pulse to climb. I leaned against the wall. “We need to talk, Matty. Somethin’s wrong where your sister’s concerned, and I don’t trust it. You love her. I love her. That means whatever’s between us gets put aside until we figure out what the hell is goin’ on and make sure she’s safe.”

Nothing came back for several seconds. I could feel the years between us in that silence, all the way back to Rose’s kitchen and the night I disappeared without giving him anything to understand. I pulled the phone away long enough to make sure the call was still live.

Matty’s voice finally came back, quieter. “Where do you want to meet?”

Relief hit hard enough that I had to push away from the wall. He hadn’t forgiven me. I wasn’t asking him to. He had heard Lila’s name and chosen her. “Harbor & Bean in Bay of Saints. The one near the new ER build.”

There was another pause before he answered. “When and what time, I’m working a case and I’m not available most of this week, probably not until end of next week?”

I hated waiting that long with Jude still showing up around Lila, but Matty was offering me a door and I wasn’t stupid enough to slam it. “That’s fine, how’s next Friday? Three-thirty.”

Matty exhaled softly into the phone. “Alright.”

For one second, the simple agreement sounded almost like the old Matty. Then his voice hardened. “I’ll come because it’s her. Not because you and I have shit to say to each other.”

The reminder landed exactly where he meant it to. My hand tightened around the phone. “Fine.”

Matty repeated the time like that was the only promise either of us could safely make. “Next Friday, three-thirty.”

The call ended, leaving his voice and seventeen years of unfinished anger hanging in the quiet hallway. I stared at the dark screen before lowering my hand.

He was still angry. So was I. We had once been brothers, and I had left without trusting him with the truth. He had spent seventeen years believing the worst of me. Now Lila being afraid was enough to make us reach across the wreckage.

Next Friday felt too far away with Jude still circling her, but Matty was coming for his sister. Not for me. I didn’t need him to. For now, loving the same woman was enough to get us to the same table.

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