Page 16 of Crown of Ash

"I've been asking myself the same question for over an hour." Ghost said. He was sitting on the floor with his back against the wall, laptop open, and he didn't look up. "I don't have an answer. I'm working on it!"

"Ghost." Marcus crossed the room. "Look at me." He and Ghost had been in this thing together for along time. He know how deeply disturbed his autistic friend had to be. He wouldn't be okay until he solved the problem because he took his job to protect their… family… seriously. This breach was personal to him and Marcus could see the blood that wasn't visible from the wound of this attack on their most sunny member. Jude was everyone's favorite, soft where they were hard. Gentle when they were sharp. He had changed everything for the better for all of them, not just Nate.

Ghost looked up. Whatever was on his face wasn't the calm, unbothered thing Marcus was used to seeing there. "It shouldn't have been possible," he said. "I built that lockdown myself. I've rebuilt it twice since the Rouge job. Nobody gets a number out of it. Nobody."

"Somebody did," Zain said, not unkindly, which somehow made it worse.

"Yeah." Ghost closed the laptop. "Somebody did." He leaned his head back against the wall and closed his eyes, clearly working to breathe deeply. It hurt to see his obvious pain.

Jude hadn't said anything since Marcus walked in. Marcus crouched in front of the couch anyway. "You're okay?"

"I'm fine." Jude's voice didn't match the claim. "I didn't even know until Seth told me after. I finished the set. I bowed. I signed a setlist for some kid in the front row." He pressed the heels of his hands against his eyes. "He was a few feet away from me and I was signing a setlist."

"You weren't supposed to know," Marcus said. "That was his point. That's how Drakov works."

"Don't." Nate's voice cracked on the single word. "No one is supposed to know us. We've worked hard for years to make that a fucking fact. And this asshole was right there. He could have… could have…" His voice broke and Marcus felt the failure in his chest personally. He loved this men, his brothers and their partners. Their family. And now the systems that had always kept them lost in the darkness and safe from those who would come after them were failing because the man they were after knew him. Had always known him. And now he was done watching from the shadows.

He'd broken that promise once already tonight, just by being the one Drakov had been watching for in the first place.

Andre's hand found his shoulder from behind. He didn't say anything. He didn't have to.

Zain's eyes moved to the hand on Marcus's shoulder, and his jaw set hard enough that Marcus could see the muscle jump.

"That's convenient timing." His voice had gone flat in a way that carried further than shouting would have. "Drakov's been quiet for years. Then he's not, and it's the same week you walk back into Marcus's life. That's not a coincidence I believe in."

"Zain." Marcus said it as a warning. Zain didn't look at him, eyes locked and hard on Andre. Zain was shaken, they all were, and Marcus knew that a shaken Zain lashed out.

Andre didn't step back. "You think I made this happen?"

"I think this crew has stayed alive for years by being careful, and that seems to have fallen apart the day you showed up at our door." Zain's jaw worked. "You want to explain that timing, or do I have to?"

"I don't owe you an explanation for anything." Andre's voice stayed level, but he'd moved half a step closer without seeming to notice he'd done it. "I owe Marcus one. I already gave it to him."

"Not good enough."

"It wasn't for you to accept."

Zain closed the last of the distance between them, close enough that Marcus could see Jude flinch on the couch behind him. Andre didn't back up.

"Okay." Jack's voice cut across the room before anyone else moved, tired and flat and entirely unbothered by the two men squared off three feet from him. "I need to go cook something before somebody in this room does something stupid. There is way too much hangry in here for one night."

Nobody laughed. But Zain's shoulders dropped half an inch, and that was enough to defuse the worst of this bullshit.

"This isn't over," Zain said, stepping back first.

"It is for tonight," Marcus said. "Go upstairs, Zain. Take Seth with you."

Zain looked at him a second longer than the instruction needed, and Marcus wondered if his friend would refuse, then turned and left without another word. Seth followed, one hand finding the small of his back on the way out, the kind of touch that wasn't asking permission so much as reminding him someone was there.

Thank every damned star for Seth. A year ago Zain would have drawn a gun on Andre, and Marcus wasn't sure where he would have stood on that one. Which was its own problem, wasn't it?

Nate scooped Jude up in his arms bridal style, the slight singer making a surprised eep sounds as his arms flew around his boyfriend's neck. "I'm taking Jude to our room upstairs too. He doesn't need this alpha male shit to deal with on top of what happened." He leaned to call through the doorway at Jack to bring their food up and Nate would be grateful before he gave them all one last, long look and retreated into the homey levels of the safehouse with his man.

Marcus walked Andre to the door himself, past the kitchen where Jack was already banging pots around with more force than cooking strictly required.

They stopped at the threshold. Neither of them reached for the handle.

Andre swallowed, hard enough that Marcus watched his throat move, and threaded their fingers together instead. "Promise me you'll be careful."