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“That’s understandable,” Jensen says thoughtfully. He frowns. “The way he spoke about Isabelle, he obviously cared enough about her to help her in whatever way she would let him. Yet the Liam that we all think we know wouldn’t have given a shit. In fact, he would have turned her over if he could have gotten a payday out of it. So which one is real?”

“I think that’s the question, isn’t it?” Trick says with a slight frown.

“Well, he’s going to be involved with taking Hunt down, isn’t he?” Cash points out. “Which means that we’re going to have to be in close proximity to him for an extended period of time. We’re all pretty good at judging someone's character, and we have training in it too. So why don’t we just observe and see what we can figure out?”

“There’s no harm in it,” Trick replies. “The fact that he wants to help in the first place is a pretty big switch-up from what we thought we knew about him.”

“I just need everyone to be cautious around him,” Atlas warns, his eyebrows pulling down into a frown. “I don’t trust that he’s not playing some sort of game that makes us the losers.”

“Don’t worry, we will be cautious,” Jensen replies. “We’re aware of the reputation that Liam has and, more importantly, what you have told us about him. Even if he has switched it up now, it doesn’t erase what you experienced and what he did to you. We know, man.”

“Thank you,” Atlas replies, his expression relieved.

“We’ll take your lead on it, dude,” Rage adds. “If you say that something isn’t sitting right, then we’ll back off and re-evaluate. There are other ways that we can get to Hunt. Especially now that we’re taking him out, rather than simply detaining him.”

“A very good point,” I grin.

“Thank you, guys,” Atlas says, his shoulders lowering.

I point a piece of bacon at him. “Now, I need you to promise me that if you start to find it too difficult to work closely with him, you will tell one of us and take a step back. Let us deal with him. Your uncle knows Liam probably better than you do, and he will be more than capable of telling us if we’re falling under his spell.”

Atlas’s eyebrows raise at my choice of words, and then he nods, “Yes, I promise.”

“Good,” I reply. “Have we heard anything from Alaric about Liam getting the meeting with Hunt yet?”

Trick shakes his head. “No, not yet. I imagine that we may hear something from him today or tomorrow.”

“The person who was speaking to Hunt said that Liam was being difficult though, and now that he knows that Hunt is after Shadow, I imagine that he’s going to make himself even more of a nuisance so that we can get this sorted,” Rage suggests.

“For now, let’s focus on going to see Zemi and the guys, and let Alaric deal with all things Liam for a bit longer,” Trick suggests.

“I am definitely up for that,” Atlas replies. He looks at me. “What time did you tell Zemi that we would be there?”

“I didn’t, she just said to come whenever. I said I’d message when we’re leaving,” I reply, taking a bite of food.

Jensen nods. “How long is it going to take us to get there?”

“It’s only just over an hour away,” I reply.

Riot’s eyebrows hit his hairline. “Seriously? I had no idea that they were that close to us.”

“Me neither. We should have them up here at some point,” I reply. “Maybe when the weather is nicer, and we can have a BBQ.”

“Sounds good to me,” Rafe agrees immediately. “There are a few new spice rubs and marinades that I have been wanting to try out.”

“You know that it’s not going to be for a while, right?” Cash asks.

Rafe shrugs with a smile. “It’s never too early to start planning. We’ve just had Christmas, and I’m already planning for next year.”

We chuckle.

“Wait, seriously?” Rage asks when Rafe’s expression remains serious.

Rafe grins, “Yep. We always host a lot of people, usually with more than one day of food needed, and that needs to be planned so it doesn’t become a stressful thing.”

“Actually, that makes a lot of sense,” Cash points out.

“I know,” Rafe replies with a smirk.