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“Well, it was actually Nash’s,” I say, slower now that the moment is here and I have to admit out loud that I want to spend a few days isolated in a remote forest with my one-night stand. Okay, maybe I won’t say that part out loud.

“You mean the recon mission,” Grey says.

I straighten. “He already told you?”

“He called me this morning. But said he wanted the final call to be yours. If you don’t think it’s a good idea, he’ll stand down.”

I blink. “He said that?”

Grey shrugs. “Why wouldn’t he? You’re the expert here. He’s an ally, but he doesn’t know our pack or Ramsey like you do.”

For some reason, my cheeks warm: Nash deferring to me. It shouldn’t feel this nice to be respected, but it does.

“Well, I didn’t get a phone call,” Lexi says. “Can someone fill me in?”

“That former camp our scouts found that, by all evidence, was Ramsey’s base up until recently,” Grey tells her.

“What about it? You want to send another recon team?” Lexi asks.

I shake my head. “By the time they found it, he’d already moved on, but Nash thinks there’s a chance they might still be checking on it periodically in case any new recruits show up there.”

“You want to send someone to check it out?” Lexi asks, clearly confused. “What’s the big deal? I think it sounds smart. Maybe Crow⁠—”

“No, I want to check it out myself,” I say before I can punk out. “Well, me and Nash.”

“Oh.” Lexi looks like she did earlier when she was asking me about Nash, and I refuse to read into that expression.

“It’s too much of a long shot to spare our patrol crews,” I hurry to explain. “But if it does work, and Ramsey or one of his people show up, we want to make sure we haven’t sent someone he can manipulate.”

“Or turn to his side,” Grey adds. He softens. “Crow told me what Ramsey said to you yesterday. About trying to recruit you to his side.”

“Oh.” I blink, startled.

But, of course, he did. The fact that I forgot about it is just proof of how distracted I really am by Nash.

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Lexi asks.

“Because it didn’t matter,” I say honestly. “I was never going to betray you.”

“Yes, but if he’s targeting you, we need to know so we can protect the people closest to you,” Grey says. The look he gives me has enough reproach in it that I feel bad for keeping the secret.

“You’re right.”

“I told Donahue to assign someone to keep an eye on your dad,” he adds.

“Thank you.” I feel equal parts relieved and guilty. I should have thought of that. Demanded it.

“We tried to do the same to Dutch and Razor, but I’m sure you can guess how they reacted,” Lexi adds with a rueful smile.

“I wish I could have seen their faces when you told them you thought they needed someone else to babysit them,” I say with a laugh.

“I’m sure you’ll hear about it,” she says. “Dutch was dramatic about the insult. Then he asked if it could be Andy who guarded his body.” She rolls her eyes.

“Gross. Please tell me he didn’t say it like that.”

“You know he did.”

I shudder.