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“Marco has found her twice now,” Kodiak cuts me off. “Fair enough he knows she is with us, so he knows which city she’ll be in, but which hotel...”
No one outside of our team, the label, and the hotel staff know what hotels we’re staying in. Very few people know she’s with us. I sit back down. “He was in the fucking lobby. He was waiting for her. She said it felt like she was in the middle of a horror movie coded flash mob. But to organize something like that... putting out the call—”
Kodiak picks up Micah’s device and flips the switch. “We don’t need anyone outside of this room listening in.”
“He’d have to have put out the call to organize it. Then made sure everyone knew their role and showed up on time,” Golden says. “That takes foresight. Planning.”
“He had the code to the parking garage too,” Kodiak says. “I don’t think any of us thought about it at the time... we were more worried about making sure she was okay, but he planned to take her... he had a car... why park there and not out front? Why was that where he decided to wait for her?”
“I’ve been working from this assumption for the last few weeks,” Rook makes his presence known. “Now I’m certain he must be working with someone. But...”
He’d tried to talk to me the night of the storm. But I’d been more concerned with Kelsey. “You can’t prove who.”
“I think we can all guess,” Bronx says. “Who else could it be but Sonatina?”
“Three times.” Golden is staring hard at his palms.
I don’t like that look on his face. It doesn’t bode well. “What?”
“If you count the club where she worked,” he says. “It’s three times he’s found her.”
“Marco murdered two people in front of her that night. Kelsey said he knew one of them. His finding her there was purely coincidence.”
“Unless it wasn’t.” Golden looks up at us. “Unless getting to her was the point. And those people were collateral.”
“Break it down for us, brother,” Bronx says.
“She said she struggled the whole time she wasn’t with us,” Golden says. “Her apartment building burned down. She couldn’t get a job that would last more than a couple of weeks. And in all that time he never came for her. But then bam... he finds her. All that bad luck is starting to sound like anything but, don’t you think?”
Bronx whistles. “Sonatina has hated her that long. And Carmine promised he’d make her life hell when he blacklisted her.”
“Yeah, but... surely Carmine would have shown up if he got wind that she was with us,” Golden says. “We can’t rule him out. But we should probably stay focused on Sonatina.”
“The night Kelsey told me about Harlowe...” My chest clogs my throat. Because if Golden is correct and Sonatina sent Marco after her before she even came back to us... “She wasn’t sure if she’d been knocked or pushed into traffic.”
Kodiak is on his feet. His hands are bunched at his side. I fully expect him to march over to the closest wall and punch his fist into it.
“Fucking hell!” Bronx sits forward and grips his chin.
Golden gets up and walks around the back of the couch. He leans on it, his shoulders rising and falling as he fights to keep calm. “What the fuck?”
“If I find out that Sonatina went out of her way to cause what happened to our baby there’s going to be nowhere far enough she can run to hide.” I straighten and look at each of my bandmates. “But for now we need to keep this information between us. Until we’re certain.”
“Are you going to let her back in the suite?” Bronx asks.
“Let her get that close to Kelsey again... fuck no! I didn’t trust her before I made it clear that Kelsey will always be important to me. But if I’m right then she’s fucking crazy. She could try to hurt Kelsey or worse.”
"I'm in...” Kodiak crunches all the knuckles on one hand. “Once we know for sure... whatever you want to do... however you want to handle her... I’m in.”
“Me too,” Bronx says.
Golden nods. “It was your baby. But Kelsey is ours. No one hurts her like that and gets away with it.”
Rook who has kept quiet locks gazes with me. His nod is subtle. The line of his mouth is grim. “I’ll make sure security knows Sonatina isn’t allowed in the suite under any circumstance.”
“Good.” The minute we catch her out she’s done. “Now I’m going back to keep Kelsey company. I don’t want her to be on her own if she wakes.”
Striding across the room, I go back into the bedroom and crawl back into the bed. I fold Kelsey into my arms. She’s fierce. She’s strong. She gives me hell at every turn. But I still see her with that handful of pills in her palm.